Patriotic Card and Mini Tutorial

Hi everyone and happy Sunday.  Today I have a quick Patriotic card for you and a mini tutorial on a fun technique using seam binding. 

I looked at the calendar for the RRR design team to see who was posting over the weekend and imagine my surprise when I saw my name!  It seemed like a great idea when I was writing up the calendar in the end of May but I completely forgot about it.  Eeeek!!  Anyway, this is truly a quickie card - one half hour tops.  I included a mini tutorial on a quick and fun ruffle technique using seam binding.  It was inspired by a great video tutorial that Cheryl did on her blog with a slightly different technique using seam binding which you can see HERE. 

There are so many fun ways to use seam binding in your projects besides a bow.  This is one quick and easy ribbon treatment to add to your cards.

1)  Take a piece of seam binding about 2-3 times the finished length you want and fray the end a bit to look like the picture below.

2) Find a thread near the middle of the seam binding (see below) and gently pull.  You'll want to carefully coax the gathers along the seam binding until you have the finished length you want.  The threads are surprisingly strong, but do be careful because you don't want to be almost finished and have your thread break.

3) I typically use a little square of 1/2" Scor-Tape where I want to end the gathering and really burnish it down so it sticks well to all the threads (shown below).  You can use your bone folder to make sure it's really adhered well.  This will hold all the threads securely and keep the gathers where you want them.  Put another piece of tape on the opposite end to hold everything from moving.  You can then peel the backing off and use the tape to adhere the gathered ribbon to the card by folding it over the edge of your cardstock layers and sticking it to the back side.  I also leave a bit of the tail and secure it down on the back of the card with another piece of tape.

Once I adhered my gathered seam binding to the back of the blue layer I added my layered flag image over it with Helmar Zapdots to raise it a bit so it would lay flat over the gather ribbon.  Next I added red snaps and then adhered the whole panel to my red card base.   I then finished my card off with a three loop red seam binding bow made with my Bow Easy Tool. 

 Supplies:

stamp: Judi-kins

paper:  misc. cardstock from my stash

ink:  I colored the image directly on the stamp using LePlume markers

accessories:  Red Seam Binding, Helmar Zapdots, 1/2" Scor-Tape, Bow Easy Tool, Spellbinders label 17, Cuttlebug Polka Dot Embossing Folder, Making Memories snaps

Thanks so much for stopping by today.  If you try this technique, load a photo of your project in the photo section of your RRR Facebook page.  We'd love to see it! 

~ Bonnie ~