I enjoy making cards to give to friends and felt inspired recently to make a small batch. My daughter, step-daughter and daughter-in-law also like to be given some to send to their friends, so I can never make too many.
I have quite a stock of hand made paper - very basic stuff made from old envelopes etc - and I thought I would like to use some of this for the backgrounds to the cards. It is, however, quite fragile and I decided to wax a few sheets to add strength and a bit of a glow. Not having any other sort of wax, I used the remnants of a couple of scented candles I had left. They were originally in glass containers, so I softened these in hot water until I could scoop out the wax and melted it gently in an old tin tray. This is not an activity for children as you really need to be very careful with the hot wax and certainly don't leave it alone for any time. I then just let the wax soak into the paper and left it to dry - the added bonus is that it smells wonderful and, so far, the scent remains in the paper.
As I am into bird images at the moment I made a small template of a bird and used it to cut out shapes from scraps of fabric and arranged these over roughly torn pieces of waxed paper and stitched them onto the cards.
I have quite a stock of hand made paper - very basic stuff made from old envelopes etc - and I thought I would like to use some of this for the backgrounds to the cards. It is, however, quite fragile and I decided to wax a few sheets to add strength and a bit of a glow. Not having any other sort of wax, I used the remnants of a couple of scented candles I had left. They were originally in glass containers, so I softened these in hot water until I could scoop out the wax and melted it gently in an old tin tray. This is not an activity for children as you really need to be very careful with the hot wax and certainly don't leave it alone for any time. I then just let the wax soak into the paper and left it to dry - the added bonus is that it smells wonderful and, so far, the scent remains in the paper.
As I am into bird images at the moment I made a small template of a bird and used it to cut out shapes from scraps of fabric and arranged these over roughly torn pieces of waxed paper and stitched them onto the cards.
These are a couple of pieces of the paper before waxing. They are about A4 size.
Below is what they look like after waxing. Darker and with a bit of a sheen.
Below is what they look like after waxing. Darker and with a bit of a sheen.
These are some of the results.
And a few more............. (I do other things besides birds!)
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