Wednesday, August 3, 2011

French Knots

Hello friends! Today is tutorial day over on The Kraft Journal and I'm sharing a quick tutorial on how to make French knots! I've always loved the look of these on both fabric and paper crafts and when I realized how easy they were to make, I've loved incorporating them into my projects.

The first step is to thread an embroidery needle with as many strands of embroidery floss as you like. I typically use 3 or 4 but sometimes it is whatever I can see to separate. :) Thread the needle through your paper at whatever spot you'd like. I typically use these knots as little buds but they'd be great in a bunch as flower centers or snowflakes, little apples, whatever you'd like them to be!
Once you've pulled the thread through the paper, wrap the thread around the needle about 3 times. As with the number of strands you choose, the number of times you wrap the thread will end up being the size of your knots. Once you've wrapped the needle, stick it back into the cardstock but don't pull through yet.
Slide the wrapped thread to the bottom of the needle and hold tightly while you push the needle through the paper.

Pull tightly and you have your knot! Here's a photo of a card I made for the Kraft Journal Walk in My Garden challenge this week.


I encourage you to give it a try or have some fun with something else you haven't tried before. Sometimes you'll be amazed that it really isn't as hard as it seems. :)


7 comments:

  1. Oeh, great tutorial, Jen! I'm not an artist with needle and thread, but I'll give it a try! ;-) Looks so great on your card and would be a fun techniques for christmas cards as well! Thanks for showing!
    Hugs, Wendy

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  2. I just love embroidery and french knots, although I hardly ever think to do it on my papercrafting. What a great idea! Thanks so much for the inspiration and the tutorial, Jen!

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  3. Thanks for the tutorial, Jen! I learned how to do french knots back in my cross stitch days, but it has been SO long that a refresher was in order. Love the card and your little scene created with Teeny Trees!

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  4. Gosh it's been forever since I've made a French knot. Don't know why I haven't thought to put them on my projects cause I love to stitch on paper. Thanks for the reminder and great tute Jen!

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  5. Isn't that adorable!! I was always so terrible at French knots when I embroidered that I quit doing any of it and went to crocheting! But you have inspired me to try again for my cards!

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  6. Hi Jen! This card is SO Adorable!! The french knots really adds a beautiful touch to the card. Great design and absolutely gorgeous. Great job!!

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  7. Hi Jen! Very clever! I used to do alot of embroidery and candle wicking - you've brought back alot of memories. What a great way to add dimension - this should be on a list of inexpensive embellishments somewhere. The red really pops on this card. Great idea!

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