If you want everyone to get a little bit of handmade from you for Christmas, but don’t have the time to make up 30 different gifts, this is a great way to send a little bit of homemade festive cheer to everyone. They’re very quick and simple to make up, and look like they too far longer than they actually did, exactly what you need when you’ve got a list of handmade gifts about a mile long to make up!
You will need
- Blank cards and envelopes – you can pick these up at pretty much anywhere that sells scrapbooking supplies.
- Scrapbooking papers – this is a great way to use up any scraps you have laying around. Try to use paper as opposed to cardstock as your needle may not be too keen on sewing through several layers of card.
- Sewing thread and a brand new needle in your sewing machine.
- Cut out your basic shapes, a triangle for the tree, a square for the trunk and a rectangle for the background, if you have them, feel free to go crazy with novelty scissors, different types of paper, and colour.
- Use a dab of stick glue on the back of the triangle just to hold it in place on the background while you sew, slide the trunk underneath the bottom of the triangle with a slight overlap. Sew a straight stitch around the triangle making sure to catch the paper that makes up the trunk. Once you’ve reached the end of your stitching tie your threads together and knot them tightly to secure them. Depending on how much of a perfectionist you are, either pull them through to the back or snip the ends off close to the knot.
- Sew the background to the front of the blank card – sewing the pieces separately this way keeps the inside of the card neat and means your needle doesn’t have to work too hard to get through too many layers of paper and card. Decorative stitches work really well here, although just doubling up on the straight stitch looked very effective as well. Once again, finish off the loose ends the same as before.
- And you’re done! There are so many different ways you can personalise these cards with different embellishments, adding novelty yarn as tinsel to the tree or using variegated thread for the sewing.
If you’ve stitched up some Christmas cards or made any other items from the CB tutorials, feel free to show them off by uploading your images to the CraftBlog Flickr Pool, I’d love to see what you come up with.
As with all the patterns and tutorials on CraftBlog, this is licensed for personal use only, please do not sell or make any profit from the Stitched Christmas Cards Tutorial. Thank you!
On December - 11 - 2008
I wish I’d had time to make these a couple of a weeks ago! They’re so cute!
Great tute! I’ve scheduled a link to this post to go live on my blog mid-day Friday (Central USA time). I hope it brings you a few extra clicks.
Denise
http://needlework.craftgossip.com
Thanks Denise
oooh! i like this! I pulled out my graphic punch and pushed a heap of circles through my machine last night to make a garland… i should sew some to cards!!! great idea fern!
[...] You’re running out of time to make and mail handcrafted Christmas cards. Don’t worry. Fern of Craft Blog has a solution. With a few simple supplies and a sewing machine, you can have lots of sweet handmade cards ready to go in no time. See the tute. [...]
Wow these are GORGEOUS! I would be so excited to find one of these in my mailbox. I’ll be linking.
[...] Anleitung für genähte Weihnachtskarten Wer so wie ich, zu wenig Karten gebastelt hat, kann mit dieser Anleitung sicherlich schnell noch ein paar Karten nachproduzieren. Die Karten sehen aus, als könne man mit recht wenig Aufwand ein schönes Ergebnis erzielen. [...]
these are great! perfect use for scraps and remnants!
<3E
tootsweethandbags.etsy.com
i love that how cute stories
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So simple yet so perfect. I lovehandmade…who doesn’t? Thanks for the tutorial. I’m definietly bookmarking it for next year.
Now that’s truly exquisite craftsmanship in Christmas card making! I do believe that even a nonartistic person like myself can fall this tutorial. By any chance will you be holding any training sessions for Valentine’s Day cards?
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What an effective way to make a quick Christmas Card, and I think the basic technique could be applied to other card making projects as well. As you say adding card making embellishments will also enhance the cards and of course would be themed to the occasion.
.-= Susan@Card Making Embellishments´s last blog ..Privacy Policy =-.
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