Patriotic Art: 4th of July Door Decoration

It has been awhile since I last posted!  The biggest of my crafting projects lately has actually been outdoors, finishing our patio and new walkway to the house - hence, why I have been missing.  This post/project was intended for Memorial Day, but here we are approaching the 4th of July and in many ways, this is more appropriate for the 4th.  Inspiration for this project actually came from an activity I did for the adult day program I was working in last year.  We did this exact activity, only with magazine clippings.  It was a hit!  This project is perfect for any age and capability because it's really how you interpret the flag to look to you.

 I used a 11 X 14in. wooden plaque.  I happened to already have one with the fancy corners, which is not necessary for this project.  Straight corners would probably be much easier!

I visited the new Joanne's fabrics in Rochester for my fat quarters.  There was a cool collection already bundled that I used for this project.

You can see I started to cut squares of fabric.  The past times I did this project with magazine pages, we did in fact cut square pieces from the photos, but I actually changed my mind for this and cut strips of the fabric I wanted to use.

 It doesn't matter at all how you lay out your flag.  You can do whatever you want with it!  I started the template of mine by cutting out a 6 X 4 in rectangle for the top left hand corner of the flag.  That fat quarter bundle I picked out already had a blue background that was covered in stars, so easy peasy.  The white fabric had tiny white stars within it, I used this as my white base for the white stripes.  Whatever you do end up using - my only suggestion is to have a fairly plain fabric mixed in such as I did with the white.  If you have too many patterns, the effect won't look right.

 Then, keeping with the strips of fabric vibe, I cut out mainly red patterned strips.  I put these down in between the white strips.  Just as you would lay out a puzzle, making sure each piece interlocks before gluing, I do the same with this project.

Once you like your layout, go to town with the decoupage glue.  You will want to layer under each piece of fabric, and then over the fabric as well.  Before you know it, you are done!

Hang it to display your patriotism for the 4th of July and throughout the summer!