Home Décor Project with Little Yellow Bicycle

I've had the best time these last four weeks as a guest designer for Little Yellow Bicycle.  The Paradise collection has been right up my alley. I love the neutrals of this line. They just go with everything and really pop against a contrast color.

As I was looking at the patterns in the collection this week, it occurred to me that this line would look great framed in my house.  So that's exactly what I did: made a Paradise project and framed it.

To make this project, I gathered my favorite Paradise papers (um, all of them) and used a 2-inch square punch to punch out 30 squares. I laid them on an 8x10 piece of cream cardstock to form a grid: 5 down and 6 across.

I lightly tacked them down, then sewed across each row and down each column with a hot pink thread to pick up the magenta in the patterns and to add a pop of color.

The Paradise embellishments have so many fun quips and meaningful quotes. I decided to use this quote from the Tear-Out Tickets as the focal point of my home décor project: “Each day holds the possibilities for great opportunities and hidden joy.”

I love the meaning behind this expression: that each day is a fresh start, brimming with the possibility of good things.  It makes me happy just to think of that!   I also like the end of the quote about the “hidden joy.”  I don’t normally think of joy as hidden and I like this reminder that sometimes you have to look to find the joy.  That is true about life.  Sometimes we have to look and it’s good to be reminded.

So armed with this terrific quote, I set out to spotlight it. I stitched around the edges with teal thread, then embellished it with chipboard and cardstock stickers, and placed it on my grid. 

I had a nice brown frame with a thick 8x10 mat on our bookshelf, so I hijacked it for this project. By removing the thick mat, I had plenty of room under the glass for the chipboard embellies. I popped the quilted mat into the frame and added a sweet little birdie to the lower right corner.

I want to close this post by sending out a big, heartfelt thank you to Liz Qualman and the Little Yellow Bicycle crew. You were so generous to me and supportive of me and I thoroughly enjoyed my stint as the Guest Designer. I also want to send a big thank you to my blog readers, followers and commenters. You warm my heart.