Stitched Up Christmas Card - By Karen Gaunt

Hello again StencilGirl fans! It's Karen here and I hope that you are all ready for the upcoming Christmas season and that all of your shopping is done or at least ordered!

If you're anything like me adding in making Christmas cards to an already full schedule over the holiday season is the last thing that I need. I used to make many cards but I found myself cutting down to fewer and fewer handmade cards as the years went by.

This was a good thing I found though because I could spend so much more time and put that little extra effort into making my cards because I wasn't cranking them out production line style.

So if you are still waiting for some inspiration to hit or you have a last few cards to make my tutorial is for you!

I've used the Cross Stitched Two Step Stencil for this project by Tammy Tutterow and it was the perfect accent to my card.

For this project you'll need a card with your choice of cardstock and some co ordinating Christmas papers. I went with brown kraft paper card because nothing says Christmas to me like brown and red. You'll also need some graph or grid paper to plot out your stitched pattern.

I roughly marked how big I wanted my design to be to make sure that I could fit it onto the front of my card. I choose to do a Christmas Tree design but you could easily do a heart or any other simply design you would like.

I plotted out where I wanted the stitches to go then mapped it out again using dots. I will use the dots as a guide for where to punch my holes in the card.

I cut out my dot guide and gently tapped it onto another piece of Kraft paper. This is paper rather that the thicker card that I have used for my base. This means that the paper piercer will go through more easily.

I placed a cutting mat underneath and used my paper piercer to prick the holes into the kraft paper.

I took some green embroidery floss and a needle and stitched my cross stitch design just like I would if stitching on fabric. Take your time to make sure that the paper does not rip while you are stitching.

I then took the stencil and using some white acrylic paint I stencilled some of the cross stitch design around the edges of the card.

I cut out the tree and mounted it again onto the red Christmas paper before adding it to the finished card.

I love how the card turned out in the end and the stencil was the perfect match for it! I hope that you enjoyed the tutorial and that you all have a wonderful Christmas!