Stenciled and Stitched

Today I'm trying out a new craft. Want to join me?

I bought this embroidery stencil kit at discount a few years back and I finally decided to use it.   

I thought decorating a plain notebook would be a good place to start. 

The cover is blank and the inside pages are lined.

The kit includes alphabet and numerical stencils, and a few borders, too. 

They're made of firm plastic with holes to define the points of each letter or number. 

It also came with a self-healing mat, a punch tool, embroidery thread, and needles.

I put the notebook on top of the self-healing mat to protect my surface.  I used washi tape to help me make my letters straight and secure the notebook from moving around.

I also taped down the stencil as I worked.

Using the stencil as my guide, I made holes through the notebook cover using the sharp punch tool.

Then I continued with the next letters.

This is what the punched notebook cover looks like. I know it doesn't make any sense yet.

Wait until we add thread! Instead of the ones in the kit, I used thread that I already have. 

I connected the dots with thread.

Then I switched color for every new letter. 

Can you figure out what I'm spelling?

LOVE! Yes, love!

And this is how I turned a plain notebook from blah to TADA!