Thursday, June 14, 2012

Frugal Unique Greeting Cards



Anyone who loves fabric, sewing or crafting likely has a bin of  fabric scraps.  If you have a bin you're likely a person who sees possibility and value in these scraps or you would have tossed them.  If you're really a fabric lover you might even see them as precious children in your family of supplies.  (My emotional attachment to fabric is a whole other blog!)

With age, I'm getting more frugal.  I have the notion that I'll never see Social Security benefits, and I figure I must find a way to curb expenses.  Enter the bin of scraps.  

Using my sewing machine, a heavy duty needle and my scraps, I created these frugal and unique greeting cards.  
   Inside the cards you can see the stitching
  Some stitching turns out better than others!


Now, if you're going to try this (and I hope you do!)   here are some tips:

1) Avoid any adhesives under the fabric unless its a very dry, thin type that fully evaporates otherwise it gums up your needle.  Don't use adhesive backed ribbon if you want to stitch through it.
2) Set your stitch length to long or the many tiny needle pricks actually create a perforation and your paper falls away!
3)  Change your needle about every 10 cards or as soon as you feel a drag or your thread starts breaking.
4) Don't be afraid to allow the stitching to be shown on the inside of the card--it definitely shows you've made it by hand!
5) If your machine doesn't give neat stitching on the bottom, simply cut a piece of card stock and glue over the stitching on the inside of the card.
6)  Don't be afraid to gently roll the card as you maneuver it in stitching area of your machine--large cards take a little more finesse but paper can be rolled back to a flat position, so don't stress too much.
7)  You can stitch paper to paper, but it doesn't stay as securely as fabric--every machine is different so I just encourage you to experiment. Avoid glittered papers as they muck up the inside of your machine!
8) If you will mail these, keep embellishments small and flat.

 If you come up with other ideas and tricks, let me know and I'll include them in an updated blog post!

Happy Frugal Card Making! 

Susan






1 comment:

  1. Great cards, love your creativity and imagination. Well done :)

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