Make Notecards With Your Quilting Stencils

In theme with our postings of "Things you can use quilting supplies for, other than quilting..." today's tutorial will show how to use stencils to make note cards. This would be a great idea for a last minute holiday present or hostess gift. Here I have done two different methods of making cards.

Glitter Note cards

This first tutorial was originally shown on Martha Stewart- using Stencil Company stencils :)
Here I have gone through the steps a little more thoroughly.

First, choose a stencil, any stencil will do, although think about the size of your note card- you can use a small design or use a part of a larger design to fit.

I chose a 4" Flying Crane Design. You can buy blank card sets that include the envelopes- I got a great deal on the David Tutera Blank card set at Joann's. A 48 pack of cards and envelopes for $6.99. Since all the glitter I had was light, I bought the set of dark cards.

 Trace the design on your card with a pencil. When you take the stencil away you will have the blank spots where the lines don't connect. For your own sanity, go ahead and draw in the rest of the lines. That way when you're holding a bottle of glitter glue you don't have to think about it.

You can use the method where you trace with glue and sprinkle glitter on top, but I found it much easier to buy the glitter glue. I bought mine at Walmart for $0.99 a tube. Trace over the lines with your glitter glue and you're done!

Cut-Out Cards

The second note card project uses a stencil again, but this time we're removing instead of adding. Supplies include a stencil, pencil, cutting mat, two note cards and x-acto knife (a double bladed one will make this go much faster).

When you're choosing a note card think about what colors will look good together. You can either use two note cards or use one note card and a piece of cardstock that you cut to size. Since I wanted to use a larger stencil I cut mine out of heavy cardstock from the scrapbooking section at Michaels Crafts.

Decide which will be your cover (background) and which will be the inner card (design).

Choose a stencil. I used a portion of a wheat border design

Trace your design on to the cover of the card. Since you're cutting away the lines it doesn't matter if you trace on the front or back of the cover, but if you're prone to mistakes always best to trace on the back side. Trace your design with the pencil. This time DO NOT CONNECT THE LINES! You will need these breaks to keep your card from falling apart.

If you have a single blade craft knife you will have to cut twice to get the "channel cut", or you can use a Double Bladed Stencil Cutter which has two blades to make the channel. A Double Bladed Cutter will also ensure that your channels are even.

Cut the design- remember to stop cutting when you get to the break in the line.

I used one blade to go back and cut the ends of the pieces to expose the cut out areas.

When you're all finished insert the inside card. You can leave them sandwiched, or glue it down at the corners if you want.

I'm sure there are many other variations. Drawing with a white wax crayon and watercoloring over top? Paper collage? These are just two ideas, but the possibilities are endless!

Holiday Project and Gift Ideas

If you're like us, I'm sure you have a lot of quilting related tools and gadgets around the house. And maybe you've made all the quilt-related gifts you can...
Over the next few weeks we're going to be posting some ideas so that you can use those gadgets and make some gifts and holiday decorations.

But, before we get too far away from their original purpose, here is our latest Christmas applique project of the moment.

We used Perfect Shape No Melt Applique Circles and a 6 pack of green fat quarters from JoAnn's Fabrics

First we chose a few different sizes of circles- the 3", the 1 1/2" and the 1".

We laid the applique circles out on our fabric and used them as a template to trace the circles.

Here we used a General's Sketch and Wash Pencil, which does remove with water or an eraser, but since we're appliqueing the circles, it really doesn't matter if the lines don't come out as they'll all be covered up.

After tracing, we cut the circles out about 1/4" away from the line.

When all the fabric pieces were cut out, we then reused the applique circles, since they are no-melt, and used them to press the edges of your applique shape. Place the template back on the circle, and then using the iron on a medium setting (or an applique iron if you have one!), press around the template until all of your edges are flat.

After you press around the circle, pull out the plastic applique shape and use it to repeat the step for the next circle.

Another good tip for getting really crisp edges is to use a little bit of liquid starch (1/2 liquid starch, 1/2 water) and using a small paintbrush paint the edges with the mixture before ironing. This will keep the edges crisp and flat, even after you pull the applique template out.

Once all of our circles were ready we traced a large circle onto our white fabric and appliqued our circles around- starting with the larger circles on the bottom, working up to the smaller circles on top.

Here is the wreath after we appliqued all the circles on...

For a finishing touch, we went through our stash and found some really neat buttons that we've been saving since the 80's for that "special project".

We used ours for a small wallhanging, but you can also do this on a shirt, blanket, tote bags, table runner...there are lots of ways to use applique in unique ways.

What are some interesting ways that you have used applique?