World Cup Semi-final Bunting: Belgium France England Croatia Flags SVGs
I’ve been meaning to make flag bunting for some time now, because it’s been a busy few months for banners in general – as well as commemorating St David, St Patrick and St George, we’ve had a Eurovision Song Contest, Canada Day, American Independence Day and now…the World Cup!! We’re in the late stages now, with only three matches to go, and the World Cup Final on Sunday…and there are four teams left:
From left to right, England and Croatia (who play on Wednesday) and Belgium and France (who play on Tuesday…that’s today – eek!)
Now…I love football (soccer if you’re in the US!) and though I can’t make any secret of who I’m supporting:
…I love the World Cup in general and I don’t want to alienate anyone so I want this to be a bunting or banner pattern for EVERYONE – it’ll be FREE for a limited time, so you can download it for the next celebration you might need it for! So…although I’ve just added the flags of Belgium, Croatia, England and France today (for those of us who are having World Cup parties!), I am going to add other flags in the next day or so. As I know this is a very internationally-spread group, I have looked at the stats and picked out the areas of the world that make up most of the readership. So I’ll be adding other flags of the UK (Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland), in addition to those of the US, Canada, Australia, Peru, the Netherlands, Germany, Ireland and Mexico. HOWEVER, if your flag isn’t in that list and you really want to make a banner, then please give me a shout and I’ll make it just for you (again – limited time only!)
Though I’m making the England flag here in the instructions, you’ll follow exactly the same steps regardless of which flag you make.
The rectangular version of these flags is 17.2cm (6 3/4″) wide and 24.4cm (9 5/8″) high when made WITH the backing. The flags will be slightly smaller if you just make the flags without the backing pieces – the flags on their own are each 15cm (5 7/8″) wide (9 1/8″) 23.4cm high, which is about as large as you can make using the Print and Cut feature in Cricut’s Design Space. However, as these are vector files, there is nothing to stop you making them or smaller…or making them out of heat transfer vinyl – whether in layers or with printable iron-on! (That way you’ll get washable bunting or banners, and you’ll be able to make them slightly larger!)
For this reason – we’ve provided versions both with and without holes – we recommend you use the ones with the holes if you are using paper and/or cardstock, then you can thread the ribbon through them. If you use fabric, then you might prefer to do the version without holes, and stitch the top edges of the flags to the ribbon instead.
You Will Need:
- 12 (or more, or less, depending on how many flags you want on your bunting or banner!) sheets of A4 or letter-size (if you’re in the US or Canada) paper
- 12 (again…more or less if you prefer) sheets of card
- 97″ (247cm) of 1cm (0.4″cm)-wide ribbon
- You’ll also need your printer and a cutting machine and mat (I’m using a Cricut Maker with fine point blade – any of the standard mats will be fine as long as they are sticky!)
- Our SVG files which you can download (for a limited period only!) for FREE by filling in the box below:
Preparing the Files:
- Open a New Project and click on ‘Import Images’.
- Choose the file you’ve downloaded – in this case it’s ‘englandflag.svg’ (or whatever format you’re using and you’ll see this on your canvas in Design Space:
- Select all of the pieces and then click on on ‘Ungroup’
- Now, you want to select the version of the flag you’re making. We’re making the rectangular flag with backing piece, with holes, so we’re going to delete all the other versions of the flag. (You might find you have to click on ‘Ungroup’ a few more times to fully separate the flags!)
- Once you’re left with the versions you want to use, drag and click your mouse over the flag (in our case, the one on the left), and right click until the drop-down appears as shown. Select ‘Flatten.’
6. You’ll be able to tell it’s flattened because the black lines will disappear from around the section you flattened and also, in the right hand margin, you’ll be able to see the printer icon next to the flag, rather than the Scissors icon. You are now ready to print and cut your flags! Click on the green ‘Make It!’ icon for the process to begin.
Cutting and Printing the Bunting or Banner Pieces:
- First of all, you’ll see your flag in the ‘Print and Cut’ interface – that is, with a thick black border around it.
- You’ll then see a green button that reads ‘Send to Printer’ – click on it and you’ll get to choose your printer. Ensure your printer is switched on and connected to your computer, and the printing will ensue.
- Once your piece is printed, attach it firmly to your mat. Design Space will instruct you to select your materials. I used basic printer paper, so I chose the ‘copy paper’ option. Once you’ve select the correct material, and clicked on ‘Done’, the machine will instruct you to insert the mat.
- Insert the mat and watch your magical (! I swear it’s magic!) Cricut machine light up and move around as it tries to detect where the borders of the page begin.
- Once your flag is cut and you’ve removed it from the machine, you’ll be instructed to choose materials for your backing piece. I used 160msg cardstock for mine – as the England flag is mainly white, it worked better with red, but for many flags a different colour (usually white) will be a better option.
This is the perfect layout if you are using A4 (or letter size) cardstock, but if I was cutting out more than one flag and using A3 (or ledger) size then at this stage it’d be wise to click on the piece and use the rotate icon to the top-right in order to cut two pieces to a page. - The machine will now cut your backing piece!
Assembling the Bunting:
- This really couldn’t be much easier! You’ll now have two pieces:
- Take your flag piece, and position it on top of the backing piece, matching the holes.
- Thread the ribbon through one of the holes – for as little of the flag to be hidden as possible, it would be best to insert it from front to back, and then drag the ribbon across the back
- Pull it out through the other hole
- Continue until you have the amount you require. The materials suggested for these instructions cover the paper, cardstock and ribbon for twelve flags. Obviously you can make it as short or long as you wish! Here are the end results!
France…to be honest, ‘Les Bleus’ win so regularly that you might get a few more uses out of this one! They’ve made the semis five times and the finals twice, winning in 1998
Belgium’s team is known as the Red Devils, like Manchester United but as it is a multi-lingual society they’re more commonly described as De Rode Duivels, Les Diables Rouges, Die Roten Teufel. The highest they’ve ranked in the competition is fourth…but they beat Brazil VERY impressively last week…
Croatia have a good record of qualifying for the World Cup with just a population of 4 million so though they have only reached the quarter finals before, they punch well above their weight! they England (population 55 million!) last made the semis in 1990…and I’m still getting over that exit. They won in 1966, but it would be really nice if we could move on from that!
Fancy having a go yourself? Download our FREE (for now) SVG below.
Not an England fan? Don’t worry – we’ve got the other teams’ flags as well…and probably (based on what we’ve gleaned from our stats!) your own nation’s flag in readiness for future national events.
And don’t forget to share your results with us – and stay updated on future free files – at the CraftAGoGo Crucial Crafting Group on Facebook!
