Hello again! I’m Lorene, and I’m back to share another fun British-y project with you. In addition to feeding Debra’s Doctor Who obsession (a bandwagon that I have very lovingly also jumped on!) I also love feeding her British mania. And you can’t get much more British than the flag, the lovely Union Jack!
Add the crazy appeal of the flag with the fact that I love inexpensive projects and materials like paint stir sticks, and you have today’s project: a paint stick union jack wall hanging. Free as long as you paint on hand and don’t mind picking up a few paint stir sticks on every hardware store trip 🙂
How to Paint a Union Jack on a Paint Stick Plaque
Supplies
- paint stir sticks — I used 9 of the shorter ones (about 12″ long) to get the right approximate dimensions of the flag, plus 2 more for the supports on the back to hold it together
- paint — red, white/cream, dark blue
- glue — I used wood glue
- clamps, like clothespins and binder clips, to hold the paint sticks while the glue dries
- painter’s tape (or masking or even washi tape)
Create the paint stick wall plaque by laying 9 paint sticks in a column. I alternated laying the “handle” end at the left and right so that the little holes were evenly spread out on either side of the plaque. Cut down the remaining two paint sticks to be just shorter than the height of the combined paint sticks. Apply a thin coat of glue to the cut-down paint sticks and glue them to the back of the other set of paint sticks, running perpendicular so that they hold all of the paint sticks together in a firm rectangle. Clamp (I used clothespins and binder clips) and allow to dry.
Once the plaque part is dry, paint the entire front with your cream/white paint. Let it dry, then tape off the stripes for the red stripes and paint the red. Once it’s dry, remove the tape and apply tape for the blue triangles. Paint the blue and then remove the tape.
If you’re feeling a bit meticulous like me, you can measure out and draw lightly with pencil all of the lines, and then just tape along those lines before painting, or you could get wild and crazy and freehand along the lines 😉 I used this handy diagram on Wikipedia to help me get the stripes the right width and proportion (which didn’t stop Debra from hanging the flag upside down, the horror! 😉
Once everything is dry and dandy, hang it on the wall using command strips and feel extra British-y today!
Cheerio,
Lorene
Lu (or Lorene if you prefer) is the mom of 3 kids and wife of a singing and dancing elementary teacher. She happily shows up here at Housewife Eclectic whenever Debra allows, and occasionally blogs on whatever topic comes up over at her blog, just Lu, when she has time in between projects and her awesome job as a virtual assistant.
Our 14 year old is a fan of all things Brit; he's going to love this one! Thanks for the post.
That is a super cute craft!
What a super cool idea. I love it.
Pretty cool craft.. I will show it to my kids and see if they want to try it out!
Very cute craft, I would love to try this with my daughter.
I like it! I didn't know that it was nicknamed the Union Jack.
Very cool–my son would love that! You did a great job!
Neat idea! I never would have thought to use paint sticks to make something.
Very cool idea. The colors are so vibrant!
That's terrific. I have no proper affiliation with the flag, but I love it too!
What a super idea to use paint sticks! Maybe it could be modified to be other flags too!
Love this idea!! It reminds me of my travels in London a few years ago! Very creative!
That is a really neat idea.