Using Embroidery to Enhance Your Craft projects

Did you know that it’s simple to stitch embroidery and other threads onto paper? Well it is! By adding embroidery to paper crafts and scrapbook pages it gives them a unique look. Using Embroidery on your scrapbook pages also makes it easy to add other elements while your stiching. You can do embroidery by hand and with your sewing machine. Each technique is different, they are both fairly simple to learn and do well. Hers a look at each method:



Hand Sewing Embroidery on Paper

Before stitching you will need heavy weight paper, a pin for making holes in the paper, a needle, some thread, scissors, and the design of your choice. Use a pencil to lightly draw out the design on a piece your paper. You could use other kinds of paper but you will need to use heavier paper, because lighter paper is more likely to tear and become misshapen when you start stitching. You can also draw the design on a piece of drawing paper, cut it out, and tape it to your paper to use as a guide if you don’t want to draw on your paper. If you can’t think of a design, don’t panic you can find them anywhere. You can find them anywhere from the internet, in books, from rubber stamps, or even your children’s coloring book pages. But one thing you want to keep in mind while choosing a design is that is if a simple design and its not too complicated especially if you are just starting out. Once you have more experience than you can start thinking about more complicated designs.

When punching holes in the paper you want to put it on something soft like a mouse pad or cardboard so the needle can easily go through the paper without ruining your good table or wherever you are working. Start punching holes on one side and move around the piece punching holes about every 1/8in. After punching the holes make sure you erase the pencil marks left. Next is the fun part stitching the design, you can use whatever color of stitches you want to stitch your design. When you’re done you can use markers or colored pencils to fill in the blank space.



Using a Sewing Machine for Embroidery

If you can use your sewing machine to sew on fabric you can also use it to sew on paper. It’s basically the same except for the surface you’re sewing on and the way you secure the ends of the thread. Before you start stitching, make sure your bobbin has enough thread for your entire design, you don’t want to run out of thread in the middle of stitching. Usually when you use your sewing machine to sew on thread you tie knots at the ends of the thread. But when sewing on paper you will want to dab some glue or put a piece of tape at the ends of the thread, on the back of course so you can see it. Sewing the design on the paper is fun and an easy way to add cool dimensions to your craft projects. You can use any kind of paper and threads to get the look you want. Or you could also sew papers together as well, the sky’s the limit, you can take it as far as your imagination will carry it.