Stitching on cards

It's been a while since I last blogged here and honestly I really miss it so much. I haven't been in the best of health lately, physically challenged and quite frankly it's draining me. Music and craft have been the things that entertained me and kept me positive all the while. Of course above all is having faith in the Almighty  that all the pain is just temporary and I will see that beautiful rainbow again. Nothing is permanent, so that's how I try to keep positive always. Learn to manage the problem and all will be well.

Those who have been following me here over the years would know how I much I love sewing on paper and how I love to use them as part of the decorations on my handmade cards. Creating simple lines with colourful embroidery threads and adding beads and sequins to them too. Well, this time around I wanted to do more.

I was inspired to do more when I stumbled upon this very creative lady named Jennifer McGuire on YouTube. She is also a crafter, and she loves to hand stitch beautiful designs on her handmade cards. Of course that's not just what she does as a crafter, obviously she makes other creative designs which I also love. I just fell in love with her work! Love them all!

So off I went to try hand stitching the way she does, unfortunately it's not as easy as how she does it because she has a cross-stitch die that is to die for!! Haha! I can't seem to find anyone selling the cross stitch dies here. There are a few different types of them for different projects. Even if they do sell them, I'll bet the dies would be very expensive to buy. But those cross-stitch die makes it so much easier to hand stitch any design I want. So since I don't have them, I had to do the hand stitching the hard way, which involves me poking the paper manually with a quilling needle like there's no tomorrow. LOL! Yes, it takes forever to finish poking those tiny holes. But once they're done, I'm all hyped up to stitch!

I could do cross stitch designs or any stitch design that I want on paper. All up to my creativity. I just love the idea of how easy it is to beautify a card simply by adding a layer of paper that is stitched. I don't even have to add any flowers or other embellishments if I didn't want to. Just add a simple sentiment and the card is done. 

I'll try to make a video explaining how I hand stitch on paper soon. It's actually very easy to do especially if you have tried cross stitch before or embroidery. The only difference is how to start sewing it and how to end the stitch on paper. I used to have problems sewing on paper, but ever since I learned the technique, I find it super easy. The only thing that's difficult is poking the holes of each design. That needs a lot of focus and concentration. One mistake will ruined the whole design.

Below are some random stitching I did for my cards! ;)

I really enjoyed stitching this purple and pink combo. So happy I could finally use this design that I got from an embroidery book I bought years ago. When I first got the book, I didn't think I would be able to do this type of stitching because it looked so hard to do. But now that I've learned a lot about how to stitch on paper, this design seemed easy for me to do compared to doing the cross-stitch ones and I could complete it a lot faster as well. I love the fact that I could embellish the card with some colourful bling bling on it too. They just gives it a more special effect to the card.

This cross-stitch design with just one white colour thread used took me the longest to complete. I hope to make another one with a different colour. But white can certainly match with a lot of embellishments or if I were to add quilling flowers and leaves to it.

I love the simplicity of this design. The easiest and the fastest to complete! Haha! It started as a cross-stitch design but I ended up joining the crosses to each other and suddenly it becomes another type of stitching altogether. I just love how it turned out. Of course colours can change according to what colour of embellishments you wish to add to the card. So, planning ahead about what you want to put on the card is always a good thing before you choose the colour of thread to stitch on paper that acts as the frame. At first I wanted to place the quilling flower on the card but I decided to use the printed cut outs I bought some time ago. The colours really matched the thread!! :) It's a simple design that I could easily do and use when I'm in a hurry.

Ok! So if you were to check out Jennifer McGuire's work, you could see that my design here was inspired by her work. She just loves to stitch design like this for her cards and her designs are just beautiful! It's like stitching samplers on the card. The colours she chooses and the thread she uses are a bit different from what I choose for my designs. Because I use what I have available. I don't want to buy new materials to create something new because I have too many craft goodies in my craft room that are begging me to use them! LOL!! Like seriously, I have too many things that I bought in the past or things that were given to me that desperately needs my attention right now. I need to use them up so that I can have more space in my craft room. And this sewing project is definitely helping me achieve my mission.

Stitching colours of the rainbow!! Oh God this one took a really really long time for me to finish sewing all those colourful threads. I just can't imagine doing this one again any time soon. I would have to be in a very very good mood and have a lot of chocolates at hand before I start doing this one again, LOL!! Too many colours and too time consuming. But I really love the final effect.

So these are just some random examples of what I've been up to since July. Now in September, I'm still experimenting with what I can do with thread and paper. I will definitely do more of this in future and I'll share it here for all to see. There's just a million things one can do with thread and paper! :)