Flourish into April with Maggie Holmes!

Hey Magpies, Rachel here today with the lovely Flourish collection from Maggie Holmes. I hope everyone is having a very happy Easter! Grab a cuppa and settle down for a few moments and have a look at what I’ve created this month.
I worked with Flourish last month as well, I had so much left and enjoyed using it so I carried on and used it this month too. It’s a lovely collection and it works with all previous Maggie Holmes collections too, so it’s very versatile. I love the Floral Die-Cut Ephemera pack, there’s some beautiful pieces in the pack, and there’s loads as well, it’s so easy to use.

Check out these Ombre Phrase Thickers from the Amy Tangerine, Sunshine & Good Times collection. They’re puffy and ombre, a great combination and I also love the size of the phrases, they make a good impact without being too big. The colours are so lush and I think the phrases in this pack are good ones that are useable. Sometimes I find I love a pack of phrase Thickers but I don’t use them cause they’re a bit too, best day ever and they never fit a page. But these ones are great, I highly recommend them.

I really wanted to use the Poppy paper with the lovely green hearts on it. This paper isn’t in the 12×12 Paper Pad so if you want it and you were just ordering the pad, remember to add this paper extra. I started with a rectangle of paper, off centre on my background. This is a favourite of mine and I do it all the time, it always works! I used a strip of the thin pink washi tape from the Flourish Washi Tape Set, above and below my paper. I’ll talk more about the washi tape below because it definitely deserves a paragraph of it’s own! I made some little clusters from bits of ephemera from the Botanicals Die-Cut Ephemera pack and put them either side of my photo. I used Amy Tangerine Ombre Phrase Thickers for my title. Then I added some Nuvo Crystal Drops in Bright Gold and Carnation Pink.


This is the Flourish Die-Cut Ephemera pack and like the Botanicals pack, it’s a bit flippen lush! There’s loads in the pack, it will last for ages and there’s some really awesome bits in there. You definitely need this if you’re buying the collection, it has vellum pieces as well as some gorgeous tags.
I must admit, the cost of the Washi Tape Set did have me wondering if I needed it, and I didn’t order it the first time around. But I am SO glad I ordered it in my second top up of Flourish goodies. Seriously, I was not a big washi tape user until last year. Now I love the stuff! It’s so easy to just add a strip here and a strip there and I’ve used it on every single LO this month! The tapes in this pack are all lush, there’s a rose gold foiled one and some skinny ones too. It’s so worth the money and I know I’ll be really glad I have this pack when I pull out this collection to use later on. You do need to buy these, they are so worth it and they’re super lush!
With this LO, I started with a border of different Washi Tapes and then I simply layered up a whole bunch of stuff from the Die-Cut Ephemera pack. I also used a couple of the cards from the Memorable Paper. Usually when I get a paper like that one with different journalling cards etc on it, I cut it apart and put the cards in a little dish on my table. Then I can have a dig through along with the dishes with Ephemera in. I used some of the 12×12 Chipboard Stickers and the title is Glitter Phrase Thickers from an older Amy Tangerine collection, Hustle & Heart. I’ve dotted around my washi tape border with Nuvo Crystal Drops in Woodland Green, Dandelion Yellow, Bubblegum Blush and Bright Gold. I loved the Pom Pom Frames in the Good Vibes collection so, so much, I bought multiple packs of them! I also started making my own and I made this one here with black glitter cardstock and white pom pom trim. It definitely didn’t work as well as the pre-made ones from Good Vibes, but practice makes perfect and I’ll keep trying!


I love Standout Layered Embellishments and this pack from Flourish is gorgeous! I loved them so much, I bought a second pack for my stash! I took part in a LO a day challenge in February and I really enjoyed pulling out old collections and using them. I am a bit distraught that I don’t have much left of some of my favourite collections, so from now on, I am making sure I stock up on collections I love, for the future. I also find that I never, ever, regret having embellishments. So I don’t have any regrets in buying multiple packs of embellishments to go with my papers! The butterflies in this pack are so easy to pop on a LO, they go with pretty much everything!

Now these black & white striped Fabric Bows are from the Maggie Holmes collection before Flourish, Carousel. I adore them and I think I’m on to my 3rd pack of these! I just think these are perfect, firstly, they’re black and white stripes! Then, the size is just spot-on, not too big and not too small and thirdly, they’re not that fat or bulky either so they won’t chunk out your page protectors. I love these so much and as I said above, I will be stocking up on these for the future, seriously, they go with everything!!

So from not using much paper on my other LO’s, I used quite a bit on this one. I started with the Rose Park Paper from the older Maggie Holmes Carousel collection, this paper is amazing as a border, I love it loads and have used it so many times. I have been furiously stocking up on this one lol! Then I used the two blue papers from the 12×12 Paper Pad but they didn’t quite work on the border, so I added a small border of pink as well with the Fragrant Paper, another one that isn’t available in the paper pad so you need to add that one separately. I embellished this LO with the vellum bird from the Die-Cut Ephemera pack, the beautiful day and a butterfly from the Standout Layered Embellishments, a sticker from the 6×12″ Accent Stickers and one of the Carousel Fabric Bows. I also added a strip of Washi Tape and some Bubblegum Blush Nuvo Drops. My title is made from old stash, the smile was a Heidi Swapp Minc word and the Thickers are old as well.

Funny fact about this LO, I lost the G from girls walking around the house with the LO and I can’t find it anywhere! Of course it was my last one in the pack wasn’t it lol! I’m hoping it’ll turn up sometime *fingers crossed*.

I love the 12×12 Chipboard Stickers from this collection, that peacock! I haven’t actually used it on a LO yet, it needs to go on a really special LO that does (so it will be hoarded forever, but that’s fine lol!). But there’s some gorgeous stickers on the sheet, they’re lush!

The Wood Veneer Frames are quite special as well. The packaging is great too, you can use the newspaper print cardboard on your LO’s as well as the frames! The frames are really pretty on their own, they’re wood veneer with a laser embossed pattern. I decided to try something different with them though and painted some white for my LO.

My last LO, I had got a pack of pretty coloured doilies and was desperate to use them. So I layered them behind my Wood Veneer Frames. There are some similar doilies in the store, here but they look even better because they’re vellum! I created some borders on my LO because it needed something so I cut a frame from the Grandiflora Paper and then did an extra border of Carnation Pink Nuvo Drops and I also added some strips of Washi Tape too. I dotted around some 6×12″ Accent Stickers, another of the Standout Layered Embellishment butterflies and the hearts are from the 12×12″ Chipboard Sticker sheet.


I hope you are inspired by the Maggie Holmes Flourish collection, it is super lush and definitely worthy of a place in your stash. Happy Easter to all the Magpies out there and I hope you’re all having a fabulous weekend. I already have my hands on the Heidi Swapp, Hawthorne collection and I will be beavering away with that this month and back with more layouts for you on May 1st. See you then Magpies!