How to Stitch and Embroider on Your Scrapbook Pages

I love the look of sewing on all my paper crafts, from scrapbooking layouts and ideas to greeting cards design. Sewing and embroidery adds dimension without a lot of bulk and has the added benefit of attaching elements to the page in the process.

You can sew by hand or with your machine. Both techniques are easier than you might think. Here is a simple how to.

Hand Stitching and Embroidery

Get Ready

Use a pencil to lightly draw the design on cardstock (regular paper generally is not strong enough to withstand all the extra handling that sewing requires.) Another option is to draw or trace a simple design onto lightweight paper (such as tracing paper) and temporarily adhere it to your page so it does not wiggle around during the next step.

What to stitch? It is generally best to keep your design simple and stick to just the outline of the image. You can embellish later when you fill in your design with chalks or colored pencils. Popular choices for scrapbooking embroidery include snowflakes, fish, hearts, and flowers, but you can use absolutely any simple design you can find.

Where can you find simple designs? Make a freehand drawing or trace your favorite designs from die cuts, stickers, stamps or templates. Here are two ideas I loved from Creating Keepsakes magazine: Trace a design from your kids' favorite coloring books or trace around your child's hand or foot and embroider the outline.

Get Set

Place your page on a surface that is firm, yet allows a little "give." I like to use a mouse pad or my Coluzzle mat. You can also use a pillow, cushion, or a piece of Styrofoam. Now pierce holes in the cardstock about every 1/8 of an inch depending on the effect you want to achieve, while following the lines of your design.

Choose a piercing tool most appropriate for the thickness of your thread. If you will be using thread or floss, use a straight pin, a needle, or a safety pin. For larger holes, use a push tack or a paper piercing tool. Again, you will want to consider the look you are trying to achieve before choosing a tool. (If you marked your page with pencil, this is the time to erase.)

Stitch!

Stitch the design. The backstitch is the simplest, but you can experiment with different stitches as you practice the technique.

Now you can fill in the design with chalk, if you wish. You can also apply chalk directly to the floss to create just the right color.

Machine Sewing on Paper

Machine sewing on paper is much the same as sewing on fabric. It takes a little practice, but try not to let the idea intimidate you.

A few tips:

• Before you start to stitch, make sure your bobbin has enough thread to finish the job. If your bobbin runs out of thread midway, you will be left with holes in the paper that you will have to work to conceal.
• Do not try to machine stitch more than 3 layers at a time.
• Do not "knot" the thread as you would when sewing on fabric by going over the same spot repeatedly. Secure the thread underneath by adhering it to piece of paper, and it will not unravel.

The Possibilities

You can stitch with thread, ribbon, yarn, raffia, jute, fibers, and embroidery floss, such as DMC. Floss is inexpensive, widely available, and comes in every shade imaginable. Plus you control the thickness because each floss is made up of 6 strands. Use them all, or just one or two. Or use one or two strands of more than one color.

Once you have had a little practice, you may want to start sewing on everything.

Here are more ideas:

• Create your own backgrounds and borders by piecing together cardstock blocks or strips.
• Embellish and attach die cuts for a custom, dimensional look.
• Create paper or fabric pockets to hold journaling blocks, extra photos, or simple memorabilia.
• Stitch around lettering and titles.
• Embellish journaling blocks.
• Draw attention to a photo by stitching on the mat.
• Adhere vellum to your background. (Vellum is translucent, so it will often show the glue that lies beneath it. Try stitching it on instead.)
• Create decorative handmade accents that you attach to a page. One popular technique combines sewing with tearing. Sew along an edge first, then tear just on the other side of your stitches. Push the torn edge up.

Creative Scrapbook Ideas for a Memorial Page

The loss of a loved one is something we learn to live with, but not something we truly ever get over. Keeping that person's memory alive by remembering him and introducing him to the next generation can help turn the tears into smiles. One way to do this is with a memorial scrapbook page.

Simple Vintage Memorial Layout

Use a neutral colored background. Place an “In memory of” banner across the top of the page. Convert a photo of your loved one into sepia tone and mount it on black cardstock with black photo corners or surround with nice border. Place the photo to one side of the page. On the other side, add a business-card-sized piece of card stock with name, birth date, death date and some famous quote of the deceased. Find a square color image (approximately two-by-two inches) of something you find pretty, such as a garden, the open sea with birds flying overhead, a sunset or something that person like. Affix it below the name card. Print the epitaph or a verse on a piece of vellum and cut it to a square slightly larger than the square image. Put the vellum over the image and, holding it in place, in the top center, punch two holes. Thread a small ribbon through the holes and tie a bow to hold the vellum cover in place.

Remembering the Good Times

Instead of focusing on your loved one’s death, create a layout focusing on her pass life. Use soft pastel hues for the background such as pink or blue or the color she like. Take the photos of your loved one and use photo-editing software to convert it to almost black and white. To do this, reduce the color saturation until it is just tinted. Increase the color tint so that it is slightly red. This will give a hint of a glow to the skin and some other areas of the photo for a surreal look. Line the photos up on the page and use small tags to journal your memories of the person on your scrapbook page design.

Goodbye Mommy/Daddy

Allow children who are grieving for a lovely parent to express themselves with their own memorial scrapbook pages. Provide them with scrapbook materials and help them select their favorite photos and images. Look around for other mementos the child may like to include, such as brochures from a vacation they remember, a photo copy of the bedtime book that was read to them every night, or tickets from a recent circus trip. Don’t give the child a lesson in scrapbooking, simply allow her to create as her instincts guide her, and help her when she has trouble. As an adult, this may become one of her most treasured memories of her lost parent.

Unborn Child/Newborn

Miscarriages and stillbirths are tragic because of the loss of what might have been. Make a small memorial scrapbook and give it a memorial title, such as, “Our Lost Angel.” A memorial page can feature a pregnant belly, a dad holding up a baby T-shirt, a decorated nursery, an ultrasound image, death announcement, or a postmortem photo.

Doodle Ideas for Decorating a Scrapbook With a Pen

Doodling is a popular free-form style of drawing by using any type of drawing tool. It's an extension of your personality and creativity. Inexpensive and not meant to be perfect, doodling adds whimsy and flair to scrapbook layouts and design. It is something that comes so naturally that many people don't even know they are doing it all the times. People start doodling as early as elementary school and some may start even early -- filling notebook pages with random drawings of self expression. Use that creativity and put it in the pages of your scrapbook design to create the accents that will make it unique and stylish.

Scrapbook Page Borders & Corners

Page borders add a finishing touch to scrapbook layouts. Make doodles free-hand directly on the background page or add them to stickers and color paper already used as borders. Even a few small doodles can change the look and feel of a page design. If you are scared of making a mistake free-hand, use a stencil for the base of your border and embellish with more doodling. Waves, zigzags, dashes, vines, vertical or horizontal lines make ideal borders. Doodles in the corner of pages can accent your theme and help utilize the full page design of your scrapbook layout.

Beautiful Hand-Lettered Titles

Titles in your own handwriting add an authentic touch to your page layout especially the title of the page. Sometimes you just don't have the correct font type or sizes in your collection of stickers, rub-on transfers or die-cuts for titles. When this happens make your own font style from doodles. Draw a light line in pencil as a guide to keep your letters straight and erase it after you have finished your title. Chisel-tip pens held at a 45 degree angle are ideal for calligraphy lettering, while fin-tipped pens are best to add curls, dots and hearts to ordinary letters.

Polka Dots & Swirls

Random doodles are perfect for filling dead space on a page. You don't need expensive embellishments, stickers and die-cuts to liven up a page. To add a festive flair to your page try doodling stars, polka dots, swirls or random drawings. Thin-tipped markers work well for doodles. First draw your doodle lightly then once the ink is dry go over it again with the same pen or another color to accent it.

Stylish Photo Frames

Doodling a photo frame will liven up a photo. If you can't find the perfect paper to use as a mat just free-hand dashes, dots, waves, zigzags or your own thin and thick or add some color lines to create your own frame. The possibilities are endless to your imagination and creativities as to what you can draw to make a photo frame stand out. Have a layout that is pet-themed? Doodle small cat faces or paw prints all around your photo of you and your pets. Have a photo of a child's birthday? Doodle birthday candles or small cakes all around the photo to make it festive.

Ideas for a Scrapbook for a Deceased Mother

Journaling

Journaling for a deceased relative is one way to incorporate memorable moments into your scrapbook album. Ask each family member to write a page about her favorite memory with your mother. Place the letter on the page exposed or inside of an envelope. Add pictures that correspond with the memory if possible, or use a picture that captures your mother and the other person.

Chronological Album

Your scrapbook for your deceased mother can take the route of the traditional scrapbook in a chronological order. Start with her birth, her childhood and her meaningful personal relationships. Add information regarding your own upbringing and quotes that she made that taught you important lessons. You can embellish your album with store-bought accessories, or use mementos that your family has accumulated over the years. For example, use birth certificates, childhood drawings, pages from her journal or any other items that you can get your hands on that depict the life of your mother.

Funeral Album

You can make a scrapbook album that focuses on the funeral and related events if you prefer. Gather mementos surrounding your mother's death, such as the newspaper obituary, funeral program, a copy of the eulogy, poems or bible verses recited at the funeral, pictures of her headstone and pictures of the people who attended the funeral. You can also add pages from the funeral registry.

Memorial Album

Another option for your deceased mother's scrapbook album is to make a memorial album. This album commemorates her life and details meaningful moments in her life. Some options for items to include are a list of her professional successes, her famous recipes and her family's sentiments. Include poems and bible verses that relate to her personality and her journey to the afterlife. Leave space open in the back of the book and let people who attend the funeral or wake add their own memories.

Losing your mother can be one of the most devastating events that you will ever have to endure. Commemorating the love and affection that your mother showed you in a scrapbook could be a therapeutic activity that reminds you of the joy you experienced during her lifetime and offers you the comfort of treasured memories.

Scrapbook Guide For Beginners

Many people would like to organize their family pictures and mementos but do not know how to begin scrapbooking. Scrapbooking allows you to organize your keepsakes in beautiful memory books that can be treasured by the whole family for years to come. There are some simple steps to follow when you first begin scrapbooking that can make the process easier and more enjoyable.

The first thing you should do when you begin scrapbooking is locating all of the things you would like to include in your books. Things to locate include pictures of you and your loved ones, travel mementos such as postcards, airplane and train tickets, art you children have made in school, programs and ticket stubs from cultural events, souvenirs from sporting events and anything else that you would like to memorialize in your scrapbook.

Once you have gathered all of your keepsakes, you should begin to organize them. As you begin to sort the items, you will begin to see themes and get ideas on how to organize your scrapbooks. Keep notes on the ideas that come to you as you go through these items. It may be necessary to go through your keepsakes more than once. The first time will give you an idea of what you have and then you can concentrate on actually separating and collating them. Look at your notes often and see what themes come up that can help you set up your scrapbooks. For example, if you travel a lot, you can separate all of the items you have collected and make a scrapbook cataloging your adventures. If you have children, you may want to put all of their school pictures, art and other mementos into one book, or you can make a separate book for each child.

To begin assembling your scrapbook you will need to gather a few basic supplies. These include paper and cardstock for mounting your items, adhesives such as glue sticks, glue dots, tape, and photo mount corners, scissors and decorative items like ribbon, pens and markers.

Once these basic tools have been assembled, you can begin putting your scrapbook together. The best way to start is to lay out the pages without making doing anything permanent. Lay out your pictures and keepsakes but do not use permanent glue for anything. Make little notes that explain your pictures and mementos and lay those out on the pages, too. As you add more and more to your pages, you can start to move things around until you are happy with your design.

Once you are happy with the basic items lay out of your pages, you can begin thinking about embellishments. You can purchase stickers, stamps, ribbons and many other embellishments that will brighten up your scrapbook and help you put your own personal touch on it. After everything is laid out to your satisfaction, you can begin to permanently adhere the items to the page.

You will find that once you learn how to begin scrapping, the possibilities for creating beautiful memory books are endless. With a little practice, you will have a keepsake that your family will enjoy for years to come.