I Had a Favorite Dress Card Tutorial

Here's a sweet card tutorial for one of our favorite books. A mom teaches her little girl how to be resourceful by creating new clothing items out of an old (but favorite) dress. LOVE this book!

My mom gave us the book, I Had a Favorite Dress, a few years ago for Christmas, and it has been one of our favorites ever since. Author Boni Ashburn writes a story about an inventive mom and her precocious daughter that is perfectly paired with Julia Denos’ playful mixed media illustrations.

"I Had a Favorite Dress" is one of my favorite books. Love how creative the mom is with upcyclying her daughter's clothes!

The little girl’s favorite dress goes through several transformations in the book. Rather than tossing or donating the dress, the mom recycles the fabric into several different creations.

Here's a sweet card tutorial for one of our favorite books. A mom teaches her little girl how to be resourceful by creating new clothing items out of an old (but favorite) dress. LOVE this book!

Every time I read this book, I want to pull out my sketchbook and Make Something. My daughter has the same impulse. Must be in our blood. 😉

Today, I thought it would be fun to create a card as a homage to this wonderful book (which you can purchase here, if you’re interested.) We’ll be using a scrap of fabric, watercolor paints, and a blank card. Let’s get started!

Love Julia Denos' illustrations for "I Had a Favorite Dress"! This dress card tutorial is a homage to her work.

How to Make a I Had a Favorite Dress Card

You will need:

One blank card
Pencil
Kneaded eraser
Waterproof pen
Watercolors (my favorite vibrant ones are actually kid’s watercolors!)
Watercolor brush
Scrap of fabric
Scissors
Glue stick

Use your pencil to sketch a little girl on the front of the card. I drew my daughter dancing. 🙂 After you finish your light sketch, you can use the waterproof pen to draw over the lines.

Let dry and then erase with a kneaded eraser. You can see in the image below that I erased the skirt portion I had sketched previously.

Paint in your design with watercolors.

Here's a dress card idea you can use to make a unique card for a little girl.

Cut out a small piece of fabric, and glue to the card. I liked this fabric design because cutting along the edge of it made the skirt look like it was blowing in the wind.

Explore your cardmaking skills with this handmade card. Use leftover scraps of fabric as decoration!

This would be particularly sweet if you used a piece of fabric that is special to you. This fabric is from my sister’s scrap bag and is from a dress she made for my daughter. Memories.

Making this dress card for my little girl was so much fun! It's a simple illustration accented with a piece of scrap fabric. So easy!

I hope you enjoyed this simple tutorial. Have fun recycling your own bits of fabric into sweet cards! Follow my letter-writing board on Pinterest for more snail mail ideas or click the Letter-writing tab at the top of this page for ideas here at Little Girl Designs.

 

Follow my letter-writing Pinterest board for more fun letter writing, card making, and snailmail ideas.

Have a lovely {and creative} day!

 

 

8 thoughts on “I Had a Favorite Dress Card Tutorial

  1. This is just so precious! I don’t have any little girls but if I did I would be making this with them. Thank you so much for sharing at this week’s Project Inspire{d}.

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