March 9 , 2006
A Note from Jackie | March Product Features | Product Feature: Stitch it Up! | Design Team Examples
Mini Feature: Sewing Machine Tips & Techniques | Winter Scrapfest | Illustrated Journal Challenge
Maya Road Contest | New in Stock | Coming Soon | What’s on for Next Week?
Hi Everyone! I hope you all are having a great week! Here in Michigan we are getting a hint that Spring is on its way and we are very excited about it! This is always a fun time of year at LM with all the new products arriving daily - and this week is no exception. We've had extra people helping us out this week to pull all the orders and get them out to you - and so we are finally getting caught up. I must apologize for the delay and thank you for your patience, we will shortly be getting back to our usual 2 business day turn around.
Don't forget to join us this weekend online for Carolee's Birthday Bash - it is sure to be fun and inspirational!
Watch your email for news of a Quickutz special offer next week, and an announcement about a new LM contest!
By Kate J., Design Team Member & Coordinator
Spring Into Action
We are starting to see a glimmer of longer days ahead. The sun staying out longer is a sure sign of warmer, more colorful days ahead. A new season is just around the corner, and not just any season, Spring! March 20th is the first day of Spring and the design team is ready to celebrate the change in season by energetically scrapping refreshing new designs. With many bold and beautiful patterns out today - we have dedicated March as the month to dazzle you with the new looks of Spring!
Product Feature: Stitch It Up!
By Margaret Winters, Design Team Member
When you hear or read the word 'sewing', what comes to mind? Maybe fond memories of your Grandma or Mom sitting at her sewing machine making clothes for you when you were a child? Or perhaps you, yourself, love the craft. I would almost bet, though, there are several persons who could admit they had never used a sewing machine or hand stitched anything until sewing became a popular trend in the scrapbooking industry. For several years now, sewing has been an enduring technique used in scrapbooking and card making. Whether by hand or machine, the look is classic and timeless.
What if you don't have a sewing machine or the room for one? Or you just can't justify spending the money on a machine just to be able to use it for scrapbooking? Over the last few years there have been several scrapbooking companies who have offered wonderful alternatives to get the look of stitching without the machine such as hand stitching templates, patterned papers with stitching, and rub ons. Just recently, to add to that list, several manufacturers are offering stamps with faux stitching patterns. This week, it is my pleasure to introduce to you, four new stamp sets that offer unlimited possibilities of creating the look of stitching without the needle and thread.
Sassafrass Lass has really outdone themselves, because not only are they offering four new stitching stamp sets, they just released two new patterned paper sets that adorn wonderful fun colorful stitching patterns. These new lines, In Stitches and Sew Fine , can help you achieve the look of stitching without the fuss of a sewing machine! The colors and patterns make them perfect for adding a homemade feel to spring, heritage, or just about any kind of layout!
When you don’t have the energy to drag out your clunky old heavy sewing machine, or don’t have a machine, these new stamp sets are sure to help you achieve the look of stitching without having to get out the needle and thread. What is even more exciting is every ink pad you own offers you another color of 'stitching' to choose from! No need to change the spool and bobbin. You can go straight to the stitching fun!
To view all layout ideas and products used, please be sure to visit the Design Team Gallery: Stitch it Up!
Margaret 
Beshka 
Gayle
Franny
Sonya 
Madeline
Wendy 
Vickie
Mini Feature: Sewing Machine Tips & Techniques
By Susan Berg, Design Team Member
Sewing used to be something young girls learned as part of their early schooling . Samplers were completed to show what they had learned and as a resource for the different types of stitches they had mastered. But now I don’t think they teach sewing in home economics. Do they even offer home Ec? This leaves a lot of scrapbookers loving the look of sewing on their layouts without the knowledge of how to do it. Hopefully this can help solve that dilemma!
Hand sewing:
Threading the needle is really the hardest part of this. Cut a piece of thread/fiber that looks to be about 1 ½ times as long as you think you will need. If using something like Making Memories Stitches or cross-stitch floss, start by separating the individual strands. This act itself will help you have prettier stitches. Then take the number of strands you want or need and put them back together, matching one end and running your hand down to smooth the strands together. For most hand stitching, 3 strands is recommended. If you want a highly visible look, use all 6 strands! Then lick an end and stick through the needle head. Tie a couple knots on top of each other, big enough so that they won’t pull through the paper. In addition to the knot, I tape my thread down in the back. When I cross-stitch I tend to have a large lead woven into my previous stitches. You can’t do that in scrapbooking. Using acid free photo tape makes me think that my stitching will stay in place longer.
For the actual hand sewing, you can use a template. Technique Tuesday offers several. Place the template over the area you want to sew and poke holes to stitch through. A paper piercer is perfect for this! But don’t be limited by the templates offered out there! You can use any enlarged font, image, or even go freehand! Just place your image over the area you want to stitch on and poke holes to guide you.
I am sure you are asking: Why poke the holes? Can’t my needle do that for me? Yes, it could. However, needles are meant to go through fabric that has much more give than paper. You will find that you are more apt to dent your paper and poke yourself if you don’t pre-poke those holes. The preparation will also help insure that you sew where you want to. For my layout here: Baseball Layout I used a ruler to evenly space the stitches I used to imitate the baseball stitches. Then I traced around a chipboard circle poking holes to make my circles. They aren't even but with the continual stitching that isn't as important.
For a pretty look, consider sewing with ribbon. In this case, be sure to twist and fix the ribbon after completing each stitch. Doing it as you go will be much easier than attempting to do it at the end. Depending on the thickness of your ribbon (and I would advise you to stick with rather skinny ribbon) you might choose to use a hole punch instead of paper piercer to make your holes. You do not want to rip your layout trying to yank a needle and thread or ribbon through!
Machine sewing:
Do you already own a sewing machine that hasn’t seen the light of day? Or, like me, had you tried to use it for scrapbooking and found the results less than hoped for? In order to not write a book, I am going to make the assumption that you know how to thread your machine, fill a bobbin, etc. If not, a quick visit to your local quilt or sewing machine store should have you caught up in no time!
There seem to be two popular stitches in scrapbooking, though your own machine may offer many more. And I would recommend that you experiment with them. You might find something that suits your style! The first stitch is the simple running stitch. This looks like a series of short lines running down your page. Be sure to place your paper under your sewing machine foot and manually place your first stitch before using the foot pedal. If you want a funky freehand style, do not put down the machine foot and guide your paper through. If you want a more even look, make sure the machine foot is down and lightly depress the foot pedal so that the sewing doesn’t get away from you. A big hint that I learned the hard way: make your stitches longer. In most stitching, you might use a 2 or 2.5 length. If you plan to sew at somewhat of a steady speed, the resulting stitches will be close together (fine for clothes) but result in a page that you can actually tear apart from the perforation.
The second popular stitch is more of a zig zag stitch. Again, make your stitch setting longer than you would normally sew at and make the zig zag setting wider than you might normally use. Always test your stitch settings on some scrap paper. The machine will react differently with paper than it does with fabric. This card: Birthday Card uses both the straight stitch as well as the zig zag stitch. You can see how my machine stitching isn't even, but that just adds to the whimsy of the card.
Finally, like in hand stitching, I like to tape my ends down. In fabric sewing you would generally just go back and forth to secure your stitching. You may not want to do that on your page. Instead, pull the top thread through to the underside of the layout (or over the edge if you are stitching the edge), tie the top and bottom threads together and tape down. This will help secure them and also keep them from peeking out of your layout.
Sewing can offer a lot of fun and varied looks in your scrapbooking. Whether by hand or with a machine, sewing offers a rather inexpensive way to snazzy up a page!
Susan
Scrapfest:
The second half's Extreme Crop was held the last weekend. Based on Lucky Charms cereal, it was a sweet deal for everyone!! In fact, so many wonderful and creative layouts and projects were posted in the Gallery that TWO challenges were posted to show off your favorite layout and to praise other's layouts. Come by LM CyberCrop Central and check them out!
In the meantime, Winter Scrapfest is winding down. Anything to be considered for points must be posted in the Gallery and linked in your Scrapfest thread no later than this Sunday night at midnight EST! The thread will be locked so that our terrific point counters can total everything up.
By the LM Design Team
Hello everyone!! After the interest expressed on the message boards about participation in an illustrated journal, we decided to issue a formal challenge!! So, here are some suggestions. But, the nature of this journal is its lack of rules or parameters, so please feel free to use these, or not, as your creative muse wants.
Illustrated journals are simply that. An illustrated version of your thoughts, whatever they may be. It is an excellent medium to let your creative juices go, and just experiment and play, to push your creative boundaries. There are no rules. This medium is extraordinarily free form. Only that you have fun.
We have come up with a suggested list of topics, for your inspiration if you wish. We will set a check in date on Mondays for people to post their creations. We are asking for at least one weekly entry, to the best of your ability and we'll formally go for 12 weeks. But if you cannot, that is fine too. Just do what you can. If you want to post techniques to the thread to help each other along as you work on your pages, that would be great too (but not required). We will have RAK's for the ladies who keep up with us weekly for the full 12 weeks.
Here are our suggested topics:
TOPICS:
"where I am"
in life
in love
at home
creatively
getting to know me
travels
collections
my day/routines
wishes
I Wish
Today I will...
If I could change one thing...
Goals
Inspirations
Milestones
Making me
Being me
I am
part and parcel
beginnings
my secret self
Art
Color
Quotes
Influential
Soar
Secrets
Proudest moments
early memories
Skeletons
Pet Peeves
My fantasy self
The (wo)man in the mirror
If I could change the world
Fixations/Obsessions
One day at a time
Totally random
unscripted
unstructured
freeform
universal
Music
Literature
What you see/What I really am
What I am really thinking
See you on the boards!!!
Maya Road Contest: 2006 Journey of a Lifetime
Join us for our 2006 Journey of a Lifetime altered art/scrapbooking contest!
This contest is open to all scrapbookers and altered artists who love Maya Road products
and use our items to tell their story. The theme of the contest is you and your life's
journey, so show us what you are all about. Using a mixture of your quality photos,
heartfelt journaling and cutting edge techniques, create a visual reflection of
your life -- where you have been and where you are going.
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Submissions are welcomed from March 15th to April 15th, midnight PST.
Please send your submission to our inbox at:
journeyofalifetimecontest@gmail.com
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Please send your submission to Maya Road's inbox with the following:
- Name, Address, Daytime/Evening Phone, Email Address, Date of Birth
- Image(s) of project, up to 200K maximum for all images
- Supply list and description of project and techniques
- Dimension of project, number of pages
- 250 word or less description of how this represents your "journey"
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The Top 10 Finalists will receive $100 in Maya Road products each.
The Grand Prize winner will be selected among the finalists
and receive a total of $500 in Maya Road products .
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Best of luck!
Quickutz REMINDER:
Five more alphabets are being retired and will only be available until March 31st:
Once they're gone, they're gone so get your preorder in today!
7 Gypsies
Nunn Designs
American Crafts Rub Ons
More Pink Martini Designs Kits
Paper Salon Paper
many more!
More New March Features
Scrapper Spotlight
Fun and Exciting Products
Sara Meyers, Newsletter editor sara@lifetimemoments.com
Kate J. Design Team Coordinator kate@lifetimemoments.com
Jackie Bogert, Owner jackie@lifetimemoments.com
Design Team (Sara Meyers, Miranda Isenberg, Madeline Fox, Beshka Kueser, Kate J., Susan Berg, Tracy Austin, Sonya Shaw, Wendy Chang, Franny Lesniak, Nancy Thomas, Margaret Winters, Gayle Hodgins and Vickie Brown.) designteam@lifetimemoments.com