I decided to enter a contest for fabric post cards, mainly because there is no entry fee. I get so tired of paying entry fees and not getting accepted, on top of all the time it takes to make stuff, shoot slides and label them, etc. The theme is "Arizona", so I figured I had to find a subject that was NOT the Grand Canyon. My mom lived in Globe, Arizona for several years and I visited her there several times, so I searched on Globe, and ended up at a site with some lovely photos of flowering cactus. One has the wonderful name of "Jumping Cholla."
I've been experimenting with printing on fabric, so I printed the photo onto a piece of cotton twill from Color Textiles (they sell the fabric already attached to paper, ready to put through your inkjet printer). Then I started hand embroidering over it with silk overdyed floss in various colors. I also added some ribbon--it is not easy to see in the photo, but I used some transparent gold ribbon over the center of the flowers, as well as a ruffled bit of green ribbon on the leaves.
When all the embroidery was done, I cut a piece of heavy watercolor paper to the right size, and sewed the embroidered piece onto it, attaching the binding at the same time. I flipped the binding over to the back and glued it down (actually I used Liquid Fuse, a product that you apply like glue, then iron--it fuses instantly, so I like to use it instead of glue). The edge is "raw" on the wrong side, but the fusible will keep it from fraying. I had already painted the paper side of the card in shades of green and blue.
Voila! Now I just need to make another one I can keep for myself...
--marina
