Hand-Stitching on Paper

Lately, I've been into hand-stitching on my scrapbook pages.  I wanted to share an example of how I do it.  Currently, I'm taking a great class called Bright Ideas at Studio Calico.  The first challenge of the class is to use a stencil somehow on your layout.  After looking around my scrap area, I noticed that I had a negative cut from a word I cut from my Silhouette Cameo and used on this layout that I made months ago.  I'm happy I kept that negative cut!  I pulled it out and a layout quickly came together in my mind.  It also helped that the challenge came with a sketch to use if you needed an extra push.  Here is the layout and how I created it:

The layout.  The word "bestie" in the title is what I hand-stitched.

The negative from the cut.  It said "besties" originally, but I cut off the "s" to accommodate for this page.

I played around with the layout before adhering anything down.  I needed to be sure I put it in the correct spot before putting the layout together.  I didn't want to be stitching when there's a bunch of stuff on the page, it gets a little heavy to handle that way.

I traced the word onto the paper in pencil.

Using a paper piercer (and a mousepad underneath), I poked holes along the word where I wanted to stitch.  Be sure to poke a little closer as you go along curves so they come out looking correct.

Using a needle and 3 strands of thread, I stitched along the outline of the word.

The final result!

 Here are a couple of other examples of pages that I've hand-stitched on:

I'm loving the look of hand-stitching and it's really not something that takes up a lot of time.  I just poke my holes, and sit down in front of the TV and stitch away!
If you're interested in starting stitching, but it kinda scares you, Amy Tan has some great stitching stencil kits that come with stencils, a needle, thread and a mat...everything you need!  I haven't seen them for sale anywhere yet, but she blogged about them recently.  Check it out!