Hello!
This can be done on a machine, or by hand or faux, the choice is yours!
I used my machine to stitch round the edges of my panels, I was going to add some hand-stitching too, but for the life of me I could not find my embroidery threads!!
The papers are some old ones I had in my drawers, sometimes it's nice to use things up rather than reach for a new pad every time! That they went so well together and that brown and blue are my absolute all time favourites were an added bonus :-)
In keeping with the use of my old stash I reached for one of the first stamps I ever bought - a Gorguss Girl image from long ago, she's still a cutie! Just visible in this shot is the banner dies I got from Stampin' Up a while back - I cut each out, then trimmed a couple of millimeters from each and layered them up. I've distressed the edges of these with Vintage Photo as I have each of the panels.
Again I've distressed with Vintage Photo, but lightened it up with a bit of Antique Linen. The postmarks are stamped with a Stampin' Up pad (although I stamped first on a scrap of paper to take some of the ink out as it's a bit juicy! I then sprinkled some Stampendous Embossing powders on the panel, before fussy cutting and layering my image on top with foam pads.
You can see the stitching a bit better in this shot! I've been playing with a HOTP die that came with a magazine recently, and love how it looks embossed and sanded. The gems, button, charm, and pins are from my stash, and I just had to use this rich looking velvet ribbon over some lace. I tried tying a bow, but because it's single sided it looked all wrong, so had to settle for a knot!
To mirror the banners at the top I hand cut a sentiment panel and distressed it too. The sentiment is another item from my early crafting days and is from a Woodware set. As I've been doing quite a lot lately, I bowed the sentiment, by fixing foam pads in the middle to stack it up, and double sided tape to attach the edges.
