Happy Monday stampers! It's my turn to host Make it Monday over at the All That Scraps Blog, so I put together a little how-to on doing faux stitching on your cards.

          

I love the look of stitching and piercing on my cards... unfortunately, my sewing machine isn't easily accessible. So, I do all of the stitching on my cards by hand, which I don't mind, other than the time it takes... and being the procrastinator that I am, time isn't always on my side! Of course, there are some neat tools out there for creating this look, but they can be spendy, and, well, I'm also on a budget! So, I recently thought of a cheap, quick, and easy way to achieve a stitched look on my cards.

      

You only need a couple of tools to do this (and you might already have them on hand!) - a ruler (I like the Tim Holtz Ruler because it is see through, and has marked grid lines at every 1/8", which comes in handy for this technique), and a tracing wheel (you can find these in the sewing department of your craft store. I picked mine up at Walmart for under $2).

    

    

Color up your image, and get all the layers of your card cut and ready to go.

Place the first layer to be "stitched" on a cutting mat or foam pad. Line the ruler up against an edge of the panel to mark a 1/8" border.

        

      

Then slowly, but with firm pressure, guide the tracing wheel against the edge of the ruler along the entire length of the panel.

(The more pressure you use, the deeper of an impression the wheel will leave.)

     

      

Turn the panel, re-align the ruler to mark a 1/8" border on the next edge, and repeat.

     

      

Repeat on all edges of all layers that you want "stitched". Here are the 3 panels I "stitched" for my card.

     

      

Then, assemble your card as usual. Easy peasy!

Here is my finished card featuring Sweet November Bufly Brynn with a sentiment from AmyR Winged Greetings. I smothered Brynn's wings with glitter, and added teeny white dots with my gel pen to liven up her eyes.

      

Supplies: Hammermill White CS; Bazzill Pinkini CS; My Mind's Eye Happy Day 6x6; Memento Tuxedo Black Ink;

Recollections Extra Fine Glitter; Ribbon; Tracing Wheel; Ruler; White Gel Pen; Copics

    

Copics Used:

Wings - YR04, Y38, Y35, Y32 and Y17, Y15, Y13, Y11, Y00

Dress - R83, R81, RV00, RV000

Skin - E11, E00, E000, YR0000, R30

Hair - E18, E17, E15, E13

Eyes - BG05, BG01, BG000

    

And there you go... a faux stitched edge for a fraction of the cost and time!

I would love to know if you give it a try!

     

Entering the following challenges:

MarkerPOP - Add Glitter

Flutterby Wednesday - Any Winged Thing

Make it Monday - Anything Goes

Sentimental Sunday - Anything Goes + Sentiment

Oozak - Anything Goes + Spring

     

      

It's Release Day at Clearly Digi Stamps, and this release is HUGE!! It is loaded with good stuff, and you can see lots and lots of samples from the Design Team over at the Clearly iStamp Blog. But before you head over there, I've got a couple of cards to show you!

     

My first one uses the ADORABLE new Rainy Day digi set. If you follow my blog, you may know I kinda have a thing for umbrella images... not sure why I love them so much, but I do! Now I'll let you know another little weakness of mine - rubber duckies! Yup... Ernie was my favorite character on Sesame Street, and my kiddos' bathroom is covered in rubber ducky decor! So, this set with duckies AND umbrellas was a must-have for me!

   

For this card, I printed the image twice, once onto white cardstock, and again onto my patterned paper so I could paper-piece the umbrella. I did some shading on the paper-pieced portion with my Copics, just to add a little depth. After cutting the image out with my Circle Nestabilities, I stitched a border around the edge, and added a couple of die cut clouds.

     

    

Duck - Y38, Y35, Y32, Y21

Beak - YR18, YR15, YR12

Water - BG15, BG13, BG11, BG10

Umbrella Handle - T6, T4, T2

Shading on Umbrella, Ground - T3, T2, T1, T0

Sky - BG11, BG10, BG0000

      

My next card uses another adorable digi set, Little Octopus. I printed the orange spotted digi paper included with the set, and colored the octopus with my Copics to match. He's fussy cut, and popped up in front of a die-cut circle that I sponged with a combination of Tumbled Glass and Broken China Distress Inks. Orange is a color I normally shy away from, but I love how bright and cheery this card turned out!

      

    

Octopus - YR18, YR15, YR12, YR00

Spots - BG09, BG05, BG01

        

The Little Octopus set is also this month's featured set, meaning that you have a chance to WIN IT for yourself by playing along with the Clearly Inspired Challenges! Check out the Clearly iStamp Blog for all the details!

    

That's all for today! Thanks so much for stopping by!

          

    

The current challenge over at Tiddly Inks is to make a clean and simple card. This is my first time joining in one of their challenges, and since my style is typically pretty clean, this was an easy challenge to play along with.

     

I used Wryn - Whatcha Doin'? for my card. Wryn just might be one of my favorite stampy characters... she is super cute, and I just love coloring her hair!! :)

She's colored with Copics, and framed with my Lil' Inker Designs Instant Camera Die. I fussy cut around her fingers, so they would hang over the edge of the frame. The blue background was made by coloring the area with my BG0000 Copic, and then sponging around the edges with Tumbled Glass Distress Ink. 

What do you think?

    

    

Skin - E11, E21, E00, E000, YR0000, R30

Hair - E18, E17, E1, E13, E11

Dress - R85, R83, R81

Background - BG0000

      

That's all for today! Thanks so much for stopping by!

    

Entering the following challenges:

    

    

It's review day at All That Scraps, and the Design Team is showcasing the newest CC Designs stamps from the March Release.

     

My kiddos are always excited to see my new stamps come in, and usually help me decide which images to work with. When we looked at the March Release, they were very excited to see Fairy Abigail, especially my Abigail. Of course, now Olivia is expecting to see a stamp named after her! {hint, hint Christine... no pressure! ;)} So, it was a no-brainer to add this sweetie to my stamp collection.

   

Here she is colored up with Copics, and paired with a pretty piece of paper from the My Mind's Eye Blush 6x6 pad. The edges are inked with Antique Linen Distress Ink, and distressed (I used an old key, since I don't have one of those nifty distressing tools!). I glittered up her wings, and finished the card off with a bow. Pretty simple, but with that cutie, what more do you need? :)

       

    

Skin - E11, E00, E000, YR0000

Hair - E49, E47, E44, E43, E41

Dress - R89, R85, R83, R81

Wings - BG10, BG000, BG0000

Leaf - YG67, YG63, YG61

Ground - E43, E42, E41, E40

    

You can see more inspiration from the Design Team over at the All That Scraps Blog. And be sure to check out the All That Scraps Store, where you can find the entire March Release, and lots more!

Thanks so much for stopping by today!

    

Entering the following challenges:

     

     

It's time for another Tasty Tuesday at Your Next Stamp! This month's inspiration photo is chock full of colors, patterns and textures... super easy to pull a little inspiration from!

    

     

I wanted to use an image that would represent a lot of the colors in the photo, so I picked Basket Animals. Those balloons are so fun to color! I sponged a cloudy sky, then pieced the colored image onto the background. The grass was cut using a scrap of paper and the Fiskars Grass Border punch. I also used some baker's twine to represent the stripes on the straws. The little raccoon is cut out and popped up on glue dots. Super simple, but a fun little card to make someone smile!

     

  

Raccoon - T5, T4, T3, T2, T1

Basket - E44, E43, E42, E41, E40

Green Balloons - YG17, YG25, YG03, YG01

Blue Balloons - BG09, BG05, BG01

Orange Balloons - Y38, Y35, Y32, Y21

Yellow Balloon - Y15, Y13, Y11, Y00

Red Balloon - R27, R24, R22, R20

     

Now it's your turn! You have until the end of the month to link up your project at the Your Next Stamp Blog. One winner is chosen at random each month for a $10 YNS Gift Certificate! And if you don't have any YNS stamps yet, play along with us anyway! YNS stamps are not required... so everyone can join in!

Can't wait to see what you come up with!

Thanks so much for stopping by today!