This past week Stefan and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary! Since it landed on the Friday we got back I assumed grandparents would be tired, and wasn't going to even ask if we could go out since our whole family needed rest. Apparently Stefan had set everything up and the kids stayed overnight at Oma & Opa's (THANK YOU!) house and we went out to eat and to some friends' concert at a local coffee house. We were even given a little help to enjoy the night (THANK YOU X2!).
We headed over to Indigio Bridge Books and every first Friday of the month, our quirky little art town puts on a free Art Walk event, giving everyone who comes out free access, food, desserts, and sometimes wine to peruse the new, old, and upcoming artists & galleries, and, in this case, bookstores! A few of our friends from Grace Chapel own the photography business LOVE EQUALS. They had some of their recent Haiti photography up on the walls and some other friends had a 2 person band with great lyrics and excellent vocals. It was a fun night out, and we got some excellent much-needed sleep that morning.*
That afternoon and evening I was in high creative gear from being so lazy on vacation and made these spastic ruffled Thank You cards. They're actually quite cute, but the ruffle is overbearing. I kinda' like it that way :) I just used my trusty pack of 50 recycled blank cards + envelope set everytime I want to spiff up some cards, added the 'Thank You' with some little alphabet stamps I own, and set to work ruining my 3rd needle with sewing into paper (how do I loose those things?!).
These were meant for everyone who fed us, made a bed available to us, watched our children, or gave us gas/fun money (Thanks Grandparents!!) for our Vancouver trip, and although these were the most time consuming cards I can possibly think to make. They were totally worth it for all the generosity we were shown over the past week and a half. Enjoy!
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TIP: When sewing through paper or cardstock, the needle becomes dull. For good results, change your "paper" needle out, label it, put it back in your sewing kit until you plan to sew paper or cardstock again. You won't have good results with fabric if you continue to use the same one.
Scroll down for instructions...
For a 5 X 7 card, (I only sewed the front of the card), you'll need a strip that is at least 16 inches long if you want tiny, scrunched up ruffles. Less is good for a more 'polished', simple ruffle line.
When putting the card & fabric to the machine, make sure you bunch up about an inch of fabric before you begin. (You probably don't have to backstitch, but I did because it's habit.)
About every inch, make sure you have another bunch of fabric waiting, or there will be a big gap between your ruffles. Hint: That's why these are time consuming, I found they are very start & stop until you get the hang of it.
Sew across the top and repeat down the front for the second side.
Card pack of 50 + envelops can be found at Hobby Lobby.
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