Red, White & Blue

The older I get, the more I love to decorate for the 4th of July! I’m not sure if it’s the bright color combination, reason for celebrating or feeling it brings that makes it most special, but I love it! Last Friday I posted my weekly “Fab Pins of the Week”, which you can see here, all with 4th of July inspiration! Among my favorites was an adorable burlap bubble wreath with red white and blue ribbon. So I decided to give my burlap wreath a makeover, and something crazy happened… I got inspired for another project 😉

First I’ll show you how my burlap bubble wreath makeover went! The technique I used to update it was quite simple. I bought red and white striped ribbon, as well as, a beautiful bright blue from Jo Ann Fabrics. I grabbed 2 pipe cleaners I already had at home and cut them into about 2 inch pieces. To begin, I simply tucked the end of the red and white ribbon onto my wire form, left about 3 inches of ribbon vertically and secured with pipe cleaner. I continued until completed. I wouldn’t worry about fixing your burlap as you go, wait until the end to cover up the gaps, if necessary. Next, grab the blue ribbon and cut three lengths of ribbon in descending size (long, medium,small). Fold the length of the ribbon in half and tape into place. Layer the ribbon on top of eachother (again long, medium and small) and use floral wire to tighten the center. Grab a long piece from your extra blue ribbon and tie it into the middle of your bow, fishtail the ends, poke a small piece of floral wire to the back for attaching to the wreath, and voila!

I love how it turned out, it really makes our new black door POP!

And so now we’re onto the project I was pretty excited about sharing! I wanted to make my own garden flag for the stake in front of my house. While I was at Jo Ann’s picking up the ribbon for my wreath, I browsed the burlap (because everyone does that every time they’re at the craft store, right?!) and the silver polka-dotted burlap just had to come home with me! I got a half a yard, but that was more than enough. Once home, I grabbed a flag I already had to measure the size. I left about and inch on each side, as well as, the bottom. I left a good two inches on top since this would be the part that would be sliding onto the garden stake. With my sewing machine, I sewed the sides and bottom. I looped the top piece over and sewed the edge, make sure to leave that middle space open!! I took remaining ribbon from my wreath update, cut them at different lengths and sewed them together, then sewing them onto the middle of my burlap. For the finishing touch I fishtailed the ends of the ribbon!

I was quite happy with how it turned out and it looks beautiful blowing in the wind J