If you’re a recycler, here’s a fun way to give all those holiday cards you received a new life. Bonus – these handmade valentines are all the more charming made with those bits and pieces you’ve saved from other sewing projects. Scrappy projects give the entire family a chance to expand their creativity. It’s like collaging with fabric! And you don’t need to stop there. If you have interesting pieces of paper – sew them in too for a fabulous mixed media look. Let your inner artist go!
You’ll need:
blank cards (or recycled cards)
glue stick (or spray adhesive)
fabric and/or paper scraps
colored threads
lace, rickrack, ribbon and other bits and pieces of leftover trim
*alphabet stamps and ink pads
*buttons
*-optional
Step 1: Iron your fabric scraps.
Step 2: Here’s the fun part! Assemble your scraps like a jigsaw puzzle on the front of your card, covering the surface and cutting the scraps to fit as needed. Experiment to find what colors and patterns you like together. Anything goes – these cards are meant to be crazy!
Step 3: Tack your fabric pieces in place with one little dot of glue from your glue stick. You don’t want to gum up your sewing needle so use it sparingly.
Step 4: Sew around each piece to secure it to the card. Use large-ish stitches – zigzag or straight. And don’t worry about being neat. The messier the stitching, the better the result, in my opinion!
Step 5: Embellish! Add stamps, sew down words or phrases you create on plain fabric or ribbon with alphabet stamps. OR cut words from magazines and sew those in place. Add lace, buttons, etc. If you’ll be hand delivering your valentines, go crazy here, but if you’ll be sending through the mail, you might want to skip the buttons.
Step 6: Add fabric hearts, stamps, ribbon, etc to the back flap on the envelope to match. Again, if you’re mailing – this will delay your valentine. Better to decorate the inside flap of your envelope.
Sending the craziest of Valentine Greetings to you, Crafty Friends!
Leave a Reply