Please note that the color of the middle two rows of the hand-stitched piece should be purple, and the color beside it should be turquoise. I apologize that the colors that are showing up on my photos are not the same as what I am seeing here. I am an extreme novice when it comes to photographing my cards, but I am continuing to learn and hopefully to improve. Thank you for your understanding in this matter.
This is the 6th hand-stitched card of approximately 50 I made over an 18-month period, giving about 44 of them to my Mom, who is a master cross-stitcher. My Mom is really a master-crafter, for she has crafted at a very high level of excellence in a number of areas, including knitting, sewing, crocheting, quilting, needlepoint plus cross-stitch, and I am sure that I have forgotten some... She has always been a wonderful artist, and a great baker especially of homemade bread. Her work has always been of the highest level of quality and artistry, and I was the blessed recipient of the most beautiful Aaron sweaters, handmade quilts, clothing, and of course, the most wonderful cross-stitch pictures. My interest was in another artistic area, music performance, specifically flute and some piano, but flute was my focus, and I was a university professor in flute performance and other musical subjects, and there wasn't time to think of crafts, although a much-beloved aunt, who is also like a sister to me has been rubber stamping and making the most beautiful cards for decades, before rubber stamping and card-making became so popular. It took a giant shift in my life, a car accident that left me in a physical condition of severe chronic pain that meant that I had to leave the life that I loved, and that I needed to move on after years of very intensive and extremely painful rehab, and stop looking back to the life in the university world and the world of music that I loved and fought so hard to return, and I realized that it was time to be thankful for the blessings that God had given to me, and to find the joy in the life that remained. With God's help (which I believe would have been impossible for me otherwise), I was able to begin again. A good friend invited me to a card-making party, which turned out to be a Stampin' Up party, and so began a journey with rubber stamps, ink, and cardstock. Eventually, a Cuttlebug manual die-cutter. As my nephew, who is now almost 18 once said, my first cards were pretty crappy, he was right! He now is very happy when I make birthday cards, and he really appreciates them--I am starting to try and figure out what I will do for two cards for him, his 18th birthday and his H S graduation cards. I am an example to show that ANYONE can make cards, anyone!!! I have much to learn, and I especially want to improve my coloring skills, and I need to spend time on this. But, at the moment, I am enjoying doing some hand-stitching so that I can make some cards to give myself.
I have already uploaded a few of the 50 hand-stitched cards, my first was an 80th birthday card for my Mom, and I had hoped to make a modest-sized card set of hand-stitched cards as a gift to go along with this birthday card, but I couldn't get them finished in time. Instead, I made a much larger set of hand-stitched cards for her, which consisted of about 44 cards of A2 and A7 size with a variety of sentiments on the front with matching envelopes which all had their flaps 3mbossed with an embossing folder. For the A2-sized cards, I generally used colored envelopes from Simon Says Stamp or Gina K Designs. I love both brands, and Gina K Designs makes some of my all-time favorite heavyweight cardstock. I also particularly love Simon Says Stamp metallic envelopes, and whenever I had a metallic A2-sized envelope to match the A2-sized card, that tended to be my first choice. Regarding A7 cards, I only had beautiful metallic gold envelopes in that size for colored envelopes, but I always embossed the flaps, whether the envelope was colored to match the card, or whether it was the white, V-flap envelope that came with the wonderful Scrapbooking Made Simple 200-pound heavyweight card bases in bright white that are made in England, and are only available at SMS in sets of 25 card bases and envelopes in A2, A6, and 5 by 7. For hand-stitched cards, I have only used A2 and the 5 by 7 size. I have found that these heavier card bases are an excellent base for my hand-stitched cards, and to this point, they are what I have used exclusively.
With the exception of 2 cards, the patterns and corn combinations on the hand-stitched patterns are my own designs and I will indicate the two that I did not create and who created them.
I had been looking for several years to find a way to incorporate hand-stitching onto cards for my Mom, but I was not satisfied until I watched a YouTube video tutorial by the wonderful Jennifer McGuire, who introduced the Paper Smooches hand-stitching die, as well as some basics with some stitches and basic stitching skills. I am most indebted to Jennifer Mcguire for her stitching videos. I immediately ordered the Paper Smooches hand-stitching die and some basic supplies, and I began stitching on heavyweight cardstock.
Thank you for stopping by to take a look at this latest hand-stitched card upload, I truly appreciate it. When you take the time and the trouble to leave a comment on one of my cards, you absolutely make my day!!!
Please be extra-careful and stay safe especially during this very unusual and very uncertain time. Take good care.
Date: Tuesday, June 30, 2020 GMT Views: 1539
Favorited:4
Paper: Anna Griffin silver mirror foil cardstock, white 110-pound cardstock, SU Pacific Point, Scrapbooking Made Simple Simply Defined Distinctions A2 heavyweight card bases and envelopes
Registered: November 17, 2006 Location: Nanaimo, British Columbia Posts: 52798
Tue, Jun 30, 2020 @ 9:32 PM
Your rainbow cross stitched card is beautiful.. A lovely labour of love. I really like the silver "thankful" sentiment it finishes the card off beautifully. I love all the different textures. A wonderful work of art.
Hugs.. Pat