Mistletoe postcard exchange – 2016.12.02

In December 2014, I participated in a Snowflake fiber postcard exchange organized by Brandy Lynn of Quilter on Fire.  It was a lot of fun to make the postcards, and even more fun to receive postcards in the mail.

Brandy has organized another exchange this year, with a Mistletoe theme.  I signed up to make 3 postcards.  Here they are.

Here’s how I made them.  Note that throughout the construction process, I used parchment paper when pressing to avoid fusing pieces to my iron.  Click on any photo to see a larger image.

I used a firm double-sided fusible stabilizer, and wrapped the background fabric around to the back.   For the leaves, I applied Mistyfuse to the back of small pieces of dark green and chartreuse dupioni silk.   I drew mistletoe leaves on freezer paper, cut out the shapes and ironed them to the front of the silk.  Then I cut around the freezer paper.  I positioned the leaves on the postcard, then fused the darker leaves.

Then I positioned the chartreuse leaves with the red ribbon under the stem.  I stitched the chartreuse leaves with gold thread.

For the back of the postcard, I used the template I designed in Excel in 2014, and printed it on ivory-colored linen-blend paper.  I fused the paper to the back, covering the raw edges of the fabric.  From the front, I stitched around the edges through all the layers.

After a final pressing, I tied the ribbon in a bow and added some gemstone stickers as the mistletoe berries.  With these embellishments, I’ll have to mail my postcards in envelopes, rather than ‘naked’ through the postal system.

Thanks for stopping by.  I’m linking up with these blogs – click on the links below, where you’ll find many other creative and inspirational projects.