Hand Embroidery On Paper

1. Hand Embroidery on Paper intro: Welcome to my class Hand embroidery. On paper, in class, we're going to be creating a hand embroidered paper collage. The collages made up of several stitches that you can use again and again in other projects , using simple techniques and few supplies are walking through, putting together these small collages and shares my tips for working with thread on paper, your needles and thread. I'll see you in class. 2. Supplies: So before we get started with our hands, sticks to collage, I just wanted to go through with you a few of the tools that were going to be using. And obviously, as we're doing, I'm stitching on paper, the stitching part off it has a very big part to play. So on the tools that were going to be using our I have just some regular embroidery needles here. Any type of embroidery needle will be fined for this. Try and pick one that is going to work with the thread that you have. So if you're wanting to use a very thick wool than you obviously need a larger needle with a larger I in it, I've got some embroidery flocks here is I've just got a variety of different colors you can pick whichever one takes your fancy. Whatever one you have in your stash will work fine. I tend to work with two strands off the embroidery floss when I'm working it so your embroidery floss, if you're not familiar with that, comes in large, is thick strand on their several different smaller strands inside it. So you just split them apart and I will work with two in this project. So wherever you see me stitching, I'm working with two. Depending on the look that you want, you can go for 34 or sometimes even the whole six. If you like. You want to have a really chunky look. You could go for that as well. Just make sure that the thickness of these is going to go through your needle. So for stitching into paper, the best way to go about it is T used a poke, a tool or a paper piercer or whatever you want to call it. So I have a couple here that I have in my stash. So these are this one slightly thinner. This one's a little bit thicker. These air really great tools tohave if you're going to be stitching into paper. Because once you put that whole, we could only poke at once trying to poke it with your needle because every thin could be quite sore on your hands. So definitely recommend trying to get ahold of these. If you don't have one of these in your stash, then you can pop one of your needles into ah wine cork. You can put the blunt end into it. Andi, use a little bit of hot glue around the end to get yourself a kind of makeshift paper yourself. But these are quite easy to pick up. If you do want to be doing a lot of this, you know, definitely recommend you pick up one of these. They're not very expensive, so the next time I've just got some scissors on, I also have some washi tape. It doesn't matter. Any kind of tape will do. Even just clear. Saleh tape. This fine is just really to secure the threads at the fact, because, unlike with fabric, you really don't have anything to weave in the ends off your embroidery to so having a little bit of washing take the hand is a really handy to have. So that's the thread part of it done so that in terms of creating our kalash, I'm going to be working with the's small and watercolor postcards. They're perfect size on. I really like working with these because I can add in my wet media as you'll see when we start making on. They are nice and sick. I'm very easy to tear off. You don't have to worry about measuring Now, if you don't happen to have these or you don't want to go out and buy them, a piece of Bush called paper will work just fine or even a piece of mixed media paperwork, while for you as well. I just like these because they're nice and small and they're really great moved to stick into your journals. So have those. Then I have just a variety, all papers on pieces that I have in my stash. So I have. I'm going to take my main image from one of thes these. There is a book, a wildflower illustrations. I really love to work with the spokes. Lovely. So I got to be taking a piece out of that for the main part of the collage. You could also use something like thes found images these air from Tim Holtz. Then we're going to be working on the background with whatever you have in your stash. Whatever you have to hand, you don't need to go out making any special thing for this thesis. Some tissue paper is it's a jelly printed tissue papers, this some glass paper, some more tissue papers. I have here some patterned paper from no pattern seeking news. That's great to use as well. This'd is from an old dictionary book. Just whatever you have to hand to create a really nice, interesting background there that will work for you. So whatever you have there is great on. Then I also have some water color. This is the decadent pie set from primo up. So any water colors that you have in your stash will work for. This doesn't matter. They don't have to be fancy one, they don't have to be expensive. Whatever you have to hand will work just as well. Likewise, if you only have acrylic paint toe hand that will work while as well for you if you want to water it down to create your background. So we're going to go ahead and get started with the first layer off our background 3. Simple Watercolor Spill Background: So we go to start by adding in some water color to our background for our hand stitch collage. So what I'm going to do first is I'm just going to grab some water. We'll be working wet on wet with this, So I'm just going to add in a pool of water onto my card here. I can manipulate it more once I have some paint on it and I can see where everything is. So I'm going to be working with blues, so I want to start off with this. Nice came to go blue here, and I'm just going to drop it into my water here on Just let that run. He has got a tip that down slightly so it will pull. I'll just add in some more water to get mixing again. - Let's just keep manipulating around the water just so that it's gets the way that I wanted. What I also like to do is I like to tip it up, but it runs off the edge just to give a nice I'll just grab a piece of scrap paper, tip this off the edge to create a really nice drip. My weight went off the other end as well. I like to create a nice conspiracy effect with this for the background, so we're going to go ahead and leave this one to dry on will come back when it's dry. 4. Collecting Collage Pieces: now our backgrounds dried. We want to start assembling our collage So I have come out this little illustration from my world Flowers book on This is the focal point off my little collage. So I know that I want to have this just to the side of my kind of watercolor spill here on . I want that to be the focal point. So I've trimmed down the illustration into two parts because it was a little bit too big. So I know that I want not to go in there. So what we're going to start doing that is going to start arranging my different pieces. I've picked out a couple of pieces off tissue paper thes were printed by myself. These were jelly printed on this one is a patronage tissue paper on. This is just a piece of book text. So there's a couple of things I'm going Teoh do with this. I want my book text to be a little bit larger because I'm going to stitch onto this and then a deer that to the back off my behind my illustrations is going to go into the background. But I want to remember this is going to be actually stitched on, so I don't want to rip it up too small on then the tissue paper. I'm not actually going to stitch onto these separately, but I will stitch on top of them once they're a dear to the actual collage. So I'll see our play around with the arrangement, Andi much high and keep those things in mind when I'm sticking down their pieces so I will rip on a range. Andi kind of fit things around a bit as I see fit. So a couple of tips I would give you when it comes to assembling a collage. What I like to do what I seems to work well for me is I like to imagine that there is, like, an L shape or there's an X and A Y axis on my Kalash here. So I like toe have vertical and horizontal lines, and I like to have them intersecting. So if you can imagine that there is an imaginary line going down this third of the card here on imaginary line, going across here as well on the lower third. So I like to have my collage image somewhere around the imaginary blind here that I have. That's the main focal point on then I like to have the other pieces come spreading off from it. I find that's a really pleasing arrangement when you're looking at it, and it's really easy to build upon it because you can build all of your if you want ad in scribbles. Or if you want to hunt in, you know, even just some thread lying across it or some ribbon or your stitch lines. I find it goes really nicely on it draws the eye in where the two lines meet Teoh. The this part here, which is your focal image for your actual compositions, that that's what I really like to do. So I will try and bear that in mind when I'm arranging, so I'm just gonna go ahead on and leave this. But I'll put some little music for he their heavy so you can watch me as I arranged, and we'll have a chat when I'm done. So I'm happy now with this little arrangement on, I haven't stuck anything down yet, so I can still change my mind if I want to. But before I stick anything down I'm going to start working on some of the stitch elements for my little card, so I'll see you in the next lesson where I'll share with you some tips about how to get their hands ditching onto your card on onto your paper as well. 5. Running Stitches: so I have my small piece of book text here on. I'm going to be stitching into it now for this first part. So rather than stitching this on to the actual college element, I'm going to stitch onto it beforehand. So it's quite handy to be able to do that on some of the elements When you're doing hand stitching cars. One thing you really have to look out for when you're working with paper is your decent to your page is going to affect your needle. So if you're using kind of a glow stick or a double sided tape is a big no no. And then if it's kind of sticky and icky, is going to make your needle kind of quickly, very dirty and kind of gunky. And it will really kind of ruin the needle, therefore, you. So it's better if you can Teoh either let a decent, completely dry or to work separately, and then you can put whatever a decent you'd like underneath, and you don't have to worry. So for this part here, we're just going to be doing a really simple stated you were going to be doing a running stitch I'm going to keep my little arrangement here just to the side, just for me to reference just in case I change my mind or want to add in some more colors for adding in the threat. So it's just gonna really, really simple running stitch that I'm going to do lines course here. So I think I'm gonna choose. I want to work in between the lines of text. Just gonna get some visual interest. So one thing that I do like to use when I am going to be proper pressing the holes because I have my small, little kind of perky tool here is to have some kind of foam underneath. I'm just to make it easier for me to press through. So I have a pricking Matt here, which is just basically a piece of rubber. So anything that is kind of like this would be like, you know, like a sponge that you can pick up from, like the dollar store or from discount store, whatever, wherever it is close to you and it would be perfect. It's just something so that you compress your tool through and it's not going to damage your table underneath. If you don't have one of these, you don't have a Spanish, a hand or anything like that. Then you can absolutely work around it. You're just going to have to be careful. So having something like this is just handy to be able t use it so I won't go too close to the edge because this is a fact. This is not fabric. This is paper Sivaji to just be mindful of that. I'm just going to start off with a couple off holes and I'm just going to just really be no even worrying about whether they're straight or not. I'm just going to follow kind of the line here. And because I put the holes beforehand is going to be much easier for me to run my needle through unlike fabric when your needle goes through. As you can see here with my holes, thes holds are there. Now. They're not going to going away on. You can't undo them what you can with fabric. So you definitely want to make sure that you have your holes in place first. So I'm just going to take my needle and I'm just going to pass it up from the bottom. I'm just very gentle when you're working with paper, so you're not going to be pulling hard on it. You don't need to unlike with fabric where you have to worry about your tension. So we're just going to be going opened down open decks I'm gonna carry on along this line now way. So that's me stitched one line. Now I'm going to go on, come back along this way as well And I'm just going to keep going until my piece of paper here is filled with stitches. So our fast forward through this bit on you can watch me stitch away on, well, talking and when I'm finished. So I finished my running stitch here on just to secure on the back there. I just use a small piece of washing. Take just to stick down the end. This back part here is going to be stuck down anyway onto my car, so I don't need to worry too much about securing it. So we're going to move on now to doing some simple cross stitch to add on another piece off our little tissue paper 6. Cross Stitches: So I'm going to add on some simple cross stitch is over at the top of this piece of tissue paper could look like that It has been stitched onto the paper. So the first thing that I'm going to do is I'm going to a deer down this book text because I don't need to do anything more to that. Now it's got the stitching on it, and I know that this small piece of blue is going to go underneath, and I probably add a few stitches along the bottom here so I can go ahead and glue this down in place. So I'm going to use just a very small amount off a glue stick onto this because I want to be careful that depending on where I want to put my stitches, I'm not going to get kind of any glue on my need. Orcas, as I said earlier, that can really move the needle and make it really hard to work with. So I'm just going to just I run a very small piece, very lightly of glue just to really kind of keep it in place, and then I can decide what I won't do that afterwards, so I'm just going to pop that down along. They're just very lightly a deer it down. And I don't need to worry about that with this piece because this already got the stitching on it as much glue on there as I like. And I will put quite a bit because stitching makes it a little bit uneven, so just make sure that gets nice and stuck down. I might have some stitches overlapping on this, but by the time I get there, my glue will be dry and they'll be very few because I've already added in quite a few stitches there. So again for this piece here is just going to go right here on my collage, and I'm going to be putting some exes across the middle of it. So I'm just going to very, very lightly put a couple of dots on there, and it's really just to keep it in place while I'm going to be stitching so all of the edges, they're still loose. There's really not much on there to keep it down just so that it doesn't slip in place, So gonna pop my pricking mat underneath as Well, move this back away. So again I'm going to be putting through. So I have quite a few layers here. I have my card, which is quite thick, my watercolor card and also the little bit of the book text underneath it. So I want some very kind of rough X is going across here in kind of a cross stitch kind of tight motif. So the easiest way to do a cross stitch is just to do the holes for them is just to remember that across, which is basically a square. So if you can imagine the four points of a square, they will make one of your stitches. So if you just kind of keep it like that So what I would do is I would do the top left top , right, bottom, left bottom right. So that gives me four little stitches. Who might see we can see it better on the back there. I concede up that's like a little square here. So we have our little dots here that won't ever meet br squares. So I just want to have this really rough, so I don't really want it to be straight. I don't necessarily want them to be perfect squares as well. I might elongate some of them and make make some smaller important thing is that you remember that this should be four off them, and I'll probably I'll have one here just going off the edge off the tissue paper. So there are my squares here. I'm going to go ahead and get this one stitched. I think for this one corner shall I choose Macoris here? Um, I might go with this kind of smoky, grey kind of call here for this one. Perhaps. How will that stand out? Maybe not. Blue is very similar. Let's go for the purple. I think purple will be nice against that. New will complement the kind of cool color terms I have going there. So let's go out and thrown up my needle and I will show you what I'm doing. So I have my needle threaded here on. I've decided to change things up a little bit with texture on weight, and I've gone for three strands of embroidery floss because it's going to be on the top. And I really wanted to stand out and be nice involved. So to do are cross stitch. It's very, very simple. We're going to go up to the top left and down to the bottom, right, So create one strand off our X and then again through Teoh the top, right. We're going to go to the bottom left, and it's a simple is that on the next one Along here is right here. I'm just going to do the same again until I finish at the end. So you can see now that my embroidery is really starting to take shape, the colors on the texture on the different shapes of the stitches. There on what I love most about this is that it does not have to be perfect. So where some people might be put off by even contract to embroidery and also trying to get the machines out, you can create a really funky, cool look just by using hand stitching on the more imperfect it is, the better that it is. So we're going to carry on now and build some more of our college by adding in the final elements. Teoh, our piece on I will take you through some off the stitches on goatees in the background is our 7. Finishing Stitches: said to finish off a little collage. I'm going to add in a few textured stitches that you this part here off my watercolor spill just to finish anti the whole thing together. So I'm just going to do some really, really simple, like we did straight stitches here just in the background and go to just bury the length off them. So I'm just going t I won't meet thumb to this part here. I want them to kind of, you know, kind of flow to a little bit. So I'm just going to have, like, some that are pretty smooth and then some that are kind of larger further away. And I'm just going to very where they are. They're distance on the height of the line as well of the stitches, so you can see there a little bit better on the back again. This holes I have there on I've just picked this kind of dark, her smoky kind of blue. It's quite similar to the background, but just a little bit different, and it's just to give it a bit of extra texture on interest on again. I have gone for two strands here, so all I'm going to do is like we did before is like a running stitch. - I'm just gonna go ahead and fill in the rest of these lines here now. - So a little hand embroidered, hand stitched collage is finished on. I really I'm in love with these little collages. I can see myself making an awful lot of them in my feature. So I hope that you have enjoyed creating along with me on using some hand stitches in your work is going to bring up for you again soon. So for the class project, I want you to show me your little hand stitched designs. It could be hand stitched inside your journals. It could be on a collage like this. I really want to see you guys creating some wonky in perfect lines and making up some little collages that I can admire as you haven't my mind. So thanks so much for joining the class and for watching long and please leave a review below really helps the class get seen. What other people and you can share it with your friends. That would be amazing. So thanks so much for watching guys. And until next time, cc