American Crafts Blooming Wild by Paige Evans - Smile

Hello, Karen here today sharing my first layout this month using American Crafts' new Blooming Wild collection by Paige Evans. 

I was instantly drawn to the colourful sunburst design on the B side of paper #22 and knew I wanted to use it for my first layout. Sunburst papers have appeared in several of Paige's collections and I felt challenged to use the paper in an original way.

Using a circle cutter I cut 4 concentric circles from the centre of the paper. The hole in the paper was backed with a piece of cardstock and the circles were all then glued back into the hole. Each circle was  rotated slightly so that it created a multi-coloured circle (a bit like a dartboard) in the middle of the layout.

I had a surplus white cardstock frame left over from a previous project I'd cut on the Silhouette and so I added this to the layout. I think the pops of white on the layout help to give it a fresh feel.

Using co-ordinating coloured embroidery threads I then stitched along some of the 'rays'. I used a pokey tool to prick out my stitching lines first and then used a back stitch to create the stitched lines.

Some matching sequins were added to the stitching here and there.

The positioning of the sequins and length of the stitched lines were all kept very random for added interest.

In my stash I found a circular sticker which I mounted on some card and stuck to the centre of the stitched rays.

My 4x6 photo of my son was matted with white cardstock and attached to the right side of the layout with 3D foam underneath. An older puffy phrase sticker from my stash was added to the bottom of the photo as a title.

I created some embelishments for the layout by fussy cutting some hearts from paper #15 and attached them to some die cut white card circles.

Using embroidery thread I stitched round the outside of each heart. Word strips (from Paige's older Bloom Street collection) were attached to each heart with 3D foam underneath and then the circles were attached to the layout, with more foam underneath.

Finally I added the date at the bottom of the layout with navy blue foam alphabet stickers.

Thanks for dropping by today. I hope this layout has given you an idea of how to use the starburst paper in this (and other) collection and perhaps also try handstitchign on you layouts. 

I'll be back later in the month with more form this collection and in the meantime take care, 

Karen x x