Way back in the swinging 1960s I was given a string art kit for Christmas. The kit had silver string, black felt for the background, a backing board and lots of nails. The picture was a sailing boat. I had great fun making the picture and it hung proudly in the hall for many years.
A Glasgow rose motif leads to six Art Nouveau stitching card patterns
My latest set of designs for the Stitching Cards web site feature an Art Nouveau style rose. The rose design was influenced by a popular motive of the Glasgow Style known as the ‘Glasgow Rose’.
This cabbage like rose is said to have been adapted from drawings by Aubrey Beardsley by Charles Rennie Mackintosh in the late 1880’s and 90’s.
How a Swiss fireplace inspired a Christmas stitching pattern
Earlier this summer I went on holiday to the beautiful village of Klosters in the Swiss mountains. It is in a tree lined valley with wooden chalets built alongside a fast flowing river. We stayed in a traditional hotel and the lounge area had a large fireplace.
How to protect your embroidered cards in the post
When your card goes in the post it will pass automatic sorting machines that have a series of guide rollers. It may be turned around sharp bends and squashed in the franking machine. Not to mention the rough time it may have in the mail sack.
If your delicate stitch work or bead work has only the paper envelope to protect it there is a good possibility that it may suffer.
A beaded flower card at Needle ‘n Thread
Mary Corbet tells how she made a beaded flower card on her Needle ‘n Thread website. The design was from a Stitching Cards pattern and it looks stunning.
Mary made the card for her auntie’s 90th birthday. Mary says “I found that I liked poking the little holes in the paper… and so I ended up setting up about 15 cards”. She found that she could easily stack three pieces of card stock and prick them all at the same time.
Hand embroidered paper bookmark at Hooked on Needles
You can see a beautiful interpretation of the Stitching Cards flowering vine pattern at Mary Grace McNamara’s website Hooked on Needles.
It was made as a bookmark for her Auntie’s 90th birthday. Mary embroidered it in DMC stranded embroidery floss on a mottled green card stock. After stitching she mounted the green card on larger piece of yellow card stock to hide the stitching on the back and to form an attractive border.
Stitching cards in the Form-A-Lines forum gallery
My Form-A-Lines forum has a number of enthusiastic greetings card stitchers among its members. I can recommend a visit to the new cards section of the gallery this week as it contains several beautiful stitching cards.
“Strawberry” by Eileen Scott is a gorgeous combination of stitching, decoupage and cutting.
Improvising a pricking mat for stitching cards
If you are making a lot of cards with the prick and stitch method it is well worth getting one of the purpose made pricking mats that will be sold by your favourite craft store. Pricking mats are usually made from compressed fibre, felt or polyurethane foam. The size will be around 9 x 6 inches (22 x 16 centimetres) and ½ inch (1 centimetre) thick.
Finding a substitute pricking tool
You want to try the prick and stitch technique but do not want to spend out on a purpose made pricking tool until you are sure you will enjoy this card making technique. The solution is to look for a sharp pointed object that you already own. Here are some suggestions:
Free stitching card corner scroll pattern
This corner scroll pattern is easy to stitch directly on to a greetings card. The simple design is worked in stem stitch. The photograph below shows the scrolls on a hammered cream card stitched in green thread. I have added a photograph of an iris that I took in my garden. You could add a picture with decoupage, rubber stamping, teabag folding etc.Corner scroll card with an iris picture.The corner scrolls could also be used on a square card by repositioning the pricking pattern…