Stars and Stripes Planter Box

 -This post may contain affiliate links, paints used for this project provided by Plaid Crafts as part of their ambassador program.-

A couple of years ago I did a post for a company and they sent me a bunch of products that I could use for that project, and one of them was a long, unfinished wood planter box. I didn't end up using the planter box in my project so ever since then it has just been sitting on my shelf waiting to be used. 

I actually thought of using it for this project last year, but with all of the craziness that happened last spring and summer, having kids home, online school, my husband working from home, and all of that, it seemed like a lot of projects I had planned never actually got done and this was one of those projects. 

So, now as the 4th of July is almost here again I finally pulled out the planter box and made the project I first planned to make a year ago. A little bit of paint (and optional vinyl if you are like me and don't want to paint the stars) and some flowers turn a plain wooden box into the perfect patriotic centerpiece or decoration. 

How to Make a Stars and Stripes Planter Box

You will need:

• wooden planter box approximately 12" x 4" x 4" (the one I got no longer seems to be available but this one is similar, or this larger one, or this one from Micheals)
• red, white, and blue acrylic paint (I used FolkArt Acrylics in Apple Red, Wicker White, and Navy Blue)
• paintbrushes
• floral foam
• flowers 
• painters tape
• optional: white vinyl and vinyl cutting machine (I cut the stars out on my Cricut)

Instructions:

 

Start by marking out and measuring your design. My box was 12 inches long and 4 inches tall so I marked off a section about 4 inches wide to paint blue (about 1/3 of the box), then I divided the other 2/3 into horizontal stripes (each about 1" wide). 

I just freehanded my painting but would definitely recommend taping off your sections instead. Mine is kind of messy and the lines are not as straight as I would have liked. 

Paint each of the sections and let them dry. 

You can either paint the stars on, or use vinyl. I chose to use vinyl because I felt like it would look better, and cleaner. I cut 1 inch stars out of white vinyl using my Cricut Maker and stuck them on the blue square. I only put the stars on one side, but if you were putting it on a table where it would be seen from both sides you may want to add them to the other side as well. 

If you prefer painting the stars on you could freehand them, or instead of cutting the stars out vinyl you could use vinyl to create a stencil and paint them on that way. 

Stick a block of floral foam in the planter box and fill with flowers. Floral arranging is not a talent of mine, so I just kind of stuck the flowers in until it looked ok-ish. I tried to make sure there was a variety of heights and the colors were kind of spread out.