Floss, Flower, Buttons--Oh My!

Hello Everybody!

I am so excited about this card.  I hope you will be too!  I am using the Sew Easy tool by We R Memory Keepers that I got in my box of goodies!

I measure out my green piece of Bazzill cardstock to fit my pre-made card.  Also, I selected the orange option for making holes in my paper.

To ensure straight lines, I match my cardstock against the corner of the foam mat.

I press down and make holes in all four sides.  The corners aren't perfect, so we'll see what happens!

Thankfully, this looks good.  My mom-in-law straightened me out...you should have seen what I was doing!  The Sew Easy tool comes with a paper needle (versus getting out a normal small sewing needle.)  I used regular embroidery floss (all 6 strands).

I sew one way and then come back and "cross" those lines.  This leaves the middle hole, made by the tool, untouched.

Sometimes I didn't press down hard enough on my Sew Easy, so I used a paper piercer to make a better hole.

This is the back of the card.  I tape down the beginning and end pieces because I think that reduces bulk.

My border is complete.  Here is the flower I am going to use on this card.  I bought a multi-colored pack of these felt flowers from Joann's for $1 (those bins in front of the check-out).  I haven't done anything with them...until now!

This is a thick felt flower by the way.  I do a backstitch to outline the flower.  The paper piercer comes in very handy for this.  Regular felt is not as hard to stitch.

Now for the stem of my flower.  I go through my button collection (and my mom-in-laws), but what I decide is white buttons...with a twist.

Using a felt applicator, I apply lettuce and gold alcohol inks by Ranger to the buttons.  Beautiful.   I used maybe 4 drops of lettuce and 1 drop of gold, and it looks really pretty. 

The buttons needed one more thing.  So I went back and threaded the buttons and then reapplyed the ink to the threads.  Now they have a complete look.

Here is my card all done!  It's blank on the inside so I can send it for different occasions.  So dust off your embroidery floss and find a new use for it!  Until next time...thanks for stopping by!