Thinking of February it’s hard not to think about Valentine day and hearts. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Valentine card embroidered with silk ribbons, and I thought it would be an interesting challenge to design one. I love such sort of challenges when there’s a need to create something for a specific occasion using specific techniques and materials. It gives my brain an exercise as it’s not an easy task to make a nice design that doesn’t take lots of materials, time, and effort when someone makes one trying to follow a tutorial afterwards. So… I hope you like it and if you haven’t yet tried stitching on a piece of card, this is a perfect opportunity to give it a go 🙂

To make a card like this, you’ll need:

1. A4 sheet of photo paper. Choose one that is thick enough to make a card (260gsm will be good) with satin finish. I bought mine from Ryman. Make sure you get photo paper, not just card, as colours will look dull on normal card;
2. 4mm wide Citrus, 7mm wide Deep Carmine, and 2mm wide Hydrangea hand-dyed silk ribbons;
3. sewing or embroidery floss in red;
4. embroidery needle to stitch with floss and a chenille (size 18) needle to stitch with ribbon;
5. scissors or a roller cutter with a ruler;
6. single sided and double sided adhesive tape.

Print out a PDF pattern on the photo paper. If your printer corrects images like mine always does, you might like to increase brightness and saturation a little on the printer settings screen.

Cut out and fold the card. Then using a  chenille needle pierce the card where the green dots are marked on the pattern.

Embroider leaves with a ribbon stitch and a piece of Citrus hand-dyed ribbon. Use a photo below as a guide. Bring the needle to the front through the punched holes and then bring it back to the wrong side piercing new holes while making a stitch. Follow a ribbon stitch tutorial as a guide. Do not make knots on the wrong side of the card, keep it flat as possible. To start and finish a stitch use a piece of adhesive tape – just stick down the end of ribbon to the wrong side.

Stitch a rose using 7mm Deep Carmine hand-dyed silk ribbon. Follow a woven spider’s web rose tutorial as a guide.

1. To start a stitch with floss on the card, make a knot, and then bring the needle to the back close to the flower centre.

2. Stitch five spokes following printed lines.

 

3. To secure the stitch weave the needle around the spokes, and then tie a couple of knots.

To make a lacing with a blue ribbon, pierce holes on the top of the card following a layout. First pierce just two outermost holes, and lace a piece of 2-mm Hydrangea silk ribbon through them. Do not pierce other holes, as you need to hide the back of the embroidery first.

Stick a piece of double sided tape onto the back of the embroidery (stick it onto the bottom of the card), then fold a left part of the card in to hide the wrong side of the embroidery.

Pierce the rest of the holes, lace the ribbon, and tie a bow where the ribbon ends meet.

Here is the inside of the card. Nice and tidy with a lot of space to write a message to someone special!

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