Hi friends, it’s Kim Chaffin, and I’m excited to be back with you to share a Tuesday Tutorial! I’m going to share two different ways that I add sewing to my layouts. First, let’s take a look at the project. 

Supplies | February 2022 Kit, Grid Circle Cardstock Stickers, Heart and Star Chipboard Stickers – Warm

You may notice that I’ve added stitches to create a vellum pocket, to adhere a strip cut from a pocket tag to the top of my journaling, and to add a decorative element to my typed word phrase strips. 

I created the vellum pocket by machine stitching a 3 3/4 x 4 1/4 inch piece of vellum to my large background photo. I sewed around the sides and bottom using a 1/4 inch seam allowance. You can see that my stitches aren’t perfectly even or straight, because I find paper a bit more difficult than fabric to guide through the machine. I’m definitely not a perfectionist about this, but you certainly could work more meticulously if that bothers you. My pocket will hold 3 x 4 inch pocket tags and photos embellished with heart chipboard stickers. It’s a great spot for tucking in extras when you’re out of layout space!

I loved the little heart emoji on this February Kit tag. I typed my journaling onto a 3 x 4 inch piece of cardstock, leaving room at the top to attach a strip of that pink pocket tag. Again, I machine stitched this in place.

I also love to add hand sewing to my pages. In this case, I put a little x stitch at the ends of two word phrases I had typed and printed. When hand sewing, I find it’s best to pierce my page before adding the stitches. To do so, simply lay your page over a foam pad, such as a mouse pad, and pierce in four spots where you want to add your stitch. (See the photos above for placement.) Use a needle or piercer for this. Next, push a threaded needle through one of the holes, coming in from the back side of your layout. As you pull the thread through, grab the tail before it goes all the way through, and secure it to the backside using an adhesive. A glue stick will work, but also hold the tail in place with your finger, because the glue won’t be dry enough to hold securely yet. Now, take the needle back down through the hole diagonal from the first hole. Come back up from the backside through either of the remaining two holes, and cross over the initial stitch to take your needle back down through the remaining hole. You’ve made a cross stitch! Now trim your thread at the back, and make certain to secure both tails with adhesive.

Sewing adds texture and interest to scrapbook layouts and paper crafting. I’d love to see how you incorporate this fun technique into your own projects!