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  • Writer's pictureRhona Norrie
    • 4 min read

A Year of Christmas Stitching - March

Hello lovely stitchers, and welcome once more to another installment of our 'A Year of Christmas Stitching'.


It's been fun to plan out what designs to share with you and how to finish each one. I've been trying to get a wide variety of design styles so that there's something for everyone. This month's design is a fun little snowman as you can see here...



The chart for this cute little snowman can be found at the bottom of the page.


This post may contain affiliate links to products I trust. This means if you make a purchase using the links, I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you for your support!


Since many of us are still in lockdown or have a stay at home type order, this is another design that is easy to change the colors to whatever you have in your stash. I've used two shades of blue for the hat but you can change it to whatever colour you have on hand - just grab a colour then find another one that is slightly darker. If you use a different colour for the hat, I would suggest that you use that colour for the border and the lettering too.


As for the backstitch detailing on the hat and scarf....absolutely any colors would do! Let's use up those odd bits of thread that are laying around :)

So how to finish this design? I thought this month I'd show you how to make this cute little design into a card. But as always, finish your stitching however you please. The finishing instructions for the January and February designs can be used for this design too!


So, when making a card from my stitching, I decide what the main color of the card will be (in this case it's blue) then I just search through my stash for anything that's blue....paper, ribbons, buttons etc.

If you've never made a card from your stitching, don't worry! I'm going to show you a basic way of making a card and then, if you want to, you can jazz it up using whatever you have on hand. Remember the great thing about making your own cards is that you can make them plain, ultra fancy, or anything in-between....it's whatever you want to do.


So, here's what I used...




.....and your finished stitching! :)




The easiest way to make a card is really just to play around with the papers and trims that you have on hand and see what looks best.


I decided to trim my stitching to five squares from the edge of the stitching all round. Note: the lettering comes below the border on two sides so measure from the bottom of the lettering not the border! I then frayed the edges ( there's a handy tutorial on how to fray edges here!)


I cut the white card to be the same size of the stitching minus the frayed edges (it doesn't have to be exact, it's just so that if you are using a dark colored paper on your card, it doesn't shine through your stitching - you can even omit this step!) and then glued the card to my stitching using Aleene's tacky glue. I find this glue works best when gluing fabric and paper together.


I then glued my stitching onto the corner of some plain blue cardstock using the strong craft glue.



I glued the stitching so that there was a narrow border of blue on the bottom and left hand side of my stitching. I then cut the card top and right hand side so that the border was equal all round. I find this method easier than cutting a square of card then glueing the stitching.....but do whatever works for you!


Handy hint: always use a steel ruler and a very sharp blade when cutting your paper so that you get a nice neat finish. I like to use a retractable craft knife as seen in the picture of supplies above as I can just snap off the end part of the blade and get a 'new' sharp blade whenever I want.


I added another border of navy blue card so that there was a double border around my stitching. Another little tip for adding border papers, is to have the borders different widths - you can see on the picture that the navy blue border is much narrower than the bright blue border.


I then found some snowflake patterned patterned paper, trimmed it to fit my card then backed it with the same navy blue card I used on the stitching.


Glue your patterned papers however you please. You can follow the layout of this finished card or do your own thing!



And don't worry about changing your original plan and doing something different if you feel that your card design isn't looking the way you imagined.... there's no right or wrong way to make a card......do what you want! :)


Remember you can share your stitching with us on our Crafters' Corner or on social media using #TangledThreadsAndThings. We love to see your finished stitching!




Don't forget that each month we will have a free Christmas chart here on the website along with some ideas of what you can make with the free design, such as ornaments, cards etc. Our email newsletter will contain other free charts and/or ideas of what to make with the design, exclusive to our email subscribers (you can subscribe at the bottom of this page to add your name so you're not missing out).


Don't forget to pop back next month for the April free chart!


FREE CHART:

AYOXS March
.pdf
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