Posted by happayscrappay (Rachel):
If you have thought about hand stitching on your pages or projects, then the Sew Easy by We R Memory Keepers is the tool for you. The tool is designed to perfectly fit in your hand and when rolled across paper placed on top of the piercing mat, places perfectly splaced holes in your paper.
The rest is up to you - just fill in the holes with thread of your choosing or some of the wonderful WRMK floss. Grab your needle and thread because you're going to want to try out some of these simple ways to use the Sew Easy on your next project.
A Boy's Life - example of a simple border
There are a variety of stitch heads available for the Sew Easy tool. Any one of them will provide a nice border for your photos. You can run it across the entire page or just a portion of it as I have done with this layout about my boys.
I simply ran the large stitch piercer (loop de loop) across the patterned paper, sprayed it with a little glimmer mist and then chose some floss to match the colors on my page.
A little tip: to go straight across a piece of paper, use the edge of a ruler as your guide. The pattern printed on the stitch head matches the location of the piercing part of the tool underneath.
Cherries - example of enhancing an embellishment
Many paper lines now come with journaling cards or cardstock shapes. Using the straight stitch head that comes with the Sew Easy tool, you can add a little bit of stitching to spice the shape up.
On this page featuring myself and the fantastic Chrissy, I've used the straight stitch head and the fancy floss (baker's twine primary) to spice up a Maya Road Kraft Doily.
Phin - an example of following a pattern and mix it up
Many patterned papers have spaces that will look perfect with a little stitching. On my next page, I've done just that and added some borders using the basic stitch head and the zig zag head. This page just goes to show that two heads are better than one!
To really accent the detail of the patterned paper, I stitched part of the swirls with the straight stitch and part of them with the zig zag but I only stitched half of the stitches in the zig zag portion. I also used the zig zag head to create a border for my picture. The stitches angle down toward the photo to emphasize that portion of the page.
I added in a network of free-handed stitches to hang all of the fun Echo Park stickers from. I also used two different colors of thread on this page, changing the color depending on the location of the stitches. I do think a white on white effect would have been cool for the stitches in the swirl but they would not have stood out as much.
A Big Deal - an example of masking
Not only can the Sew Easy provide the location for where to place stitches, but it can also work as a template on where to cut to create a mask. For A Big Deal, I knew I wanted blue flags to come off the train photo. But, I wanted the flags outlined in red stitches to go with the rest of the paper.
Using a scrap piece of paper, I ran the large stitch piercer (banner) across the paper and then cut out between the pierced spots with my exacto knife. I then used this as a mask for Perfect Pearls mists. After I sprayed the paper, I stitched around the banners.
I then also discovered a use for the pieces I cut out of the scrap paper to make the mask - they are located at the top of the picture in a third banner! Their shape and size perfectly matches the misted and stitched banners.
Wet & Wild - an example of adding texture
I love having dimension and texture on my pages. Using the Sew Easy, I was able to add additional texture and emphasis to the Tim Holtz embossing folder that I used on my page.
I texturized the cardstock with the embossing folder and then used the Sew Easy zig zag head (this might be my favorite) to privide a stitching location on the lower parts of the embossed cardstock. I used the fancy floss bakers twine primary color yellow to create the rays of the sun. I have a few more ideas how I could do this with other embossing folders. I love them and the dimension they add to a page, but I often forget to pull them out and use them!
I hope you have found inspiration in the ways I've used the Sew Easy for this reveal. It's now time for you to pull that Sew Easy out or head to the store so you can get to work creating pages.
Next month I'll be back with part 2 containing some more complex ideas for using the Sew Easy!
Sew Easy items used in this reveal:
