Hello my friends!  I have been eager to start featuring fabulous, talented guest posters with inspiring tutorials.

Courtney from Sweet C's Designs recently started a creative blog AND a gorgeous etsy shop, and let me tell you--this lady is talented!  Batter up, Courtney!

I'm Courtney, the mom behind the Sweet C's Etsy shop and Sweet C's Designs blog!

I have to tell you a little story before we start our craft today... when I decided to leave a high profile job in politics behind to stay at home with my little man, I found myself looking for inspiration in my new "world", and I instinctively turned to craft blogs. I stumbled across a blog I absolutely adored and read all the time... and then one day the author posted a picture of her son- and I recognized him!  Turns out this wonderful little blog was run by Alison, who I went to high school with and we had recently reconnected on Facebook! (I'll admit I was not super observant at first, as I know she posts a picture on the side of her site with a bio... I had a new baby and was clearly in the clouds). Oopsey Daisy was such a pleasure for me to read, I got inspired to start my own blog because of Alison! I am totally honored to be guest posting here today.

Our lives are very heavily influenced by baseball- my husband spends weekend afternoons parked in front of Rockies games (although he's an O's fan at heart after growing up in Annapolis), and my brother used to play in the minor league for the Minnesota Twins. My brother is still busy traveling the globe playing for teams in Japan, Germany and Australia- anywhere in need of a very tall (6'7") pitcher. So when summer rolls around, our thoughts are pretty consumed by one thing- baseball! Little man's baseball themed first birthday party is coming up soon, and I wanted some fun Fourth of July decor I could leave up all summer long that would work well with our obsession. I have seen lots of worn wood flags made with baseballs as stars, and I wanted to make my own version!

Here's how I did it:

{Materials}

-A large pallet (we have had this in our yard in a trash corner I am beyond embarrassed to say has been there since the old owners left. This craft was a great excuse to finally get some of the trash out of there!)

-If you don't have an old pallet laying around, you can also just use 7 worn wood boards and string them together, or nail them to two "anchor" boards running behind them (like a pallet has, but they will sit flat instead of making a box shape).

-Red, white and blue paint

-An old, large paintbrush

-Six aged baseballs (or new baseballs, some old coffee or tea, dirt, and asphalt)

-Hot glue and a hot glue gun

Paint your pallet by "dry brushing" paint on. Don't put too much paint on your brush, and sweep it quickly over the wood. An uneven look will make it look more aged- so you don't need to worry about perfection here. I did the four alternating red and white stripes at the bottom first, and then the top three I only painted half the length of the wood plank so I could then add the blue square.

If your paint is too thick in areas, just sand it down a bit so it looks more rough. I was using a VERY well worn piece of wood, and I adore the character it gave this flag!

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