How I Made a Finnish Flag Garland, by lrthreads, age mumble not telling
Goes with this post.
I cobbled together a template of flags that could be colored and folded over after looking around online and not seeing one. I just eyeballed the proportions. I'm not sure I got those completely right, but I like the finished product. This page has this to say:
The official blue colour in the Finnish flag is pantone 2945C. It can be translated fairly accurately to the digital colours: R:0 G:82 B:165 C:100 M:70 Y:15 K:2
The proportional measurements in the length are: 5, 3 and 10 The proportional measurements in the height are: 4, 3 and 4
I made the template last year and didn't find that page until this year. If that's correct I probably should have had more white space between the hinge of the paper flags and the short cross-piece.
I used Maimeri gouache. I had some Linel and Windsor-Newton sitting around, but more Maimeri than anything else, so I decided to go with that in case mixing turned out to be necessary. It wasn't though. I considered 392 (ultramarine deep) and 375 (cobalt blue hue), and decided that the latter was perfect.
If you mix in too much water you might have to do a double coat. Gouache dries fairly quickly, but it wasn't completely dry; I ended up with light blue smudges on my fingers even after the flags had been left to sit for several hours. So I'd try to give them a day to dry if time allows, if you use gouache. (Depending on atmospheric conditions, you may not need to do this.)
I used these ArtSkills craft brushes that I bought at the drug store a while ago. (Shh. They were BOGO and I wanted some big brushes for a crafty project I have forgotten the nature of at this point. Also I was unable to resist the rainbow colors of the brush handles.) The purple one was a little too big. Truthfully so was the pink one, but it seemed silly to break out the smaller art brushes for this. As a result, my lines are not as straight as they could have been on some of the flags. (Also it has been like ... 9+ years since I had a brush in my hand? I've kind of missed it.) You can see this on the final version picture here.
Most commercial versions use either plain white thread or fishing line. I have plain white thread and could have gotten fishing line, but I wanted a more rustic look. I could have gone with twine, but the twine I have has a strands sticking out and being pokey problem, so I got some paper cord at Michael's post-Christmas sale last year. I think I might still have the spool if anyone is really curious. I had to straighten it out first. I tied it between two points in an out of the way location and it sat there for an embarrassing number of months.
I used a Pioneer Extra Strong Embellishment Glue Stick, also acquired at Michael's. There is no reason you couldn't use basic Kraft glue or whatever; I just was out and wanted to buy an acid free one. If I misaligned the paper flag halves when folding them together, or forgot to press the hinge sides together so that the flag would stay in place on the string, the flag halves peeled apart easily, without tearing or anything.
At some point I calculated how many flags I should make and what the distance between them should be, but I decided to just eyeball it instead. (Partly because I didn't feel like trying to find where I made a note of that.) I ended up with lots of extra flags. I might make another for my sweetie to take to work or something. I have not decided.
The "easy" way (certainly the less messy way) to do this is probably to make a template that uses labels you can run through your printer, if you can find such a template or you have the skills to make one. See this page for an example.
