I Had a Favorite Dress Card Tutorial

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

Have a lovely {and creative} day!