Greeting Card 6" X 4.5" "Sing!" mixed media by mayah (c)2013
 

A family member is an artist; she wiped her brushes on paper towels and I saved the towels, thinking I would make art out of it someday. I took the paper towels and cut them up and hand stitched two pieces together for each card, using a running stitch with embroidery floss, then went along the edges.

I made the heart and bird out of fabric scraps fused onto paper and then fused them onto the paper towel backgrounds. Fused the backgrounds to the cardboard backings. Added the words in black and gold ink on paper, put some gold glitter glue all around, and lastly glued on the strip of faux pearls and sewed on three bells.

Voila! Greeting card art!


These projects were fun and easy--they would be great for kids. Children will need supervision and maybe some help doing the fusing--I used this product called "Steam-A-Seam2"--it's double fusible web. You iron it onto the back of fabric or paper, then iron the piece onto whatever you want--basically an easy, fast, and non-messy way to glue. It works great for fabric 'cause it keeps the edges of the fabric from fraying. You can also sew through fabric that has been fused on a sewing machine or by hand--it's supposed to not gum up your needle (I haven't tried this yet--will let you know how it works!)

If you want to adapt this project for kids without having to use an iron, have them use glue instead of the fusible web. I'd suggest Elmer's Glue watered down a bit so it's not quite so thick, then it can be applied with a small paint brush. The Elmer's is strong enough to hold small pieces of light-weight fabric. If you don't want the fabric to fray, try using felt scraps. The kids can also hand sew the fabric onto the paper rather than gluing it. Great way to teach kids basic sewing skills! A needle with a large eye would be helpful, and two to three threads of embroidery floss or regular thread at a time.

Related Blogs: 

Art:  "Year of the Snake 2013":  New mixed media art using paper products and fabric http://curezone.com/blogs/fm.asp?i=2062062 

Eco Greeting Cards: http://curezone.com/blogs/fm.asp?i=2082809 In making new art, I like to reuse paper and scraps from other art projects as much as possible, as well as use eco-friendlier art supplies.

"Forest"/"Persimmon Beauty" http://curezone.com/blogs/fm.asp?i=2086291 MORE Greeting Cards from reused materials and found nature objects.

Mixed Media Greeting Card:  http://curezone.com/blogs/fm.asp?i=2064478 Hand sewn card made from paper scraps

Stitched Paper: http://curezone.com/blogs/fm.asp?i=2079244 Experimenting with sewing on paper by hand and machine

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