I mentioned in my last post about making packing tape transfers that I thought I might use them in a postcard swap from ihanna’s blog. Very frequently, when I enter something like this, I end up making something very far away from my original idea. In this case, though, I went with what had been my first idea. The pile of postcards above are my result. Here is an overview of how I put them together.
First, I made several packing tape transfers- check out my previous post linked above for the details. I then pulled out my big box of hand-dyed fabric scraps left over from previous projects, dye experiments, etc., and tried to match them up with the transfers that I had. I decided to go with a size of 4-1/2″ by 6″ and cut out what would become my base, some stiff interfacing. I used non-fusible Peltex because that’s what I had ( I challenged myself to use only materials I already had in the house for this project):
I then cut out the fabric for the front and back of each postcard as well as a small piece of off-white muslin that I decided to use as a frame for each transfer. Because each transfer varied in size, I hand-cut this. Here’s a stack of all of the materials for one postcard: address-side fabric, Peltex, front fabric, muslin and packing tape transfer:
After cutting everything out, my first step was to use a couple of strips of Heat and Bond to adhere the main fabric to the Peltex. This might have been a good place to use fusible Peltex or even full sheets of Steam-a-Seam or Misty Fuse, but once, again, I was determined to use just what I had on hand:
I repeated this with the rectangle of muslin, which I placed by eye. I like general symmetry, but I don’t like it to be too perfect, so I don’t really measure most things like this:
I then placed the transfer on top:
For some reason, I forgot to take pictures of the next step, but it’s easy to explain. I sewed around the packing tape transfer through all of the layers using a small-ish zig zag stitch. I then switched thread colors to add a bit more depth and sewed around the outside of the muslin with a zig zag stitch.
At this point, I wrote the addresses on my postcard backing fabric. I wanted to do this before I sewed it all together so that if I made a mistake, I wouldn’t have to take the whole postcard apart to fix it. In the past, I’ve also made fabric address labels that I ironed on after the postcard is all sewn together, but I didn’t want to do that this time. Once again, I ironed a couple of strips of Heat and Bond onto the postcard base. Before doing this, I put down a piece of parchment paper so that there would be no chance of having the packing tape transfer melt or stick to my ironing board cover. I don’t know if it would have really been a problem, but I didn’t want to take a chance.
I then sewed around the entire postcard with a wider zig zag stitch. Here’s a close-up of one with all stitching finished:
A picture of all of the postcard reverse sides:
Here are a few pictures of the postcards a little closer-up:
These were really fun to make and now I just need to get some stamps to get them in the mail in the next day or two. I’ve also been enjoying looking at all of the links showing the creativity of some of the other people participating in this swap. Check out the link to ihanna’s blog at the top of this post to see the blogs of other swappers and a flickr pool of some of the images- lovely eye candy to me!
Next, put the images in a dish of water. I read all different lengths of time, from 15 minutes to an hour. I usually leave them soaking for half an hour or so.
I usually give them one final rinse and then allow them to dry spread out on a dish towel. Sometimes when they are dry there may still be little bits of paper and sometimes I re-soak them and other times I leave it as it doesn’t seem to make that much difference. Sometimes there is still just a bit of stickiness on the transfers, so I store them in a single layer and then roll them up in wax paper.
Then cut the strips into squares- you will need either 5 or 6 squares. Most of the ornaments above were made with 5 segments, but the bottom ornament made with the Lee Valley catalog cover uses 6- it’s up to you.
Next, fold all squares in half:
Open it up and fold it in half the other way:
Next, open it up again, flip it over and fold it diagonally. If you are using a paper with images on only one side, those images will be on the outside during the first folds and on the inside during this fold:
Now, open up the paper, and on the right side, fold the little triangles that have been made inside the squares. This is hard to explain, but easy to do:
Repeat these steps until there are 5 (or 6) pieces folded:
Next, cut two more pieces of paper to be the covers of the book. You can make it exactly the same size as the folded star or make it a bit bigger. I chose to make mine the same size, so cut out one piece from my original strip of paper that was 1-1/4 by 2-1/2 inches and then cut it in half one more time.
Repeat on second side:
The finished star is now ready to hang. For storage or to display the ornament in book form, the bead can be pushed to the other end of the ribbon and the star can be folded to become a book. Push the bead back down to the end to keep it in this position:
I think that these ornaments would be beautiful made with some of the art papers I’ve seen, using nicer beads. All sorts of recycled papers could be used, too. I’ve also been experimenting with using stiffened fabric instead of paper, but those results aren’t ready for the blog yet (and you don’t really want to know why, although I’ll tell you that it involved my cats…).
Hinzpired 