"Faux Stitching" mini tutorial and a bit of doodling...

Like any crafty girl, I dream of having my sewing machine at my beck and call for any craft project that strikes my fancy for some nice stitching.....and like MOST crafty girls, I just don't have room for it to be sitting on my desk or have the inclination to pull it out of the closet and get it set up for one card here and there. And so.....my Janome Mini sewing machine sits in my closet, feeling neglected. To be honest, I have yet to even plug the poor, neglected little beauty in. I got it when it was on sale and with free shipping, but I've yet to put it to use. I just don't have room for it to be constantly out in my current work space. For those of you that have never seen my house, the four of us are living in roughly 900+ square feet. Yes, you read that right. And yes, I wish I could put another zero at the end of that number, but that's just not the case. I love my little home and will certainly miss aspects of it when we buy our first home this fall, but the limited amount of space will not be one of those things that I miss. I have learned to live in a small amount of space and it's been great for our way of life. We've learned to live without a ton of "toys" and have been satisfied with a very simplified lifestyle. We just don't have a ton of room for extras. 900+ square feet doesn't allow for a lot of space for extras. I'm almost afraid to live in a bigger space......I don't want to change the lifestyle we've created and become happy with just to fill up empty corners and spaces. I want to maintain the life we've come to love....being content with what we need and the few things we want. But I DO need more space to spread my current collection of crafting supplies out, simply to make it easier to work.

Anyway.........all that to say......if I want the stitched look, I've become content with doing "faux stitching" on my cards, rather than dragging my sewing machine out. Once I have my own studio space (and don't have to share my space with the rest of the house), I'll have my sewing machine out for good and can use it whenever I please. For now, the "faux stitching" technique does just fine for me.

At the recent Montreal Regional seminar that Stampin' Up put on, we received the "So Much" set as part of our registration. I wasn't too sure about this set when I saw it in the catalog, but just like so many sets I've fallen in love with before that I wasn't too sure about, all it took was playing around with it to see it used in some different ways to warm up to it.

As I was sitting down to make a card today, I realized that the large dotted circle is ideal for the "faux stitching" technique. So....I've created a mini tutorial to show you what I did with this stamp. You can click on any of pictures for a larger view.

Step 1)
I stamped the dotted circle image over a piece of Certainly Celery cardstock using Whisper White craft ink. I overlapped my images and stamped some of them partially off the edge of my cardstock. Let your images dry before the next step. I'm impatient so I used my heat gun to speed up the drying process.

Step 2)
I placed my cardstock over my piercing mat and used the paper piercing tool (from the Crafters' Tool Kit) to pierce a hole in each of the dots of my stamped images.

Step 3)
I used my white gel pen to draw white lines to connect each dot, making sure to curve my lines just a tad so that I ended up with a circle. I went over each of my lines to get a nice crisp white line. Voila! Faux stitched circles!

I wanted to add a little bit of color "pop" to my card, so I used a fine tip black marker to add broken stitch lines inside each faux stitched white circles. It's amazing what you can do with a little bit of doodling.

I stamped the flower image from the "So Much" set with black ink on Bashful Blue cardstock and doodled some little white dots inside the flower petals with my gel pen. I cut the flower out, mounted it on white cardstock and then trimmed around it to create a striking white border.

I also doodled little white dots around the border of the Bashful Blue card base. It was only AFTER I mounted the strip of patterned paper from the "Cutie Pie" Designer Series paper pack (which was mounted on a strip of Bashful Blue cardstock) that I realized there were little white dots on some of the color stripes. Don't you just LOVE when happy coincidences like that happen? I couldn't have planned that any better!

I stamped the word, "Thanks," from the same set on the patterned paper with black ink. The flower was mounted with pop-dots for dimension. I added some self-adhesive rhinestones to the center of the flower and in the lower right corner of the card for some sparkly bling.

Even with all the doodling and piercing, this card didn't take me as long as it looks like it would take. I think I had this card done in about 20 minutes. Not bad at all!

Happy Creating!

- Stampin' Mama

Comments

[rae clevett]

Gorgeous card. I have that stamp and hadn't thought to do faux stitching with it. Might have to dig it out and give it a try. Thx for sharing.

[Bunny]

Great tutorial! :) Cute card. Love the bling!

[Dawn griffith]

Great card girlie >> Love the doodles and the faux stitching ..2 of my favorite things .
xox
Dawn Griffith

[Jane]

Wow,this looks amazing! I do lots of faux stitching but like the idea of using a stamp as your "template". Great job!

Jane

[Jarie]

Erika,

This a great card and tutorial. Thanks for sharing. i think I'll have to take a second look at this stamp set.

Janet

[Sue Poile]

This card looks fabulous with the faux stitching. I also love the layout of this card. Well done Erika ! :)

[Carol]

very eye appealing technique! I love the faux stitching and matching doodling. Very nice card! I don't know how you manage in such a small living space, but I have a feeling life will be easier when you can have a room set aside just for your crafts *wink* You must have created some amazing organizational skills living so simply for so long!

[Mel M. M. M.]

Gorgeous! I just love this tutorial. Thanks so much for sharing it, :0)

[Mel M. M. M.]

Gorgeous! I just love this tutorial. Thanks so much for sharing it, :0)

[Debbie]

Beautiful, warm, and happy! You could even add a little raised bumblebee for another dimension (kinda like "the path of the bumblebee") and a little "zing" with the bling!! Thanks for sharing!!

[best vps for seo]

Your style is very unique compared to other people I have read stuff from. Thank you for posting when you have the opportunity, Guess I'll just book mark this blog.

[Bank Interiors]

I rarely leave a response, but after reading through a few of the comments on Stampin' Mama: A mama that stamps: "Faux Stitching" mini tutorial and a bit of doodling.... I do have some questions for you if you do not mind. Could it be just me or do a few of the responses appear like they are coming from brain dead folks? :-P And, if you are posting at additional sites, I would like to keep up with you. Would you make a list of every one of your public sites like your twitter feed, Facebook page or linkedin profile?