2 Stitched Cards for National Embroidery Month

Join Angela in celebrating National Embroidery Month with a duo of stitched cards featuring the Essentials by Ellen A2 Piercing Plates

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Hi friends, and Happy National Embroidery Month! It’s Angela here, and today I’ve got a couple of easy stitching cards to share with you. I’ll start by saying that outside of card making, I have zero embroidery experience, so you definitely don’t need to be a pro to recreate these designs. Let’s get into them, shall we?

When I sat down to get started, I had an idea swirling around my head that involved stitched arrow or leaf-like details in different colors. I intended to bring it to life with the Essentials by Ellen A2 Piercing Plate, but once I got into it, had an even better idea for a similar design using the A2 Piercing Plate 2. (These are very similar, but the holes on the Piercing Plate 2 are closer together.) Of course, I couldn’t let my stroke of genius go to waste, so I ended up making one of each!

Now, I’m very Type-A personality-wise, so before I even threaded a needle, I pulled out some grid paper and trimmed it to a size where the number of grid spaces matched the number of holes on the A2 Piercing Plate. Next, I sketched out my design, including the area that my sentiment would cover. The result was what you see in the photo below. I know it might seem like an unnecessary step, but I don’t even want to think about how many times I would have had to start over had things not been plotted out like this!

With planning complete, I used the A2 Piercing Plate to create my stitching panel from a piece of Neenah 110lb Solar White cardstock. You could use a lighter weight if you don’t have 110lb, but I find that this cardstock holds up really well to the pokes and pulls that stitching requires! From there, I just started stitching according to my pattern, starting at the bottom of the panel in the middle to ensure that my design would be centered. DMC Embroidery Floss has always been my go-to since I started playing with these piercing plates, and the color options are endless. For each leaf/arrow, I pierced all of the holes first with my needle before actually threading through them. Again, this definitely helped prevent mistakes and saved me time in the long run!

With that other idea brewing in my mind as I worked on the first card, I moved on to the stitching work for the second design with the A2 Piercing Plate 2. Since the holes are closer together, I was able to stitch more arrows/leaves in the same A2 space, and that also allowed me to get more color on the card. The stitching of each arrow was exactly the same as my previous design, but I switched things up a bit by adding a few extras up the left side of the panel. I also used the Essentials by Ellen Essential Rectangles to create a simple white frame, then adhered it on top with foam tape. This concealed the edges of the panel, and again, gave it a slightly different look to the first card.

Moving on to sentiments, I reached for the Essentials by Ellen All About You stamp set (one of my favorites!), the You die, and the coordinating sentiment strip dies. I love the All About You and Nice of You stamp sets because they allow you to create a whole bunch of sentiments in a single stamping, and they’re definitely two of the hardest-working stamp sets in my stash.

Since it never hurts to have spares, I embossed one set of sentiments on Concord & 9th Eggplant cardstock and the other on a piece of Oceanside cardstock, cut them out, then selected one for each card. For the ‘you’ die cuts, I went with glitter cardstock for the shadow layer for a bit of extra sparkle. (The recipients of these cards definitely deserve some extra sparkle!)

I hope these projects have inspired to add a bit of stitching to your cards, and perhaps try it for the first time if you haven’t already. If you do and decide to share on Instagram, be sure to tag @ellenhutsonllc and me, @mycraftyperspective, so we can see what you’ve made. Until next time, happy crafting!

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