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Saturday 28 January 2012

A Valentine Card

I always make a valentine card for my husband, but of course, traditionally, valentines must be anonymous, and so it's never signed! (I'm pretty sure he know who is 'secret admirer' is, though!)

This year, I decided to do a mainly stitched card.


The heart frame came from a book I bought recently called 101 Ideas for Embroidery on Paper by Erica Fortgens. I bought it from Amazon, and I was a little disappointed in it. The front cover of the book is full of various stitched borders and I thought it was exactly what I wanted. In fact, there are no actual borders inside. There are some frames, including some square and rectangular frames which I can adapt, but no actual borders. More irritating is the fact that some of the ideas rely on buying separate brass stencils with pricking patterns on them. Still, I decided there are enough ideas that I'll use, so I'll be keeping the book.

I had to increase the size of the heart circle, which I did by photocopying at 1.41 of the original size (equivalent to blowing A5 up to A4). I pricked some mirror card, and stitched it with some red thread that I think is intended for machine embroidery but which I think works perfectly on paper.

The plain border on the matting was done using the new (to me at least) Sew Easy from Making Memories. I bought the handle and a few pricking wheels from Hobbycraft, and was very disappointed with the result. Using a pricking mat I already owned or a foam mouse mat, I either got no pricking or the card got so mangled it wasn't usable. I decided to give the thing one more chance, and bought the pricking mat designed for the purpose, and had much better results. It will still work best on paper that's really too thin for stitching on, but it can be made to work with 'normal' card, providing you don't try to use one of the more complicated wheels. The straight line wheel that I used here, and one that does a blanket-stitch type effect worked well. The one that's supposed to put little circles of holes - I think it's called 'burst' or 'starburst' just won't work.

Here, I pricked some card, then matted it onto gold mirror board, and then I went round and pricked the holes right into the lower layer before back stitching using gold thread.

The sentiment was created in Photoshop Elements and cut with a scalopped circle nesitbility die.

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:


Allsorts where they want one or more hearts
Di's Digis where they want valentines,
One Stop Crafts where they want stitching,
My Sheri Crafts where they want something new (new book and new Sew Easy)
Stamp, Scrap and Doodle where anything goes,
Mami Doodles where they want something for a loved one,
The Poodles Parlour where they want love/valentine projects,
Stamping with the Dragon where anything goes,
Wags n Whiskers where the theme is love/valentines,
Craft Us Crazy where the theme is 'full of love'

12 comments:

Dolly Daydreams said...

Wow!!!!!! This is so beautiful, I love it, gorgeous design and colours and the stitching is amazing.

Marie

Meggymay said...

Fantastic colours, its a beautiful card.
Yvonne

Dawn said...

Wonderful card! I just love the hearts! Thank you for joining us at OSCC! Good Luck!

Deb said...

Those hearts are amazing, what a beautiful card
Deb
xxx

Anita said...

Wow, that's a lot of stitching and it's beautiful! Thank you for joining Di's DigiDesigns challenge.

lalkygirl said...

what a wonderful card ,your stitching looks fab and is sooo neat
thanks for joining us at the poodle parlour and good luck
tracey x

Unknown said...

WOW! I Love, Love the stitch work, so creative and beautiful. Thank you for joining us at Stamp, Scrap and Doodle Saturdays!

Letillia said...

Lovely Card, I love the Stitching! Thanks for joining us @ My Sheri Crafts!!

Letillia
divaof5.blogspot.com

tiggertastic said...

this must of taken you so long, but worth every minute
Good luck in the challenges, hugs Sarah-Louise My Blog
Designing for:
Crafty Purple Frog , Craft Us Crazy ,Bearly Mine Designs and DT Coordinator Kenny K

Craftyrose said...

Sucha beautiful card. The little red hearts are amazing. Thanks for joining us at Di's digi challenge. x

Ruth Little said...

Fellow stitcher...great job! The card looks wonderful! I understand your frustration but bring you good news! I believe I have a book that fits the description of what you are looking for. It has borders and no need for any extra stencil or what not. It's by the same author and the title is Basics of Embroidery on Paper. It has a lot to offer.

Again...great card. And thanks for joining us at Stamping with the Dragon.

Charlotte said...

Just wonderful!! I love the stitching. It just always creates a great look. Thanks for joining MSC.
Charlotte

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