Fabulous Fall Flag

From the moment I made my first wall hanging for my daughter’s room, I dreamed up subsequent ones that I would make, the easy pine cone wall hanging for my front door and now this, a fall drop cloth sign/wall hanging/banner/flag . . . honestly I don’t really know what these types of “signs” are called, but I knew I had to give it a shot!  When I shared this on Instagram, I mentioned how I’m sure I could have bought one of these for under $10, but . . . where’s the fun in that???  Plus it involves coloring, which is supposed to be like therapeutic for adults nowadays 😉

In continuing with the #FabFallFest theme for the week:  Wall Decor, I’m going to show you how I created this Fabulous Fall Flag (say that 5 times fast.)

This post contains affiliate links for your convenience.  Should you click on them and make a purchase, I will receive a small commission at no cost to you.

Everything I used for this project, I had on hand, but in case you don’t have these items on hand . . .

Here’s what you’ll need:

-Canvas drop cloth
-Wooden Dowel or S’mores stick 😉
-Printer and paper (or vinyl if you own a cutter, or paint if you prefer)
-Sharpie-Ultra Fine Point
-Sharpie-Fine Point
-Scissors
-String, yarn or twine

Cut your canvas to the desired size, for the “Hello Fall” flag, it measured 16″Wx18″L, the smaller flag measured 10″Wx12″L.

Fold your rectangle in half, and trim any uneven edges.

I used a book and drew a diagonal line from the folded corner to the edge. I then cut along the line.

Here are some designs which you may use to trace, or if you have a steady hand, you can create something free hand.

This prints on two pages-landscape

For this tutorial, I decided to make a smaller banner for my outdoor lawn flag holder, and chose the “Grateful, Thankful, Blessed” wording. I trimmed the top and bottom, but kept the sides to help keep it centered.

I then flipped it over and taped it down.

Using my cell phone and my glass Ikea Vittsjo table, I made a makeshift projector, by placing the my phone with flashlight on, and elevated under the table to make it easier to trace the lettering.

 

It’s very important to do a test run on a scrap piece of fabric to see how much pressure you should apply–and to be sure the ink does not bleed too much on the fabric.  Using the Ultra Fine Sharpie, I traced the wording.

Once all of your letters are traced, you can begin filling them in with the fine tipped sharpie.  When filling them in, rather than coloring as you normally would, I just filled it in with drawing lines and letting the ink spread. (on my original sign, I used a sharpie that was drying out, which seemed to work a bit better because I didn’t have to worry about the ink “bleeding”.)

Next, I ironed my flag, and folded over the top about an inch, and sewed along the edge to create a pocket for my flag holder.  I probably could have used glue for this as well, but since this one would be used outdoors, I wanted it to be a bit more secure.  If you are a perfectionist you may want to sew a hem around the the entire edge to keep it from fraying, but I wanted mine to be a little rustic, and since it’s fall, it suits it just fine 🙂

The tassel was made just like these in this tutorial, the pine cone is from nature, of course, and the wooden leaf is from Target’s Dollar Spot.

Next came the embellishments! A small pine cone, a wooden leaf and a tassel (my newest obsession), were strung and staggered to hang beside the flag.

I had a hard time photographing the outdoor flag, as it was super windy out, and I had a toddler trying to escape the house . . . but, I ended up weighting the flag with 3 pennies glued together and hot glued to the bottom, backside of it.

This was really fun to make, and t’s definitely a great little project to work on with a glass of wine–when the kids are off to bed 😉  I hope you enjoyed it!