Let the Light Shine Through You - a Stitched Layout | Niki Rowland

Hey there! Niki here with you today sharing a layout and easy tutorial on how to turn any cut file into a stitching template. I love the look of stitching on a layout and this way I can combine my love of cut files and stitching!

I started off by choosing a title and went for this lovely saying 'Let the Sun Shine through You'. I downloaded it and opened it in my software.

I then re-sized the file and re-positioned it to where I wanted it.

I then selected the file (simply by clicking on it) and then went to the dropdown Line Style menu and selected the third option down - the dashed line. This then immediatly converts all the cut lines into dashed lines. I then send this to cut and the machine cuts all the litte dashes instead of solid lines. These are then perfect for stitching though.

Handstitching does take absolutely ages and this was no exception! I had picked out a piece of Pink Paislee Summer Lights paper to go around the edges of the cardstock and I choose my threads to roughly match the colours in that paper. 

I started off with two shades of purple and then faded down to pink, then yellow, then turquoise and finished with blue.

I contemplated colouring in each word with a light wash of paint in the same colour but decided against it in the end as I liked the outline look so much.

Once the stitching was complete I then kept the rest of the layout simple becuase I wanted to show off that glorious stitching! I've used lots of embellishments from the Summer Lights collection to bring it altogether.

I love the way the layout turned out and it documents a lovely day out we had on a summer holiday - fab memories.

Thanks so much for joining me today, happy scrapping xx 

DESIGNS USED:

Let the Sun Shine

PRODUCTS USED:

This House is Under Elf Surveillance | Layout with Sketch Pens and Stitching

Hey there! Niki back with you today with another scrapbooking layout. We have a house Elf that comes to stay in December and keeps an eye on my children and reports to Santa whether they have been good or not, so our house is definitely under Elf Surveillance!

I saw this cut file in the store and just had to make a layout with it. As usual I had to re-arrange it and make it work for me.

I started off by opening the file on my screen.

I then ungrouped the file. This made most of the pieces separate.

I then reaslised I needed to re-size. I selected the whole file so that when I re-sized, the proportions would stay the same, and re-sized the file so the word 'elf' was the correct size for what I wanted.

I then moved the hat pieces to one side and re-arranged the smaller writing. Some of the words were still grouped together so I had to select them and 'release the compound path'

I then sorted out the hat pieces. I wanted some pieces cut from green paper and some from red paper. I find it much easier to sort out which piece is which by colour coding them on screen. I did this by selecting each piece and going to the 'fill shape' drop down menu on the top left of the screen and choosing a colour for each piece.

 I then copied the hat pieces and pasted them onto a new cutting mat. I sorted them by colour and then loaded my cutting mat with corresponding coloured paper. I then send this to Silhouette to cut.

 

I then went back to my original design. I wanted to sketch the small letters with my sketch pens and stitch the large 'elf' word. I selected 'elf' and went to the drop down line style menu and then selected the third option down - a dashed line. This changed 'elf' to a dashed line style which when cut will provide me with a perfect stitching template.

I then went to the 'send' tab and selected 'this house is under' and selected tool 2 and 'sketch'.

I did the same with 'surveillance'. My design is now ready to cut and sketch. I loaded Tool2 with a black sketch pen and then sent to Silhouette. I love that this machine can cut and sketch at the same time.

Once cut and sketched, I stitched 'elf' using red thread and coloured in the word 'surveillance' with gold ink and made the rest of my layout around the fabulous title.

Thanks so much for stopping by to see my layout, I hope you will give this a go!

Happy scrapping xxx 

Find me on my own blog: Being Scrappy and on Instagram as @nikiclaire

DESIGNS USED:

This House is Under Elf Surveillance

 

PRODUCTS USED:

Dear Santa...I can Explain

Merry Christmas everyone! It's Niki here today and I'm sharing this funny layout. I saw this great file in the Design Store and it was completely perfect for a recent photo I took of my little boy having a major tantrum.

As usual I wanted to do something different with it rather than use it in it's original format so I ungrouped

and rearranged.

I then selected the top part and changed the line style so that the cut line was dashed.

I was then able to send this file to my Silhouette. The top part of the design I sent to cut with my regular autoblade. The bottom part of the design I sent to sketch with a black sketch pen - one of the best things about the Silhouette Cameo 3 is that it can do both these things at the same time. Happy days. I also cut 'Dear Santa' on another sheet of card.

Once cut and sketched, I painted the sketched letters with green water colour paint, and stitched around the Dear Santa with pink thread. I painted around the stitching too to make my letters pop. I then used the cut 'dear santa' to lay over the stitched design and flicked paint all around the title. I then removed this to reveal lovely white letters beneath.

Thank you for joining me today - what are you making during the holidays?

DESIGNS USED:

Dear Santa I can Explain

PRODUCTS USED:

Stitched Star Tree: Using a Pen Holder

Hey there Silhouette fans, Niki here today with a hack to share with you. I found this very beautiful star tree file in the store and I immediately I wanted to stitch this as a full page in my December Daily album. So I opened it on screen...

BUT...it's a file that can be cut out as a whole, meaning it had double cut lines. That would be great if I wanted to cut it out, but I wanted to stitch each star with a single line rather than the two lines. I tried my absolute hardest to convert it to a single line but in the end I had to admit defeat and give up 😞😞😞

So instead, I used the Draw a Rectangle tool to draw a box around my tree. I wanted the box to be the exact page size of my December Daily pages (6x8") with the tree in the middle. I then set it to my Silhouette, but loaded a piece of copy paper onto my mat. I also set the tree itself to draw using a pencil in a pen holder, while the rectangle box was cut out. I was then left with a piece of paper, the correct size with the tree drawn on, centred perfectly.

I then was able to use this as a stitching template. I placed the copy paper with the drawn tree over a piece of white cardstock and pierced the wholes for the stitching - just on the points of the star. I then stitched using metallic gold thread and long stitches to make this very beautiful stitched star tree.

In case you dont quite get what I mean, I've made a short video of how I did this which you can view below.

So I guess that today's lesson, is never give up! If you can't get the software to do what you want it to do, then see if you can figure out a way around. I absolutely love the result of this and it looks even better in real life! It's the most stunning page in my December Daily album so far.

Happy scrapping xxx 

Find me on my own blog: Being Scrappy and on Instagram as @nikiclaire

DESIGNS USED:

Doodle Star Christmas Tree

PRODUCTS USED: