I Would Travel the World with You, a Fond and Colorful Farewell to Joan Bardee

Friday!  And of we're running a bit behind today, but better late than never.  Really, we just didn't want to have to say goodbye to our guest for this month, Joan Bardee.  We've so enjoyed her work this month, and today is no exception!

Before I share my designs, a very big thanks to Neat & Tangled for inviting me to serve as guest designer for June. It’s been an honor and a treat.

  

Love Neat & Tangled’s Origami Map stamp and die!  The design is so clever, and there are many different ways to use it (emboss, watercolor, paper piece, etc.). For today’s post, I used two techniques – hand stitching and simple die cutting. I hope you like them!

Hand Stitched

The straight lines of this set make it perfect for a little embroidery. If you decide you want to try this, here are a few hints:

•  Stamp with a pale ink so that the embroidery floss will cover up the stamped image. I used pale gray ink and 2 strands of floss.
• With a design this complex, poke only a few holes at a time.  Otherwise, you may inadvertently “annex” some of those small islands or join a few continents (just like I did and had to start over).
• I did not stitch around the tiny islands -- just one stitch; otherwise the paper would have fallen apart.

• When you are finished stitching, place the stamp image that comes with the set over your stitched image.  This will help you see where you might have stitched in the wrong place, or omitted some stitches. (I took this picture after I had corrected a few of my errors and the map image showed me exactly what my eye couldn’t see on its own.)
•  If you need to remove a stitch, cut the floss carefully on top of the stamped image and pull the thread out from the back.  You might have to re stitch a few before and after, but it only takes a few mistakes to get the hang of it.

• Practice stitching on different types of paper.  You want something that can hold up to the stitching. I used Essentials by Ellen Linen cardstock for this card, and it held up very well.
• Once the stitching was done, I held my breath and die cut the image. The die is a perfect fit and no stitching was harmed! Whew.  It was a risk, but I love the outcome.  (You cannot stitch near the edges of the image after you die cut the image because the border around the image is narrow.)

• If this amount of stitching seems overwhelming (it took me about 3 hours), you could stitch just the outline of the continents. 
• Enjoy. All that stitching was relaxing!

Simple Die Cutting

 

Unlike the first card, this one took 5 minutes.  Truth!

Thanks so much to Joan for being our guest this month!!!