Like always we are starting with a strip of plain white, 100% cotton fabric. I use bleached muslin for my flags, you should be able to find this fabric in any fabric store/department especially if they carry any fabrics geared to quilters. For our flag we need a strip that measures 1” by 3”.
The other item we will need to begin is some paper backed fusible web. This is basically a fabric glue that is heat activated and comes on a sheet of paper making it very easy to use. I prefer the Heat 'N Bond brand. There are other brands in stores and you can use whatever brand you can find. I do recommend you pick one that is designed to hold without sewing. Mine is labeled “Ultra-Hold” this way you won't need to worry about your flag coming apart later. You will need a 1” square of the paper-backed fusible web.
Follow the directions on your fusible web product to form your flag.
Now for the fun part turning our plain little white flag into a Santa flag. Use a pencil to sketch your design on the flag first. I made my lines as dark as the pencil would write on the fabric when you are doing yours only make them dark enough that you can see them. That way they will be easier to cover with the paint. For the face I am just using simple lines/shapes combined to make something that hopefully can be identified as Santa’s face. Once you are happy with the way your face looks cut the extra off the bottom corners so the bottom of the flag follows the shape of Santa’s beard.
To transfer the lines to backside you have several choices. What I did was I held the flag up against my window and with the light behind it I was able to see the lines well enough to trace them. If you have a real light box even better. You could also just draw the face another time, after all it doesn’t have to match perfectly.
Now paint the little top corners in a color that will stand out from the red of the hat. I chose a nice blue to look like the sky.
Next use a paint that is the color you want for your Santa’s face, I wanted a slightly pink/flesh tone but you can customize this to make Santa the way you want. For my color since I didn’t have the exact color I wanted I mixed a pink and with some white to create just the color I wanted. Paint just the little band of “skin” area we left between the white trim for the hat area and the beard area. Allow the paint to dry.
Next up we can paint the red of Santa’s hat. If you use a small brush and take your time painting these easy shapes it really simple. Allow the red paint to dry.
Now we can add some cheek color to Santa’s face. For this I used a cotton swab and just dabbed on a tiny bit of the same pink I used earlier to make his rosy cheeks.
We can also paint the white areas now too. These will be his beard and the trim on the hat. These areas might need more than one coat of paint. I did 3 coats in most of the areas to get the coverage I wanted. Allow to dry.
Now we can add a nose to Santa’s face, for this I mixed the same pink with the white but a bit more pink. I wanted his nose to be a color in between the color of this cheeks and his skin.
Then using a very small dotting tool add his mouth and eyes. And your flag is ready to display in your mini scene.
A huge thank you to Plaid for providing the paint and brushes used in today’s project.
As always I do want to sincerely thank all of you for watching my videos and reading my blog posts. It means so much to me that you are supporting me in this way. If I could ask you all to do just a bit more by subscribing to the channel and liking the videos and leaving comments. Those help more than you can imagine. Also if you could pass the links on to your friends I would appreciate it so much.
great project !
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