Get Inspired: Stitched Journalers

Good morning everyone. I do hope you were able to enjoy a little Mother’s Day celebration this past weekend albeit at a distance? I was very spoilt with a new quilting book and a gorgeous bundle of quilting fabric to go with it. However, I am trying very hard to complete a few unfinished stitching projects before I leap into a new one – so my new book and fabric are just lovely eye candy on the shelf for the moment!
Speaking of stitching, have you noticed all the different types of stitched journalers in the store? I love them all, but being a pretty big fan of chipboard elements and also of Katie’s marvelous flossy stitches, I was just a tiny bit excited when these beauties made it into the store earlier this year.

I. LOVE. THEM.

I straight away used them on this little photoless layout celebrating one of Flo’s quirky questions. I just layered different sizes up and interspersed them with some patterned paper and a leafy element. Then I arranged my title, text and some decorative elemts around the layered arrangement. Some of the journaling ended up on one of the journaling labels – but not much of it!

So thinking about this month’s Get Inspired challenge, I decided to try using them again.
Remember I told you once before that I really like the ripped frames, but my little ‘straight up and down’ personality does like to square those ripped frames up? Well these stitched journalers were perfect for that in this layout – again about Flo.
One of the best things about creating is when something great happens by accident – don’t you think? Once I’d squared off my ripped frame and added all my embellishments, I thought the page needed something at the bottom – there was just a little too much white space. So, as I was using Katie’s new Watercolour Sketchbook No.01 Bundle, I decided to cut a thin wedge from one of the coloured papers to lay over the lightly patterned background paper I had chosen. I forgot that I had added a feathered edge to my lasso tool for a previous project. Unknowingly I used it to ‘cut’ my wedge of paper and dragged it onto my page. And voila! It looked like a chalk mark across the page. So cool!

For my next layout, I started by placing my photo in a frame at the end of one of the journalers. I used a sticker to decorate the other half of the journaler. I placed one of the Vintage Artistry Sky Stacks underneath. Because these come as layered elements, they make layering so much easier because you can adjust where each layer sits beneath your photo and you can also add different elements between the layers as I did here – using more of the stitched journalers. This time however I changed them up a bit by clipping patterned paper to a couple of them. I changed the blend mode of the patterned paper layer to multiply so that the chipboard edges show through. This works really well but of course you can see the pattern of the paper on the stitches which spoils the effect somewhat. My way around this is to just zoom right in and working with the patterned paper layer, use the eraser tool with a soft edge to erase that part of the paper which is covering the stitches.

I used the same technique, only this time with duplicated photos, for my last layout. I’m always struck by layouts that feature full page photos with the focal point highlighted by a smaller photo frame laid over the top. Because the theme of my layout was perspective, I didn’t want to lose any of the photo – but still wanted to focus on the kids so I used two of the stitched journalers stacked to create a kind of telescopic effect. I’m really pleased with the way only the delicate edges and the stitches are visible and the ‘floaty’ look it gives. The appearance of the journaling had me stumped for a while (everything looked too heavy), until I tried using the color picker tool to choose a colour from the background and then used the multiply blend mode on that as well. I can’t actually remember, but I may have played with the opacity of the layer a little too. I think the credit list on this layout is my smallest ever – one item – the stitched journalers!

My mojo has been seriously lacking of late – but I had SO much fun doing these pages and I hope I may have inspired you to a page using Stitched Journalers No.04.
If you don’t have them in your stash – check this weeks sale!

My layouts, together with credits, will be in the Scrapbook Challenges Gallery and I hope to see your layout there soon 🙂

Don’t forget to post your page made with 100% DD product in the May Challenges Sign-in Thread in the forms to earn shopping rewards!

Happy Scrapping everyone.

Stay safe and well!