{How to} Stitch on the Unstitchable

OR- How to stitch on stuff other than fabric.

Don't get me wrong, I love fabric.  But I like this a teensy bit more.  

I don't make things that can be made in a simpler medium. Meaning if fiber doesn't add to the art I don't make it fiber art.   A cross stitched portrait is beautiful.  But it's time consuming and I would rather just hang a photo.  

What I love is to combine mediums.  I'm not an artist.  I'm a try-er.  

And this is something I had to try.

First - get your materials

In this case I had a cardboard box from Hobby Lobby.  You know those brown boxes.  I think they are cardboard.

A phrase printed big enough to put onto said box.

A large needle, tape (double sided and normal), scissor, thread, ruler, a pen and a "poker" (an Awl tool).  An Awl tool is used for leather crafts.  It's near the jewelry at Micheal's.  You can use a needle too but the eye hurt my fingers when I pushed it through so I switched to this with it's comfy rubber handle.   It works perfectly.

Use double sided tape to adhere the phrase to the box.

Double sided works better than normal tape because it's somehow not as adhesive.  It comes right off, not ripping anything.

Figure out where you want your holes to be.  I chose to split up the larger lines so the thread wouldn't easily get caught on anything.  I used the ruler to make it uniform.

It ended up looking like this.  The purple dots is where I poked the holes.

Poke your holes.

Here's the back.

Your holes should be somewhat uniform, so try to give the same pressure with each hole punch.  This will take a while.  Longer than you would expect.  I had to stop to rest my wrists a few times.

I used a simple backstitch and all 6 strands of DMC.  And this is the result.

Added a border.

You have tape to tape down the excess when beginning and ending thread.  I don't try to tie them in simply because this is easier and it holds firm and flat.

I've used this method to stitch on paper, cardboard, boxes, canvas, and leather purses.  At some point I want to stitch on wood.

 At the moment I'm trying to decide if I should stitch on my new coach purse I got off ebay.  Hmmm.