April 15, 2020 Jeannie Pence

Patriotic Cross Tutorial

Now is the perfect time for a patriotic cross and we have a FREE tutorial for you! All the supplies are available at Trendy Tree right now, but when they sell out, you can take the idea and just choose different supplies.

Supplies

F19070 Cross 4154-B Blue Penta Blossom Bush 24178 Red Geranium Bush 62254SP24 Daisy Geranium Spray RG0167224 2.4" Red God Bless America Ribbon - SOLD OUT - Substitute: RG01671 2.5" Red Gingham God Bless America RG01673 2.5" Striped God Bless America Ribbon 18191 2.5" Red Outdoor Velvet Ribbon

Our Favorite Tools

Gorilla Glue Sticks - https://amzn.to/38wlADB 7" Electric Skillet - https://amzn.to/2v2iTff Flower Bush Cutter - https://shrsl.com/26wah Steelpix Machine - https://amzn.to/39kYhNw 2 1/8" Steel Floral Picks - https://amzn.to/2wQHQLs Spanish Moss - https://amzn.to/3dv0eu0 Styrofoam Blocks - https://amzn.to/2QKRsOM 4" Wired Wood Floral Picks - https://amzn.to/2wPMsBz

Cross

The cross is made of grapevine and wire and measures about 22-24" in ht. It is flat and fairly lightweight, making it a really good size for a smallish door or something like a nursing home door or wall. Every resident who has been sequestered in their room with no visitors deserves a patriotic cross on their door right now, so I'm sending this one to my sister. The grapevine cross has a rusty metal star and we just cut this off. The red pip berries also came off but were easily reattached to the cross with floral wire.

Florals

Cut the florals with fairly short stems since they are being inserted into the grapevine cross and there is not a lot of thickness there. If we were going to make a large floral, we would have attached a piece of Styrofoam to the cross to use to hold the florals. But, for this patriotic cross, we didn't use too many florals so we just worked with hot glue and cut the stems short. We used a liberal amount of hot glue. Gorilla glue sticks are our favorite brand of glue to use and there is a link above for that. We also use a small 8" electric skillet. Ours came from Amazon and the link is above. When you use an electric skillet to melt your glue sticks, just keep it on low and if the glue is smoking it's getting too hot. When you are finished with your project just let the glue cool and harden again and cover with the lid.

Bow

The red bow for the patriotic cross was about 10" in width and had tails of 12" We added an extra tail with a piece of the God Bless America ribbon and attached it to the back of the bow. Attach the bow to the cross with the chenille stem.

Summary

The patriotic cross was an easy project and simple enough that any beginner could do. This one will be boxed up and shipped and I know my sister will enjoy it. She loves getting packages and cards in the mail. This is so important, especially right now since visitors are not being allowed in nursing homes. If you have someone if a nursing home, I encourage you to send cards, letters, just anything that lets the resident know that someone is thinking about them and they are not forgotten. A few weeks ago before our traveling and shopping were limited, I made a run to Dollar Tree. You can pick up inexpensive items like hand cream, socks, lotion, lipstick, nail polish, note pads, pens, and pencils. Individually packaged snacks and candies are great too. I divided the items up into 6-7 packages and mailed one every 3-4 days. She was delighted when her packages started arriving. It's time now to go shopping again because we don't know how long the "no visitors" will last. Also, don't forget that you can facetime, or video connect on Messenger. Using video chat has been so rewarding during this difficult time. Thanks for visiting our blog. I hope this patriotic cross tutorial gives you more ideas. We have tons of wreath and floral supplies at Trendy Tree for just about any kind of project you can imagine.

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