Love This Girl / Paige Evans DT

Hey friends! I'm here today with a new layout for the Paige Evans Design Team featuring Paige’s new Chevrons stencil, her Love This Girl cut file, and a mix of papers and embellishments from four of her collections: Bloom Street, Pick-Me-Up, Truly Grateful, and Whimsical.

I first cut the Love This Girl cut file from Pick-Me-Up Paper 04 using my Silhouette Cameo. Once I had it arranged with the photo, I started working on the background. I used textured white cardstock as my base, and I coated it with clear gesso first. Since the large title was mostly blue shades, I wanted bright contrasting colors on the background. I used Distress Oxides with an ink blending tool over the Chevrons stencil. I used a water brush to blend a lot of the ink, giving it a runny effect. I also splattered some white acrylic paint to give it more interest.

I did a bit of embossing with a piece of wood veneer from the Truly Grateful Mixed Embellishments. I used gold embossing powder to give the “yes” piece some sparkle.  I chose to cut the smaller flowers from the 6x8 Paper Pads instead of the 12x12 papers because the bigger flowers would cover up the title.  I needed smaller bits to enhance it so it would still be visible.  And I love that you can easily bend up the edges :)

I wanted to bring in a pop of the navy blue here under this flower die cut, so I did that with dark blue thread.

Once I had the background and title complete, I instantly thought of adding lots of flowers in those rich colors. I fussy cut lots of them from the Truly Grateful 6x8 Paper Pad and 12x12 Paper Pad papers. I wanted a few larger ones to layer around the photo and even more smaller ones to layer around the title. I popped the title up using adhesive foam to create dimension and also tucked in tangled thread in a few places.

I love the contrast in these colors. You can see the stencil work on the background and how the water allowed the inks to bleed and blend together. I layered lots of the flowers on top of some of the letters. I did cut a few from the Bloom Street 6x8 Paper Pad, too. The multi-colored leaves are from the Truly Grateful 6x8 Paper Pad. I decided to add gold splatters all over the page since I had embossed the wood veneer in gold.

Here’s a close-up of the background. I like using textured cardstock for this technique because it just adds to the awesome effect once it dries. This is a fun way to do “watercolor” without getting too messy. It starts out as ink, but just the tiniest bit of water gives a whole different look. Adding foam under the title really makes a big difference. I love the shadow effect and how it makes everything just pop right off the page.

I smudged a white ink pad around the edges of the title letters to give them a bit of interest.  This is an easy & subtle way to make a solid paper look a bit distressed.  And just by popping them off the page makes such a big impact, I think.

I also wound up adding smaller butterflies that I fussy cut from a Whimsical 12x12 Paper Pad paper. Here you can see the effect of the splattered white paint.  It lightens things up, adds texture and it just looks cool!

One more :)

I hope this gives you some ideas to try on your next layout. Be sure to check out Paige’s stencils and cut files - they are matches made in heaven!  I have a process video is you're interested :)

Thanks so much for stopping by and have a great day!