Machine embroidered card using fabrics

I'm sorry, but uncharacteristically I'm going to start this post with a rant... I went into a shop this week to look at mothers day cards... now I had intended to make a card anyway as I always feel this is more personal and demonstrates a little bit more love and effort. However there are some very pretty shop bought cards around and I know my mum likes the pretty shabby chic ones... BUT even the most rubbishy, boring cards with no glitz or sparkly or anything that stood out were at LEAST £3... and most of them were up to £6... for a piece of printed cardboard that they mass produce!!! I can understand if they are handmade because it takes a lot of time to handcraft individual cards, but these were just printed cards! Now this is not a dig at any particular shop... because they are all the same... I live within a 5 minute walk of about 20 well known shops that sell cards and this was the standard price, crazy!! Soooo rant over, I am going to show you how to make very pretty cards using items that you already have lying around the house!!

To make these cards you will need:

• A sewing machine (although you can make beautiful cards using hand embroidery... but that is for a different post!!)
• Several old scraps of fabric, one square piece approximately 10x10cm, one in a different print approx 5x5cm and one in another print again approx 3x3cm. 
• A template of a bird (or whatever you want your design to be... but this example is a bird) which an be found on google images, although mine came from the Cath Kidston SEW! book. 
• Machine thread in different colours
• A piece of card, I bought some nice blank card sets in my local craft shop today, 5 for £1.90 including envelopes. Although you can use regular card to make it cheaper. 

To make this card I first used the embroidery foot on my sewing machine to sew the branch onto my backing 10x10cm fabric using freestyle stitch. Using different colour fabric I stitched tiny flours onto the end of the branches. This again was done using freestyle stitch, Im a big fan of this stitch as you can tell from my other posts because of the freedom of movement it gives you and the shapes it allows you to create... there are no boundaries to your creativeness when using this stitch, but you do have to be a little bit brave and just go for it! I then used my template to cut the shape of the bird out of my 5x5cm piece of fabric. Then from my 3x3cm fabric I cut the shape of the wing. I placed the bird on the branch and used the freestyle stitch to sew around the outside of his body, adding lovely detail and attaching him to the backing fabric at the same time. I did the same with the wing using a different colour thread. Finally I used the machine to stitch him a tiny eye and suddenly he came to life! I used fabric glue to glue the backing material onto the card and it was nearly finished. I added a silver "with love" sticker as the finishing touch and it was ready to send. 

I used the same technique to make another card but using different material and some slightly different machine stitches... 

I have to say I think I prefer the freestyle stitch on the body of the bird in the first card compared to the zigzag stitch in the second... but its all about experimenting and discovering what work best. 

Happy mother's day Mummy and to all those lovely mums out there xxx