they say it's your birthday

Remember last year when I posted a tutorial about how we make birthday cards?  Well this year, we took a different approach and I am so pleased with how they turned out! 

Using up fabric scraps is an ongoing project for me.  It's like the more I sew, the more the scraps multiply.  I love it when I can fill a need by using scraps and these cards were a great way to do just that. 

I cut rectangles of fabric that were a little smaller than the front of each card.  Then I used a glue stick to attach the fabric to the paper, just enough so that it wouldn't slide around. 

Then I sewed a line of stitches around the edge of the fabric, permanently attaching it to the paper. 

Meanwhile, Steve printed out a page of "Happy Birthday"s and cut them into rectangles with the paper cutter.  I can still remember paying $30 for my paper cutter- probably about 15 years ago- and being appalled by the price.  Now, I can't imagine life without one. 

After I finished sewing all the fabric to the cards, I sewed a "Happy Birthday" rectangle in the middle of each one.  "Middle" is a pretty general term here- I just eyeballed it. 

In general, I think that this year's cards took about the same amount of time as previous years.  The sewing was an extra step, but it replaced all the detailed cutting that we had previously done.  And it was a relief not to have to write "Happy Birthday" 25 times in my best handwriting. 

We made these cards the week after Christmas and our stack has already gotten pretty low!  Can you believe that out of our 10 immediate family members, 7 of them have birthdays before spring begins?  It always makes the beginning of the year feel as though it's flying by! 



Speaking of flying by, today was the final winter sewing session class!  I can hardly believe that it's over and was a little sad to see everyone leave for the last time.  I got some great feedback though and have already been working on the syllabus and schedule for spring classes, which will be starting in just a few weeks.  I'll keep you posted!