Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Let's Create

Today I'd like to take you through my process of making a card with the focus on hand stitching.

Here's the card we're going to make



 Here are the supplies I used:
1 pc green cardstock paper, for card base
1 pc white carstock paper for decorated card front
1 pc MME Lime Twist  Fly A Kit 'Wish Ribbon' paper for inside of stitched heart

MME Lime Twist 'Spring' Accessory sheet
MME Lime Twist Fly A Kite 'Spring' Twine
Lillybee lime green alphabet stickers (any coordinating tiny size alphas will do)
Crafts - yellow rhinestone bling
Cosmo Cricket Social Club Butterfiles and Doilies (tiny yellow cardstock butterfly)
1 paper piercer and matt
1 chipboard shape for tracing.  I used the chipboard heart from the Crate Emma's Shop collection.
About 24 inches of DMC embroidery floss (I used Ecru, but any coordinating colour will do just fine)
1 sewing needle with a large eye, but this enough to keep the wholes in your stitching tiny and close together.

The first thing I did was cut out the card base.

Next I took the Crate Emma's Shop chipboard heart, and trace it in 2 places on the white cardstock at varying heights towards the left of the card.  I knew I wanted to add the sentiment to the right of the card, so I was sure to leave enough space.  Note: I often just draw my shapes freehand, tracing simply speeds up the process.


After I had the hearts where I wanted them, I added a line from the top of the paper to the top center of the heart.  I then, used my paper piercer, and pierce all the way around one heart.  You could do both hearts in this step.  I like to see success quickly so I finished off one heart completely with the stitching and the paper center, and and then moved on to the other heart.


Now for the sewing...
First you'll need to cut a 15" length of off white embroidery floss.  The project in it's entirely will require more thread than this, however working with shorter strands reduces the chances for knots in your thread as you are sewing.  It's very simple to add more thread to your project as you go.

Next you'll need to separate the thread (a skein of DMC thread has 6 ply).  We only need three ply for this project.  Separating the skein can be tricky if you pull too quickly.  It's best to pull slowly, holding your hands at eye level, and gradually moving them in opposite directions as you pull.


Thread your needle.  And sew through your pierced holes.  Simple regular sewing stitch - down up, down up

The half completed stitch heart from the back.





Once you have completed the heart one way, you need to go over it a second time.  This time you will stitch over the spaces in between each bit of thread filling up every hole, and every space where there is piercing. Your completed heart should look like this.

Completed heart view from the back
At this point is where I will trace and cut out the heart shape from the MME 'Wish Ribbon' paper.  You'll want to be sure to cut just inside the traced shape, making the shape just a tad smaller than it's original size.  This way the cut out will fit snugly inside the stitched heart.



Because the second heart will overlap the sentiment, you will need to add your lettering now, before stitching the second heart.  I just eyeballed the positioning of the letters.




Now stitch the second heart the same as you did the first.


Now remove the orange oval sticker from the MME 'Spring' Accessory sheet and place along the top right edge of the white cardstock, trimming off the top half of the sticker so it looks like this.


If you like the look, you may use your sewing machine to add more dimension to the card at this point by sewing a simple and/or zig zag stitch through the half cardstock sticker like this.  I did a little of both stitching styles.

At this point it is safe to mount the face of the card to the front of the green cardstock.  Doing it in this order allows you to hide all the the stitching that you've done, keeping it nice and clean looking all over.  Once you've mounted to front you may continue to add little details like a twine bow, and a tiny butterfly with the rhinestone center.  After that the only thing left is to add the rest of the sentiment to the inside of the card, and voilà you have a beautiful card that will make the day of someone you love. 

Here is my completed card

outside
inside
I hope you enjoyed this little tutorial, and that you found it easy to follow.  I welcome any feedback, suggestions, words of encouragement (hee hee) you have to send my way.  I hope to do more of these in the future so it would help greatly to know if you enjoy them.  Or perhaps you're curious about another technique you've seen me use on layouts and/or cards that you'd like me to outline for you.  Let me know in the comments sections and I'd be happy to oblige.

Enjoy your Wednesday friends.  You're halfway to the weekend!

♥ S.




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5 comments:

Lilith Eeckels said...

What a great tutorial Sherri. LOVE it. I've already used that technique for a title. You sure need to be patient!

xoxo... t said...

Fabulous tutorial!

Cynthia Lloréns said...

This is a great tutorial !!I loved !!
This is my first time in here and I´m follower now.
I wish a wonderful week.
Kisses and huges from Brazil
Cynthia

Cassandra aka Scrap Savvy said...

Fabulous tutorial girl! Your a natural.:)

Anonymous said...

Hi Sherri..a beautiful card and great tutorial!!..thanks for sharing! :) Gina x