Close To My Heart Christmas Card and the New Stitch Guide

A few weeks back, I got the new CTMH Stitch Guide (Z1852.)  I have been anxious to try it since it was introduced at Convention and just hadn't had the time.  Time, I found the time.  All be it, I squashed it in between washing the kitchen curtains, windows and walls, raking leaves, designing a card class for my Michaels schedule and having my car inspected and walking home a mile instead of waiting for it to be done. 

Well, let me tell you, it didn't disappoint!  I used in to make a Christmas Card with Frosted (X7175B) and Yuletide Greetings (D1553.)  Let me describe the stitch guide...  It is a plastic ruler with multiple holes in patterns that you can use to pierce the paper and then stitch with embroidery floss or some sort of fiber.

The guide is several inches long and contains several patterns suitable for a 12 x 12 scrapbook page.  But, because I was doing a card, I used just a small flourish.  It worked beautifully!  I was able to pierce the paper and easily stitch the design.  I used Flower Thread for the stitching...a single ply fiber that was in my cross stitch stash.  I want to share a few tips I learned while doing the stitching....

1.  If you are using embroidery floss, separate the individual threads...any more than 3 will tear the paper.  Hemp and baker's twine are probably too thick.
2.  Make sure you don't pierce the paper too close to the edge. 
3.  Keep your thread short.  This will keep it from tangling as you stitch.
4.  Hold the ends down with adhesive....Tombow or ATG work great.
5,  Pierce your holes lightly...you can always enlarge the holes to accommodate you thread, but you can't make the holes smaller.  :o)

A few more fun things about this card...I used my CTMH Alcohol Markers and Black Archival Ink.  And, the multiple layers of mats are cut only 1/8 of an inch instead of the customary 1/4 inch.  This give just the hit of color.

Even if you're not a sewer, don't be afraid to try the Stitch Guide.  It is easy and adds yet another fun dimension to your scrapbooking and card making.  You can see it on my website.  For Now, Happy Crafting!.