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.
Some time ago I added an awareness ribbon to the free sample cards on my Stitching Cards web site at the request of one of my customers. When I was designing the pattern I researched the background to these ribbons and found the history fascinating.
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.
Nike posted a message on my Form-A-Lines forum saying “I’m in love with stitching cards, but here, in Italy, there is nothing about it. Can you tell me what I need?” So for Nike and any other beginners here is my guide to making prick and stitch cards.
Assemble your materials and equipment. You will need:
I have been designing stitching cards for over ten years but the origins of the craft go back a long way in history. Card has probably been used as a base material for embroidery since card itself was first produced. In the 1800s sheets of perforated paper became available to needle crafters. This started the Victorian craze for stitching mottoes and sayings on card. Designs were usually worked in long parallel stitches to form areas of colour.
Today’s card embroidery designs are typically worked in long crossing stitches that form geometric shapes. In the early 1990s Dutch designer Erica Fortgens started writing books with instructions and patterns for making stitching cards using geometric shapes.
In the forward to her book “Embroidery on Paper” Erica Fortgens tells how she got started.
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.
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.
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.
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.