HOW TO: MAKE A DIY WOODEN FLAG FOR YOUR YARD

By Serena Appiah

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GETTING STARTED

This soccer rebounder is sponsored by Arrow Tool Group and created by Serena Appiah of Thrift Diving.
The Big Game is the hottest event that every football fan will be tuned in for! My son is an avid football fan (or, as I call it, soccer) so we already have our TVs ready to watch!
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To get ready for the excitement, my son and I already made a large 12' x 6' soccer goal for our backyard, along with some training rebounders. Now that the game is here, we're rooting for our favorite teams with these football team flag yard signs! They're super easy to make, don't require power tools (just a few of my favorite Arrow tools), and a home printer. You don't even need to have any creative painting skills! This is a project that you'll love to do with your kid to cheer for your favorite team (and let all your neighbors know who you're rooting for! :)
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YOU WILL NEED

Arrow Tools
●	Stapler (I love the 5-in-1 electric stapler, but you can also use the T301)
●	Arrow glue gun
●	Arrow 8" scissors
●	Screwdriver
●	Hammer
●	Level
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Materials
●	Lowe's Yard sticks (15 each)
●	Large wooden paint stirs (14 each, if you can get them free of charge at the paint section).
●	5/16" T50 Arrow staples 
●	Wooden garden stake (size: 5-foot)
●	3-4 exterior screws (1-1/4" long)
●	Small garden stakes for smaller flags (optional)
●	ModPodge decoupage sealer (Matte finish)
●	Glue sticks
●	Wood glue
●	Sandpaper
●	Digital picture of your favorite team flag printed with your home computer
●	Primer (spray and/or can)
●	Exterior paint (for yard flags or signs that will be exposed to the elements)
●	Craft paint & paint brushes
●	Brayer (roller) or a credit card for smoothing trapped bubbles
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START BUILDING

STEP 1: Create Your Wooden Flag with Yard Sticks and Paint Stirs
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Yard sticks and paint stirs are perfect for crafting because they're pre-cut and allow you to do so many projects without having to worry about cutting small strips (or lugging large pieces of wood home!). I prefer the Lowe's brand yard sticks because they're printed; the Home Depot yard sticks are engraved and will create unnecessary texture in your wooden flag.
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Line up your yard sticks on a flat surface, making sure the ends are even. For most flags, you'll need 15 yard sticks, although keep in mind that some country flags may be more square, so you'd need to trim them down with a jigsaw.
I was making the Spain flag, so 15 yard sticks were perfect for my rectangular flag.
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Use large paint stirs as braces on the back, securing it with either the Arrow 5-in-1 electric stapler (my favorite) or the manual Arrow T301, which both use T50 staples. The perfect staple size is 5/16". You want them to secure the braces, but not shoot through the front of the wood.
You'll need 14 large paint stirs. If you can't get that many free of charge, there are 21" wooden ruler sticks you can buy that come in a 3-pack for about $1.50. 
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STEP 2: Hot Glue Paint Stirs to Hide the Staples
One of those pieces of plywood will be marked and cut at a diagonal, which will form the sides or "wings" of the soccer rebounder. Use a small circular saw (I love this one by WORK PRO), to cut.
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This step isn't completely necessary, but I like the idea of using hot glue to attach another set of wooden paint stirs to hide the staples. I'm using my Arrow GT300 glue gun with larger glue sticks since this required a lot of hot glue!

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STEP 9
Once the framed pegboard is securely in place, it’s time to decorate! Additional pegboard hooks can be purchased from home improvement stores or online. This is the perfect time to put your own special touch on the project.

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STEP 3: Prime the Yard Stick Flag
Spray primer is easy to use, but it's so lightweight that it requires a couple coats. I used spray primer first, let it dry, and then applied a coat of primer from the can with a paint brush for perfect coverage. Since these are Lowes' printed yard sticks (not engraved), the printing was easy to cover up.

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STEP 4: Blow Up a Larger Image of Your Favorite Team's Flag
Now that the yard stick flag is drying, we can start to prep and print out our favorite team's flag. My son says that Spain, England, and France are fan favorites (including his), so I decided I wanted to make a wooden Spain yard flag! Here's how you can blow up a larger image of your favorite football team's country flag.
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How to Enlarge Your Favorite Team Flag
A) Find a free flag image at Pixabay.com. Download the image you'd like to use for your DIY wooden yard flag.
B) Go to Raserbator.net and click on "Create your poster."
C) Upload the free flag image from your computer.
D) Don't change the paper settings if you're using regular printer paper.
E) Uncheck "Add margin" because you will be cutting away the white space anyhow.
F) Underneath the flag preview, click on "inch" (or you can keep it to "mm" if you use the metric system).
E) Change the "Output size" to determine how many sheets wide your flag will be. The preview and size will change 
Once you click "Continue" after you're happy with these settings, The Rasterbator will create a 15-page PDF file that you can print at home.
TIP: Use high quality paper. If you can't print it at home, pay a few dollars to have it printed at FedEx or Staples.
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For this project, with our 15 yard sticks, we needed a flag that measured a little wider than our 21" x 36" so that we had a little left over the edges to trim them.
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STEP 5: Trim the Excess from the Flag Image and Glue to the Wooden Flag
Use your Arrow scissors to trim the excess paper away from your flag image. Be careful not to cut into the image. Dry-fit the image of the flag first to test where each piece of paper will be placed, making sure that the printed flag covers the entire wooden yardstick flag. Once you start trimming the excess paper, you may notice that the pattern shifts a little bit, but this isn't a huge problem--just cut carefully!

STEP 6: Glue Flag Poster to the Yard Stick Flag
Every craft room needs a bottle of Mod Podge. This stuff is perfect for gluing paper to the insides of drawers, gluing fabric to wood, and so many other uses. It also serves as a sealer, so once you've glued your paper down, you apply a coat to seal the top. 
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To get started, apply a layer of Mod Podge to the back of each piece of the paper flag. Carefully position each piece of paper, using a brayer (roller), or a credit card or other smoother, to remove the bubbles. It's nearly impossible to remove all bubbles, but the more bubbles you can remove, the better results.

STEP 7: Carefully Sand Excess Paper From the Edges
I have this wonderful trick I use when gluing paper to wood. The trick is that the paper should be wider than the edge. Once the ModPodge (or spray adhesive) dries, use 150-grit sandpaper at an angle and very carefully sand off the edge of the excess paper at a 45 degree angle. It will always leave a crisp edge to the paper along the edge. 

Bonus Yard Sign!
I wanted to make a DIY soccer ball yard sign, too! I bought a pre-cut round piece of pine and painted a soccer ball on it. I had blown up an image of a soccer ball, laid it on the pine board, and cut out a piece of the soccer ball pattern, tracing the shapes onto the round pine wood. 
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I used my Arrow T301 stapler and 1/2" T50 staples to secure paint stirs to the back.

﻿FINISHED PRODUCT﻿

Another Fun Idea!
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For your next birthday party, make several of these yard sign soccer balls and hot glue a large letter to each soccer ball to spell out your child's name! What a great way to welcome guests to a soccer-themed birthday party. :)
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Serena Appiah
Serena Appiah is the owner, publisher, and artist behind Thrift Diving, a blog that inspires home enthusiasts to decorate, improve, and maintain their home on a do-it-yourself budget. Her mission is to inspire people to be creative and to gain the confidence, motivation, and skills they need to not just start a project, but to finish it using paint, power tools, and thrift stores.

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