Hippity Hoppity - Emily's hop, stitch and a card!

Hello Crafty Friends
I am having flashbacks to my cross stitching days! I used to be a super cross stitcher until my eyes decided they didn't want to do it anymore. Well today Emily has made me think maybe I need to be stitching on cards and paper instead!!

Still playing with the March kit, this time gift tags that feature stitching.  I've made up the card bases to the same dimensions as the first two, using the Bazzill Classic Smooth White cardstock from Aunty Vera's.

The kit came with some Sew Easy floss.  Now I don’t have the Sew Easy tool or any of those fancy stitch dies they are selling now but I chose two kit papers that had a diagonal pattern that really worked for cross stitching and then two different papers.

I started by using a sharp pointed tool (I used a brad setter but you could use one of those pokey tools for cleaning dies or even just a needle) and piece of foam to poke holes in the paper.  For the two with the diagonal pattern I used the corners of the squares and poked the holes in different patterns on each piece.  For another tag I picked a designer paper with a floral pattern and poked some holes that would allow me to stitch some of the flowers and leaves.  I picked the pink and blue flowers as those are the colours of Sew Easy floss that came in the kit and didn’t pick ones too close together.  My final tag features the Easter egg from the Neat and Tangled Eggstra Special Stamp Set that I stamped in the pink ink from the Clearly Kelly ink set both from the kit.

I bought a needle kit from Coles (was only a couple of dollars but you could also find them in a $2 shop) that had needles for upholstery etc, basically needles with big eyes, something that makes it way easier to thread the thick floss.  Doing the cross-stitched backgrounds was by far the easiest of the stitching.  You can find a tutorial on the DMC website here for how to cross stitch.

I didn’t bother knotting when I finished, I just threaded back through the stitches on the back.  I haven’t cross stitched in years but it’s like riding a bike, although it’s not as easy on paper as it is on fabric.  I've realised in uploading my pics I broke the cardinal rule of cross stitching of always having the bottom going in one direction and the top stitches in the other!

Now when it came to the floral paper, let’s just say there are a lot of stitches that are visible only by sheer luck as there was a fair bit of ripped paper!  The needle and thread were thick so the holes were large and close together causing quite a few rips but it still turned out looking pretty good.  When it came to the last one, the egg, I realised quickly there was no way I was going to be able to stitch the ribbon without the whole egg falling apart.  So after doing some rather ungainly cross stitches and backstitching around the outline I paper pieced the ribbon by stamping it several times on red cardstock from my stash.  I fussy cut the individual pieces and used foam dots to layer them into the appropriate spots.

I decorated my cards using pieces from the Echo Park Hello Easter Ephemera Icons pack, Cottage Cutz Rabbit die, Eyelet Owlet Chocolate Bunny Brads and washi tape that all come in the kit.  Apart from the ‘hop’ banner the other two ephemera pieces I fussy cut to suit my gift cards.  I used the yellow ink from the Clearly Kelly ink set to give a bright border around the ‘Easter’ sentiment and realised too late I didn’t do the same around the ‘hop’ banner!

If you’ve never tried stitching in your paper crafting maybe getting the March kit and the included floss is just the incentive you need to do so.  I promise it will add a new dimension to your paper crafts and you will have some fun with it to!

Thanks for checking out my project and please come visit me at my blog.

xx Emily xx