Embroidery in scrapbook pages

I'm working on a huge jewelry project for a challenge for the Loose Bead Society:  Metamorphosis - A Stage in the Life of a Butterfly or Moth.  I thought it was due in August, but I was recently reminded during the last Board meeting that it's due this month on July 19th.  Eeek!  I had an "Oh, poop!" moment which I bet I'll never live down.

So, there will be no new projects coming from me for a while.  Fortunately I have gazillions of finished projects I can pull from to show you and to explain what I did.

This project is a 2 page 8x8 layout about movies.  I used a few different film strip die cuts and stickers showing the title and popcorn (which is the best part of going to a movie, in my opinion).  Here's the layout:

To add another element, I decided to make a bucket of popcorn.  I made french knots using variegated yellow embroidery floss which perfectly shows the differences in color in a typical bucket of popcorn - some kernels have more butter than others (unfortunately)!

Here's a close-up:

There are some very good instructions on how to do a french knot on the feeling stitchy website.  There is a link on that site for a good video in case the instructions don't immediately make sense.  Sublime Stitching has another set of instructions that are great, and there's a link for lefties.

The one thing these instructions say is that you should not go back through the same hole when you pull the needle through to the back.  When you're working on paper, don't worry about it.  If you pierce holes too close together the paper will tear.  Just be careful not to pull too tightly, or your knot will pull all the way through, leaving ripped paper in its wake.

This is a great stitch to add some dimension to your pages.  Apart from popcorn, you can make flowers, dots, animals (see feeling stitchy and Sublime Stitching for cute examples), etc...

A lot of people are intimidated by this stitch.  Every one of the above links mentions this.  Don't let yourself be scared off - it's really not that hard.  Practice first on some scrap paper, and if you're really worried about ripping your background paper, plan your embellishment to be on a separate piece of paper (or even fabric!) and use really good adhesive like glue dots to adhere it to your page.

Send me pictures of your french knot creations, and I'll post a follow up here!

I would go get some popcorn now (that page made me hungry!), but I have to get back to my challenge piece...