Welcome to February! I’ve always loved this month because of the opportunities to show others how important and loved they are. I rarely focus on my relationship when I scrapbook for several reasons; I don’t often get in the picture – I’m usually taking the picture; my children and grandchildren provide me with so many great photos, they are often my go to; and I can’t seem to keep up to date with scrapbooking everything I want to, therefore, I often prioritize other photos over ones focused specifically on my life. When the idea for this layout began forming, I really didn’t know what picture I’d use. However, as I worked away at meticulously stitching all those love knots, it became clear that this layout should be a gift of love for my husband.

I knew I wanted to stitch a heart as the focal point of my layout. My vision included filling the heart with lots and lots of “love knots” – tiny stitches that almost resemble small roses. Paige Evan’s “Split Heart” pattern was perfect for my design. You can find it in the Silhouette Design Store (Design ID 284925). Instead of cutting the design, I used a sketch pen to trace the pattern directly on the cardstock. Using a paper piercer, I manually punched holes around the edge of each heart section, and then punched holes inside for the love knots. I used 5 different shades, and all six strands of pale DMC floss to stitch the completed heart (DMC 689, 604, 761, 818, 3326). I’m not going to lie – this took hours to accomplish, but I broke it down over several days to make it more manageable. Here’s a few pictures of the progress stitching this huge heart.

Once the heart was completed I wasn’t happy with the amount of white space on the layout. I resized the cardstock slightly to allow for a paper boarder all around. The pink paper border is the back side of the Darling Buds paper from Cocoa Vanilla’s, More than Words collection. I adore this collection, and keep turning back to it for more and more layouts. After all the hours of stitching, I decided I didn’t want to cover up the stitched heart too much, so opted for only a couple of embellishments on the heart. All the tags and the word phrases also come from the More than Words collection. The word phrases that follow the outline of the heart, and “love this” photo tag, are from the sticker sheet that came with the purchase of this paper collection. The “remember this” banner is found in the matching ephemera package.

The date was added with Doodlebug Design’s “teensy type”, and I inserted a small Doodlebug pink heart between the day and year to complement the overall theme. The last design step was to come up with a title and a product for it. Thankfully, I have a habit of purchasing scrapbooking items I love long before I might need them! Enter the Starlight puffy letter stickers in pink, white and black, by thickers. Not only were they the perfect complement to the colours of my layout, the sheet provided two sizes of alphas to work with. The “It was Always YOU” title seemed so appropriate to me.

I love this man with all my heart and we’ve been fortunate to celebrate 40 years of marriage together. I can’t imagine life without him and I love how he makes me laugh every day! I hope he feels the love that went into every second of this layout.

Wishing you all a month filled with love! Happy Scrapping!