Week 5: Paper Appliqué Cards

This week in the card class we are making paper appliqué cards. Basically these are cards made from cut paper arranged on the card to mimic the look of cloth appliqué: cut cloth and embroidery often used as embellishments on clothing and quilts.

Example of an appliqué quilt.
Image used by permission.

 

House quilt by syko

 

 

 

 

 

Now here’s an example of a card decorated with paper appliqué.

 

One of the easiest ways to get started with paper appliqué is to use simple cutouts and paper punches. Here’s a simple Valentine made with a heart cutout. (The idea for this card comes from a card posted on Flickr by user Sinister Rules’: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sinister_rules/3162693196/.)

Notice the stitching along the heart edge to mimic sewing. A fine tip black felt marker was used to make the stitches. To make this love letter, a few lines were drawn on the front of a white card blank to look like the back of an envelope. The side of the pencil was used for the shading under the flap lines. The heart was glued at the tip of the flap to seal the envelope.

Here’s another version of the love letter with a punched kiss used to seal the envelope. Punches are a very easy way to make appliqués for cards.

Here’s a Valentine with a stamped background and two appliqué hearts: The hearts are stitched with a faux blanket stitch and the card edges are smudged with coordinating paint.

Wrap-up
The students in the class have many appliqué patterns to use. These include fish, butterflies, flowers, hearts, apples and more. In the next post I’ll share some sample cards made with each and give more detailed instructions for creating paper appliqué cards.

If you make a paper appliqué card or have patterns to share, please let me know. I’m also interested in comments and suggestions.

Images of cards can be posted to the Flickr group: http://www.flickr.com/groups/cardclass/

Feel free to share your favorite card technique.