Saturday, February 28, 2009

Blame it on Stefani (aka: I Tried Something New)

That's right - it is all Stefani's fault. If she was not so fabulously talented, I would not have been driven to try this myself. Things like this card ... and this one ... and OMG - THIS one ... See why I want to be like her when I grow up? Well, maybe not, but I thought it would be cool to incorporate a finger-full of that technique into what I already do.

I learned to embroider as a young'un, then graduated to cross-stitch, and eventually moved on to counted cross-stitch. Then I got old and had trouble seeing the patterns in the tiny little squares, so I packed away my every-color-floss (organized by DMC color number) and put it all behind me.

Well, I'm baaaaack! Lookie what I made today
:

I made the template for punching the holes all by myself! No, they are probably not even, but this is my first try, and it's close enough for me, for now. I poked the holes through the template with my paper piercer onto the top-note die-cut piece...pretty simple.

Here is a close-up of the corner pattern...

... and here is a close-up of the center piece. I did not measure at ALL on this one! I just used a pencil to mark where I wanted the stitch to land in each scallop, then I went back and marked a spot for the in-between stitch, then punched all the holes. At the last second I decided to introduce another color, so I picked an apricot-y one and stitched it before I did the Ecru stitching.

Boring? Maybe. No sentiment? Where would I put it? I am pretty happy with it as a first attempt. I am not too crazy about that center thing ... maybe I should just stitch the corners and stamp the rest. Next time.

On the home front, I did my first pass at my taxes, and once again I get money back from the State which will go towards what I have to pay on Federal. Drat. I hate when this happens, but at least I do not have to pay out for both.

I think I'll go rustle up something for dinner, now, then maybe stamp some more and hopefully figure out card #4 for next weekend. I thought about doing a stitching one, but The Ladies might revolt. Maybe I'll go play with marbles ... those have a pretty high entertainment factor. ;-)

Thanks for stopping by!

ETA: Don't forget about my ribbon g-i-v-e-a-w-a-y I posted earlier today!

3 comments:

  1. Wow - beautiful work! It turned out really nice, Leslie. I love the sage green colors. I think the center thing totally works, by the way.

    Can't see what else you come up with. Thanks for the links of love too!

    Stefani

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wow...I think it's just gorgeous :) If you NEEDED a sentiment you could do one on a tag hanging from the ribbon (yes I do have a bit of a *thing* for that at the moment). I like the centre bit too..it looks cool. Maybe you'll set off a whole new trend :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Definitely NOT boring! This is a "WOW!" card. Lovely, elegant, and no sentiment needed. The recipient of this card knows they are loved with all the work that went into this card.

    ReplyDelete

I'd love to hear what you really think! :-)

PS: I've had to disable Anonymous comments, because the spammers were killing me. If you are unable to comment, please email me your comment and I'll get it posted for you. Sorry. (stoopid spammers)