This is a fun project to complete, took about an hour of active time, and you can do this as I did with paint or you can cut colored vinyl and avoid painting altogether. I was looking to create a lightweight USA Freedom sign for our RV since we use 3M Wall strips to hang these so I went to the local Dollarstore & picked up a Frame that weighs only 2 ounces, perfect for this purpose. Here's what I did:
Project: USA Freedom Sign Project Cricut
Difficulty Level: medium
Time: Active 1 hour, inactive 2 hours
Materials:
Paints: Navy blue, White (for blue & white washed background areas - you could use a vinyl instead of painting the blue, you could also use craft paper for the background, mix up your materials with what you already have!)
Paint brush (any soft bristle brush works), water, paper towels
Cricut Maker or Explore Machine & images: click here for the project file on 'Cricut Access' & strong Mat.
Cricut Wood Veneer: I used Maple for the USA sign stripes, Walnut for the Stars & Cherry for the word 'Freedom' but any combination will work.
Cricut Faux Leather in Red for part of the map & the words at the bottom. You might need to use sharp craft scissors if some of the letters remained connected.
Double sided thin tape or craft glue, Elmers glue works fine. Honestly I use whatever I have handy. If needed you can place a heavy object on top during the drying process, just be sure that you wiped off all excess glue so your project doesn't end up glued to that object!
Steps:
Within the frame itself there was a cardboard backing, take that out and paint it with the Navy Blue (Military Blue) paint, while it is drying cut out the other materials with my Cricut Maker & Strong Mat (the Explore series also cuts Veneer). If you're new to cutting or the Cricut here are links to how to cut: Wood Veneer & Faux Leather. One of the things I love most about my Cricut machines are their sheer ease of use, combined with their extensive software & images it's a crafters paradise!
Weed the words from the Red Faux leather and lay out the materials on a table as you want them to appear, it's like putting together a puzzle really.
Paint the Eagle with the Navy paint, adding white at the top of the head & tips of the wings, then paint the Blue Stars portion of the flag and let them dry.
Paint the square Maple veneer using a white wash (pour out a small amount of white & add a few drops of water to it to thin it out, using light brush strokes cover one side, then using straight white you can select areas to paint extra coats adding variations in depth, be sure to paint in the direction of the grain.
Do not paint the word Freedom or the white portion of the Flag, this ensures they show up against the white background, or paint them any color you want, if you only have one color of Veneer you can wash a little color to stain it.
Once everything is dry glue it to the Blue Cardboard, put it back in the frame, with or without any acrylic or glass cover that came with the frame, hang & enjoy!
Note: Veneer will curl some when you paint it, you can flatten it back out once it's dry by placing a heavy book on it for an hour.
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