Craft | Just in Time for 4th of July

As usual, I originally saw this idea on Pinterest.

I'm not ashamed to admit it.  Great stuff comes from Pinterest!

I thought, simple enough and it'll be cheap too!

I went on Amazon and ordered the cheapest wire wreath  (it was an add-on item, 12-inches around, and green....in retrospect, I probably should have gotten a bigger one of either 16" or 18" and paid a little more), three bags of wooden clothespins (for my 12", I only needed 1 & 1/2 bags), and a bag of different-sized wooden stars.  

I already had some red, white, and blue acrylic paints from previous projects.

Prior to painting, I had to figure out how many I wanted of each color!

I decided I wanted to have 7 red and 6 white sections or "stripes" - to be accurate!

So, I put some of the clothespins on two or three sections of my wire wreath and did some math calculations (including division and multiplication!) to figure it all out.

At first I started painting the clothespins while still together.

But then I discovered that it was too difficult to paint the inside, without taking them apart.

So for the red and white, I started by taking them apart and painting was quicker!

I also had to paint my wire wreath ... two coats!

I really had to cram the clothespins together!

(I still had one that wouldn't fit.)

Then I began gluing these stars on.

Ta-Da! 

I had one extra clothespin and one extra star.

So now I have a fancy chip bag clip too! :)

**In retrospect, I should have spray-painted the clothespins - it would have been much faster . . . but it also would have cost more $, since I didn't have spray-paint on hand!**