Sewing on Cards: Adding Stitching to Paper for Texture & Interest

If you make handmade greeting cards or spend any time scrapbooking chances are you are always looking for new ways to add texture and make your projects more interesting. One of the easiest things you can do that really packs and punch and helps to make your project unique is to try sewing on cards.

When you stitch paper using thread or yarn that has an interesting color, texture or sparkle it can bring your projects to another level and make them much more exciting than a simple, flat design.

While you can sew any kind of paper, it typically works best with thicker, sturdier paper such as construction paper or cardstock. Lighter, thinner papers can easily tear or pull when you are working on them with a needle. Sturdy paper, on the other hand, will hold its shape and will also be much easier to sew.

The most common use for sewing on paper is to stitch around the edge of a smaller piece of paper that you have cut into a pretty shape then attach the stitched piece to a larger background sheet of paper. For instance you might cut a small circle to stitch around and then attach it to the front of a card or a scrapbook sheet.

The first step in stitching paper is to choose your thread, needle and paper. Embroidery thread and very thin yarns work well for this, although you really can use any type of thread or string that you want. Make sure that your needles is large enough to string the thread through. Some thicker threads and yarns will probably require an embroidery needle for sewing.

Choose a large piece of paper, a card or a scrapbooking page for the background, then cut a smaller shape from a contrasting paper to sew around and attach to it. Take a needle or another sharp object and poke holes evenly around the edge of the smaller shape. Pre-poking the holes makes it a lot easier to pull the thread through the paper without tearing or damaging it.

Next, starting from the underside, bring the needle up through through the first hole and pull the thread through. Make a loop in the thread near the paper and then pull the needle through the loop from the underside. Move on to the next hole. Repeat this until you have worked your way all the way around the paper shape then tie off your thread and cut it.

Attach your sewn paper to your card or scrapbook page with a dab of glue and you are done!