Friday, February 4, 2011

TUTORIAL ~ valentine's day embroidered cards!

So, the past few days I have been thinking of making Valentine's cards for my "near and dear". Also, my best friend and I have been talking about sewing on paper, it just sounds so cool, and I don't remember ever seeing it done before! So I decided to mix the two ideas. After I was done with this, I got on etsy and looked up embroidered cards, I was wrong :( we didn't just think of it! Oh well... on to the tutorial!
You will need:

Thick paper
Needle
Embroidery thread in desired color
pencil, scissors and eraser

THAT'S ALL! How EPIC is that? (the answer is pretty epic!) Here is what it is going to look like: First step: fold a piece of cardstock in half.
Cut off all edges to make your card straight and the size you want it. (obviously not the folded edge!!)










Step two: Sketch out what you want your card to say, remember, write lightly... you do NOT want to leave any dents in your paper!!







Go back and fix your fails...




Now lightly erase everything you just wrote, just so that the pencil mark is barely showing!













Sorry this picture is terrible! This is what it should look like now ( BTW there are light letters on there!):











Get out your thread and thread it all and tie a knot at one end.











Hold it up so that the light makes a shadow of where your needle is. You should be able to see your letters/lines so you know where to poke. (again, sorry for the bad pictures, I took them at night!)










Poke through and do a running stitch following your lines:














(up close)













(the "i" is complete)




























just keep stitchin'!


















Tie a knot (if you think you might run out of thread. If you know you won't, definitely skip this step.)























































ALMOST there!




















(sorry, I just had to show you how little thread I had left! Sooo glad I tied that knot!)



















Done!!!!






























That wasn't hard was it? NO IT WASN'T! It only takes an hour max.! If the back of the card's messiniess really disturbs you, use another piece of paper to cover it up. :D
(If you mess up and poke a hole in a bad spot, don't panic, just pull your needle out {the way it went in} and use the back of your needle to gently push the little flappies* back over the hole. I had to do this once or twice and I can't even tell where they are!)
*made up word, I think you get the point. right?
Thanks for reading this and comment if you like it!
I am linking this post up to:
The Shabby Nest <
<<><><><><><>>>>>















5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Very sweet! I love embroidery on paper, did you see the embroidered leaves on the features from Craft Schooling sunday? Thanks so much for sharing, and hope you'll be back soon!

Alyssa - Live. Love. Craft. said...

I did see the embroidered leaves and I thought they were sooo cool! I love your blog and thank you so much for taking the time to comment on my blog, it really does mean alot to me!

Unknown said...

Oh my goodness I love this! The stitching adds such a cute touch to it!

Thanks for sharing in FFA!

Hannah

Rachel (Lines across my face) said...

Cute idea! It looks great :)

Anonymous said...

Hey, its me... (sophie) ((who else))...
ANYWAY, i was going thru your blog again, and i saw this! I remember when you gave it to me! HAPPY DAY! soo, we need to spend a day crafting sooooon! I miss you (i know i saw you yesterday) but i still miss you. ok now, im done.