Try adding some hand stitching to a patterned paper to highlight a specific design.
At this point you all know that it's no secret that I love hand stitching and will find any way I can to add it to my layout! It might be an actual addiction!
When creating this layout, I loved the 12 x 4" strip from Simple Stories with the "Go. See. Do." text on it. Since I was going to make it such a big focal point of my layout, I wanted to enhance it. Bring some texture and dimension to it to help it stand out.
If you haven't tried stitching yet and are curious on how to get started, I put together a hand-stitching tutorial. You can watch it here:
If you want to learn how to stitch, but you aren't entirely comfortable with coming up with your own designs, this is a good way to practice: by using the design on a patterned paper as your guide. If you like the design on the patterned paper, you know that your going to like design of your stitching. It's a safe way to play around with stitching.
For my layout, I simply pierced my holes on the lines of the letters. It doesn't get much easier than that!
A few tips to stitching on patterned papers:
1. When piercing your holes, I highly recommend piercing the holes in the corners and points first, then fill in the holes in between the corners and point.
Sometimes you can be piercing along and then realize that you didn't balance out your spacing well enough to end up on a point or corner with the correct spacing. It's just an easy way to help ensure that you always land on those corners or points with the right spacing.
2. On any piece that has a curve, you might want to pierce your holes a little closer together than you would on a straight line.
This is just to make sure that you end up with a fluid curve. If your lines are too far apart, you end up with a more jagged look.
3. When picking out embroidery floss colors, try to go a shade or two darker or lighter.
I typically am not looking for an exact match of colors. If you go exact, it doesn't always highlight that stitching in the way you might want. If you go darker or lighter, it helps the stitching stand out more.
If you are new to stitching or you want to try a new way to add stitching to your layouts, I challenge you to try this out sometime!