Ed008 Flower Border 2Completed by Pamela Horton The whispering Platypus

This is such an easy pattern to follow and involves using one colour thread for all the stitching and a variety of beads to suit the theme of choice.

I have used a white 120gsm matte card cut at 13.5x14cm to copy the design onto, and I have used a deep green single thread of embroidery floss to complete all the stitching design.

For the main 6 petal flowers I have used 54 silver 6mm metallic rice beads and attached them using the same green embroidery floss.

I then attached the small 3mm sized pearls. There are 19 pearls altogether made up of 6 groups of 3 and one single pearl.

I have used silver glass tube beads as buds on the end of the stems and attached a tiny blue seed bead to the end of 4 of the tube beads.

I have used 6 of the 6mm silver tube glass beads and 4 of the blue seed beads. I have used 9 blue seed beads for the tiny buds and 9 tiny blue seed beads in the centre of each of the 9 main flowers.

To finish this part of the project I have used a total of 101 beads. I then coloured the silver rice beads with a sea green, blue permanent metallic pen, so that the centres were bold but the silver still shows through.

I set this aside to dry before attempting to attach the hand-made roses and prepared the main card which is light sea green in colour and cut at 16 x 15.5cm and scored and folded before I have attached the 14.5 x 14 cm green background, white blossom backing sheet using D.S. tape.

I used a decorative silver peel off strip along the 4 edges of the green card front.

I have made the 5 aqua ribbon roses using 1.5cm wide aqua satin ribbon, by twisting the ribbon over as I made each circular shape , stitching each twist as I continued rolling the circular shape and stitched the last end in underneath.

The ribbon length varied depending on how tight I rolled and how fat I wanted the rose. I then used the same permanent pen to smudge each of the rose petals randomly.

I coloured a small piece of card and drew the rose stems, and cut them out as one piece. I chose a mixture of 5 leaf shaped beads to attach, and stitched the roses and the leaves directly onto the stems and onto the topper at the same time.

Once this was completed I used a tiny fine bristle brush and white glue and attached the ends of the stems down onto the topper front.

When this was dry I then used the same white glue on the stitching points for the roses and the leaves on the back of the work.

I again allowed drying time before I used D.S. tape to attach the topper to the card front and add the decorative silver peel off embellishments.

To keep the bright cheery look, I have used the same blossom print for the insert and attached the verse I have written.

I have added the verse to the free verses section under Thinking of you for females..

I have also added the aqua bow to the inside of the card as an embellishment. This is such a versatile design, and depending on the choice of colour for the stitching and the beads, it is then able to suit so many occasions, even a snowy Christmas scene which I have planned for next Christmas card making.

Pamela Horton. The Whispering Platypus.