Spring with Wendy + Giveaway

Hi there Doodlebug fans!!!

It’s Wendy Sue, hosting the blog today – and I am super excited about it!  Can you guess why?  Take a peek at this:

{supplies I used:  hello spring may flowers; hello spring birds of a feather; hello spring spring bouquet; hello spring easter parade; hello spring springtime stripe; hello spring rainbow jellies; hello spring fancy frills; hello spring icon stickers; hello spring mini pearls; hello spring boutique buttons; jack & jill swimming pool alpha rub-ons; simply sweet swimming pool mini rub-ons; doodle twine in swimming pool and tangerine}

I got to play with the brand spankin’ new, fresh off the presses, “Hello Spring” line over the weekend!  Yay!  The patterned papers are so fresh and colorful, a great new twist on a traditional Doodlebug color palette!  I love the “b” sides the most – such fun, simple, subtle patterns – but that cute blue bird paper  (springtime stripe) is irresistible!  I’m also loving the coordinating stickers and embellishments – so fresh and “springy!”

I’d love to share some detail photos with you…come on over and visit me at my blog today (just me…and my little world).  In addition to more details about my layout, I’m giving away some of my favorite Doodlebug products (okay, they are all my favorite…but I get to give some of them away to one of you!)   All you need to do to be entered in the drawing is visit my blog, become a “follower” and leave me a comment!  Do it before midnight on Thursday (March 22^nd) and you might find your name listed as the lucky winner on the Doodlebug Blog on Friday!

Thanks for visiting the Doodlebug blog today!

Wendy Sue

Tuesday Tutorial: Hand Stitching

It's Kathy Martin here with a tutorial for accenting your paper craft projects with hand stitching. Most of my scrapbook pages and cards include hand stitching because I love texture and detailing and I really like the way it looks. I often get questions about my stitching, people wondering if I use a machine or do it by hand. When I tell people I always hand stitch, their next question is how do I make my lines straight and how do I keep my card stock clean and without creases. So, today I’d like to show you some of the techniques I use.

For today’s tutorial I created this card using Doodlebug’s Colorwheel collection along with their Simply Sweet letter rub-ons and a limeade Boutique Button. Other supplies include card stock, Spellbinders dies, vellum, a pencil, paper piercer, needle and thread, and adhesives.

Your first step is to cut a piece of vellum and card stock the size of an A2 card which is 5 ½” x 4 ¼”. Then I used some Spellbinders Nesting Dies to create some circles in my vellum. Once I was finished making the circles, I applied a piece of tape to the top of the card to keep the vellum overlay centered on top of the card stock base.

Next I used a set of Spellbinders scalloped circle dies to create patterned paper circles that are one size larger than the circles that were cut in the vellum. You could also use the same circle dies if you don’t have a set of scalloped dies too.

 Now add a piece of double stick tape to the bottom of your die cut circles and center them underneath each of the vellum circles. Once it looks centered, just press it down so it sticks to your card stock base.

After you have positioned all your patterned paper die cuts, use another piece of tape to secure the opposite side of the velum overlay to the card stock base. Then center your round Spellbinders dies back over your circles and trace around the outside with a pencil to create a frame that you will use as a stitching pattern.

Once you have your frames traced, use an awl to pierce holes along your penciled circles  at approximately 1/8” intervals.

When you have pierced all your penciled circles, erase the remaining pencil marks and begin stitching using a straight stitch.

After you are finished stitching, you have a pretty card base to accent. I used a pre-made die cut from the Doodlebug Collerwheel collection to embellish my card with.

Another way I like to add hand stitching to my projects is to pierce holes around the pattern of a die cut or patterned paper.

On this piece of Doodlebug paper you can see I used the pattern to pierce and stitch.

To further accent to my die cut, I added this butterfly Icons sticker.

Lastly I added a double sided die cut pennant that I applied the Simply Sweet rub-ons and limeade button to.

 

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and spend some time playing with different ways to add some hand stitching to your next project.

Thanks - Kathy

Be sure to visit my blog when you have a minute.

Hello Spring Card - Release Party!

Hello Spring is now shipping to retailers near you! If you are as excited to buy this adorable new collection as we are, then be sure to ask for it at your local store.  We're excited to featured the Hello Spring Collection this week with the help of our design team. But first let's visit how cute this product line is....

Everyone loves BUTTONS, especially the shaped darling buttons Doodlebug created to go with the Hello Spring Collection. 

New Doodle Twine colors were released for 2012, these are some of those colors! 

And these new Mini Pearls are yummy enough to eat (but please don't)! 

Did you know our new collections have new Shaped Brads that coordinate with each collection and these flower shaped brads are the perfect match up with the Hello Spring Collection.