ALP Trend Watch Challenge: Decorated Seams

Hello, and happy September! I’m excited to bring you another Trend Watch Challenge. Are you enjoying tackling a new trend each month along with me here at the Awesome Ladies Project?

Decorated Seams

The trend I’d like to highlight this month is one that I am calling “Decorated Seams,” and I am seeing it everywhere lately. As scrappers are piecing together patterned paper and cardstock to create foundations for their layouts and spreads, lots of them are covering the “seams” where the papers meet with a lovely explosion of embellishments!

The most typical way I have seen this trend show up in the online scrappy community is in page foundations where two patterned papers meet at a vertical seam, with the entire seam covered up with layered die-cuts. This is such a great way to use up those printed die-cuts from your scrapbook stash!

The cool thing about this technique is that by disguising the seams where the papers meet, you can create the illusion that the design is created on a single sheet of paper instead of multiple papers pieced together. While more uniform elements like punched decorative border strip used to be a common way to embellish a seam on a scrapbook page, this fresh take on decorated seams adds a lot of extra texture and interest to a page. Each little embellishment comes together in a clustered line that leads the viewer’s eye down the page.

For my attempt at this trend, I used the Meow collection from My Mind’s Eye and some other cat-themed products from my stash to create this layout about how my cat Rupert likes to hang out on my desk with me while I scrapbook.

Here’s a closer look at my decorated seam:

Here are some other ideas for trying this technique:

  • Instead of a vertical seam like the one I created, try piecing papers together with horizontal or diagonal seams on your pages.
  • While one seam spanning the page is the most common version of this trend, why stop at one? You could create large stripes across a page and decorate every seam created!
  • Use any embellishment or combination of embellishments in your scrappy stash to decorate your seams. Try buttons, sequins, flair badges, wood veneers, pleated ribbon, paper flowers, fringe, punched shapes, word stickers — the possibilities are endless.
  • Instead of overlapping the entire seam, you could tuck embellishments under one of the papers so they are peeking out. Or for a varied look, try tucking some items and overlapping others.
  • Try machine or hand-stitching along the seam after it is embellished to add an extra bit of wow factor.
  • Feel free to incorporate your title, journaling, or photos into the decorated seam. The more you cover with these items, the less you will need to decorate!

Is this a technique you have incorporated into the design of your own pages? What types of embellishments have you used to decorate your seams? I’d love to see what you make!

For the rest of this month, upload a project to the Awesome Ladies Project (in your personal gallery) and share the link in the comments on this post.

Just log into your free ALP account and visit your personal gallery on your profile page (click “Register” at the top of the page if you are new to this site). You can also share your projects on Instagram using the hashtag #alptrendwatch in addition to the usual #awesomeladies #feministscrapbooking and #awesomeladiesproject hashtags.

Feel free to tag me (@scrappylikeafox) in your post so I see your creations right away! You can even tag me or add the hashtag to past projects if you’ve already created something using this trend!

Have you spotted a scrappy trend while surfing blogs, galleries, or Instagram? I’d love for you to tell me what you see. It could be a theme, motif, product, technique, design trend — anything!  Send me a message in the Awesome Ladies Community (@scrappylikeafox) so we can chat about it, and it might end up as a future challenge here at The Awesome Ladies Project.

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