A past newsletter reviewed the history of embroidery on paper. This article will review a brief history of scrapbooking. You may be amazed to learn that it is not a new technique. Mark Twain was a scrapbooker as was Thomas Jefferson. Even the word "scrapbook" is not new. In the late 1700’s there were colored papers that were used to create the albums. These little papers were called "scraps". Thus, they became scrapbooks!
In the early 1900’s scrapbooks became popular as friendship albums. Friends swapped poems written on special papers. When hair jewelry was popular, friends would also weave little flowers from their hair and gave them out for the books.
Another popular trend today is distressed books where you take a regular hard-bound book, but glue things over the printed pages. That too is not a new tradition. You may have books that have been passed down from relatives that contain saved recipes, obituaries, postcards, and other treasures.
This article will show you how you can use your stitching skills to enhance a scrapbook page. You can use the same techniques to create a handmade card, bookmark, or handmade tag.
Materials
When stitching on photos it is really important to pre-punch the holes through the photos and papers. So, a Piercing or Pricking tool is needed. The tools come in grades: extra fine, fine, and coarse. The grade determines the size of the hole. We also sell them as a set.
To cushion the paper when piercing, you need a good piercing pad.
You will need a variety of needles to match your fibers and holes. You don’t want the eye of the needle to be much larger than your fiber or the punched hole or the fibers won’t cover well.
The threads you choose should be appropriate for the design. For example, if you are creating a lacy edge, you would probably want a fine thread or metallic. Some of the overdyed threads enhance the patterns with their color changes.
Papers are available in all weights from parchment to cardstock and can be plain or patterned. One of the fun things to do is find papers with patterns you can stitch on.
Have a pair of scissors available that you will use only to cut the paper. Don’t use your embroidery scissors! If you are using a lot of metallic threads, you will also need a pair of scissors made for cutting metallic threads.
Start collecting a variety of embellishments including Mill Hill beads, crystals, Mill Hill treasures, buttons, charms and silk ribbons.
We have a fabulous selection of embroidery on paper books to choose from also full of hints and ideas.
Our Project
The design has been created so that you could use it with or without using pictures. The sample is not completely stitched as it was used in class, but hopefully you can tell what the plan is!
Download the Project
Before we get to stitching, we need to cut out the individual pieces. Yuo can use several different papers and weights. The moedel’s background paper is a heavy cardstock with a glittery surface, but the surface did make keeping the pieces in place while stitching more difficult; keep that in mind when selecting your paper! The rabbit is cut out of a textured tan-colored cardstock. The pattern shows where the arms and feet are located. You will need to cut along the inside arms and top of the feet so one of your eggs will slip into place. The Easter eggs are cut out of colorful scrapbook papers. The grass has a torn edge taken from a scrapbook paper of grass.
To cut out your eggs, tulips and bunny, use the templates included in the project download.
You can make as many eggs as you want. To use photos, you can replace the scrapbook pages with photos. Or, cut out your eggs from scrapbook paper and then cut your photos just a little bit smaller.
The larger egg is outlined with the rotographic technique.
Tape your egg in place and then punch out the holes around the outside edge. This egg was stitched with DMC Floss #782 that matched the dots on the scrapbook paper.
Next stitch the rabbit in place using ThreadworX floss #10341.
You can use a simple running stitch around the outer edge.
Put your egg in the rabbit’s arms before you stitch the rabbit down. The rabbit’s feet can be stitched in a criss-cross pattern with Wisper #90. A short length of pink picot ribbon was used for the ear that was stitched down through the picots with Splendor #950. You can use beads or buttons for the eyes.
To create the grass bottom, tear the paper towards the back of the paper to keep the white edges from showing on the front. You can use your fingernail to guide the tear. You can also use a small paintbrush and water to make a different type of tear. Paint along the edge you want to tear so that it is wet. Then gently tear along the edge. Vary your edges and grass blades.
Add your torn grass edge. Use some tape to hold it in place. To permanently hold the paper in place, lazy daisy flowers can be stitched in the grass with Watercolours #145.
Mill Hill beads were added in the center of the flowers. You can also stitch small buttons in the center.
Position your eggs around in the grass. Stitch them down using regular embroidery stitches. For example, this egg has an eyelet like design on it, using Kreinik #8 braid #3240.
Several of the eyelets were stitched over. Side-by-side cross stitches were used around the edges of this egg. One of the eggs was held in place with a blanket stitch using Leah’s Size 8 #30.
Position the tulips and stitch them in place.
A large whip stitch was used on the pink tulip with variegated Brazilian thread, Iris 030. The purple tulip was stitched down with DMC Floss # 553. The stitch was a combination stitch of straight stitches. The tulip stems are silk ribbons that have been couched down with silk thread. One stem is couched with straight stitches, and the other one has cross-stitches over the ribbon.
You can find more of the stitches you can use in the project download. They are shown on a straight line and on a curve. There are no rules, just have fun playing.
Download the project!
We hope this guide makes your stitching easier and more enjoyable!
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