Instructor Trudy Foslein pictured with napkin cards she made.
Instructor Georgia Brosnihan with finished cards from class.
Triple-layer card
Paper baskets class
Napkin cards made in class.
Jaine Toth
What are the uses of a napkin? If I’d been asked that any time prior to April 2021, I’d have said simply to wipe one’s hands or mouth during and after a meal.
But, like many of the most unlikely items, napkins can be made into works of art. Trudy Foslein taught a class where we used decorative napkins to create a greeting card. You cut a piece of cardstock, carefully lay it atop the specific section of the napkin you wish to use for your card, and then turn it over and gently smooth it out. Next, you glue a portion of the napkin, with one or two of the designs, to a scrap piece of cardstock and cut them out. The glued napkin pieces are then placed in a cardboard box and sprayed (outdoors) with a glitter lacquer. When dried, the larger napkin portion is glued onto a slightly larger piece of colored stock and then onto the front panel of the greeting card. Next, the cutouts are placed atop their identical design with a self-adhesive pop dot to create a 3-D effect. The finished product is surprisingly elegant.
The fun and adventure of learning new techniques keeps us all coming back to the Robson Paper Crafting Club with eager anticipation. Take for example another class, taught by Georgia Brosnihan, in which she showed us how to create a triple layer effect. One gathers three different sizes of cardstock, uses repositionable adhesive to stack them, and then stamps so the design covers parts of two or three of them. Then, they are separated, and each is glued onto a slightly larger piece of colored cardstock. Next, they are layered again with permanent adhesive. The end result causes the viewer to wonder how the various pieces line up so well.
Creating scrapbooks and handmade greeting cards is the most common thing we do in paper crafting, but Pam Dunfee introduced us to something more unique. We created little gift baskets out of cardstock.
Some made them into mini Easter baskets. I used mine as a birthday gift, along with a handmade friendship booklet. My friend, who was turning 93 and is bedridden, was more interested in the basket than anything else—even the chocolates that filled it. She held onto it during our entire visit and kept showing it to her family and caregivers, saying, “Jaine made this. She made it herself.”
What seemed at first to be a daunting task turned out to be much easier than any of us imagined. The design is cut out on the Cricut machine, then gently pried out and carefully folded and glued together. Next, you can decorate it with whatever embellishments you choose. Most of us also tied ribbon bows on them.
There’s always something new to learn. Come join us on our paths of discovery at the Creative Arts Center on Mondays from 9 a.m. to noon and Thursdays from noon to 4 p.m. Contact Pat Serveiss for information at 719-661-1582 or [email protected].