Jennifer Larson, back again, this time to share an easy and gorgeous solution for hand stitching on layouts: templates.
Templates make backstitching easy. You can add various shapes to your pages with a template. In particular, I love the Bazzill Stitching templates, though Stampin' Up! has come up with some nice templates too. Kinsey Wilson sells some that are made to order; I've never bought them, but they are very pretty. You could email her and ask about their availability.
Here's what I've done with templates that you could do too:
1. Use the templates as is
My favorite stitching template is the Bazzill Flourishes template. I love clustering elements, then using the template to punch holes and stitch around the clusters. On this page, my clusters went from the lower left to the upper right of the page. NOTE: you don't have to use the whole template. I only used half flourishes on most of my stitches.
2. Use paper as a template
You can use patterned paper as a stitching guide: just stitch around the patterns that exist on the page, or cut them out and use them as guides on another page. Here I used a Jenni Bowlin piece of patterned paper that contained stenciled lettering; I outlined the letters and then paper pierced them and stitched for the title.
3. Use chipboard or wood veneer as a template
If you're like me, you have a lot of chipboard shapes left over that maybe you haven't used in a while. Those serve nicely as stitching templates. I also use wood veneer for a similar purpose. I had a wood veneer starburst from My Mind's Eye and used it to cut out patterned paper in that shape, then stitched around it for the sun. I also used a Bazzill flourish border template for the bottom border. Just for fun.
4. Use punches as a template
I have a lot of punches in various shapes, mostly circles. Since I'm having a love affair with circles right now, I'm using them a lot to stitch circles around number or just add them to various parts of the page. Case in point: this page. I punched patterned paper circles in various sizes, then put a slightly larger punched circle over as a template. That didn't work so well--my circle was never perfectly matched to the one underneath--but when I used the negative space as a template:
Perfection! I traced the circle perfectly around the punched paper on the page, punched holes, then stitched. Exactly.
These were just a few ideas for using templates to stitch beautiful designs easily and quickly. Tomorrow I'll share ideas on how to find the perfect place to add stitched details!