Pen-broidery Card or Wall Hanging

The other day I was paging through a craft magazine at my local Library (also my employer, shhhh! don't tell, I was reading on the job) when I came across an elaborately embroidered greeting card. Very nice, I thought but nothing new. I have been embroidering on paper for years. Upon further inspection, however,  I realized all those intricate stitches were actually ink! Whoa!  Maybe you've seen it before but pen-broidery is completely new to me.  I had to try it. The only problem was the card materials listed a set of "special pens." Special pens! Bah! We don't need no stinkin' special pens!  Here we go!

What you need:

Crayons (That's right I said Crayons! I LOVE Crayons! But if you want to use colored pencils because they make you feel more grown up, whatever, I'll be on the swing-set if you need me.)

Fine Felt Tip Pen - I used a Sharpie Pen. (Yes, I said pen. No, I didn't mean marker. Why? Because I said so that's why. JK, it's because the marker might bleed through. This is ok if you are doing a wall hanging but, soooo not cool for a greeting card.)

Card-stock (I used white, but you can use whatever glitters your critter.)

scissors (If your card stock is not already the size you want it.) Not Pictured

other embellishments as desired (I couldn't get away from that whole paper piercing thing so I needed embroidery floss, an embroidery needle, a pin, a shell button and some thread snips)  Thread Snips and Pin not pictured

First You will need to determine placement for your flower center and poke holes if you using a button.  Like so:

 Next thread your needle and put the thread through the holes so that the tails are coming out of the front of your card. Like this:

 Now tie the tails in a square knot and snip the ends nice and short but not too short we don't want the knot to come undone.

Now we are ready to begin our flower. I chose to do running stitch circles for my flower. Here's how you do it.  Take a crayon (I used orchid for my color) and make small lines around your button or whatever you used for a center. Like this:

Continue making circles around your center until you are happy with your flower size.

Now that you have your flower large enough time to make those crayon marks look more like stitches, to do this take your felt tip pen and carefully draw little loops around each crayon mark. Like so:

Make sure to round the ends rather than squaring them so it will look more like thread.

Close up shot. Even when I draw stitches they aren't even, Oh Well!

Now we need a stem. So grab another crayon (mine is green apple) and make, guess what? A stem stitch!  Which is basically diagonal lines use to make a straight line.

Sorry a little fuzzy.

Continue making these lines until your stem is as long as you want it. Mine ended up being a little slanted but I liked it so Happy Mistake. Make yours straighter if you like.

Now make little loops around your stem "stitches" so they will stand out.  Like this:

Now all we need is a nice leaf like this:

This is a lazy daisy stitch which I think it makes a nice leaf.

Last step, all you have to do is out line your stitches. Start with the little stitch at the tip of your leaf.

Now the rest of the leaf.

Now stand back and admire your handy work!