For the most part, this design uses the back stitch, which is great for smooth lines and text. Embroidery floss is compiled of six strands. In general, you can separate the strands out for thinner lines, or use the whole 6 for thick lines. I recommend using 3 strands for the skull outlines, and only 2 strands for the text.

I recommend beginning with the skull outline. Make your way all the way around the skull using the back stitch (pictured below), outline the eyes and nose, using 3 strands. Back stitch the text using only 2 strands. This will help make the details more refined.

After you’ve outlined the eyes and nose, you can leave them like this OR you can fill them using a satin stitch! This stitch creates blocks of solid color in your pattern, and the closely grouped stitches give your final product a shiny, satin-y finish. Using the full 6 strands will fill the space quickly.

Satin stitches are just straight stitches made side by side, very close together, until they fill a space. Come up from the back of your fabric, getting the needle as close as possible to the outside of the outlines (that you did using a back stitch), and come back down directly across, again, on the outside of the outline. Keep going back and forth, so that your satin stitch looks nice and full - you can always go back and fill in bald spots.

Once the shapes of the two eyes and the nose are filled in, secure the thread in the back by burying it in the stitches. Change direction a couple times to secure the thread (here I’ve buried the thread going up, then down behind the backs of the stitches). Just cut the thread at this point, and it should be secured!