DIY: Embroidered Cards

I know it's a little after Christmas, but I thought I'd share with you a quick tutorial on ways to sew your own cards! I embroidered some Christmas cards and one New Years card this year (inspired by Next to Nicx), but you could totally embroider cards for all occasions. I had this glorious plan to sew like 10 cards this year and I thought it was going to take no time, but the first one took me... pause... about 8 hours to complete
>.< ahh! (the one pictured above) I ended up giving it to my sister and her husband so I hope they frame it and keep it forever! So I quickly nixed that idea to make 10 cards and with such an elaborate design, figured out quicker ways to do it, and simplified it so each card afterwards ended up taking me about 30 min. each. Phew!

I don't have as many detailed photos as I usually do for my tutorials, but it's easy enough!

I cut some shimmery 8.5"x11" cardstock and cut it in half to make the card.

Then, I printed out the text and tape it to the center of the card with masking tape. Here, the font is Franklin Gothic Heavy, size 72.

Then, I punched holes evenly around the border of each letter into a cutting mat with a push pin. The first time I did it, I punched the holes over my carpet, but I found that made the holes too big.

For my New Years card, the font I used was Giddyup Std, size 72.

I used one thread from embroidery floss and a needle. One of the reasons why this card took me so long was because when I pulled the thread through, it would knot up in the back and I'd constantly be unknotting the thread. Very annoying. What helped was to cut the thread at medium length. Using really long thread just makes it easier to create knots.

If you're going to sew this design, I'd recommend sewing the border first, and then the inner diagonals at random.

And here are the final card designs!

I think the backs of the embroidered sections look really cool! Almost like artwork on their own as well.