How to make Fabric heart invitation cards
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I posted on my Cool Mummy blog about these lovely handmade birthday invitation cards and I thought it would be a great project to do with the kids on a rainy afternoon…You don’t really need a reason to give someone a handmade card, it is a lovely gesture and one kids would love making and giving out to their friends and teachers at school.
You will need:
- White card (anywhere from 200 gsm and over)
- Cotton fabric scraps (cut them out from old clothes)
- Glue (PVA glue or spray glue)
- small paint brush (to apply the glue)
- Pinking shears (zig zag scissors)
- Colored paper or other decoration such as ribbons and buttons
- paper
- an old plastic large button (or something similar to be used to flatten the glued heart)
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Tips I learned:
- Do not use stretchy fabric. It is very fiddly to work with, curls up at the edges when cut with the scissors, and stretched when glued onto the card. the best fabric to use is medium weight cotton fabric with almost no stretch.
- Spray adhesive is the best for these projects. It is not messy and does not leave glue blobs on the fabric…However, If you don’t want to pay for spray adhesive, you can easily achieve the same result with PVA glue. Simply mix the PVA glue with water , 1 part PVA to 1/2 part water: you don’t want the glue to be too thick or too runny, best consistency is similar to “custard”
- Cut some pieces of paper slightly bigger than the fabric hearts (enough to cover them) and use them to place on top of the fabric heart immediately after you glue it to the card, this will help absorb some of the moisture of the glue and prevents the card from “bobbling”.
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Step one:
Draw a heart template on paper and cut it out. Use this template to trace the heart on the back of your fabric scraps. Please remember to iron your fabric pieces before you cut them. Use your pinking (zig zag) scissors to cut the fabric heart.
Step 2
Cut your card to the desired size and crease it gently down the middle, then fold it down along the creased line. (you can alternatively use blank cards already creased for you and which come with an envelope, you can find then in any craft store or from one of these stores on amazon)
Step 3
Place the heart on a paper wrong side facing you and with your small paint brush apply a very think layer of glue onto the heart. Place the glued side face down onto the front of the card and press gently with your hand. Take your large plastic button and run it back and forth across the fabric heart to make sure there are no trapped bubbles and that the fabric lays smoothly on the card. Decorate with whatever else you fancy: ribbons, buttons, etc…
I use Illustrator to create fun designs and personalised messages which I print them out on a laser jet printer. I then cut them out to fit the card and glue them down.
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Step 4
Place the small pieces of paper on top of the glued heart (to absorb the glue moisture0 and press the card inside the pages of a heavy book. Wait for 15 to 20 minutes and take the card out…
Tada!!!! lovely hand made fabric card which is gorgeous and is sure to make someon very happy.
