Rustic Cedar Shim Flag from Shaken Together!

June 13, 2013 | by Jocie (email) |

With all the vacationing and relaxing, I’ve been a bit behind on the actual work, so my friend, Keri from Shaken Together was kind enough to drop by and share what she has been up to! Thanks, Keri and I hope to see you all tonight for another fabulous Humble Brag link party!

I’m so glad to be here today at The Better Half … Jocie is one of my very favorite people!!  Hi – my name is Keri, and I blog over at shaken together!  Shaken together is where I celebrate a creative life and I love to share easy recipes, seasonal gifts, crafts and a little of our life with 13 years of marriage, two boys and two cats!

With Memorial Day under our belt and the weather heating up in Florida, I am ready to put away the Spring pastels and haul out the bright colors of summer!  Since red is my favorite color, decorating in red, white and blue is only natural.  I tend to lean towards rustic and funky in our dining room – think vintage soda crates, chippy birds, metal tea kettles and old fabric lanterns!  So today, I thought I would share an easy project that fits right into my quirky decor and starts with inexpensive materials you can find in your local home improvement store … check out this cool rustic cedar shim flag!

You can find bundles of shims for a few dollars at your local home improvement store (or you could use wooden rulers, paint stirrers or thin strips of wood).  Some of them are pretty rough and uneven, so I sorted through them to find eight that were fairly similar in width.  I really like the imperfections in the shims and the slightly uneven lengths.  Glue them together with wood glue and allow to dry.

1. Using acrylic paint and a foam brush, paint alternating shims red and white (make sure to leave room on the top four shims for your blue square of stars).

2. Use a small square paper punch to punch 9 stars (or use your cutting machine to make a stencil).

3. I used my old school Xyron create-a-sticker machine to make sticky star stencils and lined them up in 3 rows in the unpainted corner of the flag.

4. Paint over the stars with the blue paint (I went with a turquoise color that matches a big mirror hanging in our entry way but you could use a more traditional navy/royal blue) and carefully remove them before the paint totally dries.

5. Once the paint has dried, lightly sand to create a little more rustic character and seal with a clear coat.

And now the fun part … tucking it behind a big chubby chippy bird, a fun red egg cup with a grapevine ball and one of my favorite candles!

I hope this isn’t the last time we meet … I’m pretty social, and I’d love to connect with you!  Find me here:

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Jocie – thanks so much for having me over!  I’ve had a blast!