ED218 flower borderCompleted by Pamela Horton The whispering Platypus

I must be one of the most prolific card-makers of stitching designs, as I love the detail and time in completing them and the designs by Emy are always so beautifully artistic, easy to follow and always make the project so enjoyable and the result so pleasing, I have chosen this design to complete today.

I have used a green and topaz colour scheme which is perfect for the recipient of this card as they her much loved shades.

I have used a very pale blue double grid patterned card which has a blue white background for the base 13cm square backing sheet to copy the pattern onto.

I have used green polyester sewing thread for the stitching, except for the individual star and sun style shapes, where I have used a metallic bronze as it blends in so well with the topaz coloured beads.

To complete the topaz flowers I have used 15 glass tube beads, for the leaves I have used 4 luminescent blue, green, 7mm rice beads and 1 smaller 5mm rice bead.

For the rest of the beads I have used very short 3mm, chunky look, tube topaz coloured glass beads. I have used gold glitter sequins with one of the topaz tube beads attached instead of spacers.

In total I have used 21 topaz 3mm glass beads, 15 topaz, thin 7mm long tube beads, 5 blue, green rice beads, and 2 sequins, and used the glitter bronze thread to attach them all onto the card front.

I have attached a matching topaz coloured butterfly and some tiny pearls.

I have defined the edge of this topper and backed it with plain paper using red power tape to secure the stitching and beading before attaching it to the textured soft green 13.5cm square backing sheet with the gold ribbon attached horizontally 4cm up from the lower edge.

I have defined the outside edges of this backing sheet, with green, before I have attached this to the 14.75cm square black backing sheet.

The main card is an ivory 15cm square card front.

To complete the card front, I have attached the completed topper using D.S. tape, the matching gold bow with red power tape and the butterfly and sentiment with padded D.S. squares.

To complete the insert, I have used a small copy of the image of the finished card and a verse from the free verse section to attach to a 30cm x 15cm soft green garden scene backing sheet, to which I have attached cotton lace to the opening left hand edge and allowed this to be slightly visible from the closed card view.

I am always pleased with the photographic copies I have and the records kept on my home page to be able to use the design many times over, particularly when the project requires a little more time in the planning as that has been recorded, thanks to Crafty Bob.

Pamela Horton. The Whispering Platypus.