More Stitched Christmas Cards - Quick and Easy!

It's two days before Christmas. Are you ready? Do you still have one or two more little things to finish up and just not enough time to get it done? Here is an idea for a quick and easy, but still mostly handmade, card that could be framed later and made into a pretty little Christmas decoration.


This is a card that my daughter made for my parents. She got these darling little snowman and lamp post stickers at Michael's, some white and blue card stock, some metallic silver sewing thread and some white embroidery floss. She cut the blue card stock the size she wanted the whole piece to be, then she cut the white for the rolling snowy hill and attached it to the blue. She placed the snowman and lamp post stickers on the card stock before beginning the embroidery. She embroidered the snowflakes using white floss and the lazy daisy stitch. Then she stitched little hills of snow using back stitch and the silver thread. She also stitched along the top of the white card stock.


After all the embroidery was finished, which didn't take very long at all, she attached the whole thing to the front of a pre-folded card that came in a bulk package along with matching envelopes from Michael's. She hand wrote a personal note on the inside to her grandparents and mailed it in a padded envelope to protect the 3-dimensional stickers. I think they will like it!


Here's another one she did, this time for my cousin who so generously hosted us while we were in Alabama for my Auntie's 90th birthday this past February. She used the same method as with the snowman card, but the only embroidery on this one is the silver in the snow and the big Bethlehem star shining at the top of the card. The tree and the other stars came on one sticker sheet from Michael's.


I thought those turned out just so darling. They were very quick to make and easy, only using a couple very basic embroidery stitches and other supplies that are easy to get or that you may already have in the house.

A card like this would certainly light up the face of someone special, maybe that person who has everything. There's still time to whip some up too. After all, there are still 2 days left until Christmas!

Happy Stitching!

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Embroidered Christmas Cards Finished

Here are 4 of the finished Embroidered Christmas Cards that I told you about recently. Elizabeth will be making 8 altogether, but I wanted to show you these just in case you were looking for a quick and easy, yet handmade and pretty, greeting to give to someone special this Christmas.


After pricking the design onto the colored card stock from a computer printed original as shown in the previous post about this, Elizabeth backstitched the "Merry Christmas" greeting using two strands of sparkling gold sewing thread. She then attached the embroidered card stock to a pre-folded card and attached some cute 3 dimensional stickers to each card.


Each of her cards has different stickers on it, some particular to the person receiving the card.


This reindeer just cracks me up! His nose is actually a pom pom!


Elizabeth is so clever sometimes. The ornament in the corner of this card is actually hanging on the stitching of the "C" in Christmas. I would never have thought of doing that!

These cards are just an example of how easy it is to embroider on paper and decorate a card for a fun and festive greeting. Even crafty minded children could do something like this from their own drawing or writing. The key is to evenly prick the holes before you start to stitch. Give it a try and see what kind of masterpiece you can come up with this Christmas.

Happy Stitching!

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Embroidered Christmas Cards

I am still in the process of getting organized after finishing up all the upholstery fabric sewing for the Holiday Fair which was this past weekend, but my older daughter started working on a project I thought you would enjoy seeing. Perhaps you will even want to make some yourself this Christmas season. She is embroidering cards to give to the other clarinet players in the band. She is the section leader and really loves the other kids in her section and they just love her too. I think she will miss them next year. So she is always thinking of nice things to do for them. Take a look at what she started last night...


She picked a simple font and printed out "Merry Christmas" in a size that would be just right for the cards she wanted to make. Then she cut pieces of card stock and pricked the design into it using a straight pin and my bobbin lace pinning board, just like I did for the hand embroidered card for our favorite swim teacher, the bookmark for my wonderful cousin, and the note cards I made for the PTO auction.


Then she took two strands of my sparkly gold sewing thread and backstitched through the holes she had pricked to form the letters, taping the thread ends onto the back of the card.


Isn't that pretty? She also purchased some three dimensional scrapbooking stickers on sale at Michael's that she will use to further decorate the cards. The stitched card stock will be attached to a pre-folded greeting card which is about an inch bigger than the green card stock and then she will hand write a personal message inside each card.

This would be a quick and easy way to make some extra special cards for those extra special people in your life this Christmas season.

Elizabeth has watched me do my crafts all her life and it is so satisfying to see her starting to create on her own. She is also quite an accomplished knitter and crocheter. Next time, I will show you an afghan she is making and share with you her favorite pattern. It is a simple single crochet pattern where you don't have to worry about your rows getting shorter from missing that last stitch! So easy and versatile too.

Happy Stitching!

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Hand Embroidered Card

Swimming lessons have finally ended for the summer. Boo hoo! My two little ones love their swimming lessons and this summer my little Gracie became especially attached to her teacher Lindsey. I was able to get a nice picture of them together and wanted to give Lindsey a copy since she would be leaving shortly for college, so I didn't have too much time to get it done before she would be gone. I quickly made it into a card and did a little hand embroidery on it.

I asked Gracie, who is 3, what she wanted it to say and this is what she told me: I love Lindsey, my favorite teacher. Love Gracie.

So that is what it says!

I gathered my supplies: leftover Perle cotton from my recent Children's Embroidery Class, card stock, scissors, straight pin, embroidery needle, my favorite needle threader, my pricking mat, cute picture, printed words for card and a piece of scrap paper. On the scrap paper, I made dots to use as a guide for pricking holes in the card stock with the straight pin, into which I embroidered three flowers.


Once I pricked the holes into the card stock, I removed the scrap paper and stitched three red flowers using Lazy Daisy Stitch. Then I worked a little yellow French Knot in the middle of each. I also stitched a purple running stitch around the picture after pricking evenly spaced holes through the picture and the card stock. I used double stick tape to adhere the picture to the card stock first so it would stay put while I stitched.


I also worked three green Lazy Daisy stitches into the four corners of the paper with the words on it and a little yellow French Knot, just to dress it up a little.


This is a detail of the red flowers. You can also see the purple running stitch along the bottom edge of the picture.


I used double stick tape to adhere the purple card to a piece of yellow card stock, then I trimmed the edges so just about a quarter inch of the yellow showed around the edges. Besides being a nice frame for the purple, the yellow paper also served to cover up the stitches on the back of the purple. And it was finished! Very quick and easy, using supplies I had on hand and making a nice keepsake for Gracie's favorite swim teacher, Lindsey.

I also put the card into a plastic page protector so it would not get any stray water drops on it at the pool. I was not able to see Lindsey the day I left the card for her, so I didn't get permission to show her picture on my website. Hence the blurred faces. But I'm sure she wouldn't mind too much that I showed how the card was made.

Do you have any clever quick ideas for making something nice for someone?

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Time to Get Organized -- Hand Embroidery

Here we go with another administrative task. This page will keep a running list of links to any posts on Hand Embroidery projects, patterns, classes, helpful hints and the like. It will be available on the sidebar of the Hooked On Needles homepage for easy reference.

Hand Embroidered Irish Step Dancing Dresses

• Chain Stitch Embroidery - pictures
• Brooke's Step Dancing Dress
• Bridget's Step Dancing Dress
• Katie L's Step Dancing Dress
• Katie K's Step Dancing Dress

Embroidery How-To Posts

• How to embroider Chain Stitch -- Video
• Embroidering on velvet with hoop
• Separating Stranded Embroidery Floss -- Video
• Blue Wren's Nest Mattress Pin Cushion
  

Original Embroidery Designs

• Angel Swap gift -- Tote Bag with Angel Embroidery

Other Embroidered Projects

• Embroidered Scissor Holder
• Religious Embroidery
• Sweet and Rosy Needle Wallet
  

Children's Summer Embroidery Class

• Getting Ready
• Finished Sample
• Ready to Go
• Children's Finished Projects
• Sam's Finished Project

Paper Embroidery

• Embroidered Paper Bookmark
• Embroidered Notecards
• Hand Embroidered Card
• Embroidered Christmas Cards
• More Embroidered Christmas Cards -- Snowman and Tree
  

Embroidered Craft kits

• Christmas In June -- Dimensions Long Legs Craft Kit
• Christmas Tree Skirt
• Merry Christmas Wall Hanging
  

Counted Cross Stitch

• Cross Stitch Kits Vacation Loot
• Irish Counted Cross Stitch in progress
• Irish Counted Cross Stitch finished and framed
  

Handy Helpers

• DMC Needle Threader
• Thera-Glove

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Hand Embroidered Notecards

Recently I showed you the Hand Embroidered Bookmark I made as a thank you for my hospitable cousin across the country. Using the same technique, I also stitched a set of embroidered notecards for the PTO auction and I thought you might enjoy seeing them too.

First I found the pattern I wanted to use and in this case I am almost certain it was another free pattern from Stitching Cards. But now that I try to find it on their website, I am not able to. I know it was from their site because I printed up stickers to put on the back of the cards with their copyright information on them to give proper credit to the designer.

Anyway, once I had chosen my design, I printed out the pricking chart, cut out appropriate size pieces of four different colors of card stock and stacked all five layers onto my pad, which can be something as simple as a few layers of fun foam. I happen to have a piercing pad for use with bobbin lace and that worked out great. I pricked all four copies of the design at one time using an extra long quilting straight pin with a large ball on the top.

Then came the fun part...choosing the floss colors. I decided to use all the same colors on each card, only I mixed them up a little so each card would be unique. Then I started stitching and here is what I ended up with...

This is the card done on purple card stock.


Here is the one done on blue.


This one is done on yellow which is why it looks so washed out. My scanner didn't really like the yellow I guess!


And this is the last one, done on pink.

After the stitching was complete, I adhered the stitched card stock to purchased 5 by 7 plain notecards using permanent double sided scrapbooking adhesive. I then glued very narrow lengths of ribbon the same color as the 5 by 7 cards over the edges of the colored card stock to give a more finished appearance. Once the glue was dry, I trimmed the ribbon even with the edges of the cards and they were ready to go.

This whole project didn't take me any longer than about a week, working on it a little at a time as my time permitted. I thought the cards turned out to be very attractive and certainly something I would use to write a nice note to a special friend or send for a special occasion. Try one and you'll see! Happy stitching!

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Hand Embroidered Paper Bookmark

A few months ago I traveled half way across the country to celebrate my Auntie's 90th birthday. It was a wonderful long weekend and a great opportunity to renew friendships with relatives I hadn't seen in over 20 years. My fun and funny cousin Arlene not only put me up for the long weekend, but she also put up with me! What a kind and generous soul she is. So to thank her for her hospitality, I made use of a new kind of needlework I had just recently discovered, and I stitched her this bookmark.


It is stitched using regular DMC stranded embroidery floss on a piece of card stock that is sort of a mottled green. After the stitching was complete, I adhered the green card stock to a piece of yellow card stock so that the back of the stitching would be covered and the whole thing would be stiff. This made a perfect little bookmark and a nice little thank-you gift.

I found the pattern and the instructions for the paper embroidery at Stitching Cards which is a beautiful and inspiring website from England. They have lots of free patterns and step-by-step instructions so you can try out the technique before spending a dime. The design I used is the one called Flowering Vine Pattern.

The technique is called prick and stitch and is really quite fun. First you choose your design and print out the PDF file. Then you lay the pricking pattern onto the card stock onto which your stitching will go and you prick little holes through the pattern and the card stock using a needle or straight pin. Having a few sheets of fun foam under the card stock while you do the pricking helps to protect your work surface and allows the pin to penetrate the paper to make consistent sized holes. Then following the stitching instructions, you embroider the design onto the card stock. You can add fancy writing or other embellishments to dress up your design too.

You can see an example of a beautiful card embroidered using another design from Stitching Cards at Mary Corbet's Needle 'n Thread website. Her card was a little fancier than my bookmark, but as it turns out, it was made for the same occasion...her Auntie's 90th birthday!

I also made a set of embroidered note cards for the local high school PTO raffle which I will show you soon.

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