Technique Thursday - Hand Stitching on Layouts

It is my turn today to post a technique tutorial at Scrap Lovers so I thought I'd post my tutorial here as well for all my blog friends.

Stitching on layouts is an inexpensive way to add some drama to a layout. It can be as simple as stitching a few x stitches, straight stitches or as seemingly complicated as stitching designs. All it takes really is a little time and maybe a little courage.

Let's start with something simple:

IMAGE REMOVED FOR PUBLICATION

Take a closer look at the flowers (click on the photo to enlarge). In each flower, I stitched along a pre-existing design on the patterned paper. I also made a straight line across my strip of patterned paper to add a little flair to an ordinary piece of paper. The results are subtle, but certainly noteworthy.

Try a Free Hand Swirl:

In this one, I wanted something more dramatic so I choose to stitch in red. I drew the swirl lightly with a pencil and then poked holes along the design. When the holes were complete, I erased the design and stitched.

Stitching a Full Blown Design:

This one is no where near as complicated as it looks. Trust me. Google clipart for whatever design you want to stitch. Here I googled spider web clip art. I printed this design and put it on top of my cardstock. I used the printed design as a template and poked holes through the template and my cardstock. This is the same technique you use when carving a pumpkin. Remove the template and sew your design. I keep the template handy in designs like this to refer to now and again. It really isn't hard at all. It just takes a little time.

Other Ideas:
-Stamp an image in the colour of your thread and stich over the image.
-Use your doodling templates as stitching templates.
-Stitch a border around your photo or title

Thanks for stopping by and be sure to link up your stitched creations!

November Project Kit

Here's a little peek at my November project kit at Paws on Scrapbooking. The kit is complete with all materials and step by step, colour photo instructions. It features the Becoming Green line by Tinkering Ink and Hambly kraft stickers. There are two stamps from Daisy Bucket, ribbon, twill, twine, two pens (American Crafts - clay, and white Signo Unibal), Maya Roads chipboard, Magic Scraps Bamboo Clips and various other buttons and embellishments.
Hope you like it!!

Look for another online class in early December!

October Design Work

This first project is my October kit at Paws on Scrapbooking. The kit is complete with step by step instructions and all products necessary to create the book. The kit includes paper and die cuts from My Mind's Eye, a Basic Grey eclectic chipboard book, a Tim Holtz spider web mask, rub-ons, trims and gems. If you'd like to purchase a kit, you can get all the information HERE.

The last three projects were made for Scrap Lovers. We had the good fortune to work with Scenic Route (Appleton) and Maya Roads this month.

This was made with two houses from the Maya Road chipboard book. This is my first Christmas card of the season.

Some Pics from our Trip

A few highlights from France:

La Seine

Eiffel Tower

Palace of Versailles

Garden of Versailles

The Mona Lisa

Yes, she is in Paris.

We were grossly misinformed regarding the Louvre à Québec Exhibition. The Mona Lisa never leaves the Louvre.

Nice, France

Monte Carlo, Monaco

A reflection of the casino

Cinque Terre, Italy

Vernazza, Italy

(Cinque Terre)

Switzerland

The Lion Monument

Luzern, Switzerland

Canadian Scrapbooker Toot

I am so excited to share that I will be one of three designers featured in the Spring, 2009 issue of Canadian Scrapbooker for their "Passport to Creativity" article. This is my first time published with them and I could not be more excited.

This layout is one of my recent favourites. It is based on the October sketch from My Sketch World. Be sure to check out Lucy's blog for all kinds of great layout and card sketches.

World Card Making Day and other News

World Card Making Day last Saturday was just the push I needed to create a few cards. I can't remember the last time I've done that.

In other news, I was expelled from Design School at Bad Girls Kit Club this week. Even though I am not part of the group moving to the next round, I still chose to take this week's class on Colour Psychology and complete the assignment. Here it is, "Spreading her Wings".

Have a great day!!

Treasured Scrapbooking Reveal

This is a photo of the goodie box that arrived at my door this week...October kit # 2 at Treasured Scrapbooking. I absolutely love the blue and red colour pallette; it is such a hot colour combination. Pair that with a My Little Shoebox overlay, some Jenni Bowlin goodies, thickers and Daisy D's rub-ons and you've got a killer kit. Here is my October sketch and layout. Look for more projects in a couple of weeks. As always, check out the design team gallery for more inspiration.

IMAGE REMOVED FOR PUBLICATION

Thanks for stopping by!

Class # 4 Accessorize

I made it through another round of Top Designer at Bad Girls Kits. This week our lesson was on accessorizing and using embellishments to create Unity, Harmony, Balance and Texture. Here is my take on the class. I'm really pleased with this one.