This is Love | Happiness Collection | Raquel Bowman

Hey everyone,

It’s Raquel here with you today sharing with you a layout for our ‘sewing’ theme here on the CVS blog. One of my go to techniques on my layouts are to add machine sewing to my pages, so for todays layout I decided to give myself a little creative challenge and hand stitch instead. Hand stitching is something I do not particularly enjoy doing, but I always LOVE the finished outcome.

Here is the layout that I created to share with you today:

For todays layout I used the beautiful Happiness collection. It has to be hands down one of my favourite CVS collections. I have used the Happiness Large Die Cut heart as the main focal piece of this layout. I used the backing patterned piece as it came and simply cut away the pink pattern away from the outline so I just had the heart. I then adhered the heard to my layout using foam sheets to give it some dimension.

To embellish this page I have used mainly the floral ephemera from the die cut pack – aren’t they just stunning. I would love a whole pack of just the flowers!! I used a combination of foam and liquid adhesive to embellish my page. The photos are a series of selfies that my daughter and I took together. She is just the cutest and loves a good selfie. I printed these 4 to a page and slightly smaller on my Canon Selphy. I normally edit my photos is an app like Pic Tap Go or Pic Collage first before I print anything out. I then adhered the photos to white paper and matted the whole strip on the Expressive paper.

The tiny word stickers in the 6×12 accessory sticker sheet are a great way to add that special touch to an embellishment cluster. Here I have used the words ‘you are beautiful’ to finish that group of embellishments.

My title for this layout is using the Die cut titles pack in the collection. I adhered these words using a foam adhesive and I love how they popped off the page, especially because the navy is such a contrast to the brights. The heart near the ‘my happiness label’ is a clear sticker that I have stuck onto some white cardstock. I will do this when I want the clear sticker to be a feature that stands out.

Of course, as I mentioned earlier, the theme of todays post was sewing. So yep, I brought out my needle and a hot pink embroidery thread and got to work. To ensure my stitched border was nice and straight I added a light grey lead line using a ruler. I then used a piercing tool to pierce the holes, trying to keep them a similar distance apart. It did take a while I admit, and hats off to all those who hand stitch regularly on pages, it is not something I would do a lot – but I do love how it turned out.

Thanks so much for stopping by the blog today. I know we are all living in some crazy times right now, so I really appreciate you taking the time to check out this post. Sending love to all.

Raquel xxx