Hi everyone, I’m Erin Dye, and I’m guest blogging on CraftynotShifty while Laura’s arm heals. I blog at The Slate Haven. Today I’m going to share tips for creating embroidered note cards.

My grandmother taught me to embroider tea towels when I was little. There’s a chance that it was simply her wish to fulfill a time-honored tradition of grandmother teaching granddaughter, but I think it may also have been a way to keep me occupied for an hour. She was a very patient woman.

She and I did have a lot of fun coming up with designs for those tea towels, though, and I like transferring that same aesthetic to paper. I especially love this look for Valentine’s Day cards. There’s something wholesome and sweet about the embroidery, which makes it even more fun to pair it with a saucy greeting.

First, I decide what kind of design I want. For the purposes of this how-to, let’s do something simple, like a whimsical heart. First, I sketch it out on a piece of thin paper. Tracing paper is ideal, but normal printer paper will work.

Now it’s time to mark it up so it can work as a stitching pattern. (If I were transferring the design to a piece of cloth, I might just draw it on the material in pencil, since it would wash off when I’m finished. But with pretty white card paper, I don’t want any traces of pencil left over.)

I space the dots (which will be the holes for the needle later) evenly around the design.

Once I’m happy with it, I go over it with a dark, fine-point marker (I used a Sharpie here).

If you have a light box, get it out now. I don’t have one, but I do have an iPad. The Lightbox app is free and works perfectly for what I need.

Put your drawing on the lightbox (iPad), and put your card on top of the drawing. You should be able to see the drawing through the card paper.

Using a pencil, very lightly trace the marks for the dots onto the card.

Now, get your favourite thread (I’m using embroidery floss) and a pretty stout needle, and get to work.

Sew across the design. If it helps, you can use the needle to poke holes before you start actually sewing.

The result is a cottage-chic, whimsical little design.

When you finish, you have a few options for the loose ends. Option A is to leave the ends and tie them in a bow (I did this for another project).

Option B is to hide the messy stitching on the back with another card glued on as a matte.

You can get as fancy or stay as simple as you’d like. Happy Valentine’s Day!