You Have Mail! Henna-Inspired Eid Cards
How to: Make affordable, henna inspired handmade cards.
(1) Print out your favourite henna patterns to scale. Check out The Henna Page.
(2) Draw out a design onto plain card that you're happy with copying out again for the final cards. You may download the above for non-commercial products. Mine are scaled to cover a DL sized greeting card (approx. 18"x4") ...
(2) I had thousands of cards printed with the Muslim phrase 'salam'alaikum' inside, meaning 'peace be with you'. It makes an interesting da`wah opportunity.
(3) Copy out your henna design onto the front of your card with markers, fineliners, metallic pens - something permanent and smudge-proof. Cut exact lengths of ribbon in a colour to match the henna and glue to the edge of the card.
(4) To add an Eidy sentiment get your hands on retro alphabet stamps and coloured inks from stationery stores...
(5) Before printing your final message on your cards, practice stamping with the ink onto scrap paper. If you've got excellent handwriting write your messages for a personal touch or use a printer for clean-cut fonts and sizing. Print onto paler coloured papers/card, cut them out and glue down in appropriate positions (don't wallop the eid message over the henna). I followed a black and navy blue theme for my 'eid mubarak' cards.
(6) And there you have it. Add strips of ribbon for a chic element, personalise each card with recipients' names, or add glitter-glue over the patterns for Eid-massy sparkle. I made around 100 for Eid-ul-adha, in comparison to the hundreds of Eid cards during Ramadan season.
Frugal bonus: in keeping with the henna theme, try upcycling old jewellery for extra Indiany pazzazz... (explained in my recent Green Prophet article on Upcycling)
Dab an ink pad over this card for texture before drawing a henna pattern over it in a darker coloured marker (below)
Cut a notch at the top of this card to loop on a dangly ear-ring. Fix the ear-ring in place with a double sided sticky-pad. And it's done. (below)
Give me a wave if you got an Eid card from me!
Masha Allah...This is one of the awesome tuts for Henna Community. Probably we will try it out in our own mehndi motifs...:)
ReplyDelete@Hina, cool, try it out and let us know how you do. (: ps. which henna community are you part of?
ReplyDelete