Make Your Own Bookish Pennant Flags
My favorite hobby, outside of crafting, is definitely reading. I’ve always been a huge reader growing up and now as an adult I’m finding it to be one of the most relaxing ways to spend my spare time. If I’m not physically reading something on my Kindle then you better believe that I have my airpods in and I’m listening to an audiobook. I’m not even sure how to do basic household chores without an audiobook at this point. And if you’re like me and are OBSESSED with Libby, then reading is also one of the most affordable hobbies to have!
Well today, I’m really leaning into the fandom of books, and BookTok, and bookish things to bring you a fun & easy project with my Cricut Joy Xtra! I purchased the Cricut Joy Xtra a few months back and have already found an endless amount of projects to use it on. Today I’m sharing a tutorial on how to make felt pennant flags inspired by some of the locations of my favorite books!
I made one for Velaris (from the A Court of Thorns and Roses series by Sarah J. Maas), one for Rebel Blue Ranch (from the Rebel Blue Ranch series by Lyla Sage), and one for Waning Bay (from Funny Story by Emily Henry). And I’m sharing my designs for these three flags below, but you can totally make your own with your favorite fictional book town or place! I think these little flags are so fun to display on your bookshelf and for some reason they remind me of summertime (is it a summer camp thing?!).
If you missed it, I shared a fun DIY project at the beginning of the year of how to Make an Embroidered Felt Sleeve for the Kindle Paperwhite. I still love and use this all the time to protect my precious precious Kindle while it travels in my bag throughout the entire summer. And if you’re interested in other book related projects, check out my DIY Wood Birdhouse Bookends. I also have a few bookmark projects — like these DIY Faux Stained Glass Bookmarks and these DIY Pressed Flower Bookmarks.
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MAKE YOUR OWN FELT BOOKISH PENNANT FLAGS
Supplies:
Felt sheets in assorted colors — I found that the stiffened felt works best for these flags
Cricut or cutting machine (I used the Cricut Joy Xtra)
Heat transfer vinyl in assorted colors
Iron & ironing board
Parchment paper
Canva or any kind of design software (I would highly recommend upgrading to Canva Pro for a lot of really helpful functions and a wider variety of design elements, but you can totally use the free version for this project)
Scissors
Pen or pencil
Ruler
ETI’s Bookish Pennant Flag PNG files (download below!)
STEP 1: If you would like to design your own pennant flag, here’s how I used Canva to create my design. If you would prefer to use one of my three designs (available to download above), skip this step and start with STEP 2.
Start by creating a blank document on Canva that is 14” wide by 10” tall.
Under elements, search for a triangle shape and create an 8” tall by 12” wide stretched triangle (the shape of the standard pennant flag). You should see a box come up while you are stretching the shape showing the dimensions. Stretch until it is exactly 8” tall by 12” wide.
Again under elements, add a line shape to your document and rotate until it is straight up and down (90 degrees). Place it 1/2 inch from the left side of your triangle (using the ruler at the top of the page as a guide). This is just to help you distinguish where your felt trim will be placed while you’re creating your design.
Now play around with the different text box fonts and graphic elements on Canva until you are happy with your flag design. It is helpful to use the rotating function on your text and graphics to get them to fit correctly on the triangle shape. You might even want to break up your text into separate text boxes so that you can adjust the sizes to get it to fit inside this triangle shape.
I would recommend when looking for graphic elements, to look for solid shapes with not too many details.
Once you are happy with your design, download the image from Canva as a PNG. If you have a lot of intricate details in your design, I would recommend increasing the size of the file a bit (I had to do this with the Rebel Blue Ranch file to get all the details in the cowboy boot to show up in the Cricut software).
STEP 2: Open a new blank project in Cricut Design Space. Click upload on the left menu. Upload your PNG that you downloaded above (or that you made yourself on Canva).
Remove the background by selecting all the spaces with your cursor that you do not want to include (remember to remove blank spaces inside the letters).
Once your background is all shaded with the grid (like the image above), click convert upload to “single layer”. The pennant flag design should now show up in your Cricut Design Space. Resize the graphic by dragging the corner until it is exactly 12” x 8”.
STEP 3: Now you are going to divide the image into multiple layers so that you can cut out different elements onto different colors of vinyl. To do this, you are going to duplicate the full image under the layers menu on the right side as many times as you want separate elements. So for me, that was 7 times.
Once you have the image duplicated, you can go into the “contour” function in the bottom right corner of the page and you can remove all the elements you do NOT want so that only the elements you want remain on each layer. Hopefully this isn’t too confusing, but basically I just selected only the elements that made up the “VELARIS” text for one layer, only the elements that made up the “CITY OF STARLIGHT” text for one layer, and only the stars graphics for another layer.
STEP 4: Now you are going to individually cut out your elements from your colored vinyl. So starting with your first element (for me that was the VELARIS text). Go to the layers menu on the right side and hide all the other elements you do not want cut at this moment.
Click “Make” at the top right. Then select “on mat” for how you will load your materials.
Now your design will show up on a mock image of your cutting mat. It is VERY important that at this point you click the “MIRROR” toggle on the left side of the window (since this is a heat transfer vinyl, the image needs to be mirrored when cut so that it faces the correct way on your felt).
Now arrange the image on your cutting mat however you would like.
STEP 5: The mock image of the cutting mat will show you the dimensions of how much space your cut will take up. Cut a piece of your heat transfer vinyl sheet to just a bit bigger than your image. Then stick it onto the cutting mat at the corresponding spot with the colored/shiny side DOWN.
Then click “go” on your Cricut Design Space app and the machine will begin cutting.
Repeat steps 4 & 5 with all the elements you would like to cut out from the corresponding colored vinyl sheets.
STEP 6: Weed your designs. Using your fingernail or a weeding tool, carefully lift off the extra vinyl backing, leaving only your text or image remaining. Your design should be mirrored like the image above.
STEP 7: Next, you’re going to prepare your felt pennant. Cut a piece of felt to the triangle shape 8” tall x 12” wide. The felt that I used was 8” x 12” in size so I just measured the middle point of the right side of the felt sheet then drew a line to the top left corner and bottom left corner. Cut this out with your scissors.
Then I used a pencil to make a line on the pennant flag that was 1/2 in from the left side of the triangle just so I could visualize where the felt trim is going to be placed and so I could see the usable space for ironing on my design.
STEP 8: Place your first vinyl element onto your felt pennant flag with the sticky side down. Carefully arrange the vinyl pieces making sure that everything will fit on the flag. You can use your original Canva PNG image to check that everything is in the correct place.
STEP 9: Once you are happy with the placement of the first piece of vinyl, place a piece of parchment paper on top of the plastic. Now gently move your iron on top of the parchment paper for a few seconds. Be sure to move it over the entire design so that the vinyl adheres to the felt everywhere. You can lift off the parchment and carefully peel back the plastic backing to see if it is adhered yet. Once the vinyl sticks to the felt and doesn’t lift with the plastic, you are good to gently remove the full plastic backing and your first element is transferred!
Repeat this process with each individual vinyl element until your design is complete.
STEP 10: Now you are going to add your felt trim to the pennant flag. Cut a strip of a different color of felt 1/2 inch wide. Then lay the strip across the edge of the flag. Trim the ends so that it matches the triangle shape. And glue down with craft or fabric glue.
Then cut another strip of 1/2 inch wide felt and cut into four 3” pieces. Glue these together to make two V shapes and then glue each V shape to the back of your pennant flag on the top and bottom of the left side (as shown above).
Allow the glue to fully dry and then your pennant flag is complete!
You can use a command strip or sticky tack to adhere this pennant to your wall. I love how it looks mixed into my bookshelf! And I love that I have a few different designs that I can switch out whenever I want. I’m already thinking up a few more that I want to make, like a Basgiath War College (Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros) design and a Knott’s Harbor, Maine (Happy Place by Emily Henry) design.
If you try out this project, I would love to see how it turned out! Be sure to tag me on instagram or TikTok @entertainidea or #entertaintheidea. And I’d love to know what are some of your favorite fictional locations?!
xo Rachael
