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I love denim, especially for the Fourth of July. It’s definitely All American and comes in some really great colors including red,white, and blue. I wanted to use the denim I found to make a fun little USA banner, the perfect addition to our Fourth of July decor!
I recently found a stack of red, white, and blue denim at Michaels. They were in 5×5 blocks and thin enough to work with. I thought it would make the perfect banner. They also had some darker denim tassles already made that made my job much easier! You can find the denim as a part of the Michael’s “Make Market”. If you don’t find them there, you can find denim at any fabric store. Just be sure to get a thinner denim.
In addition to making the banner, I wanted to try adding some foil using my Heidi Swapp Minc Machine. If you haven’t seen this machine, it is too much fun! I’m foiling everything these days.
Here’s what you need to make the banner:
2 5×5″ piece of blue denim
2 5×5″ piece of red denim
2 5×5″ piece of white denim
Dark Blue denim strips for tassles
Fabric glue
Red, Silver, and Blue Heidi Swapp Foil
First, begin by cutting the squares of denim into their banner shapes. For the triangle shapes, I found the middle of the square and then cut at an angle from the top corner down to the middle on each side. For the other shape, I traced on the back side of the piece and then cut it out. On the other pieces of denim, trace and cut out a star shape (these will have the letters on them).
Once the stars are cut, you can use the fabric glue to glue them on the banner pieces if you are not going to add foil. Use any remaining scraps to add more color and pattern to the pieces like I did. You can use a sharpie or cut out the letters on extra fabric if you don’t have a Minc Machine You could also use iron-on vinyl.
If you decide to add the foil, follow these steps:
First, open up a new document in word or Photoshop and spell out each letter with space between them.
Next, print a piece of paper in your laser machine. This will serve as a guide so that you can line up the stars on the paper. Carefully add a couple of pieces of tape to the back of each star and place them on the piece of paper where the letters will each print. Be sure the pieces of denim are as flat as they can be.
Print a new document on the laser printer. It must be a laser printer! The denim I used was thin and went through my printer without any problems.
When the denim has been printed, turn on your Minc Machine. Cut out the colors of foil you are going to use on each star. They don’t need to be big pieces. Put the piece of paper with the stars in the pouch. Then, place the foil over the top of each letter, color side up. Carefully close the pouch and send it through your machine (with the closed part of the pouch going first).
Once the stars are ready, glue them with the fabric glue onto the banner shapes and add any other scraps of denim to the banners to decorate them. Cut small holes in the pieces and thread through string or ribbon, along with the tassles.
That’s it! It took me about 30 minutes all together to make. It’s so cute! I absolutely love Fourth of July decor!
