The Sweetest

Hi everyone, Diane here with my very last post as a design team member at Noel Mignon! If you've been paying attention you know I like to use banners...A LOT! :) So, I thought it would be fitting to go out with a banner layout and a little tutorial on how you can make your very own paper chain, like the ones you received in the Beach Blvd kit.

Here is how I made my homemade banner:

You can make your banner/paper chain with any shape you want. I decided to make my banner using the Crate Paper hexagon paper (Love!).

 Using the lines on each hexagon, I cut them apart into triangles.

Next, I set my sewing machine at the longest stitch, leaving a long tail, I fed the first pieces under the foot. After it goes all the way through stitch 2-3 more times (or more). The more stitches you leave in between the bigger the gap between each paper piece.

This is how each piece looked when finished. For a little variety, I also added in a couple die cut tags that coordinated with the Crate Paper collection that was included in the Beach Blvd kit.

If you like stitching on your layouts, you can adjust the width and length of your stitches for more variety. This little sample below shows a zig zag stitch done at different widths and lengths on my machine.

Pretty cool, don't you think? Here are a few more ideas for stitching:

• Use stitching to add a decorative element to corners
• Stitch on top of a photo
• Did you know you can stitch over chipboard? Yes you can, just take it slow with your speed
• Use stitching as a form of adhesive (think transparencies and vellum)

Don't be afraid to experiment with your stitching, test it out on a piece of scrap paper first if you are unsure. If you have any stitching questions, leave a comment here on this post and I'll do my best to answer them.

Thank you so much to Noel and Virginia for having me on the team and to all of you for the friendships and sweet words. It has been a fabulous year!

I LOVE...

Haaaaaaaaappy Friday, everybody!!!
I cannot even tell you how excited I am for this weekend!!! It has been one doozy of a week, my friends, including even finding a snake on my mantle, complete with granny-esque broom chasing, aaaand theeeen my iphone died! UGH...

I can't wait for the NSD crop I'm going to tomorrow, and have a whole lineup of projects to work on!

Here's my challenge layout for the "I Love" challenge. I LOVE challenges that let me get away with not using photos!



I combined several kits for this one, but the front-runner is definitely Mary Ellen.



I LOVE the foldies from Sassafras! I'm a big cutter you know, and these definitely saved me some serious time!



I LOVE the Sew Easy from We R (available in Noel's shop) and I used the Twinery twine (also in the shop) to make the cutest design!

One of the most helpful things to do, though, when your layout just isn't feeling quite finished, is to doodle. I traced the edges of the paper with the black gel pen from American Crafts that was in the Delightfully Domestic kit, and I LOVE how it anchored the whole page.

Well, that's all for now, folks!
Have a great weekend!
xoxo
Britt