• Pretty frame
• Counted embroidery fabric
• Needle
• Various colours of embroidery thread
• Purikura or photo for the inside
• Embroidery hoop
• Pen/pencil

Measure a big square of fabric which is enough to cover the frame and fit in the embroidery hoop and cut it. Using the pen draw around the outside of the frame to use as a guide.

Flip it over and draw around the inside hole too. You will want to find the center as well and mark it with the pen too.

I drew a cross so I could have an obvious guide.

Line the photo you’re going to use up in the middle and draw around it.

So you’ve got something like this…

Because I was pretty much winging it I drew a design on the fabric but if you are following a pattern you can just count.

Now it’s time to put it on the embroidery hoop. The hoop I’m using is a standard wood one and it cost around $0.60

Untwist the screw and sandwich the fabric between the wood pieces, the big one should be on top.

Push them together and pull the fabric tight. Screw the top to hold it all in place. It should be very taught like a drum!

So let’s get stitching! At this point it should be mentioned that you can stitch with the full thread or you can split up the thread and just use one or two strands depending on the size of the weave of your fabric.

I started off using the whole thread but decided later to switch to a couple of strands because it was too thick.

So pick a place you want to start, I started with a small heart. Pull the thread from the back to front leaving a few inches as a tail. If you want you can knot the end of the thread but I prefer to hold it so the finished project isn’t lumpy.

I’m starting at the bottom of the heart.

Stitch into the hole that is diagonally opposite to the first. My preference is to stitch diagonally from bottom to top but whatever is more comfortable is fine.

Now pull up from the back in the hole next to where you just went down.

And diagonally over into the last hole. That’s it! You just made a cross ^_^

Repeat this over and over again to make your shape.

2 crosses! Now it’s important to note that you need to keep the method consistant through the whole design or it will look odd. So if you start from bottom left and go up to top right as the first stitch then do that the entire thing.

Heart #1 done!

If you keep going things will start to take shape after a while.

I prefer to do all of the main elements eg. hearts, sparkles, roses first and then worry about the background afterwards.

I also find it easier to do all of the stitches with the same colour at once, it saves having to switch needles so much!

All of the main bits are now complete so it’s time to start the background.

Going up and down from left to right like this keeps everything nice and even…

But sometimes if I’m impatient I will go ahead and do a bunch of the first stitch in one go and then work backwards and cross them all off XD For some reason it just feel quicker!

Progress..

And done! It’s not a perfect oval but as long as the shape fits in the frame it doesn’t matter.

Now cut your purikura down if need be. I lost the one I started this with so I had to dig for another shot. This is from back when I had black hair and James had… *some* hair mwahahaha!

Place it over the space and if you need to pin or glue it in place.

Stitch the corners to hold it in place…

And then fill in the gaps with more stitches.

That’s all the stitching part out of the way thank god! Remove it from the embroidery hoop.

Cut it down to the size which actually fits into the frame.

I overestimated the stitching area so I had to cut the fabric very close XD

And there it is in the frame!

Quite pretty if I do say so myself… but I think I won’t take up any more embroidery projects until I finish all my half done ones XD I need more motivation to finish the big projects! The pattern for this will be available in the first upload lot too.

Hope you enjoyed, let me know if you make your own!