ED215 Flower borderCompleted by Pamela Horton The whispering Platypus

This stunningly beautiful design by Emy, today, I have tried to do something a little different and as I am unable to shop and I need to browse for just the right item when buying for my craft activities, I have had to use what is to hand.

I have used 66 beads in a combination of 12 tiny seed pearls for the top part of the frame, 14 luminescent 7mm purple, green metallic rice beads, 4 of the same type of luminescent 3mm rice beads and 18 textured pearl rice beads which I have coloured with a permanent pen, 8 tiny pale green glass seed beads and for the flower centres, I have chosen 10 tiny gold glass seed beads.

I printed the sheet provided and have used a pale double check patterned background card print which has a decorative edge, and copied this at a size to fit the stitching provided.

I have used a deep lime green glitter metallic thread on the outside lines and accompanied this with a fuchsia pink metallic glitter thread, which I have also used on the actual flower outlines.

I have used my water colour pencils dry to shade the flowers. I have also coloured the leaves before stitching them with a bright green metallic thread. The stems are stitched with regular dark green polyester thread.

The flower centres are stitched with gold metallic thread before attaching the beads using the same thread doubled. All the beads are stitched in a matching metallic thread doubled. I have edged the finished work with the same mauve permanent pen, I have used to colour the beads for the flowers.

I have secured the back of the work with a plain backing using red power tape and then used red power tape to attach this to a pale green 14.5cm square backing sheet which I have edged with the same pen.

The white card is 200gsm, A4 Crafty Bob, matte, photo- paper, cut at 15cm high and scored and folded slightly off the centre so that the card back is exposed by 1cm.

I have used a pale green insert to which I have attached a white lace edging.

The insert has the verse I have chosen from the free verse section and is printed onto green vellum and is attached onto the right hand side.

The copy of the card front, which I have attached onto the left hand side of the insert, is also printed onto green vellum.

The stitching pattern is very easy to follow and the directions for stitch length work perfectly.

I will be able to use his many times using a variety of colour combinations. Pamela Horton. The Whispering Platypus.