Using Dies as Stencils for Stitching Templates: Altenew's Layered Floral Cover and Cross Stitch Canvas Dies

Happy Monday!  Is everyone settling into summer?   It is HOT here... I am perfectly content to stay home and get some crafting done until this heat wave passes.  100 degree temps?  NO thank you!

I've been meaning to share this cross stitch card I sent off to a crafty friend for a while.  I wanted to create a card using a cover die as a stencil, and chose Altenew's Layered Floral Cover Die A and their awesome Cross Stitch Canvas die.

After die cutting both panels, I used the layered floral die as a stencil to create the cross stitch pattern.  I colored in the sections using Copic markers.  

I then chose my thread colors and went to stitching!  

I'm not gonna lie... this stitching project is not for the faint of heart.  This took a while.  But it was well worth it.  I finished it with one of my favorite sentiments from Hero Arts and some Pretty Pink Posh sparkling clear sequins.  

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and card!  Have a great start to your week!  

Highlight Stitching Technique: Ellen Hutson and Waffle Flower Stitched Together

Hello everyone!  Sorry for my absence from the blog… apparently EVERY school project, presentation, concert, meeting, etc. has to happen within a 3-week period at the end of the school year.  It is chaos.  But I have been sneaking time in for crafting in amongst it all and I am so excited I was able to make some cards with the new Stitched Together from the Ellen Hutson United We Flourish collaboration with Waffle Flower.  I have a thing for globes, and I have an obvious thing for flowers and stitching.  So it was like the designers of this set read my mind and developed this set just for me!   I LOVE it.  

I decided to try a new-to-me-technique with this set that you could call highlight or spotlight stitching… just taking at portion of an image and stitching it for emphasis.  I thought stitching the flowers on the globe would add beautiful detail and texture to the card, so after stamping the stitched images and cutting out a panel with a stitched rectangle die, I poked holes in the corners of all the flowers. 

This is not as tedious as it looks, I promise.  If you try this technique, take your time and don’t poke your holes too large.  I poked all the holes in about 10 minutes.  

Then stitch them up!  Because these images are somewhat small, I found the thinnest needle I could fit my thread through and started stitching.  I used two strands of floss for each color.  

I had so much fun stitching the first card that I made two more!  I used a Pretty Pink Posh “Lovely” die to make the larger “love” in two of the cards to switch up the sentiment.  

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial!  If you give this technique a try, I would love to see the results! 

Simon Says Stamp Sending Sunshine Release: Stitched Sending Spring Love Card

Has everyone seen Simon Says Stamp’s latest Sending Sunshine release?  Oh my.  So many awesome products.  I was so happy to be able to create with their new Four Seasons Sayings stamps.  I loved this set as soon as I laid eyes on it… the sayings are so versatile and you can use it to create cards all year round.  So great!  

I used Simon’s More Spring Flowers to create the foundation of my card.  After watercoloring the flowers with my Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers, I used the stitch lines on the flowers to add some stitching to the flowers.  I also decided to stitch over the “Spring” in the sentiment to add more interest.  I then created an envelope with my envelope punch board and added even more stitching to that, tucking the flowers in an arrangement inside.  I then decided to mount the envelope on a panel that I ink blended with Tumbled Glass Distress Ink and finished the card with some Pretty Pink Posh sparkling clear sequins.  

I hope you enjoyed this walkthrough and the card!  

Cross Stitching on Cards With No Dies

Happy Thursday, everyone!  I have to preface this post by saying that I warned you… I was going to make something with a flower.  And I am a girl who is true to her word!  😂  I am so excited about this card.  I was curious to see if I could try a technique for stitching on cards that doesn’t require the use of any special dies.  This is the result.  It is easy, fun, and VERY addictive (I have already started on my second card in a day 😬).  

This tutorial is based on the card I just started (I didn’t photograph the card shown above because I really wasn’t sure I was going to like the way it turned out... lesson learned!)  First, I looked around on Pinterest for a cross stitch pattern I liked.  After copying the image, I pasted it into my word processing program, sized it to fit on an A2-sized card and printed it out.  From there, I cut out the image and temporarily adhered it to my card front.  

I then poked holes in the corner of all the squares.  I promise that this is not as tedious as it sounds… it goes quite fast and was actually pretty meditative.  

When you’re done with the holes, use your image as a guide and start stitching!  Easy peasy cross stitching… no magic happening here.  

Here is a picture of the pattern I started with along with the result.  

When your card is done, the results are stunning.  I love the way the image just floats in the middle of the card without a bunch of surrounding holes; I think it gives it a more modern, updated look.  I also love how you’re not limited to patterns that will fit within the confines of a die.  You can customize the size of your image, the colors… oh, the possibilities! 

I finished my image by popping the panel up on some fun foam for dimension. I added some gold splatters, a Simon Says Stamp love sentiment and some Pretty Pink Posh sequins for sparkle.  I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and I would love to hear if you try this technique!