Colourful Crochet
By Lin Newcombe
You do not have to be an expert at crochet to
make these cards and any card blanks or thread
can be used.
Start by hunting out any interesting type of
yarn  it may be standard crochet cotton in a
variety of colours, a lovely textured bobbly wool,
brightly coloured embroidery cotton or ribbon,
or even some shiny parcel ribbon. You will also
need a crochet hook, the size depends on the
wool or threads you are using and is not particu-
larly important.
An assortment of beads, sequins etc. and
some P.V.A. craft adhesive would be useful. Use
watercolour paints and coloured or metallic pens
to decorate the cards. Make the backgrounds
from papers such as, corrugated, mulberry or
metallic crepe paper or even from shiny fabric.
Crochet up a random shape, it can be totally
abstract using chains and single and double
stitches. All the better if the design has gaps or
holes, these can have either a bead or sequin
placed into them after mounting. Beads can be
threaded onto the wool as you go so they become
part of the design and why not add a plait in
matching wool to complement the design.
Green Card:
Crochet a random shape using multi coloured
cotton, fasten off by pulling the end through a
couple of stitches along the back of the work and
cut the ends. Look at the shape you have made
and decide which way up it would best suit the
card mount. Cut three 15cm lengths of multi
cotton for the plaits and fold in half. Choose a
gap between stitches at the lower edge of the
work and bring the crochet hook through, hook
the folded threads by the centre and pull the
loop (but not the ends) through, tuck the ends
into the loop and pull them to tighten the knot.
Divide the six threads into two groups of three
to make two plaits. Make each plait approx. 3cm
long and knot the end, trim the loose ends to
2cm beneath the knot.
For the background, choose mulberry paper
in colours that look good with the threads. Tear
the inner paper to roughly the shape of the
crochet, and the outer paper to a larger size. The
34
shape need not be too similar allowing varying
amounts of it to show beneath the top layer. Glue
both pieces of mulberry onto the card mount and
the crochet onto them. I have added a large gem
to the centre of the work and two flower gems at
the edges of the paper with a gold glittery line
around to finish.
Blue Card:
Cut the corrugated paper with shaped scissors
and mount it onto the card. Using small lines,
roughly outline the deckled edge with blue
watercolour and a fine paintbrush or a fine
tipped blue pen.
The design is freehand crochet in cream cot-
ton with star beads incorporated while working.
Fasten off and cut the ends. Cut approx. eighteen
15cm lengths of cream and blue thread, lay them
all together and fold in half. Bring the crochet
hook through the gap between any two stitches
round the edge of the circle, hook all the loose
threads by the centre where folded (you may
need a rather large crochet hook for this), pull the
loop (but not the ends) through the hole. Tuck
the ends into the loop and pull them to form a
knot. Trim the ends of the tassel to length and
mount onto the corrugated panel, arrange the
tassel ends to make a pleasing shape.
Yellow Card:
Crocheted in short lengths of bright warm
colours. The brown beads were added as I
crocheted, the gem was added after mounting.
The background is computer generated, but you
could use any suitable paper mounted onto the
card. Make a short plait from lengths of the same
threads and knot the end. Trim both ends of the
plait to equal lengths. Mount the work onto the
card and add some gold star sequins or stickers
to finish.
Purple Card:
I used silver fabric for this but metallic crepe
paper would look very similar. Mount the silver
background into the card and glue the card
closed. Crochet a random shape in two colours of
ribbon, fastening off and cutting the ends. Mount
this onto the card and add a bow made from one
of the colours. Decorate the background with a
few sequin doves.
35
Hello,
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