A DIY Vintage American Red Cross

I love old things, in case you hadn’t noticed. The years behind vintage and antique pieces are filled with so much history. I love looking at old things and thinking about the stories behind them. Some historical items tend to draw my attention more than others though, especially ones that relate to wartime in the early to mid 1900s. Why? We have a lot of military history in my family. I am so proud of that. My family made a lot of sacrifices for this nation, one even gave his life during WWII. The American Red Cross played such a vital role in our war efforts and everytime I see that cross I think of the cost of freedom. I see these incredible vintage Red Cross flags online, at antique fairs, and in museums, and I have always loved them. But the cost of owning one is not cheap. With my own family history in mind, I decided to make my one myself (well, sort of).

Now, I don’t have great sewing skills. My sister received that gift. I can barely thread a needle. Making a flag was simply out of the question. But I do know how to paint. And I decided to use my knowledge of chalk paint to make this historic looking art piece. The canvas I used for this project was actually a decorative one that I had bought many years ago and no longer used. My style has changed immensely since then. I figured this would be a great piece to use to make my new canvas art. Here is a look at the canvas before I started:

To start this DIY, I had to get rid of the gold leaf that was on certain sections of the canvas or otherwise you would see all those textured outlines coming through. I took my orbital sander and used a 220 grit pad on it to smooth out the surface. I didn’t apply too much pressure to prevent damage to the canvas. Once that was all smoothed over, I wiped off any dust and got to work painting.

I had to consider the aging that I wanted (or didn’t want) on this art piece. I could have gone with a “new” feeling of just plain white and a solid red. However, I truly wanted this piece to have the aged feel of a genuine artifact from WWI or WWII. With that in my mind I painted the canvas in a warm white, Original by Annie Sloan, and made sure to paint it on very thick. I wanted my brush strokes to go “every which way”, as Annie would say, to bring out a lot of texture when I went to age it. I applied several coats until I could no longer see the previous art. That is where the aging process begins.

I covered the canvas in Annie’s clear wax and wiped away the excess with a lint free cloth. If using a colored wax, you always put on a coat of clear wax beforehand to prevent actually staining the paint. You want the darker waxes to sit on top of the clear so that the dark wax is easily spreadable and so that any excess is easy to take off. I always like to add a very thin second coat right before I apply the dark wax to help the dark wax spread even more. It gives me slightly more control over how I want the finished project to look. I wipe off the excess and then add hints more where I want it. Another tip: if you let the wax sit for a minute or so before wiping off the excess you can get an even darker finish. I attached a time lapse video at the bottom of the post to show you how the antiquing process looked for this piece.

When I finished antiquing the background of the canvas, I had to do the difficult part for me which was creating the shape of the cross with painter’s tape. I hate measuring and figuring how to tape things off to get the “right” dimensions. After staring blankly at the canvas for a while, I eventually bit the bullet, pulled out the measuring tape, and tried to get everything symmetrical and appropriately sized. Much too tedious for my liking and I sort of played a “guessing game” to figure it out haha. When I had everything taped off, I painted the cross with my favorite red: Emperor’s Silk (also by Annie Sloan). After two coats, I used the same waxing techniques I used on the white paint so that the red looked antiqued as well. I pulled off the painter’s tape, and held my breath hoping that I picked the appropriate dimensions for the piece. It wasn’t exactly how I wanted it, but it was close enough and definitely too late in the game to change it haha.

So what do you think? I hope you’ve enjoyed this DIY vintage art piece! This piece reflects so much in our family story and all I had to do was take an old canvas piece and turn it into something we can now enjoy in our home. Have something hanging out in storage that you no longer love? Maybe you can make use of your creativity to transform it into something you and your family will love again! And the fact that you create it yourself makes it that much more special to your family’s story. Thank you for stopping by today!