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Fabric Greeting Cards

Fabric Greeting Cards

My card making journey began with fabric greeting cards.

I was already a regular at my local quilting shop for patchwork supplies when I had a light bulb moment.

I realised that I could use quilting fabric for handmade cards to sell at the school Christmas fair.

Short of time I bought some ready made tri fold card bases with an aperture. All I needed to do was select fabrics with designs to fit in the aperture.

I trimmed the fabric to size and stuck the fabric to the sides of the aperture with double sided tape.

The inserts were made from coloured paper and cut with paper edging scissors. Do you remember those? No die cuts in those days!

Fabric greeting cards created with moon fabric.

How to make Fabric Greeting Cards

Step One:

Iron your fabric before cutting.

Cut with fabric scissors or a rotary cutter, self healing cutting mat and acrylic ruler to the shape required.

Step Two:

Create or buy a tri fold card base.

For example: To make a trifold card base 4" x 4" cut the card 4" x 12" and score at 4" and 8".

To make the aperture chose a die slightly smaller than your image and cut the aperture in the middle panel of the tri fold card base.

Step Three:

Open up your tri fold card.

Add double sided tape to the edge of the aperture.

Lay your cut fabric on the table and carefully line up the aperture with the fabric.

It may take several attempts to achieve the correct alignment the first time.

When you are happy with the alignment press down firmly.

Step Four:

Fold the front of the card over to the middle section of the card base.

Add a card insert if required.

Using Your Fabric Scraps

Cut your fabric scraps into strips and lay them onto a card.

Stick down on the card with a tape runner making sure the strips overlap slightly.

Alternatively, iron the strips onto transfer adhesive paper. Cover any silk or polyester strips with greaseproof paper.

Use a sewing machine to sew along the strips. Straight or zig zag stitch will do.

Fabric strips sewn onto transfer adhesive paper.

Trim to size. Stitch around the edges to secure fabric.

Add to a card base to finish.

A fabric card made with strips of silk and other materials.

Fabric Applique Cards

Applique is when you stitch a shape to your fabric.

I have found that this works well with silk and machine embroidered with metallic threads.

Iron the shapes onto the transfer adhesive paper with the shiny side up. If using silk lay greaseproof paper over the top of the silk before ironing.

Cut around the shapes before sewing onto your fabric.

Sew shapes onto a backing fabric with a sandwich of wadding/batting.

Cut to size and edge with fabric strips before attaching to your card with double sided tape.

If using metallic threads be prepared for the thread to break occasionally!

Decorate with hand embroidery and beads.