Sunday, June 7, 2020

American Flag Wreath

With Flag Day just around the corner, and Independence Day shortly thereafter, I thought I get prepared by making this whimsical wreath to display on our front porch. I found the idea on Pinterest.


The wreath is made with clothespins and wooden star shapes. For the base, I used this 18 inch wire wreath from from Dollar Tree.


I first needed to calculate the total number of clothespins needed. The wreath form has six sections. Each section holds 13 clothespins. There are five clothespins in each red cluster and five in each white cluster. There are six red clusters and five white clusters. The remaining clothespins are blue.

I calculated that I needed 30 red clothespins, 23 blue clothespins,


25 white clothespins, and nine stars. I painted the clothespins with vibrant acrylic craft paint, then clipped them to cake cooling racks to dry. I bought the cake cooling racks at Dollar Tree also, and they're used exclusively in my Studio for painting purposes, never in the kitchen. They work really well with wet paint because air can circulate around them and any over-painting can drip onto the surface below rather than pooling under the drying object.


I chose to paint the stars a metallic gold, rather than white like the inspiration photo I used.  I like the way they glow when light reflects off them.


The clothespins neatly attached to the wire frame. I made sure that the small groove of the clothespin wrapped snugly around the wire.


I put them in place in a zig-zag pattern, utilizing only the top three wires on the wreath form. It gives the wreath some interesting dimension.


The four colors play off each other beautifully.


I hung the wreath just to the right of our front door.


It looks great! I'm so pleased.


Since I've had the supplies for this wreath for at least three years, it felt wonderful to flesh out this long-held idea. This finish is also the third step in one of my alternate 20 in 2020 goals -- finishing 20 of the projects I have either partially completed or where the supplies are already gathered.


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Inspired by homecraftsbyali.blogspot.com


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