NT: Rainy Day Card Keepers

I've had this Nifty Thrifty idea for ages, but I've apparently been too preoccupied to sit down and actually put one together. As card-makers, sometimes we overlook the option of giving people- not just a signed card on their birthday- but their very own set of blank cards to add to their stationary collection. My friend Shilo has often joked that she would rather just pay me to make her a set of cards so that she can send them to her friends, than to be shown how to make them. Not everyone wants to go through all the trouble of rounding up the supplies and experimenting with card layouts. But if you are already fond of card-making, then it's not difficult to create an assembly line of basic cards that others will enjoy.

(Guess what this Card Keeper used to be? A couch! You'll be getting very sick of red twill after awhile, because I am cutting apart a couch cover in bits and pieces and using it in a variety of projects. It was a perfectly good couch cover until we moved, and in the process of getting it downstairs, a big gash was slashed in one side of it. Thus, it is being re-purposed into good useful projects. How's that for Nifty Thrifty?)

This card keeper includes six handmade cards and envelopes:
2 Birthday Cards
2 All Occasion (blank) Cards
2 Thank You Card

You can download a page of printable tags here.

I have finally given up on making a tutorial. I'm sorry, dear readers. It's getting late in the season, and I am finding that I am spending ten times the amount of time putting together a tutorial than I spend on the project itself. Perhaps if my scanner would cooperate with my laptop, or if I had even the slightest talent with Photoshop or Adobe Illustrator, or whatever the "cool" people use to make tutorials... well, that would be a different story. Alas! 'Tis not so. And all night I worked and re-worked the tutorial in ten different ways, and then again this morning... and still nothing!

The basic directions are these:

1. Cut two pieces of fabric 10 1/4 inches by 6 3/4 inches
(Be creative... re-purpose an old pair of khaki pants or a worn-out quilt)

2. Cut one piece of fabric 10 1/4" inches by 5 inches

3. On the smaller piece, turn down one long edge about 1/2 inch and sew down the fold to create a nice seam along the top (so that the nice part of the seam is on the right side of the fabric).

4. Place the smaller seamed piece with right sides facing on top of one of the larger pieces, lining them up so that the shorter piece is aligned with the bottom edge of the taller piece and the folded seam is toward the middle of the piece. Then place the other large piece on top (right side facing toward the middle) and sew all around the edges, holding the sandwiched fabrics in place. Use a 1/4 inch seam allowance. Leave open a space about 3 inches wide in the center of the top of the item, so that you can turn it right side out. When you have turned it right-side-out, iron the piece flat, and then sew very closely to the edge of the project all the way around (which will also close that open gap that you used for turning it). Then measure to find the very center of the piece, and sew another seam along the center from top to bottom to create two pockets. Tie together with jute, and feel free to decorate the outside. I haven't decided how to decorate mine just yet.

m.e.g.