Birds & Words

Sunday, March 4, 2012

Dusting Off an Old Favorite

So my friend, Charri Hogslett came in and asked for help on a technique problem.  We had been shopping together several months ago and saw some lovely napkins.  I mentioned to her they would make pretty cards and explained how you could use kitchen plastic wrap to fuse napkins to cardstock and make cards with a really interesting texture.

Charri tried it at home recently and it didn't work.  At all!  She brought her things into the store that she had used and we tried it together and she was right.  Zero.  We puzzled over it and couldn't figure out what we were doing wrong, tried to think if we were skipping a step.  Nothing.  It was weird, I had done this before and even included it in a class I taught.

Another couple happened to be in the store then, a husband and wife.  The lady was doing some shopping and her husband was watching us try to figure it out.  He looked and the plastic wrap and said, "This is microwavable wrap.  It doesn't melt."  Duh!!  That was it.  We needed the plastic wrap to melt to make the technique work.

So here's the trick:
Choose a napkin you like and peel away all the layers that don't have print on them.  Napkins have several layers and you have to peel away to just a single layer, its almost see though.
On an ironable surface, layer cardstock, then NON-microwavable plastic wrap, then the napkin.
Cover with newsprint or a page from a magazine.
Iron with a dry iron for 10 or 15 seconds.
The plastic wrap should melt and fuse the napkin to the cardstock.  You have sort of a suede like finish that gives you an interesting texture.

Here's a card I did using Charri's napkins, after we finally figured it out!

I tore the napkin for this one.  The prettier your napkin, the prettier your card.  :-)
Try it!  Send me a pic and I'll post it here.  Thanks for following!  ~cheryl~

1 comment:

  1. Such a nice card it reflects the creativity and good work of the designer. Cheryl thanks for sharing the idea.

    Plastic Cards
    Plastic Cards

    ReplyDelete