Vintage Notecards

Another overcast and dark day in which the thaw melted some more snow (although there is still plenty left!) and in the process produced extremely slippery conditions. I managed to collect a blip for the day outside (click here to see it) but the rest of the time was spend in the studio where I tried as much as possible not to look out but instead to produce beauty within.

My project was to create the notecards for Lenna's Vintage Notecard swap. You can still sign up for this swap here and if you do, you will receive a wonderful PDF file in which Lenna demonstrates some techniques for producing your own notecards. I knew I had some blank notecards somewhere and surprisingly they turned up in the first place I looked. Wish that happened more! Usually I spend hours hunting.

They were white though, very white and not really suitable for our vintage theme. So I brewed some instant coffee (no, no, I don't ever drink this if I can help it, but it can be useful so I have a pot in the house). I put both envelopes and cards in the mix and that had the desired effect of antiquing them.

I made collages with vintage fabric, vintage looking modern fabrics, vintage lace and canvas images (from Altered Pages). I added a vintage button and also beaded around the images with size 11 seed beads. Vintage text was glued to all the collages too. The collages were then adhered to the notecards using my Xyron machine and a fabric glue cartridge. I bought this machine last Christmas and it's been such a revelation not to mention a time saver!

I also decorated the back of the cards with the stamp seen above. It describes so well how I feel about meeting my friend Lenna all those years ago so what better quotation to put on these cards for her swap. The envelopes were also decorated with a flourish stamp as you can see on the middle picture. 3 of the notecards + envelopes are for the swap and the extra one is for Lenna herself.