I love using tobacco sticks in my crafts. I've made tobacco stick chairs, trees and stars. Today I thought I'd give a shot at making an Americana flag.
First, I asked my husband to nail each one together, one by one. Then cut off one end kinda straight. Then here's what it looked like when I got a hold of it:
Next, I took some white acrylic paint and mixed it 5% to 95% all purpose sealer (found in the craft section.) It kinda forms a gel stain typa thing.
Then I began to paint every other tobacco stick with the gel stain mixture, like so:
Then, after every other one had their first coat. I went back in and did a second coat. Why? Well because tobacco sticks are very dry wood. And they really soak up the first coat.
I really love how the paint mixed with the all purpose sealer looks. It's not too bright, not too dim. It kinda ads a white wash look to it.
Then I thought about how to add some stars. So sticking with the Americana theme, I choose to do one large barn red star surrounded by four navy blue ones. So I got out some star stencils and my Delta brand oil based paints that I use for stenciling.
And here's a pic of the tobacco stick American flag, after the stars are stenciled on:
After the stencil paint dried completely, I gave it a light sanding with some pieces of medium grade sandpaper. Nothing major, just some here and there roughness to make the stars look a bit worn.
And here it is. The final pic of my try at making an Americana flag out of tobacco sticks:
Note: I was inspired to paint every other one white, from a post I saw on Pinterest here. Where she'd made a flag out of boards. It was super cute!
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That is SO cool! I have never used tobacco sticks before. Where do you get them from? I love the flag and how you did the two-tone look with every other stick. Awesome job! :)
ReplyDeleteThank you!!
DeleteA friend of my husbands has a huge farm with a few old barns full and gives him all that I can use for crafts. But otherwise, I think they sale for about $1 each when you do find people selling them.
The tobacco stick stars are a steady seller, in different sizes here.
Thanks again for stopping by!
oh gosh, this reminds me i need to upload the "finished pic" lol
DeleteNever heard of tobacco sticks but they look cool! Love your flaf!
ReplyDeleteBe blessed,
Cindi
Thank you Cindi!
DeleteTobacco sticks are plentiful around here because in KY we use to have oodles of tobacco fields. And farmers used thousands of these each, every a year, depending on how many acres of tobacco they grew (that's how tobacco was hung in barns, stalks were pierced with tobacco sticks.)