Thursday, July 1, 2010

Fabric Postcard

Creating your own fabric postcards is a wonderful way to send someone a truly one of a kind message through the mail. Fabric postcards a completely mailable - just have the Post Office hand cancel your creation. It may cost a little more than a normal postcard, but it's well worth it.

Materials:
  • 1 Sheet Printable Fabric
  • 4" x 6" Piece Innerfuse (Heavy Weight)
  • 4" x 6" Cardstock
  • Thread, Floss, Ribbon or Ric Rac for edging

Open the image you would like to use in an editing program or place in a word processing program and resize it to measure 4" x 6". Insert the sheet of fabric into your printer with the fabric "print side up" and print at the best setting for your printer. Remove fabric from the sticky sheet and heat set with a dry iron for a few seconds on high setting. DO NOT rinse out as per the package directions or your image will shrink. Remember, this won't be used for a wearable item, so making the print out "color fast" is not as important. Cut your print out along the edges with scissors or a rotary cutter and ruler.

Place a piece of cardstock in your printer and print out the "address" side of the postcard. (Hint: "right click" the top image and save a copy to your hard drive to use)  Make sure that your image measures 4" x 6". Cut the postcard back out from the cardstock.





Following the instruction on the Inner Fuse package, stack your cardstock, face down, then the Inner Fuse and last your picture, face up on an ironing board. Heat your iron to highest dry setting. Press your iron down on one section for 5 seconds then move to another section and repeat until you've press the entire image onto the inner fuse. Let your project cool for a few seconds then turn over and repeat the ironing process on the cardstock side.

There are several ways you can finish the edges of your postcard:

1) With a sewing machine you can edge the postcard with a zigzag satin stitch.


2) You can glue ric-rac or ribbon along the edges.




3) You can hand sew a blanket stitch with a sharp tapestry needle and embroidery thread.



Other edgings you could use are sequin strips, lace, cording or other fibers. Make sure they are glued or sewn down securely.

Here's another one I've done using a digital photo of one of my beautiful irises:


Now all you have to do is address your postcard and mail!

Enhanced by Zemanta