Valentine's Day Cards

Sew, mama sew http://sewmamasew.com/blog2/?p=4778 has an incredibly inspiring tutorial and contest for Valentine's Day. So I decided to participate, as I was just that inspired. I decided to do Valentine's Day cards from my 14 month old twin sons to the special people in their lives (mostly grandparents and such).

Each card is two layers of fabric on the front and one layer of fabric on the back with two layers of stabilizer inside, as I embroidered each side independently and then sewed them together. The two layers for the front allowed me to embroider a monster on the underneath layer that then appears to be ripping through to the front. Each envelope is two layers (with the exception of the green one). I machine-embroidered the cards using files from http://www.urbanthreads.com. I LOVE their work. It stitches out so perfectly each time. The monsters on the backs of the cards are actually stuffies, but I turned them into appliqués for this project. I did one monster for each of my twins, though I didn't try to match the monsters too much to my actual sons. :)

Set #1

Set #2

Set #3

Set #4

Set #5

I don't really care if I win, though it would be cool. I really enjoyed making them. I also got to thinking about how easy it would be to make them out of quilter's layer cakes, since they are already laser cut into 10" squares, which is PERFECT for the envelopes. Then you'd just have to cut down the pieces for the cards, which wouldn't be that big of a deal. Getting the envelopes perfectly square is the hardest and most important part. If that first square isn't ideal, then you'll end up with weird envelopes.... don't ask how I know this. Maybe I'll post pictures of that some other time :).