Build a Life You Love

Good morning! Today I'm sharing a layout that I absolutely love. Ever since that first hand embroidered page I did, I've fallen in love, and try to add embroidery to as many projects as I can. It's something I just love to do while I'm watching TV, and I can definitely see more of this in the future. I love the texture it adds to my pages and how easy it is to add some colour.

With this layout I tried something a little different. I stitched my title on the left side, and then I went back and cut and "interior offset" using my silhouette and cut pieces to fit inside of each letter and painted them similar colours with water colours. I love how they turned out. The letters looked incomplete without the paper in the middle, and I'm so happy with how it looks. On the right side, I added a piece of rainbow chevron striped paper, a photo of Jon and I, a little chipboard banner, and some typed journaling. I wrote the journaling as more of a letter to Jon, and love how this layout turned out. I love that the focus is mostly on the large title, and there's minimal embellishing to take away from that.

Thank you for coming by to check out this beautiful spread. I think I might frame this one and hang it in our bedroom. It's too pretty to sit in an album where no one will ever look at it.
I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
-Alexandria

We Are Made of These Moments

Remember a few weeks back where I said I was obviously obsessed with embroidery on paper. I have another embroidered page to share. AND this one actually has photos on it. I'm thinking that I might add a page of journaling to go with this page, but even if I don't, I love how this page turned out.

I went with rainbow colours on black and love how the colours pop against the black. I added photos along the right side, and wrote the date for each photo along the edge of it.

These photos are some of the only photos of us in existence. Which is unfortunate, but we're not people who take selfies together. Another fun fact, my mom took the top 2 photos, and my sister took the bottom one.

Thanks for coming by to see this spread. I'm also trying to figure out how to incorporate embroidery into some of my Christmas projects.

Have a great day!
-Alexandria

You Are

Good morning! Today I'm sharing this layout that I've been teasing on Instagram all week. I'm so incredibly happy with how this spread turned out, and it blows my mind how well it all came together.

This spread showcases the I AM . WE ARE . YOU ARE stamp set by Kellie Stamps. I love that she's gone digital which means I can alter the stamps in so many different ways. Here I used my silhouette to create a template for the stitching. I don't have the sketch pens for the silhouette yet, so I cut out the letters and trace them onto the page I want to stitch on. I added some stamps along the right side and coloured them to match the letters on the left side. I added journaling that went along with the stamps I used on the right, and at the bottom, I added two sentiments from the Digital Kiddo stamp set.

I added star embellishments from an old Studio Calico kit, to bring out some of the colours in the photograph. I added a sticker from an incredibly old My Minds Eye sticker sheet (I think it was from Sweetest Thing).

And a close up of the stitching because it's not always pretty up close, but definitely has become one of my favourite techniques to add to my projects. It's fun and therapeutic, and I just really enjoy doing it.

Thank you so much for coming by to see my spread for this week. None of the links to Kellie's shop are affiliate, just making sure you can find the products I used on this spread because they're available.

Have a great weekend!

-Alexandria

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