Wow – where has July gone?  It’s hard to believe the month is almost over – which means that my month of hosting the challenges at 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown is nearly over, too.  I’ve had a lot of fun creating the challenges this month.

This week’s challenge is really kind of a cross between an embellishment and a technique challenge.  We’d like to see stitching on your cards!  You may use hand sewing, machine sewing, or use a marker or pen to draw some faux stitches on your card.  So long as we can easily see your stitching, it’s good – although we really would love to see something more creative than simply sewing on a button, ok?  🙂

I will admit I went a little overboard on my card for the challenge.  I’ve dabbled in various crafts pretty much my entire life.  Between my teens and late twenties, until I had a curious toddler who loved to crawl into my lap, I enjoyed counted cross stitch.  Unfortunately, needles and little boys don’t mix very well, so I had to put my stitching things away.  I decided to give it a go again for this card.  I wasn’t able to find all of my old patterns, but I did come across a design for a wreath that didn’t look too complicated.  I have been pleasantly delighted to discover that many of the colors of embroidery floss I bought back in the day coordinate well with many of my cardstock colors!  So I chose a shade of green that is a color match for Wild Wasabi, added in the floss shade that was just one color number away from it, and picked a bright red that works with Real Red.  And after a little while, I ended up with this card:

I was aiming for the 52{C}CT July sketch layout again, but the size of the panels was too large to allow the tilted panel to be put far enough askew to show underneath the focal panel.  So I decided to just tilt the focal panel and call it done.

Here’s our challenge graphic:

The stitching makes this card fit into the OWH/Our Daily Bread Designs July challenge – and this card is actually quite flat and very do-able for OWH!  I’m also including it in the layers challenge at Cards in Envy.

And now it’s your turn to show us what you can create!  We’d love it if you joined our challenge this week.  You have until 1:00 pm Eastern time Friday, August 2 to link your card at the 52{C}CT site.

Thanks for stopping by today!  I hope you’ll come back again soon.

Supplies:
Stamps: Happy Everything (Lawn Fawn)
Cardstock: Early Espresso, Real Red Core’dinations, Afternoon Tea designer series paper (Stampin’ Up)
Ink: Early Espresso (SU)
Other: embroidery floss (DMC); 11-count Aida cloth (Charles Craft)