Pottery Barn Knock-Off Planked Flag

When I saw this flag in the pottery barn catalog I knew I had to have it for the 4th of July. But at $129, it was a little out of budget- so I made my own!
A few mistakes were made along the way- so I'll try to share how I'd do things differently next time. This is what I started with ...
Furring stripes. Mistake #1: I thought this was a planked flag, but the catalog actually said "Painted Flag". Oh well, I do love the look of the planks and by using the furring strips it gave it a distressed finish, right from the beginning. I had the Home Depot guy cut 10 foot boards into 3 equal lengths (approx. 40" each).
Next, I painted 3 boards completely red, 6 boards completely white, 4 red boards with a 15 1/2" white end.
Mr. Right then connected them together using another furring strip and a screw into each board. We're now missing a few pictures- sorry, I really got into this and forgot to document. Using my cricut I designed a 50 star layout that fit the dimensions of the white area on the flag. Mistake #2 I shouldn't have included the last white stripe as part of the star area- you'll notice my blue area is a little large for the proportion of the flag. I actually didn't notice it until this morning when I pulled up the original pottery barn flag picture- so I think I can live with it. With my cricut design cut, I used transfer tape and and placed the 50 stars (all as one piece) on the white area. Because my flag is planked I could easily see there would be places where the blue paint would seep under the stars- so I gave the stars a thick coat of white. This is a painters tip to get nice clean lines. Here's a picture of the stars painted over in white- not sure it's visible...
When the white dried, I painted the blue and quickly (with paint still wet) used tweezers to pull off the stars. There wasn't an issue with blue paint leaking- but some of the white paint ended up peeling. I touched up each star with a teeny, tiny brush. Mistake #3: Next time I would paint the ends of the red sticks with blue and then use the cricut vinyl as a stencil to make the white stars. I then sanded, distressed, stained and glazed the whole thing. I do love how it turned out- but will probably try to sell this one, so I can make one with better proportions.
She's looking great out by the pool area though. Let me kn0w if you make one, I'd love to see pics. Love, Kelly.