Alphastamps Tallulahs Postcard Swap

This swap is run by the very creative, wonderful Lenna who like me is also a member of the Alphastamps Design Team. You can read all about her swaps and sign up for them here.

I've finished my cards today. They are all more or less the same although they use different images, all from Paris Showgirls I and II. The particular one above uses an image from I. The background for the card was a black velvet with gold streaks in it. I layered this with black batting (or wadding in U.K.) and quilted it in straight lines, using gold thread. It's barely visible but you can catch a sparkle now and then. Once I had quilted the background I cut it to 4 x 6" size.

I ironed Wonderunder (or Bondaweb in U.K.) to the back of a red fabric and drew hearts on the paper side of the Wonderunder. The hearts were cut out and applied to the background, following the manufacturers' instructions. I also straight stitched around the outline of the hearts with red thread by machine. The fabric images were then cut out from the collage sheets, leaving a narrow outline around the figure. I stitched it down in this outline, again with straight stitching. Position the lady so that the figure partly obscures the heart. I added red felt heart shapes (from Alphastamps Die-cut Self-adhesive felt) towards the bottom bit of the figure.

The red heart at the top was beaded with size 11 red seed beads. At the bottom I stitched a red crushed velvet ribbon, also from Alphastamps

I then printed out onto cardstock a vintage postcard backing. I scanned this in using one of my vintage postcards and added the text in Photoshop Elements. This was layered as the back of the postcard and after straight stitching the edges I finished them off with a transparent ribbon (from ThreadArt)