CREATIVE CARDS: 2012

Sunday, 10 June 2012

Payment method

We take payment security very seriously and that is why our payment service is provided by PayPal. They are one of the industry leaders in online payment.

Customer feedback tells us that PayPal's buyer protection and their method of keeping your financial information private from sellers means they are regarded as one of the safest ways to pay online.

Stitching Cards do not handle or store any credit card numbers or bank account details on our system. You are transferred to the PayPal website to make your payment and return to Stitching Cards when your payment is complete.

Don't have a PayPay account? Pay with your credit / debit card

If you don't have a PayPal account look for the credit / debit card option on their payment page. It is about half way down the page. PayPal will accept payments with most popular credit or debit cards.

The image below shows the choices section of the PayPal payment page.

PayPal membership

PayPal is free to join and to make payments. It is accepted as a method of payment in more than 60 countries.

PayPal makes it easy for customers because they don't need to re-enter card details every time they buy.

eCheque: PayPal members can also make their payment with an electronic transfer (or eCheque). This is a direct debit transfer from your bank account and takes 7-10 business days to complete.

Don't have a card? Bank transfer with PayPal

If you don't have a credit/debit card you can transfer money from your bank through the PayPal service. Membership of PayPal is required. You can join PayPal without a credit card by giving them your bank details instead. Payments are then sent by eCheque (see eCheque info above). If you have any difficulties setting up your PayPal account please let us know and we can provide assistance.

You can find more information on PayPal at http://www.paypal.com/

Payment currencies

You can check out in the following currencies: British Pounds, Euros, US Dollars, Canada Dollars, Australian Dollars, New Zealand Dollars. Select you currency from the drop-down box near the top-left of the web page.

If your currency is not shown you can check out in British Pounds and the payment will be converted to your local currency by PayPal.

You will find a guide to exchange rates at: http://www.xe.com/ . Please note that ex.com shows rates derived from the mid-point between the "buy" and "sell" rates from global currency markets. They may vary from the PayPal rates.

From string art to stitching cards: a brief history

The use of card as a base material for embroidery probably goes back almost as far as the production of card itself. In 1820 sheets of perforated paper became available to needle crafters. This started the Victorian craze for stitching mottoes and sayings on card. Designs were typically worked in long parallel stitches to form areas of colour. This inexpensive and versatile craft reached its peak in the 1870s when printing developments enabled the designs to be printed on the perforated sheets. By the 1900s the use of perforated paper or card as a base material had virtually died out.

We believe that today's style of card embroidery, with crossing long stitches, was strongly influenced by the string art pictures that were popular in the 1970s. String art kits generally consisted of a soft board covered in felt, nails and string or wool. The nails were hammered in position through a paper diagram. Then the wool was wound around the nails to build up the picture. The early designs were mostly based on geometric shapes and mathematical formulas.

Click on the string art picture above for a template. Use your back button to return.

In the early 1990s Dutch designer Erica Fortgens started writing books with instructions and patterns for making stitching cards. In the book Borduren op Papier, translated as Embroidery on Paper, Erica tells how she got started. She made forty small dinner cards with gold embroidery for a birthday party. Because the cards were so popular she started to make patterns to embroider.

Thread and wool manufacturer Madeira produced some of the first commercial embroidery on paper kits during the 1990s. They were marketed under the trade name of Pickpoints. The instructions for Madeira Pickpoints were originally written in Dutch and only a small number of Pickpoints kits were produced.

In 1998 the first English stitching card kits were introduced.

Card Inspirations launched some stitching cards under the trade name of Form-A-Lines. Anne Harding and Linda Jefferson designed the first Form-A-Lines card sets. David Jefferson used a conventional computer drawing program to convert the cards into the patterns for the first two Form-A-Lines kits. These proved to be very popular with their customers and more designs soon followed.