Not Sew Hard Mother’s Day Card

The card that I made two iterations of this week is based on a Perpetual Pin. A Perpetual Pin is the term I use for an item that I pin repeatedly on Pinterest. Don’t judge. You know you do it, too.

The Motivation and Pinspiration

So, for once in my life I decided to get ahead of the game and make my mother’s day card. Most years and events my cards don’t go out on time (if they go out at all), but this year I will be with my mom on Mother’s Day AND with my uber-talented, never-drops-the-card-ball sister. She will definitely have her super cute card ready, so if I don’t want to look like the bad daughter…

This is the card I finally decided to attempt. Isn’t it soooo beautiful? I love this card. It was one of the very first things I pinned and I have pinned it over and over again. It was even the cover shot for my card making Pinterest board for a while. I wish I could find the card creator, but it’s an image from TwoPeasInABucket, a scrapbooking site that no longer exists 🙁

The Process

I chose a coordinating paper pack. I had a really old K&Company Brenda Walton Mira collection double sided designer mat pad. I cut each sheet in half long ways to 3.4 inches or so and then cut off 2.4 inch strips. Next, I cut a leaf out of each rectangle and stacked them up by design. I made sure I had equal representation of each side of the paper for more variety. Then I started putting them through the sewing machine.

Sew Messy

I’m not a very good sewer, so the leaf went wonky in my machine. It did not look anything like the petals on my beautiful and pristine Perpetual Pin Card. Again, who made that? Serious talent. I tried again and again. Hot. Mess.

I called my aforementioned talented sister and she gave me 2 great tips.

1. Make sure your sewing machine is on a surface that can’t bounce.
2. Mat your leaves on a larger surface that you can better guide as you sew.

I moved my machine from the top of my Ikea Alex cart to our sturdy kitchen table, mounted the leaves on index cards, and got to work. That was a lot better — at least, as good as it was gonna get if I was the one sewing.

Assembly

I “auditioned” my leaves on the card until I had a good mix and arrangement. I tried them out on the white background, but found the blue really set off the colors of the chosen paper. After I taped them down, I had to figure out the middle of the flower. I knew sewing a perfect circle was not going to happen, so I pulled out an Avery round tag. I found a red scrap, punched out a 1 inch circle, and layered it with some Studio Calico wood embellishments. Lastly, I layered some washi tape and paper scraps, scattered some Cloud9 Rain Dots, cut a rose off a piece of ribbon, and glued down some Studio Calico wooden letters to complete the corner of the card.

I had enough pieces left over to make another card. I stamped the messages ‘Just a note’ and ‘for you’ using some Red Geranium Archival ink. I sent it to a good friend who emailed me the minute she received it.

This card design is so versatile! And more importantly, I will not look like the bad daughter…this year.