We all love the look of stitching, right? But, how many of you actually take the time to thread a needle and stitch something on a stamping project? I can promise you that I will find a million other ways to embellish a card or scrapbook page before I'll bust out a needle and thread. I've also seen those handy paper stitchers...a friend of mine had one, but it just never worked quite right for her. Let's not even get started on the odds that I'd dig my sewing machine out of hibernation just to do a little stitching on a scrapbook page. The odds of that? Nil. A technique that can be your new best friend? Faux Stitching. I recently learned it and am lovin' it! Here are some step by step directions on how to fake your stitching:

The items you'll need are: the paper piercer, piercing template, and squishy (technical term, I know) mat from the Crafter's Tool Kit, and the white uni-ball Signo Gel Pen (page 223). The gel pen can be used for this technique along with being a great way to write on dark cardstock!

Line up the template and poke holes following the template. You can do a zig zag stitch or a straight stitch...a short stitch or a long stitch. Just poke the holes where you want it to look like it's the end of the stitch.

In the example I'm doing a zig zag stitch...this is what it looks like when all the holes are poked. I did every other hole in two neighboring lines on the template.

Now simply connect the dots with the white gel pen!

This is how it looks when all the stitches are drawn in. Sometimes it's necessary to go back and re-poke the holes if the gel pen has settled any ink in the holes. That will make it look all the more authentic because it looks like the stitching actually goes into the paper.

Here's the finished card! I used some leftover pieces parts from the Island Blossoms Simply Scrappin' Kit (Level One Hostess Freebie). The card base is Tempting Turquoise and is stamped with the speckle background from Itty Bitty Backgrounds in turquoise ink. The stitching is done on Certainly Celery. The flower is a self-adhesive sticker from the Scrappin' Kit. I put a silver brad in the middle to give it a little somethin' (another technical stamping term), and added some turquoise grosgrain on the side.

You'll want to be careful to allow the gel pen to dry completely...it only takes a few minutes. I do the stitching part, finish the card, and then go back and adhere everything. Smeared gel pen lines will not look like stitches, I promise!