Colors of my Heart

I am sure this layout looks like it must have taken me forever! I will admit that it did take some time, but it’s fun time! This is the kind of project I love to work on when I am sitting outside and watching the kids play or when I just want to sit and watch a movie. Lately, when I am creating something I really try to incorporate new things. I try to push myself creatively and show others that if I can do it anyone can!! On this layout the new things for me were creating a custom shape from hole punches and then machine stitching the shape. I’ve never machine stitched anything other than a straight line so this was a definite first for me. I was really scared that I would mess it up after I took all the time to make the shape, so I did test out stitching in a heart shape on some scrap paper before I actually started on my layout. Even after the testing I still held my breath the whole time I was stitching, but it was worth it because looking at this layout makes me happy to have tried something new!


To make the heart shape I started with some scraps of papers (all American Crafts) in a rainbow array. Then I grabbed my hole punch and punched out a bunch of circles from each. I kept them separated into individual bowls.

Then I cut a 4” heart using the Making Memories Slice for my template.


I put the heart on a piece of 12”x12” white cardstock with some removable adhesive. Then starting with the purple I layered the circles around the outside of the heart. I used a glue stick as my adhesive here so I could move the circles around as needed to get them how I wanted and to prevent my needle from getting all gunked up when I stitched it later. After I had the row of purple done I removed the heart template.


I continued layering my circles around the heart in rows of rainbow color. After I had my heart complete and the glue was dry I stitched each row of colors using a straight machine stitch. (If you do not have a sewing machine this layout would look just as nice without the stitching!)


Once the heart was done I was ready to finish my layout. I cut the cardstock down to 10.5”x10.5” and mounted it a base piece of 12”x12” American Crafts Patterned Paper. (note: I started with a 12”x12” and cut it down after I finished the heart because I knew my heart wouldn’t be perfect, but I would want to have it centered on my layout. This gave me some playing room to cut it down). I stitched the cardstock and the patterned paper together for a cohesive look.

Lisa Day
http://www.lisaday.typepad.com/