I was in the mood to share a birthday layout after we just celebrated Jackson's 13th birthday this past weekend. I'm in absolute disbelief that I am now the mother of two teenagers. Where does the time go? It sure doesn't go slow, I know that!
To add a fun detail to the pictures of Jackson blowing out the candles on his 7th birthday, I decided to make some candles of my own. I always enjoy finding ways to work the details in my pictures into the design of my layout and candles are an easy-to-make embellishment that you can customize in several different ways. A few ideas:
• Use varying widths of candles.
• Use varying heights of candles.
• Use varying colors of candles.
• Use different shapes for the flames like circles, stars, or hearts.
• Add decorative detail to them like stamped designs or hand-stitching.
Here's how I made mine:
I started with 1/2" strips in varying heights for the candles and I adhered them so that they are slightly tucked behind the photos.
I knew that I wanted to add some stitching detail and I relied on my 6 x 12" Omnigrid ruler to help me.
This is my go-to ruler and it made the stitched design on the candles so easy. I knew I wanted to add angled lines down the middle of the candles and this ruler has angled guides that really come in handy for designs like this.
First I used my ruler and a pencil to draw the border lines. These are 1/8" away from the edges.
Then I started with the angled lines. I wanted my angled lines to all have the same angle and same distance between them. To start, I used one of the angled lines on the ruler and lined it up with the top edge of the candle strip. (shown below)
Then I used my pencil to draw that first line.
For the next line I used the lines on the ruler that are 1/4" from the edge. (shown below) I lined that 1/4" guide on top of the first angled line and then used my pencil to draw the next line. (I hope all the line, line, line speak doesn't get confusing!)
I then repeat the above step, using the 1/4" guide on the ruler to line up with the previous line, and continue the slanted lines down the whole strip.
After I had all the lines on the strips complete, I pierced the holes. Whenever I have designs like this with several meeting points, I like to pierce those meeting points first. (shown below)
I feel like it's much easier to have uniform spacing when you pierce meeting points first.
After the meeting points are pierced, I fill in the rest. Now I'm all set to stitch.
To complete the look of candles, I also added some flames that I cut on my Silhouette.
The candles in total did take some extra time to create with all of that stitching, but the rest of the layout is quite simple with 6x6 papers for the background pieces so I felt like I was allowed to spend a little more time on the details.
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