Maggie Holmes Chasing Dreams | Hello Adventure | with Pol Prince

Hi guys! Pol here today to share with you a layout using one of my very favourite techniques - hand stitching.

Ever since I saw Amanda's beautiful mandala page I've been wanting to do a stitched mandala. My go to method at the moment is to print a template off the Internet and use it to poke holes through.

I found this beautiful mandala that a clever friend (Wildchild Designs) made for paper cutting - another hobby of mine! 

I printed it off, stuck it to the front of my 12x12 card with washi tape, and poked holes through it where I wanted them. I had to simplify the design slightly in order for it to translate well to stitching. 

I just used normal DMC embroidery thread, but to create a bit of interest, rather than using all one flat colour, I used this amazing pink ombre thread. 

It actually didn't take as long as I thought it would to stitch, which I quite enjoy anyway. When it was finished it looked amazing and I did wonder how I'd be able to bring myself to stick anything over the top of it!

I decided to go for a smallish photo and minimal embellishments, however it didn't work out much that way, these things never do! Lisa Rukin Swift's technique has obviously rubbed off on me and I now find myself adding All The Things to a page!

This photo of my gorgeous sister and beautiful niece went perfectly with the pink I'd chosen for my mandala, as did the lovely Maggie Holmes 'Chasing Dreams' collection, and some 'Bloom' too.

I absolutely adore the Garden Club paper that I fussy cut the roses from, and the My Darling paper that I fussy cut the bramble leaves from. I was enjoying tucking them all around my photo so much that I forgot it was supposed to be minimal! LOL!

I balanced the page out with some little clusters of embellishments and stickers in the top corners of the page.

Thank you for reading, and if you'd like to purchase any Maggie Holmes, or any other collections, from the Paper Issues Store, you can use code: Pol for 20% off!