Walkies - FTLOPP Blog Hop

This post is part of the National Scrapbook Day Blog Hop hosted by

 the Facebook Group “For The Love Of Pretty Paper”

If you are following the hop you should have arrived here from UK Scrap Addicts. To be in with a chance of winning the Blog Hop prize you will need to comment on this post (and on all the blogs in the hop) and, when you have completed the hop, return to the Blog Hop thread on “For The Love Of Pretty Paper” and leave a comment to let us know you have been all the way around the hop. Visitors who leave the same (or seen to be the same by the Organisers) comment on all the blogs will not be eligible for the prize. The closing date for Blog Hop entries is Monday 8^th May at 10pm. Only UK addresses are eligible for the prize due to postage costs. Good Luck!

After your visit here please hop on to Gemma Steele. If you lose your way or you want to start at the beginning of the hop you can find the complete list on the Facebook page here or at the start on Fiona’s Blog. 

The theme for the Blog Hop is “Favourite Technique” and I chose machine stitching. I do love a hand-stitched circle on a scrapbook page, but it can be really time-consuming to mark out a shape, prick all the stitching holes and then do the sewing itself. Machine-stitching is a quick and effective substitute, but for me it has two drawbacks - firstly I can't stitch an even circle with a machine, it always goes wobbly, and secondly the thread is finer than embroidery floss and doesn't have the same impact. My solution to both of these issues is simple - go round the circle three times, any wobblyness on the first pass can be evened up on the second and third, and those three lines of stitching have greater visual impact than just one.

For this page, I laid out my papers and photo, then placed a circle template over them to get their position right before sticking them down. I used a pencil with the template to mark out my circle, stitched round it three times and rubbed out the line.



Then I finished the page with title, embellishments and journalling:

My photo is one of some friends and their dogs on the beach in Northumberland last month. I wanted to use the shell paper and tried various other papers with it before I chose the triangles for the large panel. That's actually two pieces from a 6x6 pad, and I used the same pad for the rest of the paper layers. I fussy cut two cameras from a Maggie Holmes paper, in pink and grey, and the pink one looked better, so I went with pink, black and white in the embellishment clusters with washi tape, enamel dots and word stickers. 

Supplies
Cardstock - Bazzill
Paper - We R Memory Keepers Love Notes 6x6, Carta Bella Ahoy There, Crate Paper/Maggie Holmes Chasing Dreams
Letters - Making Memories
Tag - American Crafts
Stickers - My Mind's Eye
Washi Tape - Ebay
Enamel Dots - Teresa Collins
Mist - Docrafts

Tools
Sewing Machine
Fiskars Shape Cutter & Circles Templates