This is an older picture, but I love it because it captures the loving way my niece was looking at me when she was a toddler. I was trying to find pictures that I could pair with the Sweet Talk collection with, so I pulled this one out.
I should note that I've started seeing the value of the Basics Kit sold by Simple Stories, as they are monochromatic pages that have subtle patterns or designs to them and that pair with various collections very nicely. So I have started buying those packs, even the ones for the collections I don't own, and this worked out well for this layout as I was able to pull a coral paper from the Simple Vintage Farmhouse Garden Basics Kit to use as my layout base.
I never thought this one would get finished tonight, let alone that I might actually like the end result. I struggled so much to put something together. I started from a sketch, but quickly had to stop relying on it and just start moving elements around and try to find a pleasing arrangement.
I made the first part of my title using the Letterboard Alphabet Bigz die from Tim Holtz. I've noticed that Thickers will sometimes use colored foam peeking from underneath the letters and I've been loving the look, so I decided I would paint the chipboard letters I had die-cut before adding the patterned paper on top. I didn't have any pinks in my paint colors and I could have mixed my own, but I went the lazy way and simply pulled black paint. I have to say, even though this adds time with the painting and drying, this is a worthy step as it really changes the achieved result and I think I'm going to revisit that technique in the future.
I was liking the heart cluster from a cut-apart image, so I fussy cut the hearts and decided to stitch a larger heart underneath to make this detail stand out. I created a stencil with the Folk Hearts dies and backstitched the heart with matching needlepoint floss. I also used red floss to add cross stitches in two corners of my picture mat.
I was curious how it would look if I filled the center of the stitched heart with a smaller colored heart, so I die-cut the smaller size in Soft Sky cardstock, embossed it with the Tufted embossing folder and added my hearts with Stampin' Dimensionals. I added a few puffy heart stickers and enamel dots.
The envelope with flowers is also a cut-apart that was fussy cut, with enamel dots added to the flower centers and a decorative brad added to the envelope. I finished my sentiment with a script word die and sparkly red letter stickers.
I really struggled with the top part of the page the whole time I worked on it. I tried with one tag, two tags and three tags, moving them up and down and changing the order. I tried adding patterned paper underneath, I tried creating a little tab on the right edge using flower trim and patterned paper. In the end, I streamlined and only kept two tags, plus a smaller chipboard one from the decorative brads pack. It filled the space enough without overwhelming the layout. I added ribbon and twine to the tags, plus a few buttons here and there and decided this was the best this was going to get and called this page done.
Supplies
Stamps: Mois de l'année Script (Lime Citron)
Patterned Papers, Enamel Dots, Decorative Brads, Puffy Stickers: Sweet Talk (Simple Stories)
Ink: Pool Party (Stampin' Up!)
Paper: Simple Vintage Farmhouse Garden Basics Kit (Simple Stories)
Dies: Folk Hearts (Essentials from Ellen); Letterboard Alphabet (Tim Holtz for Sizzix);
Tasteful Trims (Stampin' Up!); Ref. Articles (Kesi'Art); Je t'aime Avec amour (Simple à souhait)
Accessories: Chipboard (Upcycled Packaging); Black Paint (Delta); 1/4" Circle Punch,
Tufted 3D Embossing Folder, Stampin' Dimensionals, Ribbons, Cotton Twine, Buttons (Stampin' Up!);
Needlework Floss (DMC); Buttons (Foof-a-La); Winter Hugs Shape Sprinkles (Doodlebug Design)
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