October Papertrey Ink Stitching Focus

Hello, everyone, and welcome to this month's Stitching Focus! I'm Lizzie Jones, your Stitching Ambassador, and this month I'm getting into the holiday spirit with some ornaments that do double duty as gift packaging. The recent holiday releases have me looking forward to the Christmas wrapping season, so I thought I might get a head start and share those results with all of you. I'm a big fan of finding new and interesting ways to give gift cards and I looked to my stitching die collection for some fresh inspiration. Let's take a closer look at this month's featured product.

The Softie Sweater Die sort of snuck in under the radar a couple of years ago and hasn't gotten nearly enough attention as far as I'm concerned. It's a super-cute option for adding a cozy layer for your hand-stitched little friends but it looks just as adorable hanging separately too!

1. Erin created a handsome cat softie using the Softie Die, Softie Ears Die, and Softie Expressions Die Collection. She dressed him in a Softie Sweater that she monogrammed using the Sew Stylish Alphabet 1 Die. What a wonderful way to personalize a gift for your favorite kiddo!

2. Erin used the Softie Sweater with the argyle pattern from her Quick Stitch: Beaded Holiday Kit. She used the Softie Hanger Die to make these miniature sweaters into charming ornaments for her Christmas tree.

3. Speaking of holiday decor, Erin struck gold again with these Sew Stylish Alphabet monogrammed sweater ornaments. The Pure Poppy and Simply Chartreuse felt gives these sweaters such a festive look!

4. Erin also used her Softie Collection to create this darling hippo. She used the Beaded Holiday Kit to embellish her hippo's sweater, but you could get a similar look with the Stitched Medallion dies.

So like I said, I was looking to make holiday gift packaging using stitching dies. I thought the Softie Sweater would be perfect. After all, if you stitch up the bottom and leave the top open you create a handy pocket. You can tuck almost any small present into a pocket. I thought I would share these with gift cards for the time being, but they would also be handy for jewelry, candy, lip balm, nail polish...the list goes on!

I dug around until I found a handful of dies that fit perfectly on the Softie Sweater. It turns out there are quite a few!

On this sweater I used the Seasonal Stitching: Santa Die to create a jolly jumper. I used Simply Chartreuse as the body of the sweater with Pure Poppy, Vintage Cream, Classic Kraft, and Sweet Blush for Santa's face and hat. Instead of the small circle at the end of Santa's cap, I stitched a pom-pom into place. To make this easier, I simply snip off a bit of the fluff from the back to give it a flat-ish side. That makes it much easier to get the needle and thread through the core of the pom-pom. Alternatively, you could make things easier on yourself and whip out the hot glue gun. A couple of green glass seed beads worked beautifully as Santa's eyes.

I also created a sweater with the tree from the Coffee Cozy Details Die Collection. For this peppy pullover, I used Pure Poppy for the base and added contrasting Vintage Cream trim. I layered Simply Chartreuse and Classic Kraft colored felts for the tree and added a Harvest Gold star at the very top. I cut the tiny star using the small star tag die from the Details Die Collection. The star and the tree are both embellished with glass seed beads (clear on the star and red on the tree). I love the added texture and sparkle the seed beads add and they're even quick to stitch into place. Bonus!

The third good-natured knit is emblazoned with a greeting from the Stitched Holiday Words collection. I used Vintage Cream as my base with Aqua Mist trim and contrasting dark green stitching. The trio of tiny trees on the sweater are cut from Simply Chartreuse using the Coffee Cozy Details Die Collection. I used single stitches to secure them in place. You could also use hot glue or felt adhesive if you prefer.

It's quick and easy to remove the ornaments from the tree. The hangers slide in and out with no trouble at all and the gift cards are freely accessible. The best part is, your recipient also gets a handmade gift that they can use on their tree year after year!

And can we just take a second to peep at these hangers, please? I used wood paper and the Luxe Silver Adhesive Sheets (backed with white cardstock) to create these bad boys. Aren't they adorable?! I can't wait to make more tiny sweaters just so I can make more tiny hangers!

Thank you so much for joining me for this month's Stitching Focus! I hope you're inspired and you'll let me know if you start stitching for the holidays. It's never too early! See you again soon, friends!

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