A Year of Borders - by Rockester

A Year of Seasons: Borders

by Rockester

***Happy New Year to all my wonderful readers!***
May you have a happy, healthy, and blessed 2002!

Are you starting a new yearly album? Do you have a calendar page that needs a little extra something? How about a simple seasonal layout to do? Let's create some side borders today that can be adapted to any season and any theme. The trick is all in the papers you choose and a perforating technique that takes about 5 minutes on the sewing machine. The sewing machine!? Yes! Don't panic! We sew WITHOUT thread on these borders in order to make perforations. This technique is great for making swirling lines or straight lines. Follow along as we give it a try.

Materials List:

4 or 5 small accents--these can be your choice of themed stickers, punch art, buttons, clip art, etc.
4 sheets of coordinating papers
one background piece
border bottom piece -patterned
border middle piece- dark or patterned
border top piece- light colored solid adhesive
straight edge scissors
floss in coordinating dark color
sewing machine with top thread and bobbin thread removed


Pick your Papers

		Step One: Pick your Papers and 4 or 5 small accents Choose papers that coordinate with your photos in color and theme. Make sure your accents also coordinate. My accents on this sample are leaf stickers and I chose papers that went with their colors for a Fall border. You will need your 4 or 5 accents to each be less than 1.5 inches in diameter. This is so they will fit later on the finished border.

Cut your Papers

Step Two: Trim Your Papers
Set aside your background page. Trim the three border papers as follows:

Top of border: (light colored solid) 2x10 inches

Middle of border: (printed paper or solid) 2.5x10.5 inches

Bottom of the border: (printed paper) 3x11 inches


Add Adhesive
		Step Three: Layer Your Border Use an adhesive that is not liquid. A tape runner, hermafix, or similar type will be good. You do not want a wet adhesive because you will be sewing on this shortly and you don't want the machine needle to get gooey. Layer the papers for the top, middle, and bottom of the border with your choice of adhesive.


ACCENTS
		Step Four: Placement of Accents Plan the placement of your accents next without actually attaching them down. For stickers, just leave the backing on for now and lay them down approximately where you want them. Lay out your 3 to 5 small accents on the border. With a pencil, draw light guidelines where you want the perforated lines to go. You will erase these lines later in step 6. If making straight line, use a ruler. If making swirling lines, don't make your curves or circles too small. Take the accents back off the border for now. We will glue them back down in place later.


Sewing Perforations
		Step 5: Use the Sewing Machine Take out your sewing machine. Make sure there is NO thread in either the top thread or in the bobbin area. Set the stitch length for straight stitching a little less than 1/4 inch long. Use the machine as a tool to help you perforate the layers of paper. Use the machine to SLOWLY sew along the pencil lines you just made in step 4. Take your time, especially around curves. Don't worry about being EXACTLY on all the pencil guide lines as long as the overall effect looks good.


Erase the Lines
		Step 6: Erase Erase the lines you drew in pencil. Your perforations should be close to the lines (or on top of the lines). But don't worry if they don't match up perfectly. As long as the overall line or swirl looks good, go with it. Erase the pencil guide line and poof...perfect perforations!


Attach your Accents
		Step 7: Add your Accents Now go back and add on your accents. Remember these should be less than 1.5 inches in diameter so that at least 3 and up to 5 will fit on the border. You can use stickers, punch art, clip art, mini die cuts, buttons or whatever you like. In my Fall example I am using leaf stickers. On my Winter border I used snowflake buttons, on my summer border I used clip art bumblebees, and on the Spring border I used punch art splashes. This technique is really versatile and could work with any number of themes. (Think ladybugs, dragonflies, kites, balloons, wind, stars, fishing, bugs, bunnies, hearts, and sewing themes.)

Step 8: Add your Floss

You can leave your perforations open (no thread added) or you can proceed and add floss to them in a coordinating color. Here are the steps for sewing the floss onto the cardstock border. I think it adds a nice touch. You can sew a continuous line as shown here (see Fall border) or skip every other perforation for a dashed line look (as in the snowflake and rain borders).

Floss 1 thru Floss 8 -solid line steps

Here is a picture of my Fall border partially sewn.

partially sewn border

After you get your floss sewn on, you are done!

Four finished borders

Don't they look great? And they only take about 30 minutes each to make. They add great variety and texture to any page. So, go dig out all those wonderful coordinating print papers you have been hoarding and make up a batch of perforated borders today!

Happy Scrapping!

~Rockester~