Stamping Vacation: Have You Tried Challenge

This month's Have You Tried challenge at the Stamping Vacation blog invites us to try sewing beads to a creation.

I have to admit that I kind of cheated. ;)

I have this ever-so-handy spool of beads on a wire that is perfect for this type of thing (I used it here). You can also, obviously, create your own string of beads.

There are, obviously, other ways to do this, including hand sewing or gluing individual beads here and there. But I forgot that I was going to try this.

No worries. I still like the final project:

I started with a strip of Canvas-impressed Dark Chocolate cardstock which I sewed to a wider strip of Dotty Biscotti patterned paper.

The die cut/embossed flowers are Spellbinders, which I used Harvest Gold cardstock for and then inked the edges with Tim Holtz Scattered Straw Distress Ink. The leaf was done with New Leaf cardstock and inked with Forest Moss Distress Ink.

I added the wired beads by placing it in the general area I wanted it and then paper-piercing a few holes along the path. I then used a needle and thread to hold the wired beads in place.

I trimmed the petals of the flowers so that they were flush with the Kraft card base. I didn't want the focus to be too much on them. The sentiment, on the other hand, goes way off the edge of the card using Double-Ended Banners on Rustic Cream cardstock. The stamp is from Garden of Life.

The butterfly is another Spellbinder and I used a technique I hadn't thought to use with them before. After die-cutting and embossing the butterfly, I kept the die on and colored in the spaces with my Versamark pen. I then heat embossed clear embossing powder to give it that shine you see. I had to do it twice to get a good effect. I'll def try this technique again with other dies!

The colors on this are so bright and cheery, I love it!

Thanks for stopping by!

{Supplies--all Papertrey Ink unless noted}

• Cardstock: Kraft, Dark Chocolate, Harvest Gold, New Leaf
• Patterned Paper: Dotty Biscotti
• Stamps: Garden of Life
• Ink: Scattered Straw and Forest Moss (Tim Holtz Distress Inks), Versamark pen (Tsukineko), Dark Chocolate
• Dies: Sunflowers/Leaf and Butterflies 2 (Spellbinders), Double-Ended Banners
• Impression Plate: Linen & Canvas (Canvas side)
• Other Tools: sewing machine/thread, beads, paper piercer (Tim Holtz), paper piercing foam pad (Bazzill), dimensional adhesive, ink blending foam (Inkssentials)