An Old Debossing Die With a New Twist

Hey, hello friends! Norine here with you today with something a little different to share! Some of you will say “I can think of sooo many other things I’d rather do!” but some of you will say “ahhhhhh!!” The technique I used on today’s card isn’t for everybody, but for people who find needle and thread work relaxing, if you know, you know! It’s a technique that's cheaper than therapy and is perfect for long phone calls, riding in the car, or watching your kids’ games! Let me show you what I’m talking about…!

I don’t even want to answer your (perfectly rational) question of “how long did that take you??” because it’s the kind of activity that soothes my nerves and calms my mind and is worth the hours spent. I started by debossing an A2 panel of white 80lb cardstock with the Dotted Swirls Debossing Die. Then I rifled through my sewing thread drawer and found a lovely spool of blue/green/plum variegated thread. I found the smallest needle I had, which happened to be a Tapestry needle. Don’t ask me why I have it, or why it’s called that. All I know is it’s a very tiny size worked perfectly for the size of dot holes created by the debossing.

I did a back stitch, where you come up in one hole, go down in the last hole behind the first one and come up again in the next hole in FRONT of the first one, so there's actually twice as much thread on the back side as the front. I covered my beginning and ending threads with strong double-sided adhesive which I also used to help attach the stitched card panel to the blue cardstock base.

Once finished with all that stitching (during which I listed to several podcasts and my audiobook) I knew I didn’t want to cover any more of it than was absolutely necessary! I used the Waterbrush Hello Die to die cut one layer of dark blue cardstock with a sheen (hard to detect in the photos) and three more layers of white cardstock to stack behind. I stamped a secondary greeting using the Hello & Hugs Stamp Set and trimmed it to a narrow strip.

I adhered the stitched panel to an A2 sized mat of a slightly lighter shade of blue from the “hello” die-cut, and then adhered the greeting to the card front and finished up with some matching enamel dots. It’s not a quick card, so it should only be made for a recipient who will appreciate the effort. Since then, I’ve been thinking of other combos – black thread on kraft cardstock….white thread on white paper – I’d try vellum but it might be too transparent for the dog’s breakfast that is on the backside….or GOLD thread on any color of cardstock!! So many options! Also, I’ve linked a few other dotted debossing cover dies below, but this is my not very subtle bid for still more debossing dies like this one! Please!

Thank you so much for stopping by and have a wonderful day! If this inspires you to try something similar, we’d love if you tag us in your photos so we can enjoy your work too! Ciao!

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