Sewn Card

This card I made to go with a wedding gift, but it can be used for all sorts of occasions where a home-made card is fitting. It is quite simple project, and can be made with a lot of different patterns.

• Carton / thin cardboard
• Paper (for templates and for the inside of the card)
• Ruler
• Pencil
• Eraser
• Needle (preferably two - one sewing needle and one pin)
• Thread
• Glue stick
• Compass
• Scalpel/knife
• Hobby cutting board
• A paper clip

I was so fortunate to have a piece of carton the exact right size. For those who don't, you simply take your carton, measure it to the right size, and cut it by using the ruler. If you have a paper cutter, you can also use that.

Fold a piece of paper and draw one side of your heart on it. If you are satisfied with the shape, cut it out.

Then place your cut out heart on another piece of paper and draw the outline.

Place the sharp part of your compass in the middle of your heart at a distance you see fit and draw a circle around it. - I drew a few circles before I was happy with the size.

I then repeated this with a smaller heart.

- The size of the circle, or the heart does not really matter (as long as it fits on your card). You don't even need to make two hearts - it is totally up to you and your imagination. If you wan't to go totally wild, you can also try to do it with other shapes you find endearing :)

Since the card in this case, was to be given in relation to a wedding, I thought it would be nice to have the bride and grooms names on the card.

If you are a person blessed with the gift of being able to do calligraphy, you can just write something neat by hand. If you, like me, are a person with no such abilities, you can do what I did: I went to my trusty computer, opened a text editing program, found a font I liked, made it a fitting size, printed it, and cut the excess paper of.

I then took a paper clip and attached the note to the card, and with my pin I started poking while following the lines.

- There are two things to note in this process. One is that you need to be careful not to make the holes to close, since the paper might rip. The other one is, that it is really preferable to use a pin with a big head (which I didn't have :( ), otherwise your fingers, like mine, will become very red and sad.

Take your cut-out heart templates and draw them on your card with a pencil. It is again totally up to you how you place the templates - it depends only on your artistic eye.

Again you take your pin and poke holes along the lines of the circles and the hearts. - Remember that you still need to be aware that you don't make the holes to close.

End by using your eraser to remove the left-over pencil marks.

Take you needle and thread, attach it on the back of the card and start sewing. Don't worry if it gets a little ugly on the back, since it will be covered up afterwards. - Do however try not to make it to bulky, since that might be noticeable. - In the next step, you can see how mine looked on the back.

You can sew in many different ways:

• You can sew neat and tidy, and connect the holes with the one directly opposite it.
• You can do what I did, and connect the holes in a total random way.
• You can choose to use each hole only once.
• Or, you can do like I do, and use some of the holes once, and some of the holes twice.

When making the inside of the card, you measure the inside of your card. Then you take a piece of white paper, and draw the size of the card on. - I made it about one cm smaller, because I though it was nice to have the red border inside the card. You then cut the paper using your ruler, and glue it to the card using a glue stick.

I did this with both sides of the inside of the card, but it is up to you what you want to do.

Here you can see the end result.