Last summer I launched my new vintage shop and wanted to have cards to hand out to people I met who were interested in such fun things. The cards had to be special, though. Special enough to actually inspire someone to venture onto the interwebs and check out my shop.

So, I found an old dress I had been keeping for a while, but hated the cut of it, and made business cards from it!

To make your own fabric-backed business cards, you will need:

• Good quality cardstock and printer
• Wax paper
• Thin, tightly woven fabric
• Spray mount
• Scissors for fabric
• Xacto blade
• Steel edge ruler
• Cutting mat

First, I printed out my business cards side-by-side onto a sheet of cardstock. Then I spray mounted it to a plain piece of cardstock, just to give it a heavier weight. After that, I trimmed around the edges.

Next, I laid the joined cardstock into the fabric and cut around the shape, so I had a piece of fabric about the same size as the cardstock.

Taking the wax paper, fabric, and cardstock outside, I laid out two pieces of wax paper and laid (face down) the fabric and cardstock onto them. Then, I sprayed the backside with spray mount. Carefully, I placed the sticky side of the fabric to the sticky side of the cardstock, started from one edge and making sure there were no wrinkles as I went along.

After the fabric and the cardstock was been joined, I used the steel ruler and Xacto blade to trim out the cards. The blade needed to be super sharp, and I changed it every other cut, lest the fabric fray or pull.

That could be the last step, but in order to add that extra special touch, I decided to machine stitch around the edges of my cards with metallic thread. This was a pretty time consuming process, but I’ve found that most people are pretty impressed with them, which means they are more likely to actually check out my shop. Mission accomplished!

I really do enjoy scrapbooking…. but, to be honest, my scrap stash is so full, that I get too intimidated to begin each time I feel the urge! So, it’s kinda nice when I get the box from Jenni Bowlin with just one kit including everything I need inside. When I’m finished, I just dump it all back in the box. Perhaps that’s the true source of my problem… the box dumping. :/ Meh, ah well.

So here are my layouts I made so far with October’s kit. I used some of Jenni’s new paints for Ranger. I was quite pleased with the quality of the paint, and the little dabber is pretty handy as well. The reason I truly enjoy the kits every month is the inclusion of vintage elements, such as the tiny yoyos, tickets, old checks, and antique influenced designs. I think they add a lot of character, and let’s face it- scrapbooking isn’t really scrapbooking without scraps!

Thought I would share some of the craftiness I was up to while the girls came to stay for the weekend. More to come!