This is card #11 of 50 hand-stitched cards made in about an 18-month period. I had been searching for a few years to find a way to incorporate hand-stitching onto cards to make some truly special cards for my Mom, who is a master cross-stitch her, but I had not found anything that I felt would truly suffice. Then, I was blessed to watch a YouTube by Jennifer McGuire, where she introduced a die by Paper Smooches that would allow one to actually stitch on cardstock. I was excited and felt that this could be my answer. Jennifer McGuire also gave a brief introduction to some basic stitches, and this combined with what I had watched my Mom do when she did needlepoint long ago, and then cross stitch for the past several decades, and I was on my way to finding a way to create a hand-stitched card. All of the designs are my own with the exception of 2 cards, and I will list the creator of those designs when I upload them. So far, all of the designs of the 11 cards I have uploaded in this series, plus the 4 cards with hand-stitching I uploaded previously (all of the hand-stitched cards that I have uploaded) have been created with my own designs, from the hand-stitched patterns to the color combinations, to the embellishments and the layouts, it is all my own designs.
Originally, it was my plan to make a set of about 12 hand-stitched cards for my Mom, and I had hoped to give those plus a hand-stitched birthday card to her for her 80th birthday. But I was only able to bring to her a hand-stitched 80th birthday card, with the promise that I would give her a set of hand-stitched cards as soon as I could.
When I returned to Ontario from New Brunswick, I started making more of the hand-stitched pieces, and I found that hand-stitching was very relaxing and very enjoyable, especially creating simple patterns and cor combinations. Then, I discovered that Altenew had created a larger hand-stitching die called the Pegboard die, and I started to do some hand-stitching with this die. Again, I was introduced to this die via Jennifer McGuire in another YouTube tutorial, I tend to watch her tutorials regularly and I enjoy them, and I really respect her work as well as her priorities, and how she loves to support others in whatever she does. In time, I had created approximately 50 hand-stitched cards, and I gave a giant set of them to my Mom, consisting of 44 cards with a variety of sentiments. My original concept was to create perhaps 12 hand-stitched cards for my Mom to give to her friends who love cross-stitching as much as she does. But when I was making a considerably larger set, I decided that although some of the cards would be for fellow cross-stitches, and thst others would be for other types of crafting or for crafting in general, that I needed to make some for her friends and family who were not Crafter's, but who would enjoy receiving a hand-stitched card from my Mom, since Mom loves to stitch so much. I had planned on fling these cards with embellishments, but I realized that even for the cards for fellow Crafter's, that it was important that the Hand-stitching had the center focus. Thus, many, like this card for a knitter likely would be more in a CAS style, a style which I tend to only use for making masculine cards.
All of the patterns that I have uploaded and color combinations have been my own. I have made 2 hand-stitched pieces that I made into cards that I copied the patterns, if I upload those, I will acknowledge my source.
This is the second card that I have uploaded that utilized the larger hand-stitching surface made by the Altenew Pegboard hand-stitching die. With this card, I was trying to create a pattern that might reassemble some knitting, and I decided to incorporate lots of joyous colors. When I added only a large ball of yarn and two knitting needles, both die-cut from silver foil cardstock, I was pleased with the results. But, for some reason, in this photo, the two knitting needles and the ball of yarn look white, but they were cut from silver foil cardstock. The close-up view shows the knitting tools to look more silver in that photo.
I chose a very bold and large, yet simple sentiment die by Kaisercraft, their well done die. I absolutely love this die, and I loved it more when I cut it from purple fun foam that was backed in adhesive, although I also chose to add some small dots of The Ultimate glue to ensure that it would hold. I really love how Gina K's Tranquil Teal cardstock especially when embossed with an embossing folder with a simple knitted stitch really grounds all of the colors in the Hand-stitching, as well as the gorgeous well done purple die-cut in fun foam. I truly love the dimension achieved when I use fun foam. In some previous cards, starting with Ben's Grad card from 4 years ago, when he graduated from middle school, I used a medium layer of glossy accents on each grad die-cut, and I truly loved the effect that it produced. One SCS member talked about these die-cut words looked like molten glass, and I loved that analogy. I recently used that on Ben's H S grad card but in a slightly different way--I haven't uploaded it yet. This time though, I decided to leave the fun foam as it is, because I really liked how it looked, but I am aware that fun foam is very delicate and very prone to being damaged, and I would not recommend mailing a card like this because of the fun foam. I want to play around more with it, I have a few ideas...
Because I felt that this card still needed a little something more, I pulled out my Studio Katia sparkling crystals and added a few on the teal embossed layer for a hint of tone-on-tone sparkle. I love Studio Katia's crystals and her pearls, actually, I am a big fan of her embellishments and I have some of her dies and stamps. She is a fellow-Canadian, and I am proud of what she creates and if you have not tried her products, I'd invite you to check them out, either on her website or at Simon Says Stamp.
I thank you so much for stopping by to take a look at my hand-stitched card. When someone likes what I create enough to stop and write a comment, it means a great deal to me, and it's a huge encouragement to me. That is why that I try to leave comments on cards that touch my heart, cards that I admire, because I know how uplifted I feel when someone leaves a comment on one of my cards.
Have an enjoyable and a safe day. We are very blessed to be able to enjoy creating cards no matter whether we can get out or not especially during this pandemic, and I appreciate having this hobby to enjoy and to be able to express myself artistically by creating cards.
Date: Tuesday, July 14, 2020 GMT Views: 527
Favorited:2
Registered: April 16, 2008 Location: Meridian, Idaho Posts: 8507
Tue, Jul 14, 2020 @ 11:01 PM
I so admire all your stitched cards, I don't have a lick of talent or the patience that you do to create such wonderfully intricate panels for your cards. It's so sweet that you're making these for your mother to send out, I'm sure she and the recipients will love receiving them!
------------------------------ Stef
Splitcoast Color Challenge Design Team Splitcoast Dirty Dozen Alumni