Tutorial: White Space Layout

whats essential

White space is also known as negative space, and is that part of a layout that isn’t “filled up” with elements. It doesn’t need to be white, just empty, but I chose to use white card stock for my background. White space is an effective design element because it allows the eyes to rest, and also helps to emphasize the elements that are there, thus pulling the viewer in.
You will need:

1 photo
12×12 Card stock
Patterned paper
felt or other trim
acrylic paint in two colours
journaling stamp
Phrase stamp
decorative stamp
circle label
letter stickers (small and large)
decorative border punch or scissors
Bubble wrap

1. Paint a roughly square shape in the center of the card stock. This doesn’t have to be precise, simple swipe the brush several times across the card stock

2. Brush some of the second colour of paint across a piece of bubble wrap and press into the top left and bottom right corners of the painted square

3. Stick photo approximately in center of painted area

4. Cut a strip of patterned paper about 1.5″ wide by 7″ long and tear a bit off each end. Use the punch or scissors to make a border along one long side. Add to left, slightly on top of photo

5. Stamp journaling spot to bottom left of photo, slightly on top of the paper strip

6. Add felt trim and circle label as shown

7. Add title with letter stickers

8. Stamp phrase stamp below title, overlapping journaling spot

9. Use decorative stamp to make a photo corner above the top right edge of photo

10. Add journaling and voila!

Note: This tutorial was originally posted on my tutorial blog Tuesday To-Do

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I have not done a lot of big cross stitch projects, but sometimes even with small projects it can be hard to decide exactly where to begin and how to work through the chart if you’re working with multiple colors. The general categories for the possible methods are known as cross country and parking.

Cross country means that you’re working one color at a time, moving around the chart (or the section of the chart you’re working on) until you’re done with that color. Parking means you’re working in a smaller section and doing all the colors in that area, “parking” the threads by leaving them attached to the canvas but out of the way while you finish each section.

Royal Rows is a specific way of parking named by Alison Royal, which is explored in detail on a post on Stitching Daily.

The idea is that you’re working one “tower” of stitches at a time (she uses a section of 10 stitches across by 20 down, but you can do whatever makes sense to you). You work all the stitches of a color at a time, starting at the top left and working your way down. When you’re done with a color you can park it where needed in the section below your current tower (known as the dungeon) or in the “east tower,” which is the section to the right.

There’s also a specific way of dealing with thread ends when you’re done with a color. This is a super simplified version (head to the blog post at Stitching Daily to get all the details) but the basic idea is that you’re working from left to right and top to bottom across the work, parking the threads in the next section when you’re done with them and systematically choosing which color to work with next.

The whole idea of parking is kind of overwhelming to me though I will admit that it makes a lot of sense. I guess I need to try it on a smallish big project and see how it goes. Do you use the parking method of cross stitch? I’d love to hear about it!

[Photo via Stitching Daily]

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