Hand Embroidered Note Cards - DIY

I am thrilled to announce that my latest DIY–A Hand-Embroidered Note–has a special home over at Design*Sponge today. I have admired Grace Bonney’s site since I first discovered the craft/design blog world. She and her team are SO very talented. I am honored to have a project featured there.

This DIY began when I went to my stationary drawer to look for some cards to send *real* thank-you notes to my Squam Art Workshop teachers. I desperately cling to my belief that email thank-yous don’t count. I found a huge pile of orphaned envelopes and no stationary I wanted to send. This dearth of notes inspired me to created a unique, hand-made card for each teacher, reflective of the skills they each shared in class. Some of you are aware of my current creative streak with paperboard, which you can see here and here and here. It seemed natural to create a paperboard thank you.

I had a ball creating a hand embroidered version for the talented Rebecca Ringquist. The card became a mini stitch-sampler–fun! I swear by the therapeutic benefits of hand stitching. I find it incredibly relaxing and satisfying (maybe even more so than knitting! . . . maybe). It was such a blast, I knew I had to create a tutorial for you all.So, if you’ve never tried embroidery before or even if you’re old hat, pop over to Design*Sponge for this tutorial and give it a whirl, I highly recommend it. What an easy way to spend the evening and then wow your thank you note recipient three days later!
I’m offering some DIY kits in my etsy shop if you want to skip the prep part and go right to the stitching.