Getting Stitchy at Crafty Cardmakers and More...

Hello!

This fortnight at Crafty Cardmakers and More the theme is  

Stiching

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.

Please may I enter these challenges

Hiding in my Craftroom - Freestyle
Kitty Bee Designs - Sew Cute
Polkadoodles Challenge - Girly but no Pink
Sister Act Challenge - Anything Goes
Creative Knockouts - Tic-Tac-Toe (Rubber Stamp, Embossing, Die Cuts)
Southern Girls - Spots and Dots