This summer sure seems to be flying by. I can’t believe it’s almost August! My kids are in a rush to get in as many swimming days as they can before school starts in two weeks. I think I’m in a rush to share as many swimming layouts as I can before the cooler temps take over.
The theme of the layouts I’ve been sharing here so far this summer seem to all have one thing in common, flourishes and splashes. It’s no secret that it’s one of my favorite elements to add to a layout.
On “Cool in the Pool” I added some small splashes around the title. This time I drew the splashes on my layout and then hand-stitched them with two different colors of embroidery floss. To finish the look, I added some small enamel dots to represent drops of water.
I have two big reasons that I love adding hand-stitched elements on my page. One is that I love the texture and dimension it adds and two, you can add it to your layout in so many different ways. One way that I often enjoy adding some hand-stitching is by hand drawing a design like I did on this layout. There are two ways you can add your hand-drawn designs for hand-stitching to your layout:
1. Draw the design directly on your page. The biggest tip I can give you will be to make sure you have a really good eraser. I have found that pink erasers are not as good and will leave smudges. White erasers work so much better and leave your paper clean and smudge free. I’m not the greatest at drawing, so erasers have been a life saver!
2. Draw the design on a piece of paper. After you are satisfied with your design, lightly adhere it with removable adhesive where you want on your layout and then pierce the holes. I recommend using copy paper or even tracing paper so you can see through the paper exactly where it will be placed on your layout. If you can cut around your design and get as close to the drawing as possible it will also help with getting it placed where you want.
I’ve used both methods quite a bit and both have worked well. I will say, most of the time I will just draw directly on the layout because I’ve done it enough that I’m comfortable with it. (And, I’m really confident in my eraser!) However, when you are dealing with multiple layers of papers and photos, sometimes it’s hard to draw over the creases and edges of the papers. That’s when drawing the design on a piece of paper first can really help out.
Paper and embellishments are from Simple Stories "So Rad"
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