Stitched Anniversary Card

This focal started out as a Christmas Outline Sticker designed with stitching in mind.  I decided to do it in non-traditional colors and use it as a wedding bell instead!  I placed the sticker on a pearlized paper, stitched it with metallic silver, turquoise, and green threads, cut out around it, and finished it off with jewel stickers and a bow.  I used turquoise alcohol ink to color a silver greeting sticker, put it all on a metallic gold that was matted on turquoise before gluing it to my card.

When it comes to stitching focals like this, there are two main things to think about. 

1. First, punch holes for the needle to go through before stitching.  While you CAN use the needle to punch through the paper as you do the stitching, you are also more likely to tear it this way.  
2. Second, decide how you want to do your stitching. Most of the time for something like this it works best to leave a set number of holes between where you bring the needle up and where you take it back down again.  Skipping this same number of holes between each set of holes creates your pattern.  There is no right or wrong way to stitch a pattern.  Keep in mind that the decorations on the bell have different amounts of space in the center depending on how many holes there are and on how many holes were skipped for the pattern.