I'm proud to live in America and to celebrate the freedoms we still have in our country as a democracy. I love that our flag flies proudly on the doorpost of our home in honor of this beautiful land. To celebrate our American flag this 4th of July, Little Bee and I enjoyed this USA flag kid painted canvas art activity. Scroll down to learn how to make your own canvas flag to display on a mantel or kid art area in your home for the holiday.
Flag Canvas Art Materials Needed:
- 14x18 inch Stretched Canvas (I bought a 2 pack from Walmart)
- Painter's Tape
- Red & Blue Finger Paints or Acrylic Paints
- Paintbrush for spreading the color (I bought a set of paintbrushes from IKEA)
- Star Stickers (each star is approximately 1/2 inch diameter)
- Scissors
Step One - Preparing the Canvas
The first step was to cut the painter's tape in half (lengthwise) so that I had 6 stripes taped across the canvas. The painter's taped stripes will end up being the white stripes of the flag. There are a total of 13 stripes on the flag - 6 white and 7 red. I eye-balled the distance between each tape stripe placement. If you would prefer to measure the placement of each tape stripe, the approximate distance between stripes is 1.1 inches. (Please Note: The painter's tape when cut in half is a little less than 1 inch across. So the white stripes will be a bit skinnier than the red stripes. The important thing to remember is that this craft is for kids to learn and have fun. The dimensions of the flag don't have to be 100% accurate.) I also taped a rectangular box in the left hand corner of the canvas.
Step Two - Painting the Red Stripes
The next step is getting the red paint out and letting the child have fun painting all the "white" areas on the canvas. Little Bee took this task seriously and was very careful to paint every white spot on the canvas. He even painted the white sides of the canvas. After the painting of the red stripes was complete, I set the canvas aside to dry for several hours.
Step Three - Painting the Stars
After the red stripes on the canvas were completely dry, I removed the taped rectangular box to reveal the white canvas beneath. It was late at night and Little Bee was asleep, so I didn't have him help me with the counting of the star stickers. Counting all 50 stars would be a fun task for a preschool aged child. I laid the star stickers on the white rectangle in rows of 10. Then I attached the stickers to the canvas and carefully painted a blue line along the edges of the rectangle. A preschool aged child could easily do this step. After the blue lines were painted along the edges, I painted the reminder of the star spangled box blue and let it dry for several hours.
Step Four - Removing the Star Stickers and Painter's Tape
The next morning, Little Bee helped me remove the painter's tape and sticker stars. He enjoyed using his fine motor skills for lifting the edges of the stars and pulling them off the canvas. The end result was a delightful kid painted canvas art USA flag!
In the photo below, Little Bee stands proud, holding his completed flag masterpiece!
This fun canvas art USA flag is proudly displayed on top of our Montessori shelves in the family room. Please visit, 8 Montessori Patriotic Flag Activities to learn about all the activities that are displayed on our shelves. Thanks for your visit and share this post if you loved it. 🙂
You may also enjoy visiting, 6 Firework Art Trays.
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What a great idea to use painter’s tape! I never would have thought of doing that in a kid’s painting project. Not only does it make a great effect, but it teaches them about stencils and negative space, etc!
Thank you! I am having a lot of fun thinking up things to do with painter’s tape. 🙂 I like that idea of negative space…
Oh my! Your little boy is not so little anymore 😀 Loving how you created your flag. I always find it difficult to recreate an American flag because of the stars but you’ve done it with ease! Wonderful post as usual <3
Thanks Jae 🙂
Another really lovely and process-oriented activity (although it turned out ready to hang in a museum!) and I love your US Flag Montessori shelf. Just a very inviting place!
Thank you! It was lots of fun 🙂
Love this! Pinned and shared! I love seeing holiday art projects! I miss being in the classroom and doing special art projects!
Thanks Lisa! This was lots of fun 🙂
Love! What a cute shelf and awesome activity! 🙂 Date it on the back so you remember when he made it. 😉 It will be precious to pull it out this time of year every year. 🙂
Good idea! Thanks Tanya 🙂
Oh my goodness! I LOVE this art project!! I really want to give this a try. I need to get over my fear of messy toddler crafts 😉 but this turned out so well. I pinned, and have ready for social shares this week! What fun!!
Thanks Katie! I hope you give it a try 🙂
This is great! I’m not sure what my kiddo would enjoy more- peeling the stickers off or the actual painting haha. He did a great job!
Thanks so much Yuliya! 🙂
This is such a great idea! Kane would have so much fun with this. Thanks for sharing!
I hope you get to try creating a USA flag with Kane! 🙂
What a fantastic way to recreate the US Flag! I love to see those lil hands in action 🙂 And your Montessori shelf looks so inviting! Thank you for such a wonderful post!
Thank you, Amruta! 🙂
Super cute! This looks so good. Pinned and tweeted. Thank you for bringing this to our party and we hope to see you on Monday at 7 pm. Lou Lou Girls
Thank you! Thanks for hosting a wonderful party! 🙂
Oh Great Idea!! I am not even gonna wait to do this next year I am gonna do this now,and painters tape is a great idea!Thanks for sharing!
Awesome! I’m so glad you’re excited to create the flag canvas. 🙂 Enjoy!
So much fun! Thank you for stopping by the Learn & Play Link up. This post is featured on Christian Montessori Network this week!