Minnesota and North Carolina Craft Stick Flag Coasters

As promised, here are two more coasters featuring state flags. Today I'm sharing coasters featuring the flags of Minnesota and North Carolina. I'm especially happy to share the Minnesota project, since it is the most recently adopted of the 50 state flags. (Maine, I'm still disappointed.) Affiliate links below.   

 

Minnesota and North Carolina Flag Coasters

Materials: 

• 7 standard size (4.5") craft sticks
• painter's tape
• acrylic paint (Minnesota: navy, light blue / North Carolina: navy, red, white)
• colored pencils
• Apple Barrel Paint Pens (Minnesota: white / North Carolina: yellow, white)
• Outdoor Mod Podge
• tacky glue
• 3 mini (2.5") craft sticks

Steps (Minnesota): 

Arrange seven standard size craft sticks on a piece of painter's tape. Use a ruler and pencil to draw lines to mark the Minnesota-shaped dark blue field. Paint the field navy and the rest of the area light blue. When the paint is dry, remove the sticks from the tape and paint the edges. They will show through in your finished coaster. The back won't show, so painting that is optional. Let the paint dry. Return the sticks to the painter's tape. 

I used a white colored pencil to freehand the 8-pointed star, but it would have been infinitely easier to print and cut a template, then trace that. Use a white paint pen to fill in the star. 

When the paint is dry, seal the sticks with Outdoor Mod Podge and let that dry completely. 

Arrange three mini craft sticks vertically on your work surface and add glue. One by one, transfer the painted craft sticks onto this base. 

Steps (North Carolina): 

Arrange seven standard size craft sticks on a piece of painter's tape. Paint the left third of the sticks navy blue. Paint the right two-thirds of the top three sticks red and the bottom three sticks white. The middle stick is split, half red and half white. I recommend labeling the sections in pencil to help you. 

Remove the sticks from the painter's tape and paint the edges, as these will show. When the paint is dry, return the sticks to the painter's tape. 

It took quite a bit of trial and error to figure out the best way to do the details on this flag. I suggested starting with the N☆C, using yellow and white paint pens. Use the yellow paint pen to draw the banners above and below. When the paint is 100% completely dry, add the text using a ballpoint pen. 

Seal the sticks with Outdoor Mod Podge and let that dry completely. 

Arrange three mini craft sticks vertically on your work surface and add glue. One by one, transfer the painted craft sticks onto this base. 

You may have noticed that I didn't make coasters from amongst the Excellent state flags for crafting but instead chose flags from the Acceptable group. They were more challenging than I'd expected, so I'd steer clear of anything in the Terrible group. I have high hopes that at least some of them will update their flags eventually, like Minnesota did.