Saturday, August 19, 2006

Fabric ATC tutorial

















Here is step 1. I fused fabric bits to make the little people. These cards are for the Zetti stle swap i joined on www.atcards.com.















Step 2. Make the quilt "sandwich"















Step 3. Quilt away! I quilt my cards heavily, in this case with varigated thread.















Here are the quilted cards with the back of one shown.
















Step 4. Trim the cards to size. Here I taped off my ruler to the ATC size and use the clear ruler to center my design. Remember that the edges are going to be sewn, so leave room!
















Step 5. I made some embellished words to go on the cards. They needed something colorful to make them pop. I stamped words onto small scraps.
















Here are the cards cut down, with the word embellishments ready to go and a small pile of scraps from cutting.
















Step 6. Here are the words being sewn on.













Step 7. Here is the edging going on. I make 2 passes around. My machine is set on a 5 point width and a .80 distance on a zig zag stitch. I am using an overcast foot in order to get the zig zag to go over the edge nicely.
















Here are the cards after finishing the edges.














Step 8. I am finishing off the front of the cards wth some embellishments. This is black perle cotton for the critter's arms and legs.















I embellished further with beads and a few sequins.















Step 9. The way I finish my cards is to fuse a sticky backing onto stamped fabric, and them fuse the stamped portion to the card. Here I have stamped plain muslin with the ATC stamp, and fused "Wonder Under" onto the back. It comes with a paper backing you peel away to stick it to the back of the ATC.














Here I am fusing it on with my mini craft iron.














Finished card with fused back. It makes the card a bit stiffer than just writing on the backs.















Step 9 (option 2): some fiber ATC-er's use a paper backing. Here I stamped the ATC stamp to a piece of card that was cut to ATC size, and I am zig-zag stitching it to card. Use a wider stitch length or you will just perforate the card completely and your back won't stick on! (I don't use this method because I don't like cleaning paper dots out of the guts of my machine!)

I hope this helped you make fabric ATCs!

14 comments:

FibreJunky said...

I really like those! Thank you for posting how you make them. I can see that I will be referring to your instructions often.

Joy said...

thank you for your very clear instructions I now understand exactly what I am supposed to be doing Joy

frazzledsugarplummum said...

Thanks for the tutorial....clear and informative. They look fabulous..quirky, fun and interesting.
Great stuff,
Shirley

Anonymous said...

Nice job. I have never made an art car before , but I'm not longer in the dark about the process.
Thanks, Steff

Mixing-Katie said...

Wow, these are excellent!! I haven't done any fabric ATCs in a while, will have to get busy!! :-)

Anonymous said...

This looks like a super fun project! Instant gratification! But, I hate to ask, what do you use them for? Sorry for the dumb question!

Cheryl said...

We use them to trade with other trading card artists, usually online!

Unknown said...

Thanks for this great demo. I love those little figures. Off to give it a try.

Jean said...

These are fabulous! Love them!

Allotment Lass said...

Hello, Ive been making and swapping ATC's for four years and yours are some of the best I've seen, absolutely fantastic :)

Martha Tabis Pet Portraits said...

Adorable ATCs! So imaginative. Pix are great, very helpful!

Quilt or Dye said...

Very nice tutorial. Adequate pictures and words. And you didn't talk either up or down to us. Bravo!

Oddbreed said...

these are amazing!

CrystaL* said...

These are amazing!!! Great job. I think I might have to try it out :)