How to Cross Stitch on Paper

One of the crafts I want to try more of this year is embroidery on paper. It’s a fun way to add texture to a collage or just make a picture funnier or more interesting. I have this idea of trying to embroider on a canvas I’ve painted, but I don’t know if I’ll take it taht far.

For our purposes, doing cross stitch on paper is a fun way to make greeting cards or something to add to other projects.

There are a few different options when it comes to cross-stitching on paper. The first is to buy and use perforated paper made for cross stitch. This paper is heavy weight and I have seen it in 14 count and 18 count varieties.

You can stitch on the paper pretty much the same way you would stitch on fabric, but check out this post from Catkin and Lillie for more details on how to stitch on perforated paper, how to finish projects you make with it and what to use them for.

They also have a conversation hearts cross-stitch pattern in their free pattern section (scroll to the bottom) that was made to use on perforated paper if you want to practice.

Another option is to use heavy weight paper and add your own holes to stitch in. Stitched Modern has a simple little house cross stitch pattern that they use as a tutorial for how to stitch on paper. In this case you’ll print out the pattern and use the image as a guideline to form your holes.

In this case you’re literally stitching on top of the pattern, but you can also print the pattern out on thinner paper and use it as a guide for where to put your holes (or just measure and draw a faint grid on the back of your paper so you can evenly space your holes) and then stitch the design from there.

Have you ever done cross stitch on paper? I’d love to hear about it!

[Photos via Catkin and Lillie and Stitched Modern]

One of the easiest ways to make a cross stitch project more personal is to add text to it. Whether you’re adding the names of people getting married to a generic floral cross stitch design, birth information to a project on theme with the new baby’s room or just adding a word or phrase that’s meaningful to you, adding words to cross stitch projects make them that much more special.

But if you’re not working with a project that already has text built in, or you want to change the text that’s there, that can feel a little daunting.

Caterpillar Cross Stitch has a great guide to adding names and words (as well as numbers) to projects, which talks you through what to consider and how to actually go about adding text to a cross stitch project successfully.

You’ll need to think about what kind of font you want to use and if you’re using back stitched letters or larger filled letters, how much space you need and how the letters work together in the text you’re planning to make sure it’s readable.

Their post includes common pitfalls such as running out a space or ending up with text that’s off center and how to avoid them (spoiler: chart out your text before you stitch!).

The whole post is really helpful if you’ve never added lettering to a project before and don’t know where to start. I like to use block letters in back stitch when learning how to add text to cross stitch, but of course there are tons of lettering options. Check out this collection of cross stitch fonts if you want to see some different things you can try.

And head over to Caterpillar Cross Stitch to get more tips for how to successfully add lettering to your cross stitch projects. They also have their own alphabet and number charts you can buy to add text to your stitching.

Have you ever added text to a cross stitch project? I’d love to hear how it went!

[Photo: Caterpillar Cross Stitch]

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