ED204 Christmas floral

I am working on my Christmas greeting card collection and this design offered for purchase by Emy van Schaik is a perfect, quick and easy stitching pattern to complete.

I copied the sheet provided and pricked the design out onto 170gsm smooth textured matte white card which I trimmed down to 13x 10cm after completed the stitching.

I prepared a white A4, 200gsm Crafty Bob matte photo paper to measure 15cm square and used cup1049542_21027, Red and White soft- toned diagonal Gingham Insert backing sheet to cut three, 1cmx15cm strips and one, 1cm x 17cm strips to attach to the card front.

I attached the 2 sides and the bottom edge using the three strips and left the 17cm length strip to attach later.

To complete the stitching I have used dark green polyester thread to stitch the swirls representing the stems, the inner half circles and the central star are stitched using gold glitter metallic thread.

The 8 red petal shapes are stitched using red metallic thread.

To complete the beading I have used 8 red glass seed beads, 14 green glass seed beads on the short half circle and 17 of the same green seed beads on the longer half circle.

The 7 green, blue iridescent 6mm metallic rice beads I have used to represent the leaves, and for the space between the petals I have used 8 pearl textured 6mm rice beads.

In total I have used 54 beads to complete the project.

I have attached a gold metallic ribbon to the centre top of the finished work, from the back, leaving a tail at the top of at least 4cm.

I have edged the finished work with red decorative peel off strips and marked the 17cm red and white strip at 5.5cm in from the left which is the matching point to over- lap the gold foil ribbon before attaching the strip and the finished topper to the card front.

I trimmed the edges to be neat with the main white card. I have used gold peel off strips vertically at different lengths to attach a bauble some stars and some rings.

I have used a matching decorative red peel off strip to attach the sentiment and the gold metallic bow as extra embellishments.

I have used the same cup 1049542_21027 as the insert and printed the verse I have chosen from the free verse Christmas section onto the white oval shape.

I have used decorative gold peel off Christmas symbols down the white strips on both sides and a small image of the card front to tie the theme of the card front and insert together.

Thank you Emy, I will use this for many other occasions and celebrations as the size allows for the finished card to be many shapes and to be displayed in a variety of positions.

Pamela Horton. The Whispering Platypus.