When life throws you scraps...

Sometimes I like to incorporate my love of sewing into my scrapbooking and find that the two hobbies have very similar traits. My addiction to collecting fabric is just the same as my addiction to collecting paper. Everything that I have in my sewing room; fabric, buttons, pins, lace… can be used on a layout or card. Machine stitching on a layout gives the layout added texture and dimension. You can stitch down ribbons and trims, stitch titles, stitch on embellishments and stitch borders. The one thing I love about stitching is how inexpensive it is.

Before you start sewing on your scrapbook page, you need to have the layers you are going to sew tacked together. The more you can keep adhesives out of the path of the needle, the better – so try to tack photos and papers at their centers or away from where the stitching is going to take place. For those of you who have decorative stitches on your machine you can really spice up your layout. My favorite stitches to use are “straight”, “scalloped” and “zig-zag”.

Find some favorite scraps of fabric, a few sewing notions and you can create this card in minutes.  The card base measures 6.5"x5", the pink mat is 6.25"x4.75", the green mat is 4.5"x4.5" and the small stitched fabric squares are 2"x2".  I stitched the green mat onto the pink mat and then the fabric squares are stitched onto the green mat.  The sentiment is on a 3.5"x.75" piece of striped patterned paper on top of a 1"x3.75" green mat and then another 1.5"x4.5" piece of striped patterened paper.  A few sewing notions and a stick pin through the sentiment add the extra touch!  Perfect card for a "quilting" friend!

This week I am hosting the challenge at Let's Scrap so why don't you head on over, sign up and take my challenge.  Use fabric and stitching on a layout or card. If you don’t have a sewing machine, don’t worry…. faux stitching lines with a pen look just as nice.  This is what I came up with using one of the Let's Scrap card sketches by Debby.

The sentiment on the card is a stamp from Stampin' Up.... When life throws you scraps, make a quilt!

Til next time... Enjoy!