Holiday Card-Making

One of the inspirational crafty blogs I like to check out from time to time is Zakka Life.
She often has incredibly cute Japanese-inspired craft projects, and last week when I saw this adorable tutorial on making matryoshka doll cards, I knew EXACTLY what I was going to do for my holiday cards this year.

Of course, her cards are adorable as-is, but the main reason they inspired me is because I knew I could alter the materials list a little, and instead of using pretty paper, I could use up some of my fabric scraps, and save some boxes from the recycle bin. Cute AND eco-friendly? What more could you ask for!

First, I downloaded her template and printed out one copy.

Then, I cut out the template, and used the cutouts to transfer the pattern to the backs of some reclaimed cereal boxes. Beforehand, I used fusible interfacing to iron the fabric to the printed side of the boxes. You could also use mod podge to decoupage book pages or other sorts of pretty scrap paper to the cardboard.

Then, I carefully cut out the card and attached the faces with glue stick.

One note about the cutting: Most seamstresses know to never let your sewing scissors touch paper. This presents a problem on projects like this, since I discovered my craft scissors don’t cut through fabric worth a darn. I made one doll with my good scissors, but I could hear my Gramma scolding me with every cut. I’ll be headed out tomorrow to the craft store to get a pair of cheap sewing scissors before I make any more of these cards.

I also need to find my fine-point Sharpies to make better faces, but here’s the first card! I’ll post more after I’ve had a chance to make a few.