Paper Sewing

There's nothing I like more than sewing on my cards (and scrapbook pages, now that I think about it). It gives my projects a finished look that I absolutely love. As you can see, I don't have a top of the line sewing machine. It does two stitches - a straight stitch and a zig zag stitch. That's perfect for me because those are the only two stitches I would want to use. It's about 8 years old, I got it off of a Sears wholesale sale on Ebay way back then and I think I paid around $100 for it. Now I'm sure a similar machine would be cheaper. I don't clean it, I don't think I've done any maintenance to it, but it still works fantastically. Why? I think it's because I sew on paper, not fabric -- there's no lint to clean out or unclog from the machine. 

As I mentioned on my last blog post, I'm getting ready for a craft show and made a batch of sympathy cards this morning. I wanted to sew ribbon along the edge, but knew it wouldn't hold as well as I needed it to as I ran it through my machine so I just used a little adhesive to hold it in place before I ran it through. It will make the needle a little sticky but just clean it off after doing a few cards so your needle doesn't get too goopy. Regular adhesive works fine, but glue dots and sticky strip does NOT so be careful. I've sewed on many things in my day, it even will sew through Stampin' Up!'s window sheets.

And here's the final card! The Sympathy stamp is from the "Thanks for Caring" stamp set that is retired.. Usually I sell off all of my retired sets once they retire, because once something retires I can't demo it anymore. But I've kept this set because I love this "With Deepest Sympathy" stamp. And cards for a craft show seems like the perfect time to get some use out of it!