Daily DIY

Fusible Webbing is a wonder-product found in the quilting section of your local craft store. It's the perfect stuff for bonding fabric to paper to make these cute greeting cards. You can make them to send, or make up some sets to give as gifts.

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Here's what the package looks like for one popular brand of fusible webbing. I get this at Fabric Depot, but have also seen it at Jo-Ann stores. You'll also need some blank cards, and an assortment of lightweight cotton fabric in colors and patterns you like.

Next, you'll want to decide what shapes to cut from your fabric. Cookie cutters are an excellent tool for this - you just trace around them!

Pull a sheet of fusible webbing from the package. It has a paper backing on both sides. Trace your shape onto one of them, using a pencil or a fine-point marker.

. . . And then cut a block out of the webbing sheet, around that shape you just traced.

Let's take a closer look at that webbing now. Sandwiched in between those paper layers is a layer of the webbing itself -- it's basically a glue-mesh. It's lightly sticky.

Carefully peel away the paper backing that you did not trace on, so you're left with that webbing stuck to the paper backing with your tracing on it.

Now, take your fabric and lay it onto your work surface, with the wrong side facing you. Place your piece of webbing onto the fabric. That glue-mesh is now touching the wrong side of your fabric. Press it down gently with your fingers so it will stick.

Then, cut the shape out of the fabric and the webbing together.

Peel away the remaining paper backing. Now you have a fabric cut-out with the glue-mesh stuck to the back. You've essentially created a fabric sticker!

Place this onto the front of your card. You can peel it up and re-position it as you need to.

If you like, you can use the same steps to add some smaller fabric accents to your card. These red pieces have glue-mesh on the back, too.

When you have the whole thing positioned as you like it, cover it with a pressing cloth. (A pressing cloth can be an old dish towel, or a big piece of scrap fabric.)

Heat your iron according to the package directions for the brand of webbing you're using. Press the hot iron over the card. This will melt the glue mesh and fuse the fabrics to the paper.

Be sure to press down with your iron rather than moving it around on the pressing cloth. Moving the iron around can cause the webbing to ooze out from under the fabric, and this gets messy.

Voila! Your card is fused and ready for embellishment. See how the iron has warped the card a little? This will sometimes happen -- although the heavier your cardstock, the less warping. Put your card under some heavy books for a few hours, and it'll be fine.

Here's a little something to consider when designing your cards: if you have a design that you want to have face a particular direction . . .

. . . then you'll need to trace it "backwards" onto the fusible webbing sheet.

Now, you can have a ball embellishing your card. Puff paint is fun, because it creates shiny raised surfaces on your card. (Make sure you give it lots and lots of drying-time, though!)

It's also fun to run these cards through your sewing machine. A little decorative stitching looks really cute!

And keep in mind, you can also use fusible webbing to cover your entire card with fabric, and then stitch and glue on all kinds of details. I did some topstitching in two colors on this one, and then glued on some sequins.

And of course, there are always things like buttons, flat-backed gems, ric rac, and glitter. If you have some wide ribbon, you can even fuse that to your cards - just cut that fusible webbing into strips and attach it to the ribbon.

. . . So many possibilities!