DIY Prayer Flag

August 19th is the International Day of Hope, a day which celebrates the lives of children and babies lost at any age or gestation.  If you would like to learn more about this project, please visit CarlyMarie's Project Heal.

This is my first year participating, and I felt like it would be a good creative outlet for me. It was actually a really fun project to work on and the possibilities are truly endless. You can make them colorful, simple, big, or small. It's totally up to you and how you feel is the best way to honor your grief.

Prayer flags originated in Tibet thousands of years ago. The monks wrote prayers on small flags and then strung them up high in the mountains to allow the wind to carry their prayers around the world. Most of them were written on very bright, small pieces of fabric and the whole flag was filled with prayers and religious imagery. Since then, prayer flags have become popular around the world and you can find them in many shapes and colors, some with words and some without. It's all up to you and what you want to create. I believe that your intention for each flag is as good as any written prayer.

I went to Joanne's for my supplies. If you don't have a Joanne's near you, you can visit any craft store as long as they also sell fabric. Look in the "Remnants" section to find leftover pieces of fabric which are discounted and most are about the size you'll need. You can purchase more than one kind of fabric if you wish.

Supplies:
1 yard of fabric (you can get away with less, depending on how many flags you want to make)
Scissors
Fabric ruler
Twine
Paint or Fabric Pen (I used multi-surface acrylic paint)
Paintbrush
Hot glue gun
Appliques or decorative touches

I spent a total of $25 on all of my supplies, some of which I already owned. I chose a white colored, thin cotton fabric to use for my prayer flag.

Step 1: Steam or iron your fabric. You don't want to end up ironing multiple smaller pieces, so this needs to be done first.

Step 2: Decide how large you want your flags to be. I cut mine 6 inches wide by 10 inches high and got 9 total flags out of the fabric I bought. I ended up only using 8 of them. You want to add an extra inch to the height of your flag because you will be folding over the top to create a pocket for the twine.

Step 3: Cut your flags. You can cut them as rectangles, squares, with curved edges, or with pointed edges. It's totally up to you. Just remember to keep that extra space at the top for the twine.

Step 4: Once you have your flags cut out, you'll be ready to start decorating them. You can put words, pictures, whatever you want. This is where you can get really creative and make your flags meaningful to you.

Step 5: If you have any appliques or other embellishments, add them after you've finished with the paint and the paint has dried. I used a hot glue gun for this step.

Step 6: Once your flags are all complete, arrange them in the order you would like them when they hang.

Step 7: Get a piece of twine and cut it longer than you think you need. I had 8 flags, 6 inches wide, and I wanted about an inch or two between each of them. So I cut my twine about 8 feet long to allow extra room on the ends to tie it up.

Step 8: Get your first flag, and about 3/4 of an inch below the top, put a line of hot glue across the fabric. Lay the twine above the hot glue, and then fold over the top piece of fabric to stick to the glue. This way you don't have to worry about threading the twine through the hole, and the twine should still be free to move back and forth. Continue this step with the rest of your flags.

Step 9: Hang it!

Here's how my flags turned out:

This post is linked up with Amateur Nester here: