January 27, 2010

tutorial : misted & stitched background



Hi all! While you're waiting ever so patiently for the February kits and gallery to go live, I thought I'd try to provide a little distraction in the form of a tutorial. I was working on this page for this week's sketch and had quite a bit of fun creating my own background using misting and stitching, and wanted to share how I did it.



I started by cutting my patterned paper (I used one of the grid patterns on a B side of a Basic Grey Origins piece that was in the Whodunit kit) to size and laying out a pattern of punched circles. I just punched them out of scrap paper that was in my misting box - it looks kind of cool as is, doesn't it? I might have to use that idea on another page. =)



I then carefully lifted the paper and placed it in my misting box, and gave it a few sprays with Lemon Maya Mist.



Here's the background after misting. I kept it light enough so that the grid pattern was still fairly visible.



I wanted to add more texture to the page, so I threaded my sewing machine with yellow thread and stitched a wonky spiral in each circle. I just stitched around and around, pivoting the paper with my fingers as I stitched. I didn't slow down or pay any attention to keeping my lines evenly spaced - I wanted an uneven, funky look.



Once I started laying out the rest of my page, I felt like the bottom half still needed a bit of a punch. I started by punching stars with my Fiskars Twinkle Twinkle punch from the same grid paper and spraying them with more Lemon Maya Mist, and then adding them to all of the large circles.



To finish the bottom half of the page, I stapled each star in place, and added some journaling strips and a little bird stamp from one of the Whodunit add-ons stamped in Timber Brown Staz-On. I also added glitter brads from the upcoming Scones add-on to each smaller circle.



To finish the top of the page, I added a strip of Basic Grey patterned paper (from the upcoming Tea Cakes add-on) and some Prima printed canvas (it's in the upcoming Petit Fours add-on), as well as a Jenni Bowlin circle die cut and wood letters from the Whodunit kit and add-ons. Another stamped birdie and two pins from one of the Orchestra add-ons finish the page.

I hope you're inspired play around with sewing, masking and misting to see what kind of fun backgrounds and accents you can create - if you do, please send me a link, I'd love to see it! I also encourage you to play with mixing and matching your kit leftovers - it's a great way to give those leftover bits a new look.

29 comments:

  1. this is just gorgeous !~ you continue to amaze me with your creativity. =)

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  2. STUNNING!! That has got to be the most amazing misting yet!

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  3. WOW! What a gorgeous layout! And a very cool tutorial!!!
    Thank you so much for sharing :o)

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  4. I love that. It makes me want to pull out my scrap supplies and sewing machine right now. :)

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  5. GORGEOUS!! I have got to get my sewing machine out!!!

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  6. This is amazing...and a perfect BOY version of my fave doilies!!! Love it, thanks for sharing!!!

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  7. This is amazing...and a perfect BOY version of my fave doilies!!! Love it, thanks for sharing!!!

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  8. I love this. Thank you for taking it step by step. So excited to try this.

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  9. Great tutorial, your layout is amazing! i really want to try this now.

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  10. What an awsome background! I have to try this one :O)

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  11. Lisa, you inspire the heck outta me. SERIOUSLY.

    g

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  12. absolutely GORGEOUS lisa! i love this!!!

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  13. That is fabulous! I saw the layout in the 2Peas gallery. Thanks for the tutorial. Becca :)

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  14. What a great layout..love the circles you made! Very cute! :)

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  15. One of the most amazing pages ever! I love it, the misting, the stars, the hat pins! It is gorgeous!

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  16. I adore this layout, Lisa! I even like how your misted templates looked on the page prior to you misting the background, lol! Awesome technique! Can't wait to play around!

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  17. So sweet! THanks for an opportunity to win!

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  18. I just took a peak at Baker's Dozen! Beautiful!! I can't wait to get my hands on it!!!

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  19. oh this is wonderful !and in my current fav colour to boot!

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  20. This is the kind of stuff I could NEVER get tired of seeing! Love it when someone takes a well worn idea (misting) and totally mixes it up. Makes it feel new again!

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  21. Wow. This is a wonderful technique. Thanx for sharing.

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  22. I have followed your instructions and a made my own layout... thanks a lot for sharing with us... it was gorgeous... and I loved to made it...

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  23. Thank your for this workshop and inspiration!
    I did it:
    http://steffieshexenhaus.blogspot.com/2012/03/layout-schlafwandlerin.html

    Best wishes from Germany!
    Steffie

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