I love making and giving homemade cards. They can be so much more special, not to mention more affordable, than purchased cards. I made this card for my Mum for her birthday and I’m really pleased with how it turned out. It took quite a while because of the embroidery, but my Mum is awesome and worth the effort. It would also be suitable for a Mothers’ Day card, so I thought I’d give a brief little tutorial on how I made it so you can make one too! It would be easy to adapt this theme to suit any special person in your life by changing the text (e.g. daughter, sister, husband) and embroidering a design that suits the occasion.
To make a card like this, you will need:
- A5 piece of card, folded in half to make an A6 card
- A4 piece of parchment paper
- Another rectangle of card a bit smaller than A6 size
- computer and printer
- embroidery thread and needle
- sticky tape
- glue stick
- craft glue or double-sided tape
- pin
- cutting mat
- A6 envelope
- optional: spiky wheel thingy (that’s what they’r called, right?)
To start off, open a word processing program and create an A4 document with 2 columns (the width of each column will fit nicely on the A6 card). You can copy and paste a dictionary definition into the document from the internet or just write whatever you want. I started with a dictionary definition, but I added to it and embellished it a bit. Print on plain paper to check the size of the text and once you’re happy with it, print it on the parchment paper. Cut a rectangle around the text so it will fit on the A6 card with a narrow border around the edges. Using the glue stick, glue the text to the extra piece of card, then trim the card to the same size as the piece of parchment. Sketch your embroidery design while waiting for the glue to dry.
Arrange the placement of the daisy motif on the parchment. Secure to your cutting mat with a little bit of sticky tape, but avoid letting the tape touch the parchment incase it tears. Use a pin and a spiky wheel thingy to poke holes about 5 mm apart along the lines of your design. It takes longer to exclusively use a pin, but keep in mind that the wheel doesn’t turn tight corners easily, so you will need to use a pin for at least some of the design. Remove the design and have a look at the parchment. It will probably look like a mess of dots, but don’t worry, doing the embroidery is kind of like doing a dot-to-dot drawing that you may have done as a child.
Embroider the motif using chain stitch and starting with the stem and leaf first, followed by the petals and leaving the centre of the flower until last. Don’t tie knots to secure the thread. Instead, use a tiny piece of sticky tape to secure it on the back before poking the needle through to the front. To sew chain stitch, poke the needle through to the right side and pull the thread through. Poke the needle back down exactly the same hole, but don’t pull the thread all the way through – leave a loop of thread. Then insert the needle up through the next hole, making sure the needle goes through the loop of thread. Pull the thread through gently. You have stitched the first link in the chain. Insert the needle back down through the same hole, again leaving a loop, which you catch when you bring the needle back up through the next hole.
Continue in this manner to sew over all of the dotted lines in your design. When you finish each thread, secure it on the back with a small piece of sticky tape.
Embroidery can take time, so plonk yourself in front of the telly, or do as I did and sit outside with a cup of tea to embroider in the sunshine!
Once you’ve finished the embroidery, use craft glue or double sided tape to attach the parchment to the front of the card. Voila! The card is finished! Pair it with a recycled, brown paper envelope for a rustic touch.
© 2012, Angela. All rights reserved. On reposting any images contained herein you must provide link to original post. Please don’t repost entire posts without my permission.
