American Flag Baseballs

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I must be really into the 4th this year or maybe I am not used to being home this much.   With this stay at home order, my crafts have really taken over!  

So what is more American than baseball?  An American flag painted baseball!  These are just regular baseballs painted with acrylics. When I ordered these balls to paint, I had to fight off both the dog and 4 year old from trying to steal them - trust me it was a battle.   Now you don’t need to be an artist to pull these off.  I feel that the primitive look is better than crisp lines on these. I stacked all of my balls in an old tray I had laying around waiting to be repurposed.  I think they look great. I might just leave them out all summer! 

What you need:

• Baseballs - I painted 12 of them. Here is what I used Rawlings Official Baseballs
• Acrylic paints (blue and red)
• Medium sized paint brush
• White paint pen - this makes it way easier to make the stars. I have these Paint Pens and they come in handy all the time 
• Antiquing medium - I used something I had on hand, but this Antiquing Medium would work great
• An old towel to apply antiquing medium
• Polyurethane or Clear Coat - any type of sealer like this one from Rust-Oleum to make sure your artwork is protected 

​How to make it:

• Gather your supplies and set up your work area. Because I lack patience, I painted all 12 of my balls at the same time. 
• You will notice that the balls are conveniently already sectioned into 2 working areas by the stitching. Pick which color you want to work with first - red stripes or solid blue. I chose to do the stripes first. 
• Start by adding your stripes. I used the stitching as a guide to keep my lines straight and my stripes somewhat consistent. I found that starting in the small middle area help to keep my lines from going on a slant and I needed about 3 coats of paint to cover the white sufficiently.  This is where my lack of patience kicks in, as one ball dries between coats, I would paint 2 or 3 more and then go back to the first. 
• Once all of your stripes are on and dry, start painting the entire second section of the ball blue. 
• Once the blue is completely dry, draw on your stars with your white paint pen.  I did a random pattern and I wasn’t worried about making them perfect.  It is really important to make sure your blue paint is completely dry before starting your stars, if not, you will end up with bluish white stars. 
• Once the stars have dried, apply your antiquing medium. I rubbed mine on with an old dish towel. Apply as much or as little as you like so they are your level of antiqued. 
• Finally apply your polyurethane top coat. 

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