Making a picture from fabric swatches....

Thirty-One consultants are always looking for ideas for their fabric swatches. I saw something the other day using material and thought this would be cute to do with our fabric swatches.

First, I gathered my supplies. You will need your iron, ironing board (or kitchen counter with a towel on it), scissors, 10 different swatches of your choice, a piece of cardboard or tracing paper for your patterns and a package of Heat & Bond from Walmart. You want to get the package that says No Sew on it in the craft department.

Pick a background material. I just happened to have white. You can tell but it has little swirls of white flowers on it. The piece I made went in a 5 x 7 frame so just cut your material bigger than what your finished product will be. Press your material. It is important that you do not use steam on your iron, but using the setting recommended on the Heat & Bond package you buy.

Cut a little tree and a leaf pattern from your cardboard to be used on your design. 

Choose the material for your tree and cut it a little larger than your pattern and cut a piece of Heat and Bond a little smaller than the material. It is important on Heat and Bond to have it just a tad smaller than the material you are ironing it on. If not, the excess will stick to your iron or your ironing board. 

Lay the material face down and place the rough side of the Heat and Bond on the backside of the material. Hold your iron on it for about 5 or 6 seconds. Then place your pattern of your tree on the Heat and Bond side and trace it. Or you can just free hand it. Then cut out the shape of the tree. 

Once you do that, catch a corner of the Heat and Bond and remove it. The rough part will stay on the material and you can pitch the paper. 

Lay the tree on your material and hold the iron on it for 5-6 seconds, sealing it to the material. 

Repeat the process for the leaves.

Start placing the leaves where you want them and iron them on one at a time. 

When you are finished, you will have a cute little Thirty-One tree. I put a 31 and a heart on mine to fill up the white spaces, but you don't have to. Then I simply trimmed it to a 5 x 7 and placed it in my frame. 

It now sets on my desk where I sit for my Thirty-One business. 

This would be a cute thing to do for your hostesses. You could also do it in any size or even sew material around it and create a throw pillow.