Hand Embroidered Page | Unfinished

Good morning friends! After the stress of the last few weeks, I needed something to keep my hands busy, and let my mind focus on anything else. I've been inspired by Page Evans' pages for a while now, and since becoming a member over at Big Picture Classes, and looking through her classes there, I was even more inspired by her embroidered pages. They're beautiful, and I wanted to try it. I had planned to share this yesterday, but instead I'm sharing it now!

When I decided I wanted to do this, of course I thought "I want to do it, but I want to do it in my own way, and on my own terms." I didn't have the time, or the resources to get additional embroidery thread, so once I chose the design I wanted to use, I made a plan using only the thread that I had in my stash (which wasn't much). I chose to use this file from Wilna Furstenberg and shared on Instagram what my plan was. Everyone was excited about my plan, (including Wilna and Paige (I might have had a huge fangirl moment)), and that was all I needed to know I could do this, no matter how long it took me.

I took progress shots to share with Jon, my sister, and Instagram. When I started but I definitely didn't realize just how long it would take me. The very first heart (top left) took me 30 minutes.

After work, I'd come home and work on it while we watched some TV. It really helped me to unwind after work, and it helped me to get it done sooner than if I'd only done it before work. I knew if I set it down to work on something else, I'd never finish it.

I did all of the hearts before starting on the leaves/swirls around the rest of the page. My original plan had been to make all the leaves/swirls green/aqua, but I ran out of it very quickly, so I added in some purple leaves/swirls and I love how the colours looked together.

The finished page is far too pretty to cover up. You'll see on the right side that I have a spot that isn't finished. I'm not sure what I'm doing there, but a few of the holes were too close together and it ripped in a few places, so I just stopped and left it. I might cover it with an embellishment, or a small photo, but currently this page doesn't have any more of a plan than just looking beautiful! I love how it turned out. I almost want to frame it, and never do something this detailed again! But of course my hard work paid off and it looks wonderful! Everyone loves it and I'm so pleased with myself. I'll definitely do this again, just with simpler designs.

Thanks for coming by to check out this layout. I love it so much!
Have a great day!
-Alexandria

Love Mini Workshop | Coffee Sleeve Mini Album

Good morning! Today I'm sharing a project that I made from a class from my favourite creative person ever Wilna Furstenberg. This post is not sponsored by her in any way, I'm just so over the moon with her classes that I keep raving about them here when I share my projects.

 

This particular project is part of her Love Mini Workshop (which is possibly my favourite class of hers). You can purchase that class HERE. She also offered this class last year on Two Peas in a Bucket, but she added a few extra projects and added it to her shop. I'm absolutely glad I purhcased it because I've learned so many amazing things from her, and have a few more mini albums I want to make!

I shared this photo on Instagram last week. I took the coffee sleeve, and painted it with Gesso, then decided that I didn't want it to be white, so after I stitched some chipboard to the inside (the sleeve was extremely flimsy) I painted it with watercolours. This wasn't the effect I was going for, but I went with it.

Then I embellished the cover. I didn't want to hide the watercolours, so I kept my embellishments to the left side. I used ephemera from Maggie Holmes' Open Book line, and a couple of labels from my stash. The orange thread was used to bind my pages.

Here's the cover once I added all my photos and embellishments to the inside pages. I wanted them to stick out the top a little bit, and tried to keep them from hanging out the bottom.

And a close up, just because it's too pretty not to share.

The inside pages contain papers and more flowers from the Open Book line, some words from Wilna that I cut out using my Silhouette, and photos from my adventures with my niece last year.

Some of the cutfiles I painted with watercolours. Of course it would have been smart to paint them before I put them on the pages, but I didn't, so a few were painted after I stuck them down.

I tried to keep the pages a little on the simple side, and only used paper embellishments. No flair, or extra bulk since I wasn't planning to tie the album closed.

The back was also painted white with Gesso. This is the only proof you have that it used to be a coffee sleeve. In person you can tell along the spine on the inside that it's cardboard under there, but I didn't want it to look like cardboard, or a coffee sleeve.

I'm so excited to create similar albums without actually using a coffee sleeve. I have a few in the works with watercolour paper, and different papers for pages (including a vellum page).

Thanks for coming to check out this mini album. I hope that it helps you to try and make a mini album from a recycled material. Wilna proves that you can create mini albums from literally anything.

Have a great day!
-Alexandria