A winter tree for Bee Crafty

                       

Hi there! I am going to share with you a little project that I have been working on for a couple of weeks. 

I used: 

the Beautanicals Large Branch and tree set

Snowflakes from the cool winter journalling girl

Versafine Clair ink (I used grey)

A piece of pale blue polyester cotton (cut from an economy pillowcase)

Some scraps of lilac organza

Various shades of grey and white embroidery thread

Irridesent clear seed beads

Irridesent clear sequins

I began by stamping the tree in versafine clair ink onto the polyester cotton, and placing the pieces of organza across the bottom to make the snowy hills. I placed it in an embroidery hoop and then stitched the organza in place (a back stitch or a running stitch is fine for this)  

                                                 

I then began to stitch the trunk and branches using the 3 shades of grey thread - the palest grey on one side of the tree and the darkest on the other with the mid grey in the middle. I used varying lengths of straight stitch for this, following the outline of the branches first then filling in any spaces.  I used mostly 2 strands of embroidery threads, switching to one strand where the twigs were thinnest.

 

Next I took it out of the hoop and stamped three snowflakes (the smaller one was really too small so I would recommend 3 the same size) 

 

I used a mixture of straight stitch and french knots in single strands of white embroidery threads, but you could use other stitches. 

 

I used a very fine needle to start adding the beads and sequins. Some just beads on their own, and some over a sequin to represent larger flakes. I took it out of the hoop, gave it a cool iron around where the hoop was and added a few extra beads at the top. Finally I popped it in a box frame, securing the fabric under the mount with double sided tape, and adding a few dots of liquid pearls to the mount.  

Hope you like it! I am definitely looking at stamps that lend themselves to embroidery now, and will also look at items in charity shops that I could use for this sort of project. My pillowcase has been made into many masks too - a bargain at £2 for the pair! 

 

Don't forget, Bev and Sam are off to Hochanda tomorrow for a show at 1pm featuring the amazingly gorgeous snowflake stamps and some stunning new mdf too! I do hope you can tune in! 

 Thanks for looking!