Ed-o the Letter O

Stitching with beads.

Use cardstock to make this card. The beads I used are rice or long grain beads (5 x 2mm) and glassbeads. Also used a cornerpunch.

Thank you, Emy, for this beautiful floral and swirl design that accompanies the letter O, I needed this for a July birthday gift and I know my cousin Olwyn will love this as much as I do.

I completed all the stitching before I attempted attaching any beads.

I used smooth matte white 120gsm card which I had cut at 15 x 13.75cm to transfer the design onto and used single strands of pure cotton threads to complete the stitching.

I have used a bright yellow for the stamens, a deep moss green for the sprigs and stems and a soft musk pink for the petals and the letter O.

I have followed the directions on the sheet provided to complete the stitching.

The beads I have used for the inside of the petals are 7 opaque glass luminescent rice beads which are joined at the outer edge of each rice bead with a tiny soft musk coloured seed bead.

These I stitched in place using the pink thread. The 10 pink tinged 3mm tiny round pearl beads that help form the circle of the Letter O I have stitched in place as instructed on the directions using the pink thread.

The musk coloured pearl beads for the lower stitched beads are made up of I tiny 2mm round bead, 6 tiny 3mmm beads, and 3 slightly larger 4mm round pearl beads and 2 slightly larger round 5mm pearl beads.

I used the green thread to stitch each of these in place.

For the beads that sit between the green stitching lines I again used the green thread to stitch them in place and I have used I of the tiny 2mm round beads and continued with using 8 of the tiny 3mm round beads.

So altogether I needed 7 rice beads,7 tiny seed beads, 10 round 3mm pearl beads, 2 tiny 2mm round beads, 14 small round 3mm pearl beads, 3 round 4mm pearl beads and 2 round 5mm pearl beads.

Altogether I have used 45 beads to complete the beading pattern.

To make the card I used power tape to attach the completed topper onto a dusty musk pink backing sheet which I had cut at 15.25 x 14cm.

I then used a slightly paler musk pink set of peel off strips to attach the outer edge of the stitched card.

I used the same power tape to attach the brighter musk pink backing sheet which I had cut at 16.5 x 15cm. before I attached this to the main card front, I used a 1.5mm satin ribbon to wrap horizontally around the top edge of the stitched topper and secured at the back of the largest backing sheet.

I made the main card from a linen finished pale leaf green which I had cut at 30.25 x 17cm, and had scored and folded it before attaching this completed topper and backing sheets using the same D.S. red power tape.

I used peel off gems in the same shades as the completed stitching work, backing sheets and main card to line the outside edges of the larger pink backing sheet.

I added 3 larger gems to the left hand corner, used some of the ribbon to tie a bow using the rabbit ear method and attached my own printed sentiment and attached it complete with the 2 gems.

I made the insert from a printed floral and white print, I wrote the verse and attached it and used some of the pale purple floral peel off strips as embellishments.

The verse is available in the free verses section if you wish to use it at any time. I then used my water colour pencils to colour in the flower, which I think is a Singapore Orchid, and the letter O.

I am more than delighted with the outcome, and will use the flower pattern and swirls again but unfortunately I do not have need to ever use the letter O again, unless I have a customer who likes the look of the card.

Pamela Horton