The post that keeps getting spammed....

I've been getting hammered with spam and it has revolved around the following post...

I'm pretty sure it's because the post had the word *patriotic* in the title, so

around Memorial Day, I started getting up to and sometimes over 100 spam comments a DAY!

I had a break for about a day and now it's starting again.

So I removed it from my past postings and am reposting here....

Enjoy and hopefully the spam will slow down!

Yesterday, I showed you how I took this old ugly sign that was in the way...

and turned it into a Rustic Flag....for FREE!!

When my hubby cut my wood for me, there was about a 5-6 inch 

scrap leftover that I didn't want to throw away.

Andy, over at Poppies at Play, has been making very fun patriotic 

crafts and printables and she offered this one for free! 

It is part of a set of 3 and she also has the vinyl available for purchase! 

I haven't quite figured out how to do printables....I know that you need to somehow send it to a photo processing place....some day I'll figure it out!

Instead, I copied the picture to my desktop and inserted it into a new word document.  I resized it and printed it out.  At this point, I was interested in the numbers and not the printable.

I cut out my numbers....originally, I had tried to find a similar font on dafont.com, but I was overwhelmed by the choices.....I don't function well when I have too many choices!

I wasn't concerned with cutting the numbers out exactly....am I ever???  I knew that I was going to sand them. 

I painted my board red using a dry brush technique that I talked about in my Rustic Flag post....

I traced my numbers with a pencil and painted them in with white paint....my hubby was over my shoulder saying, "Don't you want to use a lettering brush?" No....it's supposed to look rustic!!

I sanded down my letters, added a little "somethin', somethin'" twine and went over it with tea-dye distressing ink.....it was still missing something.

I cut out a free-handed star and painted 3 blue stars, sanded and distressed them.

I love my little piece of wood scrap that turned into a patriotic beauty!

What do you do with your wood scraps?

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Memorial Day Party Decor

Yesterday, I shared some dessert ideas and today I have rounded up some 

decorating ideas for your Memorial Day picnic.

They are projecting temps near 90 degrees for our Memorial Day, so I am sure

our day will revolve in some way around water!

What are your plans?

{Memorial Day Mason Jars}

{Red, White and Blue Sand Votives}

{Repurposed Cans}

{FREE party printables}

{Flag Blocks}

And to wear to your party....

{Flag Shirt}

{Patriotic Flip Flops}

Happy Picnicking!

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Memorial Day Dessert Ideas

Are you like me?  I wait until the last minute to plan parties and picnics....I

wish I were more organized in this department, but this is just the reality of my life!

Here are some last minute Memorial Day dessert ideas....for you and me!

{Patriotic Parfaits}

{Chocolate Covered Strawberries}

{Mini Fruit Pizzas}

{Red, White, and Blueberry Trifle}

{Sprinkled Ice Cream Sandwiches}

{Star Spangled Trifle}

{Easy Black Forest Cake}

Check back tomorrow for some Memorial Day party decor ideas!

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Red, white, and blue flip-flops...

Natalie, from A Turtle's Life for Me, is a friend in real life and her children swim with mine.  Recently, her daughter wore the cutest pair of flip-flops to swim practice and I decided to improvise....


All you need is an inexpensive pair of flip-flops and some ribbon.  

Take your ribbon and tie a double knot.....

....and that's it!!  You're done!  If you get tired of patriotic flips, then just take out the knots!

I just love those quick and easy crafts!

HERE are places I party!

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Fourth of July bean flags...

Isn't this just the easiest (and cutest!) idea???  I saw it over at Mushkiloves.


Kirsten took black beans, white navy beans, and red kidney beans to create this adorable flag replica.....in a jar!!

I really want to make this craft, but I think 

that I am running out of time! 

Read more ...

An old book flag....

I have really been enjoying making friends in the blog world and one of my first friends was Lauren from My Wonderfully Made.  We instantly connected....both being wives of pastors! 


A few weeks ago, Lauren linked a really fun Fourth of July craft to Thrifty Thursday!  She made a flag from an old book!  So....I copied her and made my own!

I started with a book that, quite honestly.....I never read even though it was required reading for my Astronomy class.....oh well Mr. Schaeffer....

I primed it with some horrid spraypaint that I got on sale....sorry Krylon, but I don't know what happened when you made this version....maybe that's why I got it on sale for 99 cents?

Then I taped off my flag and started painting....

I asked my artist hubby to help paint the stars.....they were too tedious for me!  (and I know him well enough that crooked stars hanging on the wall would drive him batty!)

I also wrote the words of The Star Spangled Banner in sharpie marker and went over it with some distressing ink....and do NOT judge me for my crooked handwriting!!  I would have straight A's in school and then a C- in cursive....I just can't write straight and even!


Be careful when you add the distressing ink though....I did smudge mine a bit...

I cut a piece of twine to hang the book and added pieces of ribbon for a little "frou-frou".....how do you spell that??

Overall, I love it and I love even more the fact that it was FREE!!!  

So far, I've spent nothing to decorate for the Fourth!

Read more ...

Rustic Flag Sign

I have never....ever...decorated for patriotic holidays.  I'm not sure why, but it's never been on my radar to do.  For some reason, this year I am excited to decorate with red, white, and blue.....the only problem is that I don't have much of a budget right now for home decor!

So my goal has been to do it for FREE!!

I've had this ugly sign forever....it's from my "country-fied" days....that lasted all of about 1 year!  The poor sign just keeps getting put behind shelves, under couches....just to keep it out-of-sight!!

But, today, I was inspired!!  What if I flipped it over and started another sign???

I've been seeing really fun flag and patriotic sign-age all over the blog-world, so I wanted to turn this into a rustic flag sign.  The only problem was that it was too long....so I had hubby cut it for me.  (I'll show you tomorrow what I did with the smaller end piece...I absolutely LOVE it!)

I took my little bottle of white acrylic craft paint and dry-brushed it on. To achieve that look just put paint on a dry brush and paint off most of it on the newspaper.  Then take what little remains on your paint brush and paint the wood.

You don't have to use "old" wood.  You can actually "age" the wood.  I did a similar technique on my Paintstick Crate if you'd like to see how to "age" new wood!

Next, I just used painter's tape to mark off my flag shape. 

I left the distressed white as my flag stripes.  I also went over the entire flag with some tea-stained distressing ink just to age it some more.

I took twine that I already had and wrapped it around the ends to give it a little "somethin' somethin'!"

The best part....it was FREE!  Absolutely free!  I recycled something ugly that I already had and never used to make something pretty and fun!!

What have you been recycling??

Places I Party....

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