Fabric Easter Greeting Card DIY
/How to make cute Easter Cards from small scraps of pretty fabric.
I had some small pieces of a pretty fabric with bunnies on it left over from some Easter gift bags I’d made a few years ago. Perfect to make some cute Easter Greeting cards.
A papercraft project like this is also a great chance to use up old threads if you have any. You know those threads that have been hanging around for years and you’re not sure of their integrity. I inherited quite a lot of old sewing threads from my mum and grandma, some are really very old. I wouldn’t want to use them to sew garments in case they snap but they are ideal for decorative crafts like this.
To make fabric Easter Cards you will need:
Fabric with bunnies, flowers, chicks etc
Blank greeting cards and envelopes
Bondaweb (or another brand of double sided iron on adhesive webbing)
Scraps of white cardboard, the backs of old greeting cards are ideal
A paper guillotine is handy but you can use a ruler, pencil and scissors
A sewing machine and thread
A PVA glue or paper glue
And to add a sentiment one of these:
colourful paper scraps and alphabet die cuts
a sentiment stamp
your best handwriting and a nice pen
alphabet stickers or a sentiment sticker
How to make an Easter card with fabric
Start by ironing your Bondaweb (or similar) onto the back of your fabric pieces according to the instructions on the packet.
Trim the fabric to the size you want for your card. You can see how I cut my fabric around the cute bunnies.
Peel the Bondaweb backing paper off the back of the fabric and apply it to one of your scraps of cardboard. Iron to secure it.
Trim again. As I write this I realise you could just apply your fabric to the card and just trim the once. This would work if you have a larger piece of fabric and larger pieces of card. If, like me you are using small pieces of fabric and scraps of card you might want to stick with the “trim twice” method I used as it gives you a bit more control and a bit less waste.
Stitch around the pieces one or two times. Use a large stitch so you are not perforating the card too much and use an old needle - I sew on paper and card quite often so I keep a sewing machine needle especially for paper and switch it in and out as needed.
Glue this “topper” onto your card blank.
Adding a sentiment
If you want to add a sentiment to your card you can simply write it in your best writing, stamp it with a sentiment stamp, use a sticker or alphabet stickers. I used pastel paper letters, cut out with die cut alphabet dies. This paper is from my stash of old birthday card envelopes which I always save for papercrafting.
Once I’d chosen letters in colours that work well with the fabric I simple stuck them in place with a tiny bit of paper glue.
And there you have it, a fun way to make pretty Easter cards and put scraps of fabric to good use. A 2 for 1!
Where can you find cute fabric like this:
The Fabric Squirrel has some utterly gorgeous rabbit themed fabrics, including some really lovely Peter Rabbit fabric.
My rabbit fabric came from Minerva but when I checked they didn’t seem to have it in stock any more but I found this rabbit fabric which is similar.
I found a couple of suitable fabrics on Etsy too:
And on Amazon I found a few fabric bundles that I think would work nicely:
The process to make these fabric Easter cards might seem over complicated, with all the layers and steps but there is method in my madness. This tutorial is the result of many attempts, much trial and error.
If you try to fix fabric straight onto card it can be difficult to avoid glue seeping through to the front and spoiling the finish, especially if your fabric is thin.
If you try to sew fabric to a card backing without using something like Bondaweb to hold it smooth it is very hard to avoid the fabric slipping and sliding, meaning you get little pleats and tucks.
At a pinch you could miss out the card and stitching elements and just use Bondaweb to fix fabric to the greeting card blank. Personally I love the colourful stitching though and think it really adds an extra dimension to the cards.
I don’t send many Easter cards each year but I do have a few friends for whom Easter is an important time of the year so I like to send them a card to celebrate.
Do you like to make and send Easter cards?
Julie
I’ll be sharing this tutorial at some of these link ups
