Thursday 12 June 2014

How To: Felt Butterfly Cards

Today I'm sharing a simple tutorial for making quick and easy cards decorated with felt butterflies.


I had some felt butterfly shapes left over from making my butterfly lavender sachets and instead of throwing them away (waste not, want not!) I thought I'd use them to make some cards. You can never have too many cards to send to friends, right?

You could also make these from pretty scrap paper (like these notecards I made a few years ago), but I rather like how the thickness and texture of the felt really stands out from the card.


You will need:

The butterfly template from this post (printed at 50%)
Card blanks & matching envelopes
Colourful felt
Pins & sewing scissors
Double sided sticky tape, or craft glue
Craft scissors
Optional: sewing thread & needle, pen, pencil, eraser

To make the cards...

Use the butterfly template to cut out your butterflies.


If you want to "frame" the butterflies also cut out 3 inch (7.5 cm) squares in contrasting felt. If you like you can stitch the butterfly in place in the middle of the square with running stitch and matching sewing thread, but you don't need to (and it's much quicker not to!)

Arrange the butterflies on your card blanks to plan where you want them. The 3 inch squares are perfect for adding to 4 x 6 inch cards.


Stick pieces of double sided tape to the back of each felt shape, peel off the plastic backing then press the shapes into position. You can use craft glue if you prefer but I find that double-sided tape works great, without any mess!

 

I stuck the butterflies-in-squares onto 4 x 6 inch cards...


... and stuck a trio of butterflies to a 3 x 8 inch card. I chose three shades of the same colour, but you could use any three colours you fancy.

 

You can leave the cards blank, or add your own message with a black or co-ordinating coloured pen. Write your chosen text with a pencil first to make sure you get it correctly positioned, then erase the pencil lines once the ink has fully dried.


This tutorial is for non commercial use only. You may borrow a couple of photos if you want to blog about this project, but remember to credit me and link back to this page on my blog, and do not reproduce my entire tutorial / share my templates on your site. Thanks!

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2 comments:

Elsa said...

Good idea! You make very beautiful things!

Bugs and Fishes said...

Thanks! :)