I originally designed the candle pattern for my String Art Fun web site and it has been popular with string art enthusiasts. A number of card crafters have said that they would like to try it as a greetings card pattern so I have now converted it for prick and stitch…

I guess that at this time of the year Christmas cards are a very popular choice. However, if you think about the whole year what kind of subject do you find yourself stitching the most?

When you are stitching your pattern it is very inconvenient and confusing if you missed one or two holes when you were pricking it out. This is most likely to happen where the holes are in a random pattern or there are lots of them in a small area…

Small seed beads and bugle beads require the use of a much thinner needle than I use for the non-beaded stitching. I use a size 10 English beading needle. These needles can be tricky to thread due to the small eye. I find it best to use a single strand thread rather than multi-stranded which could split as it is pushed through the eye of the needle…

This is a birthday card that I made for my brother who is a train enthusiast. When the ribbon at the back of the card is pulled a slider causes the middle of the card to fold so that the train is pulled upright.

The slider mechanism can be used with a stitching pattern of your choice. I have used the train pattern that can be purchased as part of the Form-A-Lines steam set. It is stitched in green, grey and silver thread on cream linen card. The card base is a grey linen card…

Following on from my post about seed beads, here is some information about bugle beads. Bugle beads come in a variety of lengths but will always be longer than they are thick. This creates a bead with a tubular shape…

I am often asked about the beads used for my card embroidery patterns on the Stitching Cards web site. I like to use silver lined glass beads because they give a jewel like effect when they reflect the light. The small round beads are usually referred to as seed beads. The beads are 2mm in diameter or 1/8 inch or aught size 10/0 (ten-aught). Various bead sellers uses different measurements when describing the beads so I have given the three most popular…

I made this card using the free Christmas tree pattern available from the Form-A-Lines web site. The cut out tree is hinged on the front panel of the card so that it gives a 3D effect when the card is displayed open.

I started by stitching the Christmas tree on a sheet of hammered white card…

I have been looking at the search terms that visitors have used to find this blog. “Easy stitching patterns” appears regularly. So with this in mind I have designed a Christmas pattern that should be easy for beginners to stitch. If you are not a beginner it will be good for producing quicker stitched Christmas cards…

Emma J, who is a member of my Stitching Cards forum, suggested that I design some art nouveau style text to go with the rose patterns that I recently added to the Stitching Cards range. The proposition appealed to me because I believe that a hand stitched greeting can add the finishing touch to a hand stitched card…