April Flowers | Kirei Baldwin | Sewing

Hi UK Scrap Addicts!

Kirei here with my layout for this month's theme which was sewing (hand or machine). Now I do like stitching on a layout as I love the texture it adds so this was right up my street!

I know for some people it's a love or hate technique... but even just a little bit can add some great detail and focus to a layout. I often do my hand-stitching in front of the TV so it doesn't feel too time consuming and having your sewing machine on hand and ready to go can also help encourage use!

I wanted to do something a little different so when I was looking for a paper collection to use from my stash I found the lovely all over floral paper from the Crate Paper 'All Heart' collection that had some great hand drawn type details that were calling out to be hand-stitched. I firstly fussy cut the large floral design around the edges as I wanted to mount it onto coloured cardstock for dimension.

Then all I needed to do was prick some holes along some of the stems and other small details and I was ready to go. As I knew I was going to use a photo in the centre of my layout I focused all of my stitching to the outer sections of the paper. Once I was finished the stitching I added foam pads to the back of the patterned paper and stuck it to a sheet of coral cardstock. I then used some of the lovely matching transparent floral stickers and stuck them down just under each of the edges of the floral paper. 

I matted my photo onto five of the coordinating patterned papers and distressed the edges before sticking down. I added a few more of the floral stickers to the top left and bottom right of my photo. I actually stuck the stickers to some white card first and cut out so that you could see the detail more. I tucked in a couple of the metal star charms to the floral clusters.

I added some journaling to one of the transparent stickers that I mounted onto white card and then finished off with a title using the lovely glitter and rose gold matching Thickers.

Hopefully all of the Creative Team's layouts this month have inspired you to try some stitching if you haven't done so before.... or even try it in a different way if you do already like to stitch on a layout! Don't forget to share your layouts over on the UK Scrap Addicts Facebook page as we love to see what you create!

Thanks for looking and happy scrapping!

Baby | Esther Peck | Sewing

HI Everyone - Essie here with my layout for July's sewing theme. Now I love the way sewing looks on a layout, but I find it time consuming to do and am impatient so really challenged myself to add lots of hand stitching this one. 

I started with a cut file and used my pokey tool to add the holes for stitching. I used a white thread with a couple of strands of silver for the outer lines and gradually used a darker blue as I stitched towards the centre.

I also stitched around the letters

Before adding embellishments

Even thought it took me ages I was happy with how my stitching turned out.

I hope you've been inspired by our layouts this month and if you want to see in more detail how I made my page you can see my process video over on our Youtube channel by following the link

Sewing Process video

Thanks for stopping by

Hi Minnie | Jackie Ashton | Sewing

Hi crafter, Jackie here with my take on this months theme - stitching.  I decided to go with hand stitching on my layout, and used a stitched template I've had in my stash for ages.

Hi Minnie

I chose 3 different patterned papers, which I cut to 6 inches and added punch details to each of the strips, each patterned paper had the same border punch detail.

I then arranged the strips down the left hand side of the cardstock.  Once these was struck down I added some hand stitched details over the each of the red patterned papers.

On the white cardstock I added the stencil detail to the right hand side to fill the 'white space' on the layout.  I used red oxide ink and a black pen for the outline.

For my title I used these alphabets stickers by Jellibean Soup, outlining them with my black pen. 

Adding stitching just gave my page some extra detail, I hope you can get some inspiration from it.

Don't forget to share your layouts over on our Facebook page we would love to see them.

Till next time

Happy scrapping

She Believed | Keighley Brennan | Sewing

Hey UKSA, Keighley here today sharing my layout for this months theme of sewing. I love handstitching on my layouts, I love the texture it adds to a page weather it’s a large background piece or just little details. 

I decided to use a cutfile as a template for my handstitching, this is something I use to do often before I got my silhouette, there’s lots of free cutfiles out there and this is a fab way to use them if you don’t have a cutting machine. I used the print out as a guide for poking my holes first and then kept it to hand to refer back to whilst I was sewing. My sewing took just over a day on and off but I feel that the end result was well worth the time it took. 

I finished off my adding a couple of embellishments and a photo of my daughter Darcie. 

You can watch my layout process here on the UKSA YouTube Channel

Please take a look at the UKSA Facebook group where there’s lots of sewing inspiration from the team aswell as the group members, as always the album is full of stunning scrappy loveliness.

Thank you for stopping by 

Keighley 

Grey Hair Don't Care | Amanda King (Guest Designer) | Sewing

We have a new guest designer this month, Amanda King, and we couldn't wait to see her take on this months theme of sewing.

Over to you Amanda....

When I read that this month's theme was sewing, I immediately thought of hand stitching a cut file. However, I had no idea how to get my Silhouette to cut the template so I decided to go old school instead. I decided on a Spirograph style pattern which I printed from online and started to punch the holes by hand using a paper piercer. I chose a subtle marbled pattern from DCWV's Romantic Life stack for my background and used a variegated embroidery thread.

The stitching took forever, and after four evenings of hand stitching I wondered if this had really been a good idea, but it's just one continuous line of backstitch so wasn't particularly difficult and I could watch TV whilst stitching.

Obviously after all that work I didn't want to cover up much of the stitching so I printed my single photo as a 7cmx7cm square (which is quite small for me). I layered it on a couple of papers from Hot Off the Press and some Pink Paislee Moonstruck which I tore on the top and bottom edges for a softer look. I then tucked various scraps, stickers and labels in on the left edge and cut pieces from another Pink Paislee paper to form a little cluster in the empty space at the top of the photo. I added a Maggie Holmes "Smile" sticker below the photo and cut my title on the Silhouette.

I'd originally placed my Spirograph pattern off-centre, and that gave me a wider space on the left of the page for my journalling, but I wondered if it might look a bit lost there, disconnected the photo, so I added a torn strip of washi tape to the left edge to anchor it and stop it floating off the page. Finally I repeated the washi by tucking a couple of pieces in above and below the photo block.

We love showcasing Guest Designers here on UKScrapAddicts and would love it if you would go and follow Amandas personal blog too - https://amandas-scrapbook-pages.blogspot.com/

Love | Sam Ball | Sewing

Sewing has to be one of my all time favourite additions to any scrapbooking layout!

If I’m never quite sure what’s ‘missing’ it’s my go to addition and it always works!

Machine sewing is probably my preferred choice over hand stitching, although much like any larger tool such as a die-cutting machine, I do find when my sewing machine is out, I use it so much more!

Do you ever start a layout then ‘literally’ tear it apart and start again? Having originally started this layout with the green panelled paper as the entire background, something just wasn’t working… Drastic action was needed and so I roughly tore about one third off the left hand side of the paper. This now meant that my layout was missing a 12 x 5” section of paper!

I built the left side up, adding some stamping detailing to the base watercolour, along with some further torn strips, then did a double line of machine stitching down each torn section. The stitching adds dimension and I find it allows you to further distress the torn edges.

Once I stated to stick the layout down, I felt it was looking too geometric and needing softening to reflect the soft focus areas in the photo.

After playing with some mixed media powders on a separate sheet of paper, I then used it to die-cut out some trailing flowers, which immediately made the overall layout much softer and more feminine…

Along with a bit of thread to tie a few embellishments together, I decided a bit of hand sewing was needed, especially with this months theme being sewing!

A few aptly placed French knots, sewn in white thread just added a bit more texture and I was happy!

Don't forget to share your layouts with us over on our Facebook page, or tag us on Instagram if you've been inspired by this months theme.

Love | Karen Moss | Sewing

Hello, hello lovely scrappers - Karen here with my response to the sewing prompt for this month.

I wanted to do something a little different and decided to cross stitch a border and photo mount .

If you would like to see my process for designing and completing this layout I have a video over on the U K Scrap Addicts YouTube channel here.

Don't forget to check back to see what the other UKSA ladies have been adding sewing to their pages. 

Karen x

Be Bright | Sarah Costain | Sewing

Hi it's Sarah here today with a summery layout using this months theme of sewing.

I decided to do one of my favourite techniques of stitched ribbon ruffles. The ribbon is seam binding which comes in loads of colours and works brilliantly at adding texture. I created an ombre sunny glow behind my ribbons with distress oxides and added a few splashes of shimmery ink.

For my papers and embellishments I used a summery kit from my stash by Mind The Scrap. There was a lovely ombre paper which complemented the sunburst perfectly.

My photo was taken at a seaside fair so I surrounded the photo with fairground and beachy themed stickers, tucking some in the layers and adding some on top or popped up on foam to add more dimension.

Finally I added some glasses to the sun and enamel dots and puffy stickers in amongst the stickers.

You can check out the process video here for more details.

Thanks for joining me and have a Happy Scrappy day :)

Sarah

ManxyCatCrafts

Unicorn Smash! | RamblingsofGeo | Sewing

Hello everyone!

Welcome to July, and Happy birthday to me! - Sewing month... not my strongest point, but i have given it a good try!

To celebrate my birthday i have a paper pieced Unicorn to inspire you. I made this by tracing out a unicorn from a template i found on google. I used my smash book this month as it had the perfect page of a unicorn in the cutesy smashbook (purple binder)

I used papers from the Hobbycraft 12x12 Rainbow Magic pad which was a bargain £5 from hobby craft a couple of months ago. Its a must have for unicorn lovers!

I decided to sew around the unicorn around the edge in the style of alot of the cute lisa fonseca animals i have seen her make. Im incredibly proud of how well this turned out, and it goes to show a little bit of patience goes a long way! :) 

There is a corresponding youtube video over on the ukscrapaddicts channel for you to see how i put this together.

I hope you find inspiration in this layout!

Hello lovely | Stephanie Squires | Double page Sewing

Hello Scrapbookers!

A very warm welcome to this months blog post!!

So hand sewing...it's a funny one, some people love it, some people hate it...Well I sit on the fence with it...in one way I love it whilst sitting on the sofa in the evening chilling out sewing on a layout - But sewing at a class or on a retreat - No thanks lol I'll draw it on or sew it at a later date!

So it's as much of a surprise to me as it is to you that this layout is a double....I certainly didn't plan it that way!  I started with the page on the left, gutted the yellow and pink spotty paper with a one inch boarder and I cut the pink bazzill cardstock down to an eleven inch square.  I added a fringe of pink netting to the left hand side of the bazzill cardstock and stuck it on to the spotty boarder.

I sewed the paper down the left hand side and along the top.  Unfortunately my bobbin ran out whilst sewing on the right.  I knew from past experience if I'd sewn over the top of the holes it would have missed some and looked a bit messy so I opted for some glitter card to cover up my mistake - I added a small amount of glitter card to the left hand-side too to balance out the bling!

I cut a stripy piece of paper 8 x 5 and popped it onto my layout just off centre.  I then organised my photos all on foam risers and started adding tuckers (tuckers are small pieces of paper or embellishments you tuck round or under your photos or other pieces of paper) I added a rosette embellishment, a slice of fruit, a bumble bee, sunglasses and flamingo stickers and a gold perspective heart and the word "Hello" to complete this layout...now onto the new one...…………

So I had all these scraps left in a pile on top of another sheet of pink cardstock...It was begging to be made into a layout so who was I to refuse...

I trimmed the manufacturing strip off of the pink card stock before popping the spotty piece of paper (10 x 6) onto my layout.  I splattered gold paint onto the page before I added a piece of the glitter card (6 3/4 x 5 1/2)

I decided to stagger my photos on the page so they were in a different formation to the other page.  I added lots of bright floral embellishments to the page and another rosette.  I added the title Lovely and a bunting stickers  before adding the smaller sub titles, the hand signals, camera and balloons.

Once I'd done all of the above I had forgotten that I needed some stitching!  I punched holes all around the edge before chain stitching round the edge with white embroidery floss and that was it....my surprise double page was finished!

Thank you very much for reading...…….until next month.

Best wishes

Steph xoxo

Adventures | Amy Kattenbelt | Sewing

Hello lovely scrappers, Amy here today with my layout that features sewing! I decided to go all out and stitch my title across the whole page. I must apologise that I am not able to create process videos at the moment due to building work at my house, but I tried to take a lot of photos to show you how I created my layout.

I really wanted my title to be in my own handwriting. So the first thing i did was draw some faint straight pencil lines across my white cardstock. I then planned which words i wanted on which line and took my time to hand write the title across the whole of the page in pencil. You also want to remember to leave a gap in your title for your photo, I left some space in to the left hand side for my photo.

When i was happy with my penciled title I used a 'pokey tool' and created holes along the pencil lines. Remember that the more holes you poke the more stitching you will have to do. Placing them too close together will cause the card to rip as you pull the thread through the holes, but too far apart and curves will become angular. If you look carefully you can see that I place holes closer together around tighter corners. You also need to take care at junctions of lines, making sure you put a hole at these intersections. Getting the holes right will make the rest of the stitching so much easier. If its your first time using this technique you may want to start with something smaller. This took me at least 6 hours to stitch, which i quite enjoyed as you can do it whilst sat watching TV.

Once you have all your holes, now is the time to erase your pencil lines. Be careful and work in small areas so as not to crease or rip the card.

Now we can begin with the sewing. I chose to stitch each line in a different colour. I used regular embroidery thread, the kind you would use for cross stitching. These come with 6 individual threads that you can pull apart (usually you use 2 at a time for cross stitching). The more threads you use the thicker the line will be and also the bigger the holes will need to be. I decided to use 3 threads for this layout.

You use a back stitch to recreate your text. If you struggle with this the best thing to do is google for instructions. Once you understand the principle it really is very simple.

I used washi tape on the back of my layout to hold the thread ends in place, both at the start and end of a length of thread.

Once my title was stitched I knew i wanted to keep the rest of the layout simple so it didn't draw attention away from the title. I used some of the gorgeous rainbow paper by Paige Evans to frame my layout (yes i did cut out the middle so i can use this paper on another layout. I mounted my photo in yellow paper (a colour i hadn't used for sewing) and a doily. I added a few little die cuts, a ribbon and a date stamp to complete my layout.

I hope I have inspired you to give hand stitching a go on a layout. If you have any questions just post on our UK Scrap Addicts Facebook group and ill be able to help you further. Thanks for reading and happy sewing!!