Highlight Stitching Technique: Ellen Hutson and Waffle Flower Stitched Together

Hello everyone!  Sorry for my absence from the blog… apparently EVERY school project, presentation, concert, meeting, etc. has to happen within a 3-week period at the end of the school year.  It is chaos.  But I have been sneaking time in for crafting in amongst it all and I am so excited I was able to make some cards with the new Stitched Together from the Ellen Hutson United We Flourish collaboration with Waffle Flower.  I have a thing for globes, and I have an obvious thing for flowers and stitching.  So it was like the designers of this set read my mind and developed this set just for me!   I LOVE it.  

I decided to try a new-to-me-technique with this set that you could call highlight or spotlight stitching… just taking at portion of an image and stitching it for emphasis.  I thought stitching the flowers on the globe would add beautiful detail and texture to the card, so after stamping the stitched images and cutting out a panel with a stitched rectangle die, I poked holes in the corners of all the flowers. 

This is not as tedious as it looks, I promise.  If you try this technique, take your time and don’t poke your holes too large.  I poked all the holes in about 10 minutes.  

Then stitch them up!  Because these images are somewhat small, I found the thinnest needle I could fit my thread through and started stitching.  I used two strands of floss for each color.  

I had so much fun stitching the first card that I made two more!  I used a Pretty Pink Posh “Lovely” die to make the larger “love” in two of the cards to switch up the sentiment.  

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial!  If you give this technique a try, I would love to see the results! 

Simon Says Stamp Sending Sunshine Release: Stitched Sending Spring Love Card

Has everyone seen Simon Says Stamp’s latest Sending Sunshine release?  Oh my.  So many awesome products.  I was so happy to be able to create with their new Four Seasons Sayings stamps.  I loved this set as soon as I laid eyes on it… the sayings are so versatile and you can use it to create cards all year round.  So great!  

I used Simon’s More Spring Flowers to create the foundation of my card.  After watercoloring the flowers with my Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers, I used the stitch lines on the flowers to add some stitching to the flowers.  I also decided to stitch over the “Spring” in the sentiment to add more interest.  I then created an envelope with my envelope punch board and added even more stitching to that, tucking the flowers in an arrangement inside.  I then decided to mount the envelope on a panel that I ink blended with Tumbled Glass Distress Ink and finished the card with some Pretty Pink Posh sparkling clear sequins.  

I hope you enjoyed this walkthrough and the card!  

Craft Room Organization Makeover: IKEA Skadis Pegboard

First and foremost, I want to thank everyone for all of the love and support on my last Instagram post about my dad.  I have read and re-read the comments many times, and they have truly brought me comfort over the past days.  Although I’m not sure that the pain of losing him will ever pass, I try to keep it ever-present in my mind that although he is gone physically, his love is with us forever.  I have made it a personal goal to continue his legacy of loyalty, love, and family.

A while back, I saw the new Ikea Skadis pegboard while surfing around YouTube.  I ran out to buy it but never had time to hang it.  Although my crafty mojo has taken a backseat to all that’s transgressed recently, motherhood has not.  I spent my Mother’s Day weekend standing in the pouring rain at a weekend soccer tournament away from home.  I told my husband that all I wanted for Mother’s Day was for him to hang my pegboard while I was away.  And he delivered!  

Here is the before... a lone cork board: 

And the after: 

I LOVE THIS PEGBOARD. It makes me happy to look at it.  My board consists of four individual pegboard pieces.  If you look closely, you will notice that the holes are not circles, but longer oval shapes.  This means that traditional pegboard accessories will not work, but Ikea offers a ton of different and affordable options.  I ended up using Ikea hooks, shelves, paper holders (holding my stamping platforms and Fiskars trimmer), and clips.  The decorative pieces (i.e., the clock, initial, deer head, flower pots, etc.) were also hung or displayed with the Ikea accessories.  Because all of the Ikea accessories are easy to hang and easy to remove, rearranging is a breeze.  

After doing a lot of fussing and fiddling with the pegboard and making another trip back to Ikea, I have some advice for anyone setting up a pegboard like this: 

1.  Decide which tools and supplies you want to display on your pegboard, and figure out how you want to organize them.  This will give you a general idea of how many shelves, hooks, cups, etc. you will need to buy.  

2.  Then buy extra.  If you’re anything like me, you will end up using more accessories than you think.  And if you ever decide to change things up, it is great to have extra pieces on hand.  Another tip: buy LOTS of hooks.  You can hang almost anything with holes with the hooks.  

3.  Function over form.  Figure out where you want to display your essential supplies and hang them where they are easily accessible and easily removed.  Then fill the rest of the board in with decorative pieces if you wish.  When I started, I started putting things up willy nilly and ended up taking everything down.  Putting the essentials up first made it easy to back-fill with decorative pieces later.  

I’d love to see your craft rooms as well!  Feel free to tag me on Instagram if you post pictures of your crafty space!  

Get Well Soon Cards

Hello!  Unfortunately, in the past week several people in my life have fallen ill or sustained injuries.  As I was looking through my card stash, I realized that I didn’t have any get well cards.  I remembered seeing a beautiful card on Yoonsun Hur’s Instagram page where she had created some floral Band Aids, and from this I took inspiration to create the cards here today.  For each card, I die cut and stamped each Band Aid twice using My Favorite Things’s Band Aid die and Hero Arts’s You’re Beautiful stamps (definitely check out this set… gorgeous floral images coupled with awesome sentiments.  I will be using this one A LOT).   I colored in the images using bright and colorful Copic markers.  I then cut out the square center out of each Band Aid and popped it up using foam tape on top of the duplicate Band Aid to give some dimension.  

I played around with a clean and simple design by putting the Band Aids on a white panel, but it was just too plain and the Band Aids looked lost.  I tried out Jennifer McGuire’s fill-in stamping technique using Simon Says Stamp’s Fog ink, which gave a perfect background.  This Hero Arts set was perfect for this technique… lots of small images gave great impact.  

But not content to leave well-enough alone, I decided to try coloring in the background using really soft Copic markers.  Happy with this, I popped the Band Aids up with more foam tape.  I added Pretty Pink Posh sequins and Honeybee Stamp’s tiny leaves (LOVE these!) to add a little sparkle.  I also went over the little dot images with a glitter Gelly Roll pen.  

Some hand stitching with metallic black thread around the panel and the card was done!  

This card came together quickly, so I decided to make another.  This time, I stamped the background a little darker and didn’t color in the images.  I can’t decide which card I like better… I'd love to hear what you think!