August 3T's ...

Welcome to our August round of ARTastic 3T's - Tips, Tricks and Techniques where each month one of our creative team will show you are few quick tips and/or techniques to use on your layouts.  This month we feature team member Deb Kupfer and her lovely layout from this month.

Hi everyone, Deb here.  With the criteria, for this month, being “fabric”, I was keen to add some machine stitching to my layout as well as create some fabric embellishments. 

So being inspired by the 3 main colours in the artwork,  here is how I created my page……

Starting with a plain piece of card stock, I randomly stitched rows down and across the page, starting and stopping at different points,  to form some “squares”.   You can draw these lines in before stitching if you prefer your lines to be straight.   Then sew 2 rows  around the edge to form a border.  

I find the longest stitch on my machine works best.    

Next, rough up  the stitching by running a sanding block along it.   I sanded more lightly around my border so as not to take as much of the stitching off.  I then added some drips of ink and put it aside to dry.

and a close up…..

Using scraps of fabric and some vliesofix (this is a double sided webbing with a paper backing used in appliqué), I ironed the vliesofix onto the back of the fabric, (rough side down - paper side up.) You can now trace or draw some little embellies onto the paper side and cut them out . (I like to keep the drawings/tracings simple as you are tracing them on the paper backing which is the underside of the fabric and you need to be careful they don’t end up in reverse).  I also ran some of my fabric with the vliesofix attached, through the Big Shot.

Now it’s time to decide where your photos will go, although don’t stick them down just yet as you will need  to iron the fabric embellies on your page first.  I didn’t know what photo/s I was going to use when I started, so I changed them to black and white and printed them out in a smaller size to suit my page.

It doesn’t matter if your photo/s don't  it in a “square” - just put it over two or 3.  I marked where the photos would go with an X. 

I then peeled the backing paper off the vliesofix , positioned my fabric embellies on the page and ironed them on. 

After I had ironed them on, I stuck down my photos and then gathered up some bits and pieces that I  thought might be suitable to fill in the other squares  - stamps, flowers, rub-ons, washi, buttons, transparencies  etc (you probably won’t use them all).  Now just start filling in the “squares” - no need to fill them all in.  Don’t forget to leave room for your title and journaling. I’ve added some doodling and outlining of the embellies and I’ve inked in black around my border as well.

and my finished page ...

This is one very sweet page Deb - I love the techniques you have used.

If this has inspired you why not try it for yourself and enter this months ARTastic challenge.  All the details are in the left sidebar.  Remember you have until the end of the month to submit your entry.