Patchwork Card - stitched scrapbook style

Here is a picture of a card I made for the crop last week to help demonstrate a Patchwork style - which was the theme for May's session.



I have deliberately not put a greeting on the card, as then I have the flexibility to use it for any occasion, by personalising it when I need to.

To make the card, I have adhered the paper onto the card to just hold in place, being careful not to put sticky dots where the sewing needle would be going (otherwise it gets glued up and ends up in a right old mess!). I then used the sewing machine around the edges of the paper. Closeup below.

I stitched the patterned papers to a piece of cardstock which I then adhered to the font of the blank card. In that way I have hidden the back of the stitching and covered the back of the brad used to hold the ribbon in place.

Just a simple bit of stitching makes a card seem that much more professional. Oh and the patterned paper second form the left (large pink flower) is a photocopy of a napkin!!

Card - Using up scraps

Here is an A5 greetings card I made using the scraps from the Circle Journal entry (posted last Thursday). I'm trying to get into the habit of making a card from the leftover bits of my scrapbooking endavours before I tidy up!

You will see it's made in a VERY similar style to the pages in the CJ!

The close up picture shows the machine stitching of the ribbon.

I have to say that I did this fairly randomly, in that I held the pieces of paper together and ran them through the sewing machine and then ran them through again scrunching up the ribbon as I went.

It wasn't until that was all finished that I adhered the whole thing to the page and added the buttons.


So I suppose... technically... I made a page accent first, which I then stuck to a card?!!

Either way, this technique is great for scrapbooking too. I enjoy using the sewing machine for things like this.

Ribbons and more ribbons

You can never have too many ribbons, that's my motto!

I tend to lean towards the plainer style of ribbon - the usual ribbon one finds in haberdasheries... don't you know! LOL

Not many of those around nowadays! Luckily I have 2 sewing type shops in my town and I regularly visit them to buy yet more ribbon. One shop (as with most shops in this day and age) displays its ribbons sorted into their colours and you can help yourself to them so can take your time choosing.

Unfortunately, the other shop which is a "very" old fashioned shop, staffed by a family (and poor old grandad really should be enjoying retirement!), not only has all the sizes and colours all mixed up, but the reels are behind the counter and so browsing by oneself is just not an option!

I have to say whenever I go in there I feel I want to leap over the counter and tidy it all up!! I just couldn't work in the chaos! They apparently can!

Anyway... I have invented a really cheap way of storing your ribbons and a reference for easy re-ordering! So watch this space.

Time for the sewing machine!

I bought some material today for the purposes of a background for some photography. Whilst I was at the material shop I noticed some small packs of meterial collections.

They were colour co-ordinated into blues or pinks or reds, etc and the pieces were about 12" square.

They reminded me of complimentery patterned scrapbooking paper! I asked what people usually buy the packs for and the answer was that a lot of children buy the packs! Some make dolls clothes and some people start patchwork in a small way by making say, a cushion cover! I think it was news to the shopkeeper that I was planning to use the material for scrapbooking!

Anyway, I bought two packs! So I will now have to get out the sewing machine to make some scrapbooking layouts!