I love Disney Parades!

Well the thing is that even though we LOVE watching and taking photos of the day or night time parades at Disney parks, we don't usually love scrapping them. There are so many photos and when you know it will take 10 pages, and you don't really feel like working on a 2 pager.... you just skip it and go to an easier photo. Lately I have been scrapping some of my parade photos and they are really fun.  You get to add texture and sparkles, flags and banners.

This is my page example for the November Sketch and cut file at Disney Scrappers:
http://disneyscrappers.ning.com/forum/topics/2016-november-sketch-challenge-and-cut-file

  I used the Pink Paislee Fancy Free stack of papers and the dotty paper totally makes me think of a parade. I drew some sparkles and added tiny rhinestones.

Happy Thanksgiving -NEW DCWV Autumn Leaves Stack

Today I finished a layout using the New Autumn Leaves stack from DCWV. I really don't get the fall weather here but I do love fall colors and I decorate for Thanksgiving. I just love the papers in this stack because they have very pretty rose gold foil accents. Unfortunately it is a real struggle to take a photos of the foiling and it tends to look black in photos unless you lay the layout on an angle. So I am going to show you the angle shot first.

 

For my background I used a feather design paper from the DCWV White Embossed Stack. Also I have cut a wreath of fall leaves from a Rose Gold paper using my Silhouette. 

"Why, Mom?" - DCWV Halloween Night

Happy Halloween a bit early! If you like the sparkly pretty halloween decor and candy colors, check out the NEW DCWV Halloween Night Stack. It's one you need to go see in person really because it has copper foiling in some of the paper designs and it doesn't photograph all that well but its so pretty! Since I can't make the boys dress up cute, I had to give it a go with Savvy.....

You can see how he felt about giving a mouse a ride, and Figaro thought he was nuts! LOL! Savvy is a very good sport. I hope you can see the bits of copper foil detailing. The kitty is a journaling block which just made it so perfect. Here is a close up so you can see the copper paper under the photos a bit better.

Catitude! Background stitching part 2

I wanted to share another example of hand stitching on a background. This idea would be awesome with stars, circles, triangles, mickey icons....or any shape of punch you have.

  I began by hand cutting a heart from a scrap of paper but using a punched shape would be great. I traced around the heart with a pencil on my background. I was at a crop so I put the background paper on one of the firm cushion chairs so that I could puncture the holes.

 
Next I used Kreinik threads to stitch the hearts in colors that would coordinate with the papers I chose for my layout.

Hand Stitching on your background

Hand stitching on layouts has become very popular lately and I have seen incredible pages with entire backgrounds stitched. Whether you want to do an entire background or just an accent, it's something that really makes a page special especially if you use metallic threads like the beautiful threads by Kreinik Threads (HERE)

Have you tried hand stitching on your layouts? Yes, it takes a little time but it is totally worth the trouble. This is my first of 2 tutorials about hand stitching to hopefully share a few tips you haven't heard and inspire you. For this first feature I would like to talk about stitching directly on your background to create a design or title.
Here is my first example. Rather than just a decorative background I wanted a stitched title that would also be decorative.

Tip #1 - Choosing a needle. First we will be puncturing holes with a larger diameter sharp needle, and then when you actually stitch, a traditional non-sharp embroidery or cross stitch needle is perfect. You can use a mouse pad upside down or folded towel on your scrap table to put under your layout to puncture the holes. Pre-puncturing holes will speed up your stitching time and you can sit on the couch and watch tv while stitching :) So punch holes with sharp, stitch with dull.

Tip #2-  You can surely go freehand stitching but I prefer to lightly draw my design with pencil. You can trace around silhouette cut designs, punched shapes, or even around alphas like thickers. After puncturing your holes, erase the pencil lines before stitching.

Since I am scrapping Disney photos I really think the threads need a little pixie dust sparkle so my Tip #3 is to use some metallic threads to make the stitching pop a little. There are many you can use but some are super thin and when you start having to double up strands, metallic threads tangle badly. I choose a thread byKreinik called Very Fine Braid #4  and it comes in so many colors. You can use this thread single or doubled and it really shows up well. If you do not want any sparkle, 3 threads of a traditional embroidery floss are the perfect thickness (embroidery floss is made up of 6 threads).

Tip #4 -Knots: You can make a knot in your thread to start and finish your stitching but because this is a scrapbook page, the knot is extra bulk behind the layout and kind of makes the page lumpy in your album. I use washi tape to tack my end when I start and finish a strand so that it is flat. There won't be alot of wear and tear on the layout inside of your page protector so the washi will hold it fine.

Now for some step by step photos to help you out.
For the page above, I could have hand drawn a title, but I don't like my handwriting so I cut the script title from printer paper using my silhouette and used it as a template to trace.

 Next I used a large sharp needle to puncture holes along the pencil lines, making them closer together where the tight curves are in the letters.

 Before beginning the stitching, I erased the pencil, and then painted and splattered some gold mist on the background. I wanted to show you a close up so you could see how awesome these Kreinik threads look. I was going to do one word in each thread color but I thought a more varied color change would be more fun.

Here is the finished stitching. I hope you will give it a try soon.