Create Your Own Patriotic Decor- Americana Metal and Wood Stars

I first shared this tutorial on A Glimpse Inside blog as part of her 2016 Creative Team, but I wanted to share them here with my readers as well, just in time for the 4th of July. 

This set of stars was inspired by a little online window shopping I was doing at the Pier 1 website. I came across this star decor that I absolutely love. But being the DIYer that I am, I thought how can I make my own more affordable and more colorful?
Cutting corrugated metal is out of the question because I don’t know how, and I honestly don’t really want to. I remembered from a previous project that I worked on that simple tin foil is a great substitute when you want a metal look.

So, I set off to make my own, and now I’m here to share the DIY tutorial with you lovely readers.

Supplies:
(pictured)
Wood stain (optional, and in any color you’d like)
Red, white, and blue craft paint
Star shape printable- click HERE to download your own
10×10 Wood canvas panels (I found mine at Walmart, but they’re also available on Amazon)
Tin foil

(not pictured)
Silver thumbtacks 
Scissors
Glue

I’ve only recently found these awesome wood canvas panels, but I LOVE them! They’re so versatile, and fun to use.

For this project, if you choose to stain your wood darker, then go ahead and do that and let it dry.
If you’re new to staining wood, don’t worry, it’s not hard. I recommend wearing gloves.
Just use a rag or old paint brush, and rub the stain into the wood. The more layers you do it, the darker it will be. In about 15 minutes, go back with a different cloth and rub over the stain and remove any excess left behind. I usually don’t keep the cloth I use for staining, but mineral spirits is what you’d use to clean them if you choose to keep yours.

While your giving your stain time to set for a bit before adding paint, cut our your star pattern.
Then trace the stars onto the foil and cut them out. Carefully crinkle them up, and then flatten them again to give them the bumpy metal texture.

 

Next, give each panel a quick coat of paint in the red, white, and blue. If you like the distressed look, don’t cover over the entire panel, and use quick light strokes with your paint, making sure that the stain is showing through. I didn’t let the stain sit overnight or even for hours before painting them. I like the look you get when you jump right in. Especially in the white, you really get that whitewashed rustic look. As if you found these awesome pieces of wood straight off the side of an old barn, and they happened to be in the perfect patriotic colors you were looking for.

 

If you feel like you covered it too much with the paint, don’t worry. Just use a sanding block to remove some. I went ahead and sanded the edges of my canvases anyway, just to add to the rustic look.

When the paint is dry, glue the back of the foil stars and place them in the center of the panels. I used regular white school glue and they stick fine.

To give the tin stars an even more authentic look, I pressed silver thumb tacks around the edges of the stars. This gives them the look of hammered tin.
*Be careful on the backside of the panel, because the sharp part will be sticking out. So in other words, don’t let the kids handle these when they’re finished.

For a very final detail, I added white stripes along the edges of the wood panels. Again, a quick dry brush stroke so that the line isn’t very thick is really the perfect look you want for the rustic, distressed look.

And that’s it! You can display these on a mantel, or add picture hangers to the back for easy hanging. They’d even work well in an outdoor patio space as long as they’re not directly exposed to rain.

 

 

 

 

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