What you need
paint chips in red, white and blue
scissors
cardboard to cut out a star-shaped template
sewing machine (optional)
white thread
double-sided tape for hanging
Instructions
Here’s a snapshot of all the supplies you will need.
First you want to make yourself a star-shaped template out of your piece of cardboard. I traced one of Little Sweet’s star shapes from a foam puzzle, then tweaked the size a bit to fit 2 stars on each paint chip. You could also draw your own or print out a star shape from Photoshop.
You want the white line to be close to the widest part of your star since you’ll be sewing directly over that white line to give it some stability. Trace the star shape onto your paint chips and cut out as many as you want for your banner.
It’s time to sew now. I had more red and blue stars than white so I used a pattern of red-blue-red-blue-white, repeat.
There are a couple of ways you can sew these together as far as the spacing goes. I tried both and you’ll see my results in a minute. The first way is to line them up right next to each other as you sew so they’re close together and overlapping just a bit.
Or you can leave a small amount of space in between each star as you sew so they’re more spread out. You don’t want the gap to be too big because it will be more likely that they’ll flip upside down when it’s hanging.
I think I like the spread-out look better but the side that I made close together was definitely easier to hang. Can you see the difference?
While you’re sewing, be careful how the already-sewn stars fall since you don’t want a big jumbled mess when you’re done. Then find somewhere to hang your Star-Spangled (Paint Chip) Banner!
And you’re all done!
Thanks so much for your comments on my tutorial. I definitely hear you on the “free” paint chips thing. I didn’t address in my post but it was brought up in the comments on my blog. I personally will only use paint chips from stores that I patronize regularly.
One of my commenters said she called Lowe’s and asked about picking up some of their paint chips for a craft and the salesperson said they had no problem whatsoever with that. It’s definitely a good idea to be upfront about it. And I only take what I need for the one project. Thanks for bringing that up!
-Tricia
This is a really cute idea and if you talk to your local paint store, the paint chips are routinely thrown away when the companies change the names and formulas, usually seasonally, so you can actually save something from going to the landfill when you use outdated paint chips.
this is a fun idea, but I wonder how the paint companies feel about the expense they go to when providing these color chips for their intended purpose. Wouldn’t some form of construction paper or other colored cardstock be more appropriate? Just thinking out loud. We sometimes forget that what is “free” to us has a purpose and when that purpose is abused, well, someone has to absorb the cost of those chips which means it isn’t necessarily free 🙂
Very cool! I could see doing this with other shapes as well, like hearts or cupcakes!