ver since I was a little kid, I would never just sit down and watch TV, I’d always have a craft project going at the same time, particularly if I was watching an entire series of a show. I just like doing things with my hands. I’m also a shocking snacker, particularly at night so if I do something that uses both hands it keeps my little piglet fingers out of the biscuit jar!
I saw some little DIY embroidery packs at a market on the weekend and I though how easy it would be to make my own embroidered Thank You cards. I’m a bit old-school and twee sometimes and I still send Thank You cards so I though I’d pop together a little how to make embroidered gift cards DIY.
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What You Need
Tracing paper
Backwards ‘Thank You’ template or an iPad (you can englarge or shrink it to suit the cards you have)
A pencil
Blank white cards and envelopes
Scissors
Embroidery thread (I bought mine in a pack from Daiso)
Embroidery needles
Sewing machine
1. Trace the backwards ‘thank you’ on to tracing paper. It needs to be the mirror image so that when you turn it around and shade the imprint on your card, the Thank You is facing around the right way. My printer is on the blink so I just traced mine on my iPad.
2. Take your traced Thank You and place it pencil marking side down on your card. Then shade firmly over the top to transfer the image to the card.
3. Using your un-threaded sewing machine, punch holes about .5cm apart on your letters. I removed the presser foot from my sewing machine so I could see better and I just winged it, punching holes at regular intervals. I also only used the fly-wheel NOT the pedal. The pedal didn’t grip the paper properly and left unevenly punched holes.
4. Choose your thread, tie a knot in one end and use a simple back-stitch (tutorial here) to fill in your letters. I stuck to the one colour on my cards but feel free to mix it up. I also used shorter lengths of thread (about 40cm) and tied them off regularly to avoid tangles with a long unwieldy length of thread.
5. Snip off any loose threads and you’re done! If you don’t like the look of the inside of the card with the wrong side of the embroidery showing, you can stick an extra piece of card on top to hide it. I quite like the organic look of it though so I didn’t bother. I added some extra stitches at the top and bottom too.
This activity is utterly perfect for people who want to keep their hands busy at night to stop themselves from snacking, smoking or checking Facebook constantly. It’s also really useful – each one of these cards (not including my time obviously!) cost about 60 cents to make. It’s a great way to give yourself a relaxing brain break and save money on expensive gift cards at the same time.
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Do you have trouble sitting still? Do you need activities to do in front of the TV or are you happy just watching?
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