Category: tutorial

how to, papercrafts, scrapbook, trimcraft, tutorial

Scrapbook/Mini Album Instructions

ms.paperlover

To go along with this week’s Trimcraft Tuesday video, where I make a baby-themed scrapbook/mini album, here are the instructions on how to make the album.

You can watch the accompanying video here:

 

This album is one I’ve made many times, based on this video from YouTube (I’m not clever enough to come up with these ideas from scratch!), but I have adjusted the measurements, which is why we have this blog post!

You will need:

  • Chipboard, or other very sturdy card (I’ve used old ‘do not bend’ envelopes in the past and they work just fine!)
  • A3 white card/cardstock ( I used 210 gsm)
  • A4 white card/cardstock
  • Double Sided Tape
  • Strong Glue
  • Red Line Tape
  • Scoreboard and bone folder
  • Ruler or t-square

Start by cutting your board, two pieces at 16.7 x 14.5 cm, and one at 3.5 x 14.5 cm.

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Take your A3 card and cut down to 42 x 18.5 cm (A3 is 42cm long so you will only need to cut one side). Mark 2cm in from the edge of each side of the card, and use these marks to adhere your chipboard pieces to the card.

Mark 4mm from each corner of the chipboard, and use this mark to draw a diagonal line across the corner (to create a triangle), and cut along these lines.

Fold the card around the chipboard, using the chipboard to help bend the card, you can use a bone folder to make the folds neater. Make sure to fold the long edges first. Adhere down the long edges (you can use either double sided tape or liquid glue here, whatever you prefer).

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Use the bone folder to push and fold the edges in as seen so that all the corners are neat, then fold and adhere the short edges to the chipboard.

Put the album aside for now to work on the ‘binding’. Cut three pieces of card (you can use the leftover from the A3 piece you cut down for this), to 5.5 x 13, 4.5 x 13, and 3.5 x 13  cm. Score 1.5cm in on both sides of each piece, and fold and burnish the lines.

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Add double sided tape to both sides of each ‘flap’ on all three pieces, then snip off all the corners. Then add adhesive to the centre of the largest piece and adhere the middle piece on top, repeat to add the smallest piece on top of the middle piece, you should end up with something like this:

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Cut another piece of cardstock to 13 x 12.5 cm, on the 12.5cm side measure 5cm in from each edge, and mark at the bottom and the top. Use the marks to adhere this to the centre of the album. Then again use the marks to adhere the binding piece to this – use strong adhesive, you really want this one to stay in place!

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Cut two more pieces of cardstock at 16.5 x 13 cm, and adhere these to the inside cover to cover up the chipboard.

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Now we can make the pages/inserts for the album. Cut six pieces of cardstock at 27.5 x 13, and then score at 1.5 and 14.5 cm.

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Fold and burnish the score lines. Then turn over and add double sided tape to the bottom ‘flap’ as seen.

Now it’s time to add these into the album, which is one of those things that on paper is really simple but SO easy to mess up! Start from the last page (on the right).

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With the insert ‘open’, align the left edge to one of the binder flaps as in the photo (with the insert flap at the bottom ). Take the tape backing from the binder and stick down, then take the tape backing from the other side of the flap.

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Fold in the flap from the insert, and remove the backing from this piece, then fold the insert to meet the bottom edge, and use your bone folder to seal everything in place.

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Once all pages/inserts are in place, carefully bend the album like this to finish it. It is best to leave this step until the end as it’s easier to do all the other steps when the album is still flat.

Now you just need to add in pages for each of the pockets created. Cut yardstick to 12.5 x 13 cm. On the 12.15 cm side, use a border punch (of any type, I just chose a scallop edge for this album as it works well) to add a decorative edge.

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Do this six times and insert into each pocket. If you want colourful pages then cut these inserts with papers to match your theme – or you can just cover them with appropriate colours, it’s up to you.

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Now you can decorate to your heart’s content! To see how I did mine, watch my video linked at the top of this post, but I’ll finish off with a picture of how mine ended up. If you’d like a product list then everything will be linked in the description box of the YouTube video 🙂

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card making, how to, papercrafts, trimcraft, tutorial

Banner Cards with First Edition Let’s Celebrate: How To

ms.paperlover

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In this post I’m going to be showing you how to make this fun, but incredibly simple banner cut out card. I’m not good with fancy-fold cards (my brain isn’t mathematical enough!), but I do occasionally like to make cards that are just a *little bit* different.

To make this you will need:

  • an 8×8″ paper pad (or larger). I used First Edition’s new release, ‘Let’s Celebrate’ for mine
  • A sentiment stamp, and decorative stamps if desired too
  • Heat Embossing Equipment (ink, powder, heat tool)
  • Ink Pad
  • 5×7″ white card blank (or white cardstock large enough to make your own)
  • Banner Die 3 x 4.5″ (7.5 x 11.5cm) – if you don’t have this then don’t worry too much!

To Start:

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Die cut two banner shapes. If you don’t have the die (my set was from The Works  but they don’t seem to have them available online right now), then not to worry! It’s a very easy shape to cut yourself, just use the measurements listed above.

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Back each of your banners on a contrasting paper and cut around leaving a border of a few mm. If you have the appropriate sized die you can just cut that and use it to back the original shape, but I find it easier to do it this way!

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Attach the banners to your 5×7″ card blank (I go for double sided tape as my adhesive, but use whatever your preference is). Make sure each banner is at the very edge of the card at the left edge and then on the top and bottom edges.

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Cut around the banner shapes using scissors or a craft knife, again, whichever your preference. Be careful to only cut through one layer of card and not the back too!

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Cut another contrasting paper to just under 5 x 7″ and attach to the inside of the card.

And that’s it for the card shape! You can now decorate however you wish, but I’ll show you how I did mine to give you an idea.

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Stamp and emboss a sentiment on a paper scrap, about 2-2.5″ wide (about 5cm).

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Cut the paper you’ve stamped into a smaller square or rectangle, back with a contrasting paper leaving a 2mm-ish border, then attach to a longer, but slightly narrower strip of paper.

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Attach to card and finish with some stamping!

It is up to you whether to attach your decorative piece to just one or to both banners, if you attach it to just one then the banners can ‘open’ separately, however…

When you make a vertical card – only attach the sentiment/sentiment cluster to the bottom banner. If you attach it to the top banner then gravity will work against you and it will droop!

This card shape also works great horizontally:

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How super easy is that?! You can then write your message on the inside of the banners or on the back of the card.

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If you’d like to see some more projects with Let’s Celebrate, then check out the Inspiration Area of Trimcraft’s The Craft Blog.

Grace ❤

 

card making, how to, mixed media, papercrafts, trimcraft, tutorial

Mixed Media Anniversary Card – How To

ms.paperlover

1

Hi all! I have a post today to show you how to make this pretty mixed media card. Today is my parents’ 30th Wedding Anniversary, which is the ‘pearl’ anniversary, so I wanted to make something with lots and lots of pearls. Of course you could use this style and techniques to make any sort of card you wanted, and use any papers, but I will list the items I used to help you get an idea of what is needed.

I used:

A3 cardstock

First Edition Sweet Nothings 12×12 Paper Pad

Dovecraft Distressing Tool

Paper Flowers, various colours and sizes

Clear Glass Beads

White thread

Flat back pearls (lots!)

White Gesso

3D Gloss Gel/Gel Medium

I wanted to make a huge card, so I started with A3 white card to create my card blank. The card measures 7.5″ by 8″, so you will need to cut a piece 15″ by 8″, and score down the middle to create your card blank.

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Matt the front of the card with three contrasting papers, one just under 7.5 x 8″, one 7 x 7.5″, and the front one 6.75 x 7″. Distress the edges of the centre paper.

For the centrepiece, I cut the numbers on my silhouette in the font ‘Beyond the Mountains’. I offset the numbers by about 0.3″ and separated the two cut files so the darker ’30’ could be backed by the lighter one. If you do not have a silhouette or other electronic cutting machine you can print out a template and then draw and cut around it, the shapes are not too complicated so it shouldn’t take too long.

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Distress the edge of the larger 30, then adhere as seen in the photo below, so the numbers slightly overlap and so still leave a border of the green paper underneath. Also so there isn’t an awkward bit of green poking out where the number three ‘dips’ inward on the right edge.

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Now it’s time for the messy bit, start by lightly sponging some white gesso on the corners of the card:

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Gather together all your embellishments ready to put on. I also cut the ‘mum and dad’ with my silhouette with pearlescent paper (PEARLescent, geddit?!).

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Add the gel medium (or other adhesive, you basically want something that will dry transparent with a gloss finish) in the first corner you’re embellishing.

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Then add the thread, loop it around your fingers, make knots, whatever you like. It will look messy at first but works once all the items are in place and gives a lovely shabby-chic look.

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Then start adding the rest of your embellishments! You may need to add more gel as you go. Start from largest to smallest. So I started with the large paper flowers, then the smaller pink ones, then large pearls, medium pearls, etc, and finish with the glass beads and tiny pearls to fill in any gaps.

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If adding a small title or sentiment like I did with the ‘mum and dad’ cut, then add this at the very end.

Finish by painting a light layer of gesso over the flowers to help tie them in to the theme of the card – if your flowers are white or ivory you may not need to do this, but mine had a hint of yellow which I wanted to hide.

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The gesso layer also contributes to the shabby-chic effect.

You can dry with a heat tool but I find it better with all these embellishments to leave it overnight to dry.

And it’s finished! One thing to remember with this card, make sure you have an envelope, or the equipment to make an envelope, that is big enough, as it is a BIG card!

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Thank you so much for reading. If you make your own version of this card then I’d love to see it, so please tag me on social media! Let me know if you have any questions, and if you’re a bit new to or confused by mixed media, then I have a Mixed Media Basics video up on my YouTube channel (it’ll be published a few hours after this blog post), there’s a link to my channel up at the top of this page underneath my logo.

Grace / ms.paperlover ❤

card making, flipbook, how to, papercrafts, trimcraft, tutorial

Wander-Bee Flipbook

ms.paperlover

Ok, ok, I have been somewhat remiss in my blogging… whoops! The end of 2017 and the beginning of 2018 have been a little ‘aaargh!’ (in both good and bad ways). Now that things are starting to settle down I’m hoping to get back to blogging… and be better than before too.

So enough waffle, on with today’s post. I owed my lovely penpal Julie (instagram: @plannerprettiesandpaper) a snail-mail flipbook. And as I was little behind on my mail to her, I wanted to make something extra special.

The gorgeous Trimcraft collections, Dovecraft’s Bee Happy, and First Edition’s Wanderlust are not necessarily similar, but they have some elements that work together really well. So, the ‘Wander-Bee’ collection was born, and it’s first project, this flipbook:

 

I didn’t do a process video, or take process photos (otherwise there’d be hundreds!). But I thought I’d go through each ‘page’ of the flipbook with you to tell you how it was made.

The cover is this shaker card. All the hexagons (and all that you’ll see throughout the flipbook) I cut on my silhoutte machine. Due to how busy the shaker element is I only added light embellishments: the bee puffy sticker and gold buttons from Bee Happy, and the ‘hello’, which was from my stash. The only Wanderlust element here is the paper I used to die cut the ‘Bee Happy’. In the shaker itself is a mix of gold sequins and stars, gold glitter, coarse yellow glitter, and copper coloured  micro beads.

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Next was this simple ‘pocket’ page. To make this I cut one of my (many) pre cut hexagons in half (well, just over), and adhered it to the base with a thin layer of double sided tape around the edges. I embellished it with Bee Happy ribbon and a button, as well as both fussy and die cut elements from both Bee Happy and Wanderlust. You can just see the goodies I put in that pocket slightly out of shot to the top right.

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This page probably took me the longest to make, as I had to figure out how to make a hexagon-shaped envelope. I tried following an origami tutorial on YouTube but it was WAY too complex. So I just made it up instead. I used brads and twine to keep it shut (it’s full of various die cut shapes and stickers), and decorated around the edge with that slim leaf washi (from my stash). I finished with the sentiment topper from Bee Happy and a Wanderlust fussy cut butterfly.

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Next was another page with a simple pocket, made in the same way as last time. But this one is more Wanderlust-y. The bow is made with the bow-sewing technique (let me know if you’d like a blog post on that – I have shown it in a video but I can’t remember which one!). In this pocket I put a load of project life/journal cards.

This is one of the back pages, with added envelope flip-out. This one is a real mix of Bee Happy and Wanderlust, and possibly my favourite page. The small envelope (smallest size on the WE R Memory Keepers’ 1-2-3 Punch Board) is mounted on a 4×2.5″ piece of card, which is then attached with washi tape on both sides. The tape isn’t actually from the Wanderlust collection, believe it or not! It’s a Dovecraft tape from last year. The envelope is filled with little stickers.

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The page at the very back I kept simple, with the three Bee Happy Hexagons and wood veneer piece, and a couple of Wanderlust fussy cut butterflies.

And here’s the finished product:

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Thanks so much for reading. Check out Trimcraft’s The Craft Blog for more ideas and inspiration with these collections.

Grace ❤ @ms.paperlover

 

card making, Christmas, how to, papercrafts, tutorial

Super Simple Christmas Crafts 2: Wreath Card (Templates)

ms.paperlover

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Woop! Another installment of my Super Simple Christmas Crafts! This time making this attractive circle wreath card. You can watch the video tutorial for instructions here;

And here are the templates:

PDFs (for fussy cutting)

CIRCLE CARD BLANK PDF

HOLLY AND IVY LEAVES 1 PDF

HOLLY AND IVY LEAVES 2 PDF

Cut Files (for Silhouette Users):

Circle Card Blank

Holly and Ivy Leaves 1

Holly and Ivy Leaves 2

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Happy Crafting!

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Grace ❤ @ms.paperlover

Christmas, how to, papercrafts, trimcraft, tutorial

Super Simple Christmas Crafts 1 – Gift Box With Paper Poinsettia (with Templates)

ms.paperlover

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Aren’t these gift boxes cute? I love a Poinsettia, though I generally avoid having them in the house as they’re midly toxic to cats and mine has a tendency to chew on house plants.

So instead – I made some paper ones to decorate these gift boxes! I have a few people this year who are getting multiple small presents from me, rather than one big one. So I needed some lovely boxes to put all those little gifts in – though even the people who get one thing might be getting a box as well, I just love making them!

For the more traditional box on the right I used the First Edition Gift of Christmas Paper Pad, and for the one on the left I used the First Edition Merry Little Christmas.

The instructions on how to make these can be found in my corresponding video tutorial – it is a little long and rambly, sorry about that, I’m out of practice with video tutorials!

Here are the templates for the Poinsettia leaves, I used the first file for the ‘petal’ leaves, and the second for the larger leaves on the bottom.

For Silhouette Users:

Poinsettia Leaves 1

Poinsettia Leaves 2 

To print and cut as a template:

Poinsettia Leaves 1 PDF

Poinsettia Leaves 2 PDF

Of course if you have some leaf dies you can use those too, my templates really are very simple shapes. It would however be a good idea to have a few different sizes of leaf for the full effect.

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Right then, happy crafting everyone! Do tag me in anything you make and share – I’d love to see!

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Grace ❤ @ms.paperlover

card making, how to, papercrafts, tutorial

Creative Process – Pretty Posy Birthday Card

ms.paperlover

As the title implies, I made this card using the ‘Pretty Posy’ paper pad from Trimcraft’s First Edition range.

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(apologies for the price label still on there, but it damages the cover when you try and remove it!).

After choosing which papers I wanted to use, I started on sorting what elements I needed to make the card. First I fussy cut some florals and hearts from two of the papers (which you can see the pile of in the top left of the photo below).

I also tried out a new toy, this rather rudimentary circle cutter I got from The Works for a whopping £2. It isn’t great, but it’ll do for now.

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You can see here the four main parts of the card: the card blank (a 6×6 one). One 6×6 paper (one of the pearlescent designs), with the centre gutted out to make a frame. Then two papers cut to about 5.5×5.5″ (the green one slightly larger) with circles cut from the middle.

…oh, and the lid that covers the circle cutter’s blade has crept it’s way into the photo too, whoops!

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Then, assembly! The ‘birthday wishes’ is a cardstock sticker from a Pebbles sticker book – which I now wish I had purchased 2384023 of because I use it all the time for cards and now it’s discontinued, waaaaaah!

It’s also raised up on some foam tape. It was a bit fiddly and took a while to get the fussy cut elements in their right places, and required the combined efforts of foam tape, glue dots, pritt stick, and double sided tape to get the job done.

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But that’s not the end! I always like to add something to the back and centre of my cards, even if it’s something small, just so you don’t have a beautiful front of a card and then stark white space elsewhere.

So inside I just added some washi tape:

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For the back I did a little more, first I cut another paper to 6×6, and punched the corners with a fancy corner punch:

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Then embossed a ‘handmade with love’ stamp on top of some cut off paper I’d used for the front of the card, stuck a doily behind that, and there we go!

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I always find adding something to the back and centre of your card (other than your message, of course), makes a handmade card seem more ‘finished’.

Thanks so much for reading, and look out for some more card posts soon 🙂

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Oh I forgot – I added some flat back pearls too!

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Grace @ms.paperlover ❤

card making, how to, papercrafts, tutorial

Creative Process – A Teenager’s Birthday Card

ms.paperlover

When I make birthday (or anniversary or get well soon or whatever) cards, I don’t just make a load of generic cards and choose one for the recipient (though maybe I should, it would be far less time consuming), I really make them for that person; with them in mind. Their tastes, their aesthetic. And so on.

This card was for my eldest niece, for her fourteenth birthday. Being fourteen she needed something grown up enough, but also not too grown up (did that make sense? Probably not!). I chose the First Edition ‘Sweet Nothings’ paper pad by Trimcraft to make this card, as it has some seriously pretty papers in it.

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And the paper I chose for the base of my card is one of the textured papers with this beautiful wood and floral pattern on. I made the card 6×7″ (it needed to be slightly taller than 6″, you’re about to see why.

So I wanted to stitch my niece’s name onto the card. I printed off her name in one of my favourite fonts to stitch with (‘Beyond the Mountains’). This font does however often do this strange thing where it cuts off the bottom of some of the letters when you print so I filled in those bits with pencil.

I lined the template up to where I wanted it on my card and poked in the holes. If you’re new to paper stitching you can read my how-to on it here. Words are a little harder than shapes but it’s the same basic principle. Just make sure you have your printed template handy so you can use it for reference, sometimes all you can see is a load of holes and it’s hard to know what’s what.

I chose to stitch in white, as the cream thread I have is a bit of a yellow cream and so wouldn’t work with this card. But this turned out to be a bit of an error too as once the word was stitched it was quite hard to see. It shows up better on the picture above but in real life you had to squint to read it!

To solve this problem I decided to fill in the letters with some colour, using this ‘tea dye’ varnish, so that it would be a fairly subtle colour. As you may be able to see I did accidentally paint some of the thread, I don’t have a very steady hand, but it doesn’t matter too much!

Once that was all done and dry it was time to do the rest of the card. Whenever I’m doing a project like this I have a little root through my ephemera packs to see what I have to match, then throw it all into a little basket so it’s handy.

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Then, well, I stuck it on! I had a play around first, seeing what I wanted to put where, and I usually take a couple of photos on my phone to see what I like best. This is what I ended up with:

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It’s a mix of pieces from the cut-apart sheet from the Sweet Nothings paper pad, and some punch outs from it too. Then some random things I found in my ephemera root around!

The paper you can just see behind the card is what I used to line the inside. Because of the stitching on the front I had to cover up the mess of washi tape and knots that was behind it! IMG_3991

Being a teenager, my niece wanted money and make up for her birthday. I’d already wrapped the make up I’d bought her but I also made a little cash envelope using my WE R MEMORY KEEPERS 123 punch board. Which I stuck down with a velcro dot on the inside of the card so it would be easy for her to remove.

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I also wrote ‘for you’ on a black label with an embossing pen and embossed it with gold powder.

On every card I make I emboss this ‘handmade with love’ stamp too for something to put on the back of the card.

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The last thing to do was to make an envelope, again using my 123 punch board. I chose what I thought was a suitable paper from the First Edition pad…IMG_3999

…and once it was punched I also did some simple decoration on the front of the envelope, adding her name with alpha stickers. Which I forgot to take a picture of, woops!

So there it is, one of my homemade, personalised cards. Because of the stitching, which can take an absolute age, the whole thing probably took me about 90 minutes. But I love making my cards really special for my family and close friends.

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Oh I forgot, I added some flat back pearls too! That’s it… I think!

Thanks so much for reading, let me know if you’d like to see more card making posts 🙂

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Grace ❤ @ms.paperlover

 

Brimbles, brimbles sticker club, mixed media, sticker kit, tutorial

Brimbles July Sticker Club – Smoothie

ms.paperlover

 

Woop woop! My first post as a Brimbles Sticker Club design team member. This post is also featured on the brimbles blog.

Alright, I admit, I’m not so good at eating fruit, but I do like a smoothie. So when I saw this month’s kit I remembered some silly selfies I had on my phone I’d sent in a group chat after making myself a smoothie one day. I decided this month’s kit would be perfect for making a fun creative journal spread, featuring said silly selfies.

The first thing I did was throw some watercolour on the pages (of a standard size traveller’s notebook). I had the stickers nearby so I could make sure the colours matched. I made one side more green because I knew that’s where I was going to put the photos, which had lots of green in the background.

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While I waited for that to dry, I got out my Copic markers and fineliners and drew out and then coloured a glass full of smoothie. I’m fairly happy with how it turned out:

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(for Copic Marker users I used R00, RV10, RV13, and R85)

Then I painted the ’empty’ part of the glass with the same colours I’d painted the right hand page, went over the lines with a black fineliner, and cut it out:

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Then came sticking time! I started with some of the washi strips and boxes from the kit that I wanted in the background:

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Then stuck down my photos and the glass:

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Next was my favourite part of the whole layout. I started by getting the watercolours out again and painting a pink swirl going down into the glass:

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(yes I smudged the black fineliner a bit but it’s ok because it gets covered up!)

Then once that was dry I stuck down a load of the cute little fruit stickers on the swirl as if they were going down into the smoothie (sorry little fruits!)

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As you can see I purposely placed one sticker (the apple) where I could draw the rim of the glass over it, to really give the idea that they were going down into the glass of delicious smoothie!

After that I got sticker happy…

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Especially with those little phrase stickers. I LOVE a good pun, so those cracked me up far more than they really should have. The only stickers used that are not from this month’s kit are those I used for the ‘smoothie’ title. They were from Mrs Brimbles last year.

Then I got a little more sticker happy, just filling up some spaces that I thought looked like they needed a little something more. I even fussy cut out a little orange from the washi strip as a wanted a little fruit!

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Spot the little orange? Just a reminder to do whatever you want with stickers, cut boxes in half, fussy cut them, etc.,: they’re just as versatile as paper, but you don’t have to add glue! I also used the page flags from the functional sheet of stickers to make some bunting in the top corner.

And there we go! An admittedly, very silly journal spread, that was great fun to make. It’s not about anything important or life changing, but it’s a fun memory to look at.

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If you’re interested, I also have a process video on this spread which you can watch here, and I also used sticker’s from this kit to decorate a week in my personal size planner:

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I also have a Plan With Me Video on this spread.

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Grace ❤ @ms.paperlover

 

how to, tutorial

HOW TO – Paper Stitching (Simple)

ms.paperlover

I don’t know about you guys but I often find within the papercrafting (or crafting in general) world there are some things people just presume you know how to do. Things that may seem simple to some but if you don’t know how… then you don’t know how!

One of those things is paper stitching  by hand (or sewing). Something that is, yes, relatively simple, but something that is assumed that you just KNOW what to do. For those who have a background or even basic knowledge of sewing or cross stitch (such as myself) it seems easy and straightforward. But to some people it’s not; and that’s ok.

It’s ok to not know how to do stuff, stuff that seems so simple to the rest of the world. I guarantee you there are more people than you think wondering how to do it.

So I’m going to show you how to paper stitch by hand. I am by no means an expert, but I’ll make it simple and won’t use fancy-wancy words (or if I do I’ll explain them).

So first, what you’ll need:

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First you’ll need a pointy tool of some kind to make holes in the paper. You could, I suppose, use a large needle, but your hands and fingers won’t thank you for it. Search on eBay (or your website of choice) for a ‘paper pricking tool’, or get an awl. Technically an awl is for beading and jewellery making type stuff but it does the same job. The Tim Holtz Retractable Craft Picker  is a popular choice, but not the cheapest.

Then you will need some sort of mat to do your pricking on (don’t laugh!). You can get proper pricking or piercing mats from all sorts of places, but I’m cheap – so I use this foam heart covered in felt I bought in Hobbycraft (in the kids section!) for less than £1. Sure it won’t last as long as a ‘proper’ mat, but it does the job! You could also use foam mats or corrugated cardboard from an old box. They won’t be as easy to use, particularly the cardboard, but if it’s your first time you don’t want to really splash out on the equipment.

Next you’ll need a needle, ideally an embroidery needle that doesn’t have a sharp end (ouchies!) but really you can use whatever. Just as long as the eye is big enough for the thread to go through and it’s not too wide to go through the holes you pierce!

Last is some thread, obviously. Most people, including yours truly, use embroidery thread/silk. I buy mine from eBay in bulk (I only really need cream and white) but you can pick the stuff up from all sorts of places.

Oh, and I nearly forgot – some paper! Well, card or cardstock really – paper is a little flimsy. I’ve just punched out a 3″ heart from a random bit of cardstock I had lying around for the purpose of this how to as I wanted it to be a simple shape.

Ok, let’s get started. Step one – PRICK!

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I don’t think there’s too much to explain here. Don’t push the tool too far through or your holes will be too big. Space them however you want, except don’t go too close or they might tear and leave you with one giant hole. And don’t make them too near the edge of the card, you want a few millimetres or when you start stitching the thread will fall out the sides –  one thing to remember is card is not as sturdy as material, and is way more likely to tear when making holes in it!

Step Two – thread dat needle!

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Two things to say about this: one, embroidery thread/silk is made of six very small strands. You do not want to do this with all six strands, so split it into two strands of three. Don’t go too fast or you’ll end up with a big knot.

You can actually use however many strands you damn well please, but I find three to be the best.

I forgot to picture it, but it will save you lots of stress and frustration if you use a needle threader with that embroidery silk. Those multiple strands can be an absolute pain to get through the eye.

Step Three – start stitching! With your first stitch start from the bottom through to the top, then underneath secure with some washi.

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If you’re old school or simply inclined to do so, you can of course make a knot or two instead- or if you don’t have washi to use (in which case we need to have words). But securing your thread down with washi is just SO much easier.

Step Four – continue to stitch!

Now, there’s two ways we can go about this, the first is the simple up-down-up-down stitch, which is fine, but doesn’t look as nice. To get the traditional ‘paper stitching’ look, you need to back-stitch. Many of you will be thinking ‘DUH, I know how back stitch!’, but as I said at the beginning of this post, not everyone does, so here goes:

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Bring your needle through from the bottom/underneath of your card, then instead of going forward, go backward, when you bring the needle back through the card. Then from underneath, skip over a hole when you bring the needle back through to the top.

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Then just do the same thing again. Up through, go backwards a hole to pull it down through the bottom, skip a hole underneath, and bring it back through the top. Repeat ad nauseam.

And that’s it!

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When you’ve finished and snipped off the excess thread remember to secure down the last little bit with washi again. If you’ve run out of thread at any point during it’s fine, just start again from where the thread ran out! The backs of my paper stitching projects are always a mess of washi because I’m hilariously terrible at estimating how much thread I’ll need!

I very quickly did an example of how the stitching would look if you did the very simple up-down stitch rather than the back-stitch:

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I got away with these due to the dots on the paper making it look from a distance like I’ve done more stitching than I have. But I definitely think the back-stitch looks best.

So there we go! A, hopefully, very simple guide on how to do paper stitching. I chose very simple shapes for this post but you can stitch any shape you want to. I do lot of word stitching, which is a smidgen more complicated as it just requires a bit more attention. I may do another post on how to do that in the future, so look out for that!

For now, I shall leave you, and wish you the best for all your paper stitching projects!

If there’s any papercrafting related thing you’ve always wanted to know how to do, but been afraid that it’s too ‘simple’ to ask about, or that people might laugh at you for asking, please ask! I’d be more than happy to do a tutorial on it.

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Grace ❤ @ms.paperlover