Creating stitched embellishments for art journals

I had a bit of a play day recently making stitched embellishments to add to my books for June and July. I thought it would be useful to gather all my ideas here for our collective future use.

My new favourite thing is to free-motion machine stitch over organza and a layer of paper as seen HERE

I start with organza, laying it over a large print book page and stitch around found words I like on the page. Then fill in the gaps with shapes and cut apart

This organza is actually orange and the colour is much truer below. Doing found words this way may be my new favourite thing!

You could also use sheet music or some other text page - in fact any other paper - you just won't have that found word option. 

Free-motion machine stitch over inky paper and tear out as you see HERE

and this one is on watercolour paper - other shapes could easily look cool on watercolour scraps

I also tried a few circles that I can glue a word or other embellishment onto later

Making small tags is always fun though they will cover more of a page of course.

It also occurred to me that I could use some of my acetate shapes more easily in my work by stitching them to scrap inky backgrounds... (these are all on watercolour paper)

All of my examples have been done with the machine but you could use hand stitching instead or as an addition....and I like using black thread, but I also love the gold above and think purple goes with everything 💜

All of these options mean that I can add stitch to my journals but glue them in without having to worry about stitching showing through on the back side of the page. Naturally when I have some more time I will also be having a play with adding sari and organza ribbons and other fabric scraps. The possibilities are endless....

Can't wait to use these and show you how they look within my book pages.