Combining Arts

I have recently been inspired by things I've found on Pinterest and other blogs to combine embroidery over other things. I have never done embroidery before, so despite wanting to go straight in at the deep end and achieve something like this:

Or this:

Or even this:

I decided to hold back and try something more simple, as inspired by my favourite blogger One Sheepish Girl. I had a couple of cards to write, one was a thank you card, the other a birthday card, so I thought I'd put my skills to the test and use them for these two occasions.

The birthday card was for my driving instructor. I took my test on her birthday and I passed!!!!! She was pleased with the card, despite my perfectionist self not being happy with the fact it isn't very neat:

To do this I write out the words in pencil, then stab holes through with my needle:

And then I stitch over it. Here's the second one, for the thank you card:

I went for a French style writing which I prefer as well.

I've really got the embroidery bug and if I find time this weekend I intend to try some 'proper' embroidery and practice all the different stitches. I have ordered an embroidery hoop, it will arrive on Tuesday.

The other great thing about this is that I'm using wool (rather than cotton) and it is using up my stash and getting me one step closer to completing my wool-athon!