Obstinate Pursuit

I've had the most wonderfully lazy Sunday. Breakfast in bed; watching old episodes of Teachers; and scrapbooking. It seems like forever since I last did some 12x12 layouts, so I've got a couple to share.

First, there's my interpretation of the 'I Wish, I May, I Might' Pre-DT Challenge on the new challenge blog It's All About Me. At the moment, I'm working hard to turn my life around and there's so much that I want to do, and so much that I need to do, that it sometimes seems overwhelming. I'm wishing for the courage I need to change my life for the better; to have a little faith in myself.

I chose a nice, subtle cardstock for my background and distressed it (a lot) using the edge of my scalpel. A few of the scrap pieces of cardstock I used also got the rough treatment and I frayed the edges of the material to make some of the threads loose around the edges.

Then it was just a case of stacking everything together and machine sewing it all together. There's no glue on the page whatsoever - unless you count the little word stickers from Making Memories - and, since they have a tendency to fall off, I sewed them down anyway. My sewing machine, which sewed through several layers of cardstock and chipboard, probably hates me.

The other layout is a little more..um..sparse? I'm often inspired by clean lines, graphic design and a desire to use the beautiful bits of scrap that have been stashed away in my cupboard. The cardstock is by Anna Griffin and looks a little bit like washed denim in real life. I chose a few pieces of scrap to co-ordinate and cut them down to match the width of a photograph from an old interiors magazine. Then the poor little sewing machine got another exercising while I sewed on all the pieces.

It was still a little too bare, even for me, so I punched out some leaves from more scrap card and sewed them directly onto the cardstock. To achieve a 'leaves blowing in the wind' look, I sewed each leaf on to the page with a few running stitches, then lifted the machine foot and moved the cardstock over to the next leaf - without cutting the thread. To finish off, I just moved the needle down to the right hand corner and sewed a few zig zag stitches to anchor the thread and balance the layout.

I'm really happy with my afternoon's work and, considering the weather, I'm also happy to have Shimelle's class, Learn Something New Every Day to look forward to tomorrow. I'm off to start gathering all of my supplies together. Hope you're all enjoying your weekends x