Maggie Holmes Woodland Grove Embellishment book

 Hello again, Julie here with a fun embellishment book I made using the gorgeous Woodland Grove collection.  This collection has some gorgeous darker greens as well as some beautiful floral patterns and everyones favourite, butterflies!

I was inspired by a Youtube tutorial by Cutesy Shelf to make the base shell of the book.  The book is 4.25" x 6" once complete. The basic shell of the book requires two sheets of Bazzill cardstock cut to these sizes 10.5" x6", 6.25"x6", 4.5"x6", 4.25"x4.5", 5.75"x4", 5"x3.5", 7.5"x4.75", 5.75"x3.75" and scored.  I have received a book like this before and it was filled with everyday die cuts in golds and pinks that I reach for all the time.  I use the embellishment books I make to store excess die cuts that I make as I like to cut a few at a time.

You can alter these embellishment books to suit your needs, I have previously made one with an extra pocket and flap on a plain page, the beauty of these projects is that you can play around and do what works for you.  Once the base of the book was complete, the fun part started!  I used Walk In The Woods , Menagerie and Bold Beauty and cut the pieces into slightly smaller sizes than the original base pieces to create accent pieces for the pages.  

I couldn't resist stitching all the pieces with gold stitching and adding some acetate on top of some pieces to make shaker pockets too. In some places I have not trimmed the thread to add a bit of texture and interest.

For the front page I made a shake pocket by stitching a piece of acetate to the background paper.  I then added a gold spiral circle I had cut out and began layering the beautiful floral ephemera on top of the circle.  I added a crepe paper and tuille ruffle I made to add height and then layered more ephemera on top.  The sticker book  had a lot of clear phrase stickers in it which I found a little tricky to use, however I layered it on top of a beautiful foiled flower and it worked perfectly.

For the second page I, again, layered lots of ephemera pieces and utilised the gorgeous washi strips and label stickers that were inside the sticker book.  There were so many options which made this project easy.  The floral ephemera also included clear acetate pieces which I added on top of my flower.  The acetate butterfly added a beautiful subtle extra piece of texture.  I also glued some sequin clusters to this page simply by putting a large pool of glue down and then putting sequins on top! 

As we go further into the embellishment book I created a page using a washi strip and some stickers from the sticker book to create a decorated pocket.  I would possibly be stumped to find a use for a peacock sticker but it added a lovely detail to the simple paper in the background.

On another pocket I decided to use the "this is the good stuff" clear sticker, however it didn't stand out very well when placed flat onto the label sticker so I used foam tape and raised it up to add a bit of extra dimension.  I additionally used some crepe paper from my collection to add ruffles to match the pink flowers on this gorgeous paper.

For the final largest pocket I decided to make it a shaker again and used stickers from the sticker book to mirror the paper underneath.  I also added velcro dots to make the pocket close more securely.  

Don't forget to have a look at our Instagram page where I will be showing a flip through of this book so you can see it a bit more clearly. I hope you have a go at making an embellishment book, they are worth the effort and can fit so many die cuts inside!  Later this month I will be back with little gift boxes using Woodland Grove xx