Easy Framed Motif Postcard

I bought this and several other motif ribbons and then did what I always do. I put them in a drawer because I never had a good idea to use them. I wanted a summer beachy postcard and thought this might be a good use for the ribbon motifs.

What makes this design work are the 3 elements behind the small image. For the background find a fabric with some interest. I had this fabric that I had painted and stenciled with metallic paint. You can learn to do this with my Metallic Paint Effects tutorial.

The fastest way to make these it to fuse a large piece of fabric to a large piece of Timtex (or other stiff interfacing) and then cut that out into 4" c 6" postcard bases.

Next I fused some fusible web to the back of a royal blue silk scrap. I needed a piece that was about 12" square.

Cut the blue silk into something close to a square about 3". I used pinking shears to give an interesting edge and I did not make sure that the shape was square.

For the next layer find something that can be shaped into a more organic (less square shape). I had some knitted metal mesh that I could pull and shape. I stitched it down with metallic thread.

Other things that would work are Angelina fibers, a knitted swatch or a thread nest.

Finally it's time for the ribbon! I cut apart the ribbon and sewed one motif on each card. The ribbon is double sided so I did some with the blue background and some with the white. I also experimented with straight-stitching and zig-zag stitching. Both worked just fine. These last 2 layers are all of the stitching on the card which makes them very fast.

Once the ribbon is sewn on you can fuse the backing and then sew a satin stitch around the edge. I used a shiny blue acrylic thread with a zig zag stitch set at 5.5 width and .35 length. These went together really quickly and here's the final result.