Free Chart: Dad Bookmark

It's fathers day on 16th June, so that gives you plenty of time to stitch this free oak leaf dad bookmark chart. It would also make a great birthday present or Christmas present for your father. This cross stitch bookmark pattern is perfect for a beginner as it only uses whole cross stitches, click for a cross stitch tutorial.

You will need

At least 8.5" length of a 2.5" wide 14 count aida band. (Design size is 7.1" x 2.1")
Needle
Felt (for backing the cross stitch)
Fabric Glue
Tassel (Optional)

Embroidery Threads

Stitch the design and trim the aida band to 4cm longer than the size of the bookmark, ensuring that the design is centralised.

Carefully fold over a seam of 2cm at each end, stitch or glue (using a clear drying craft glue or fabric glue) to secure.

Trim the felt to the size of the bookmark.

If you want your bookmark to have a tassel, carefully position it in the middle of one end of the bookmark and stitch to secure it in place.

Glue (or carefully stitch) the felt backing in place. Congratulations! You've just made your dad a lovely cross stitch bookmark.

Happy Stitching!

You might also like
Free cross Stitch Chart: Fathers Day Card
Friday Finds: Autumn Leaves
Hardanger Finish: Purple Delight
Happy St Georges Day: Cross Stitch Charts
Friday Finds: Gadget Accessories

Tutorial: Embroidered Birthday Card

A couple of weeks ago it struck me that one of my favourite things to read on other crafty blogs is the tutorials, and yet I have written none myself!  So, I've decided to give it a go, please let me know what you think of it!

This tutorial will show you how to make an embroidered card, similar to this one. The card below is A6 size, and uses a blue ready folded card with a cut down smaller piece of pink card, onto which the design is hand embroidered.


Difficulty: Intermediate

Materials needed: card and envelope.
Extra piece of card (cut down to approx 2cm smaller than the front of the card)
Embroidery threads
Pencil
Needle
Tracing paper (optional)
glue (or double sided sticky tape













Step1:  Draw out your design. Practise it first on scrap paper until you are happy with it, then trace over the design using the tracing paper. Transfer the design onto the reverse of the small piece of card, ensuring that the design is transferred in reverse (the writing must be backwards). Alternatively free - hand draw the design onto the reverse of the smaller piece of card, but make sure that the lettering is all backwards. (This is the method I used). Your reverse of the small card should look like this.

Step2: Carefully embroider the design onto the card. The pattern is on the reverse side (opposite to normal embroidery, so that the pencil marks don't show up on the front of the card.) I used 3 strands of DMC embroidery thread for the flower, and 2 strands for the message. I used backstitch for the words, flower and leaf outline, Stem stitch for the flower stem and satin stitch for the flower centre. Note: be careful that the stitches aren't too small, as this could cause the card to tear. My backstitch were approx 1/2 cm in length on average. It also helps to stab the next hole required through from the reverse of the card, rather than the front of the card to ensure that the design is followed accurately. Please be very careful when stabbing the needle through the card, it is best to have some padding e.g a cutting board, behind it to prevent creasing the paper, or stabbing yourself with the needle. Once finished, the reverse will look something like this.

 

Step3:  Work out how you would like to position your design onto the per-folded card, (I did mine at a straight angle, but you could do yours at a diagonal to make the card look more jaunty). The apply glue or double sided sticky tape to the reverse of your design (I used double sided sticky tape as it's quicker), If using glue, I recommend a clear drying one, such as PVA. Hold above the card and slowly lower it into place. Press down to ensure it is firmly attached and allow to dry. Ta da! Finished!

Once you've given it a go once, then have a go at other designs and images!

Good Luck!


You might also like
Friday Finds: Seaside
The Clothes Maiden: Online Magazine Feature
Spring, Cambridge and Punting
Friday Finds: Sunflowers
WIP: Peak District Photo Conversion

Happy Birthday Rhian!

Yesterday was my best friends birthday. Rhian was born on that day a quarter of a century ago.  We met during a PE lesson at school thanks to our mutual rubbishness at sport, and our friendship quickly blossomed.

Rhian is a lovely person, and when it comes to choosing gifts it should be easy. She likes a lot of things. Jewellery is always welcome, along with anything Celtic (she's half welsh and loves Celtic patterns). She has also been a fan of dolphins for as long as I can remember. She is a supporter of Northampton Saints Rugby Team, and is a science geek. A chatterbox and a bookworm (especially for fairy tales). with so much choice, it should be easy. The trouble is that everyone else knows all of the things she likes, and she has a lot of jewellery, a lot of dolphin posters and ornaments, along with funny science posters. She has a Rugby Jersey, and lots of items with Celtic patterns, so how on earth could I choose. Where should I start.

After some contemplation I searched for 'celtic dolphin' in Etsy. A few pages of gorgeous items were found, but one type in particular caught my eye. It was a necklace with a mini book pendant, with a dolphin on the cover. Perfect. It was a little expensive however, and was pre-printed with a poem. Inspiration had struck however, and after a little more searching I settled on this red leather bound mini book pendant by The Press Gang, it even has a cute little clasp. The pages were blank, so I filled most of them with various quotes and pictures of us and places we'd been. I then carefully packaged it back up, (it had arrived beautifully packaged in brown paper tied with twine, simple and stylish) before hastily posting it along with the card. Considering I didn't post it until Tuesday Afternoon, I was very pleasantly surprised when Rhian texted me the next day to say it had arrived, perfect timing for her birthday!

Designing a card was somewhat easier. I wanted it to be fairly simple, so 'Happy Birthday Rhian' was an easy message to include. I also included small Celtic pattern motif's in the corners. Red had to feature as it's Rhian's favourite colour, and I wanted to outline the Celtic motif in Gold to make them stand out more. However, I wasn't sure what colour to use. Maybe a darker red for contrast, but that could be a bit boring, or maybe purple, her second favourite colour, but I didn't think it would compliment the red. Que Chris, who suggested green when I asked his advice. Perfect. I love the combination of the bright colours, and I think it adds to the Celtic effect. It also made it an easy choice to use yellow card with a red inside, using the same technique as that of the Fathers Day card I made previously. What do you think?

Happy Stitching!

You might also like
Friday Finds: Friends
Spring, Cambridge and Punting
Mothers Day
Friday Finds: Hobbits
Fairy Tale Cross Stitch Kits

Happy Birthday Chart!

It was my dad's birthday a few weeks ago, so I decided to have a go at designing and making a cross stitch card for him. The biggest thing I've designed previously were name bookmarks, I've mostly only designed small motifs for my cross stitch jewellery.

The first step was deciding what to design. I definitely wanted the words happy Birthday on the card, so I started there. Easy!

My dad loves gardening, he's always grown vegetables and flowers, and gardening is his job so it was the obvious choice of subject! My first idea was to do some garden tools, but unfortunately putting the picture in my head down onto a cross stitch chart is a lot harder than it seems, and I underestimated the space needed. Also, designing a spade complete with mud and space for other tools is harder than it seemed, and would look a bit boring. Time to come up with another design...

After a little pondering, I decided to do a flowerpot. It may not be the most manly of designs, but it is most definitely appropriate for my dad, so after a little bit of designing with the help of my Royal School Of Needlework software and my DMC thread colour chart, I came up with a basic design. I did a little tinkering, such as adding the butterfly and changing the flower colours from red and pink to blue and purple, before coming with the finished chart design. What do you think?!

I stitched the chart using cross stitch, back stitch and lazy daisy stitch for the petals and leaves. I used seed bead detail for the flower centres, and butterfly body. After a bit of fraying to give it a pretty edge, I glued the cross stitch to a green card using clear drying craft glue, and voila! The card was finished.

My dad liked it, so It was definitely a success! What do you think?

You might also like
Scotland Cross Stitch
3D Cross Stitch Garden
Free Cross Stitch Chart: Dad Bookmark
Friday Finds: Rugby
Work in Progress: Peak District Photo Conversion