Tutorial - Making a Valentine Keepsake Card

Guest blog post by Peggy of TreasureScents and fellow Etsy Maine Team member!

Recently I purchased some vintage Valentine postcard images from my friend Casie at Vintage Image Madness. I wanted to create a old time romantic keepsake that could be used as a card, a tag or an ornament and have a place for the giver to leave their heartfelt sentiment. After making some keepsake cards to sell in my Treasurescents shop, I decided to come up with a tutorial outlining my process.

List of Supplies

• an image printed on card stock - this one measures 2 1/2" x 4"
• a piece of coordinating card stock the same size as your image
• coordinating felted wool or felt - 2 pieces, each 1" larger than image these measure 3 1/2" x 5"
• a 6" piece of coordinating ribbon
• markers or stamps for sentiment card details
• coordinating thread
• cutting utensils -rotary cutter, scissors, pinking shears, etc. whatever you prefer
• sewing machine - a simple straight stitch will do

After you have all your materials ready, begin by adding a decorative edge to your image and fabrics. I've used pinking shears for this step

.

If you want to decorate the sentiment card with markers or stamps it's a good time to do that now. I know I don't always like my first attempt and it's much easier to start with a fresh piece of card stock now than when it's all put together. I also didn't have the right color card stock that I wanted to use so I tea bags to dye my white card stock.

After clipping the edges place your image and your card stock on each piece of felt that it will be applied to. Be sure it is centered with equal felt around all sides. It should stay put pretty well but you can add a small piece of double stick tape or a dab of glue stick behind the image/card stock if you are more comfortable.

After threading your sewing machine with the coordinating thread take a piece of scrap card stock and practice stitching on it. You don't need any felt behind it for this process. It will allow you to lengthen or
shorten your stitches to get the look that you want before beginning on the keepsake card. You can also experiment with decorative stitches if you have them.

Next, we stitch around the image beginning at the bottom right hand corner and keeping an even line around the card. When you get back to the starting point don't stitch over your first stitches. Stop right before the first stitch. Raise your presser foot and clip your threads, leaving a tail long enough to tie off.

To tie off threads first flip your card over to the back side and tie the threads in a knot and clip. By tying the back first we don't pull the stitches free. Then do the same on the front side. These threads you can leave a bit longer if you like as shown in the photo.

Then stitch around the sentiment card on the back piece of felt in the same manner as the front. When you get to the end take one stitch over the top of your first stitch. Remove the card from the machine leaving long tails again.

Turning the piece over to the back, this time gently tug on the bobbin threads.

This will create a small loop of the top thread peeking through the back. Using a pin, carefully pull the threads all to the back side taking care not to undo stitches, tie them off and clip them.

If you want to add beads or other embellishments to the image you can do this now as long as you can stitch around the outer edges without running over them.

After you have everything added, place the front and back with wrong sides together.

Pin the corners to keep them from slipping while you're working. Loop the ribbon in half and place it between the pieces of felt, pinning it in the center of the top edge.

Stitch the two pieces together with about 1/4" seam allowance beginning at the bottom right corner. After stitching all around the keepsake card stitch over a few of your first stitches and back stitch to keep it from coming out. Snip your threads and your finished.

Thank you Peggy for sharing your tutorial with my readers! Don't forget to take a minute and check out Peggy's Etsy shops:

TreasureScents - http://www.etsy.com/shop/treasurescents

MagentaSky - http://www.etsy.com/shop/magentaskystudio

ThreeBridgesSewing - http://www.etsy.com/shop/threebridgessewingco