How to Make a Fiber ATC (Artist Trading Card)

How to Make a Fiber ATC


Photo 1. The first thing I had to do with all of them is decide what I wanted to do -- yes, the idea comes first to me -- that way I'm not limited in my mind by what I see in front of me. My first subject is "where the artist dwells" -- and my dwelling was in the snowy mountains of Vermont!

Photo 2. Now that I have an idea, I took myself off to Joann's yesterday and wandered through the fabric aisles. I spotted a lacy bit with little dots that look like snow ... and a white satiny fabric that could be cut into mountains, and finally a white shimmery piece that would be snow close up ... and from my stash I have this lovely night background. I decided to put my house in this little piece, too, so here you see my house fabrics.

Photo 3. For this series I'm going to work with a larger piece and cut it up when I'm finished. Steph showed me how to do this the other day, so this is my first effort. I cut my background fabric into a strip that is 4"high -- giving myself a little extra space to work with -- and 16" wide (I'm going to be cross cutting these into 2 1/2" pieces when I'm finished and this was an easy measurement to work with). Next I cut the pretty dotted lace into a strip about half that.

Photo 4. For the first mountains I took another 3" by 16" strip and just made cuts to look like mountains and glue basted that in place. These are the mountains furthermost from me so they look more "pointy".

Photo 5. The next layer is shinier mountains a bit closer and a bit more rounded ... I wanted them brighter because they are closer to me. I just random cut along the length.

Photo 6. So here are the first four layers of my ATC already in place ... my background (with the blue snow and stars; the "distant" mountains; and the closer mountains. I've put a bit of basting glue on each piece to hold it where I've placed it.

Photo 7. Finally I took the white shimmery stuff and cut a 1" strip by width of fabric. For this I did a very wide random zig zag stitch by hand so that I could gather it up a little bit as I was laying it down to really give it depth since it is in the foreground. Presto!! my snow drifts!

Photo 8. For this demonstration, I cut apart my background to work with one little card and make sure the house was in the right place. The house is simply a little square and a little triangle glued on here -- I'll quick stitch it down later on ... cute, huh?

Photo 9. This is a piece of Angelina fiber -- actually it's two pieces -- green and white. This is a fusible fiber that I've just begun playing with. It's a little like thin weight Easter basket grass and you spread it out on a piece of parchment paper, cover with another piece of parchment and apply an iron. This fuses the fibers together and makes this into a bit of something that can be cut, shaped, etc. I thought I needed a little color in my snow scene, so I made this piece of fiber then cut out little triangles for trees.

Photo 10. Now I've tucked my little tree in place here and it's time to be off to the sewing machine. I loaded a metallic needle and white shimmery metallic thread and my free motion foot to stitch everything down.

Photo 11. Here's my first little ATC all stitched up. Now I'm going to add some beads for glamor and then we'll be putting it together. More to come! Let's make it ready for trading!

Photo 12. Here I'm attaching fusible webbing to the back of my strip. Because there are so many thicknesses of fabric, I won't need any kind of stiffener in between the top and backing. If it was flimsier, I could put a piece of timtax there to make it nice and stiff.

Photo 13. Next I placed the strip on a white background and fused it to the fabric. I cut them to size after the top and backing were together. For a stiffer card, you can fuse the top to a piece of interfacing or batting or whatever you like, then fuse backing to that.

Photo 14. My fabric strips have an application of fusible bonding -- Steam-a-Seam -- fused to the backs. I then fuse a piece of batting or stiff interfacing or timtex. You don't have to use this -- you can put a piece of card stock in there ... I just like them a bit stiffer. Once the "middle" is bonded, I apply the fusible bonding to a final piece of fabric, which then gets fused to the whole piece. My sandwich is now complete. Cut your pieces to size, if necessary; or if you've done them individually, trim them up to the correct size, and apply your edge finishing.

Photo 15. Here are three different finished, but certainly not the ONLY way to finish! On the left is a fluffy fiber; middle is a slimmer fiber, and on the right it is zigzagged. You can also satin stitch, trim with fancy scissors or any other method you dream up. Most of all ... HAVE FUN MAKING THEM!!