A mommy's life... with a touch of Yellow Guest Post

Hi there! I am Whitney and I blog at A mommy's life...with a touch of Yellow. I write about lifestyle, being a mom, being a wife to a law student, crafting, creating projects on a budget, recipes here and there, my love of fitness and anything else that is on my mind. I am so excited to be over here at the Wood Connection's blog today. I Love the wood connection. When I discovered it I think I spent like an hour and a half in there just staring at everything and thinking up all the amazing projects I could do. I have gone back several times since and am so excited with what I get every time, not to mention the staff is super nice and helpful.

I went in the other day, saw they had these adorable wood banner pieces and knew just what I was going to do. This banner is perfect to make with it being the first of march and you could do so many different variations of it for different holidays or rooms. They had all the supplies I needed right there at the store including the cute paper.

{Supplies I used}

-4Wood flag style banner pieces
-Patterned card stock (2 sheets)
-Wood letters
-2 Wooden Shamrock pieces
-White and Green paint
-Sand block or paper
-paint brushes (I like to use the foam ones and wash them and reuse them)
-Green bakers Twine (they even have this at wood connection)
-Texture cream
-Mod Podge
-Hot Glue gun and glue sticks 

{How I Made It}

The very first thing I did is paint the edges of the wood flags white to match the black and white paper I was using. I painted the back too just because I feel like it is more finished that way but you don't have to because no one will probably ever even see it.

Next I got the paper onto the flag pieces.
1. I cut the 12X12 paper in half and was able to get two flags from one piece of paper
2. I covered the flag with mod podge
3. and placed the flag onto the paper
4. I let that sit for about an hour. You need to let the mod podge dry and set for a bit or it will bubble
5. Next you will need some scissors
6. Cut around the paper leaving a little bit of extra all around
7. Fold the extras over and sand it down until it comes off. This will give you the perfect fit of paper to wooden flag piece.
8. Sand all the way around until all the excess paper is off
9. Then mod podge over the top of the paper this will seal it and keep it protected and helping prevent the paper to get damaged or ripped.
Do these steps to all four of your flag piece and you are all done with that step and then next we are going to decorate them

You are going to get all the letters and the shamrocks ready. First you are going to want some of this awesome texture cream. (Yes wood connection has this). This is used to texture pictures to make them look like a canvas but I also like to use this cream for antiquing wood like I did HERE and HERE.

I did this to all the letters and to the shamrocks. You will need a rag (textured like terry cloth). dip your rag into the cream and just spread it all over the piece of wood. this i will give it the texture you need to give it the antique look.

Once it is all over it will look like this. Then you will let is dry. It took about 30 minutes and it dries clear.

Once your cream is dry and clear you are going to paint the letters white. Let that completely dry and then paint over the white with the GREEN. I did two coats of green. The reason I did white first is so that is shows through when I sand them down.

Which brings me to the next step once all your paint is dry and you have the coverage you want you are going to sand the edges and a little on the flat surfaces and this will give you the shabby chic worn look that is so in right now. You will see the brown of the wood and the white showing through.

Next you will grab your handy dandy glue gun do a line of glue following the shape of the letter and place it where you want it on your flag.

You need to be able to connect the flags together to make it into a banner. The wood flags come will a pre drilled hole already in them but it got covered when we mod podged the paper on the top so the get those holes through the paper I just took pin and poked it through the pre drilled hole and moved it around a bit until the hole in the paper was the same size and the hole in the wood. I know super high tech right?! haha but it worked.

And the very last step is to connect the flags with some baker's twine. I adore this stuff. You can do so much with it and it is sooooo cute. I simply just strung it through each flag until they were all connected. You could also tie a knot in the twine after each flag so they stay in place.

And then it is all ready to be hung up! Isn't it so cute? I loved how the black and white paper shows the dimension and color of the letters which totally makes them pop!!!

EEEEEK! I love it! Thanks to the wood connection and their awesome supplies and being right on the trends.

It goes perfectly under my straw wreath. Did you know that the Wood connection has these paper straws at their store too? Oh, well they do. Sweet right?! I love these straws they are a must for every party and they are great for crafting too. You can go HERE to find my paper straw wreath tutorial.

Be sure to stop by A mommy's life...with a touch of Yellow  to say high , have a look around and to enter to win a $25 gift certificate to the Wood connection because well they are amazing and you will love it there! Also make sure to come and say hi and find me on my other social media sites (buttons below).

Thank you Wood connection for having me today and for having such fun projects and supplies.

Happy Crafting and 

Happy St. Patrick's Day!