Introducing Stitched Trays & More

Papertrey's March release countdown continues today with all kinds of new stitching dies, designed by Erin Lincoln. I'm super excited about these Stitched Trays! Who doesn't love (and need) cute and functional organizing tools? 

Remember, today's featured products, along with the whole March release, will be available at 10 pm March 15 in the Papertrey Ink store.

The tray itself will be available in a square shape or a rectangle shape. In addition, there is optional trim for both tray designs. Last, there are a number of additional stitched embellishments, including a folk flower, monogram frames, sequins, and this adorable bicycle. (And of course those embellishments will work on many other stitched projects!)

I chose to work with the Stitched Tray: Rectangle, Stitched Tray: Rectangle Trim, and the adorable Stitched Bicycle. My tray is die-cut from Papertrey's Lemon Tart felt, the trim is Simply Chartreuse, and the bicycle is Aqua Mist, Berry Sorbet, Smokey Shadow, Simply Chartreuse, and Winter White. For the most part, I stitched with floss to match the felt colors, with the exception of the trim, where I used white floss for contrast.

There are different options for the corners, but I'll tell you what I did. I stitched the whole tray while flat. The tray is in two layers, by the way, to hide the backside of the embellishment stitching. This way, the bottom of the tray looks just as nice and finished as the rest:

 For added stability, I placed a card stock insert between the layers on the bottom as well as all four sides. Easiest way to do this was to die-cut a Stitched Tray: Rectangle out of card stock and then trim off the stitching holes. What's left fits perfectly between the layers.

After I had the tray stitched, I folded up the sides, bringing the corners together. The are held together by the trim pieces. There are four trim pieces in all. The trim for the long sides is longer than the long side of the tray, so those trim pieces wrap around the corner, and serve to hold the corners together. The trim for the short sides is the exact length of short side of the tray. When assembled, the short trim pieces overlaps the extra length from the long sides for a nice, finished look.

 If you don't use the trim piece, Erin has designed a really cute button closure for the corners. I think you could also stitch the corners together using something like a baseball stitch, or even pinching them together and doing a running stitch. (I haven't tried those out yet, though!)

Be sure to visit Erin's blog for all the stitching how-to!!

The sweet Stitched Bicycle is irresistible! There are a lot of different pieces, but Erin's stitching instructions make it easy to stitch up. I added a Bitty Button Stack flower to the bike's basket.

These trays are perfect for jewelry, keys, odds and ends that tend to gather, candy, or any number of things. Great for yourself, great for gifts!  

For more Stitched Tray inspiration, pleas visit the design team:

Nichole Heady

Ashley Newell

Betsy Veldman

Danielle Flanders

Dawn McVey

Heather Nichols

Kay Miller

Laurie Willison

Lizzie Jones

Melissa Phillips

Erin Lincoln