Tuesday Tutorial: Use a Grid for the Background

Hello friends!

Nathalie with you today, and if you have a lot of 2x2in cut apart cards (like the ones included in so many of the latest collections), then this is a way that you can use up to create a fun background for your next project.  It all started with a piece of cardstock, a pencil, ruler and some stitching material

Since i know the size of the cards, i chose to pencil a grid on my cardstock.  As you see in the picture i left about a 1 in from the top and sides of the page, and then created boxes that measure 2.5in per side

Next using a paper piercing tool, and a hook needle mat ( “the secret to creating straight lines and even spaced holes”) i proceeded to just punture the holes along the inside lines of the square (think of it as the lines in a TIC-TAC-TOE game)

The mat will help you to create straight even spaced holes for stitching.   Just line the mat to the line you will stitch, then use the piercing tool to create the pattern.  Remember to create holes at the same position inside the respective square

Once you have the holes in the lines created, then it is time to use some backstitching to create the ‘division’ lines in the background.   Since I am using Pebbles’  new collection -Patio Party- to finish this page, i chose to stitch the lines in 3 different embroidery thread colors that match the papers in the collection.

Once the stitching was done, I played with the location of the cards.  I placed the cards with the busiest or most  irrelevant pattern  where the picture will be placed, this way just a hint of the pattern will show up.   This is now the new background, and all it was left to do was to embellish.

The picture was backed with some papers from the collection, and then attached with some foam adhesive.  I took advantage of the dimensional layered stickers to create clusters at opposite corner of the photograph.

To add to the flower motiff of the page, i chose to fussy cut some from papers in the collection, and layered them between the papers behind the picture.

To complete my visual triangle, I added a third cluster at the corner of the page.  I chose to set the large sentiment cards at the side of  this square, so that the eye will be pulled to this stop.  Here is the completed layout:

This page took no time to put together, and i love how all thise small cards fused together to create the perfect background for the page,

Remembert to stop by Scrapbook Nerd to check all the materials used in this post.

see you all around!

Patio Party collection: 12×12 paper pad, layered stickers, layered acetate butterflies, cardstock stickers, wood veneer stickers

Hello Love collection: resin hearts