Cardmaking Monday-- Hand Stitching on Paper

Hello, everyone!

My apologies for disappearing last week.  Our household went down with illness, and I had to put on my mom superhero cape to try to take care of my little guys (while secretly wishing I could just go to sleep and feel better myself!)......

Back to cards... A few years ago, I taught a paper crafting class to elementary school children.  I made these die cut egg cards and got us some Sew Easy tools and all this embroidery floss so the kids could make decorate the eggs with different colored floss lines.  Apparently, unbeknownst to me, sewing is no longer part of the art preschool curriculum.  (Doesn't EVERYBODY sew some yarn on paper to make a little paper pillow??  Was that just my preschool?!)  Anyway, my kids had a very hard time doing it, the class was a disaster, and I ended up sewing about half of the kids' eggs for them. 

That was, as you can imagine, the last I have touched those Sew Easy needles and embroidery floss.

So embroidery floss and hand-stitching made its way onto my list of 52 cards this year.  Is it REALLY worth the time and effort??  Or should I donate those tools and make some room?  That was the question of the week.  :-)

I was absolutely certain I would want to throw in the towel on these things.  Too much time, not enough bang for your buck.  Too country for my tastes.

Until I made this very simple card and fell in love with it.

It definitely took more time to do this than to stitch with a sewing machine (or my personal favorite, which is to not stitch and make dashes to make it look like stitching!).  But holy cow does it have a big impact when I use it in my own way, in my own style.

I don't think its a tool I would use on a 12x12 layout, as it always is lost on me when other people do it.  But in small doses, when it can have a large visual impact, I absolutely love this.

So unfortunately for my shelves, they will have to keep another tool on hand because I have fallen in love-- FINALLY!!