Friday 24 May 2013

Cardmaking: Adding Texture with Fabric and Stitching

I've quite enjoying getting back into making cards recently and my sewing machine made an appearance for these latest cards...


I needed to send a couple of cards to my friend in Australia.  I recently decided to make all my own cards wherever possible (it fits in so well with designing digital stamps!) so these two were designed with my friend in mind (hello, Ros!).  She sews, so I wanted a sewing theme... (that bit wasn't difficult!)


I designed the stamps myself (these are from prints of the original stamps) - they'll be available on my new digital stamps website when it's up and running properly (3rd June, if you are interested).  Edited to add:look at this link for the sewing machine thank you digi stamp and this one for the happy birthday quilt digi stamp.

I printed the images onto 160gsm card - it's a thin enough weight for my printer to handle it easily, but heavy enough to be substantial enough for sewing.

I always enjoy getting the ProMarkers* out, don't you?(*insert colouring device of choice here!)  There's something incredibly relaxing about adding colour to an image.


And then I hunted around for some fabric.  I decided to sew together the coloured stamps, the fabric and some heavyweight interfacing as a backing.


I used black thread and what seems to be turning into my trademark sketchy stitching.  The stitching echoes the sketchy lines in my drawings rather well I think...but I wouldn't recommend sewing over the same line more than once when card or paper is involved - I kept the stitching on the paper to one line with quite a long stitch length.


And a close up peek... you can see the stitching on the edge has repeated sketchy lines, but the stitching on the inside (which goes through the paper too) is just one line of stitching.


It worked beautifully, and a few buttons finished off each card 




I then added some sticky pads at the back of the stitched piece, to stick to a card blank.




There's something quite lovely about a lot of texture (fabric, ribbon, stitching and buttons) on a card - oh, and handmade, of course...


You can't really beat handmade, can you?

8 comments:

Chrysalis said...

They are really lovely, Wendy. Your friend will be delighted. I can't wait to have a go at something similar. Happy crafting xx

Anonymous said...

Those are wonderful, so original!

Jan Gartlan said...

Well done. The fabric looks so amazing on them

FabricFascination said...

Such a special card´¨)¸.·*´¨)¸.·*´¨)♥

Gertie said...

What lovely cards. I'm sure your sewing friend in Australia will be delighted with them.

Handmade items win every time with me too xx

Unknown said...

They are really lovely - great ideas :)

CatkinJane said...

Lovely cards, it's not just that they are handmade but because you never do things quite the same ever again they are unique too :)

Patchworkfairy said...

I love that sewing machine outline. I never thought of sewing fabric onto card before, glueing yes, but not sewing! Interesting!