Greeting Cards with Woven Paper
As promised in last week’s posting, I want to show you what I did with my woven papers. I love techniques to create new surfaces, weave new cloth, stamp new fabric, etc., but the next question is always, “what do I do with it now?”
I love to make cards any time of year, and it’s a go-to project as the holidays approach — a perfect project for my woven paper! (Last year at this time I used a variety of techniques, including weaving fabric, to make cards...and here’s another past blog posting on handmade cards...like I said, I like to make cards!)
One of the best days in my artistic life is when I was given permission (unfortunately I don’t remember by whom...would love to give them credit!) to go ahead and use glue on fabric, and use fusible products on paper. And do I ever!
To keep the woven strips of paper from sliding, I adhered them to Lite Steam-A-Seam 2 (stocked in our store in a package of five 9 in. x 12 in.sheets or sold per yard). This fusible was perfect for the job because it is double-sided; peel off the protective paper on one side to expose the sticky surface and it hold my papers (or fabrics) in place until I make it to the ironing board. Below, two of my woven paper units are placed on one rectangle of Steam a Seam.
Notice that my adhered units are place on a Bo-Nash Amazing Sheet (a non-stick ironing and craft sheet). I like using this larger size sheet, because I can fold the sheet over the artwork: I protect my ironing board, my iron and fuse the artwork easily and in one pass.
For this project, I placed my woven paper face down and ironed on the Steam-A-Seam fusible side (above). This really reinforced my woven papers, securing them so that they could be cut into smaller pieces without any unraveling.
Then I searched through my vintage photo files and my Pinterest board for portraits. I also selected some bird imagery, and vintage matchbook ephemera. I printed my choices out on cardstock. A helpful tip from me is that cardstock will stand up to Soft Gel Medium (used in the steps below) better than paper; no tearing or buckling.
For my base, I used a pack of mixed media stock cards and envelopes from Strathmore. I cut the woven strips into my desired sized units and fused them to the card front. After the fusing was complete, I added the photos and ephemera using Soft Gel Medium.
Below (and at the top of this posting) are my results!
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