Folk Art Flag

This folk art–inspired Old Glory is a great first project to get started with cork dyeing. I didn’t use the official number of stripes, and there are obviously no stars, but it doesn’t matter—it’s folk art! You’re just capturing the essence and spirit of the flag.

You will need:

* Corks (about 145, plus a handful of extras)

* Rit powder dye in red and blue

* Hot glue gun

* Black foam board (start with a 20" × 30" piece and cut it down after the corks are glued down)

* X-ACTO knife

* Sawtooth picture hanger

1. Separate your corks according to what color they need to be. You can make the flag any size you like, but mine is 21" × 10.5" and these are the amounts that I used. Dye 25 corks blue (plus some extras just in case), according to the instructions in Part 1. Dye 70 red. Set aside 50 undyed corks to be the white stripes. Let dry completely.
2. Using the glue gun, start at the top row and glue corks to the foam board, as shown in the illustration, to make a flag. Glue it down so the edges of the corks hang just a little over the board. Yours will probably be different from mine because the lengths and widths of corks vary. Don’t get too serious about making it perfect!
3. After all of the corks are glued down, trim the foam board from the back with an X-ACTO knife. Gently nail the picture hanger to the back.