It’s time to don the red white and blue! With both Flag Day and the Fourth of July upon us, it’s always nice to have some festive display of home decor to show off our pride and patriotism for this wonderful country we live in. Today I want to share with you an easy star spangled hanging basket that I’ve designed to embellish my front door, and it’s easy enough that you too can create one of your own in very little time!
For this project you will need:
- 16.5″ High Twig Flat Back Basket w/ Star Opening
- 26″ Spray w/ Red/White/Blue Stars
- 12 x 12″ K & Co. Americana Paper Pad
- Cuttlebug V2 Diecutting and Embossing Machine
- Spellbinders Nestabilities 5 Die Set – Stars
- Ranger Ink Blending Tool w/ Foam Pads
- Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad – Vintage Photo
- Diamond Dust – 6 oz.
- Jute Skein 4 Plly – 1 lb.
- Spanish Moss
- Martha Stewart Crafts Scoring Board
- Aleene’s Paper Glaze, 2 oz.
- Ribbon of choice
Instructions:
First things first… you’ll want to gather around all your supplies and then you will begin by adding some basket filler into the star opening of the hanging basket.
Here I have used some Spanish Moss as my filler and I’ve simply packed it by the handful into the basket opening until it is full to the rim.
Then take the decorative spray of stars, and you will want to bend the wire form upward or cut off approx. 6″ of the stem. This will make the 26″ spray, 20″, and you will be able to push the spray downward into the basket filler (Spanish Moss) securely. Make sure you push the spray in far enough but still allow all the decorative stars to be shown from the basket opening.
We will now work on a bow and some decorative star elements to adorn the basket.
First, cut off a piece of jute twine that will extend the entire length of the hanging basket. You will want to stick the jute through an opening at the crook of the star opening’s bottom rim. Tie the piece off onto the basket securely. Select some ribbon and gather it together with some extra lengths of jute. Tie it all onto the top of the jute piece hanging down from the basket to form a bow.
To make some decorative graduating star elements to cascade from the jute strand, I have chosen to use Spellbinder’s Nestabilities 5 pc. star dies cut from some Americana patterned paper (K & Co.). You’ll want to die cut a pair of each star size, then glue the 2 pieces of each pair together… this will create a better thickness for scoring them.
To score the stars, you will begin by lightly marking the center dot of each star with a pencil on the reverse side of the star. Using a scoring board and tool you will want to then score a line from the center to a point of the star and repeat scoring lines 5 times for each star. Please forgive me, I seem to have forgotten to take a photo of this step!
After all the stars are scored, you can fold them at the score lines to create a bit of dimension. The next step is to also add some distressed and vintage appeal to the stars with some Tim Holtz Distress ink in Vintage Photo. Apply the ink to all the scored lines and edges with a foam pad blending tool.
Next, create more vintage appeal and texture with some Diamond Dust glass glitter. Apply a dimensional glaze medium/adhesive to the desired areas of the stars and then coat generously with the Diamond Dust and shake off the access. Allow these to dry.
To finish this project, all that’s left to do is to adhere the stars from largest to smallest to the hanging strand of jute tied onto the center opening of the basket. Apply a dab of the paper glaze medium to the backs of each star and carefully lay them onto the jute strand.
Allow them to dry so each star is secured to the jute before proudly hanging your decorative basket for the holiday! Enjoy!
