A simple and subtle stitched pattern is great for adding detail and texture to a background with lots of white space.
Supplies used - Cardstock: American Crafts; 6x6 Paper pad: “Notable” from We R Memory Keepers; Wooden “I love you”: Fancy Pants Designs; Alphabet stickers: unknown; Stencil: Theresa Collins; Heart punches: Recollections; Wooden hearts: Studio Calico; Word stickers: We R Memory Keepers; Embroidery floss: DMC; Computer font: Century Gothic
This layout and the sketch I used was one of my favorites from my latest online class that we just wrapped up a few weeks ago: Sketches for 6x6 Paper Pads. If you missed out on the class, you can still grab the 20 one-page sketches here:
I knew I was going to like this sketch since I tend to gravitate towards designs with lots of small pieces grouped together. Designs like that often mean more time invested, but the results are always colorful, fun, and eye-catching.
This particular design has a 6 x 6" piece framed with 1" squares creating a 7 x 7" grouping of everything in the middle. That ends up leaving 2-1/2" of white space on the left, right, top, and bottom. The white space really helps to pull the attention to that center design where all of the important details are. White space is one of the best design techniques to keep the focus on your photos, journaling, and title.
To add some detail and texture to that white space I decided to add a stitched pattern to it. One of the patterned papers I used had little little triangles all over it and I happened to have a little triangle stencil sitting on my desk and it sparked an idea. I could use that triangle stencil as a stitching template and create my own patterned background. To do that, I used a pencil to trace the triangles in random spots on the white cardstock.
I didn’t want the stitching to overpower or take away from the main design of the layout so I opted to do white on white. I thought that would add a nice subtle pattern and give the layout an interesting detail and texture.
You could use a stencil like I did or create your own on a die cutting machine. There are tons of shapes you could use:
• hearts
• stars
• circles
• lines
• arrows
• hexagons
• half circles
• words/letters
I ended up really liking the look of this and can see myself creating more stitched patterns like this in the future.
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