Hi everyone, today I am sharing my latest Cocoa Vanilla Studio design team project with you.
This week we are doing a scraplift theme with a twist, as the team have been tasked with scraplifting ourselves! I have to admit, it was a great excuse to look back over some of my Cocoa Vanilla projects from years gone by, but the task of choosing one was a bit like choosing a favourite child. In the end I decided on a layout from back in November 2018. It was created for the “Throwback Thursday” feature and I used the ‘Life is Beautiful’ collection, which was actually released back in Cocoa Vanilla’s first year back in 2015. This collection remains one of my all-time faves, and I still have some of it lovingly hoarded in my stash.
Here is my original layout…
For once, I actually scraplifted a layout and stuck pretty much to the original design. This was partly because I wanted to see if it would hold up to the test of time, but it was also because I was sick with COVID and was lacking in mojo and energy. So this scraplift couldn’t have come at a better time for me.
As you can see, I stuck very closely to my original design. I chose to document a photo of myself and my family in front of our new house that we recently purchased, and I knew this collection would be perfect for it. In particular, it was the Neighbourhood paper with all the sweet little houses that I had in mind. I combined this with the spotty print of the Take Flight paper and some strips of the pretty orange leafy pattern of the Wall of Fame paper as the base of my design. To add texture, I lightly distressed the outer edges of my papers.
With papers in place, it was time to start working on the other components. I decided to add two elements that I include on most of my current layouts that were missing from the original page – frayed gauze and a paper doily. I opted for a dark charcoal doily to tie in with the black of my photo, and I layered them on the background before sticking my photo on top.
Alongside my photo, I added the no place like home 3×4″ card from the Pocket Cards pack; whilst the oh happy day quote along the bottom edge of the photo was from the cut apart The Good Life paper.
I used pieces from the Floral Ephemera pack as the basis for my embellishment and title clusters. I added foam tape behind some of the flowers as I layered them, and I also bent the petals up away from the page to add dimension. In the cluster around the bottom left corner of my photo I added one of the Wood Epoxy Buttons to mimic the flair button from the original layout.
For the title cluster above my photo, I used the word home from the Foam Title Stickers, flowers from the Floral Ephemera pack and the small sweet flag from the Die Cut Ephemera pack. Being the butterfly lover I am, and also as a nod to all the butterflies on my original page, I couldn’t resist adding one of the butterflies (also from the ephemera pack).
A few finishing touches included a label from the Accessory Sticker sheet for my journalling and the date; small hearts from the Puffy Stickers pack added to my photo; and some small splatters of black ink around the page.
If you would like to see exactly how this page came together, you can watch my process video here:
That's all from me today, thanks for stopping by. Let me know in the comments (either here, on my Facebook page, or on my YouTube channel) if there is anything you would like to see from me - such as a specific product you would like to see me use or a technique you would like to see me do.
Hi everyone, popping in today to share my latest Cocoa Vanilla Studio design team project with you. For this one I decided to pull out my supplies of the beautiful 'These Days' collection as I still have plenty in my stash left to play with and was dying to use it again. I also had a sweet photo of my boys together that I took last year when they were heading off to their first school disco. Although they might be twins, you can see that they are very different and both have their own individual styles, which I thought was summed up quite well in this shot.
Despite the fact this range has quite a broad palette of soft colours, I decided to focus on predominantly the blue and green tones combined with the wood grain for my background. Before I moved onto my papery layers however, I really wanted to add some depth to the background by adding some paint and stamping. I used a white Mont Marte paint applied with a brayer, which also helped me to define the focal area of my page. Over the top of the paint, I used a brick pattern stamp from Viva Las VegaStamps with a grey ink.
For the papery layers over my background, I used a few papers from the A5 Paper Stack which I cut and tore to size. I also added a grey paper doily from my stash, a strip from the cut apart paper, and some frayed gauze for texture. My photo also had some scrap cardboard adhered to the back of it to help pop it up from the page.
For my embellishments, I started with the Die Cut Ephemera pack. I chose a doodled frame first, which I cut in half and tucked half in under the right edge of my photo. I often use frames in this way (cut into pieces and tucked into layers) as opposed to the way they were designed to be used. I also chose the stack of books from the ephemera pack as I thought this worked well with the fact it was a school disco the boys attended.
I used the gorgeous Mini Puffy Alpha stickers for my title, as I didn't want to detract from all the delicate elements I had on the page. I love these alphas sooo much, they are a perfect size and such a pretty mix of colours. Along with the puffy alphas, I also added some of the Puffy Stickers to my page - a heart, a flower and a butterfly (because you can never have too many butterflies!)
There were plenty of regular Accessory Stickers on this page too - you can see how I used the tab and flag amongst the cascade of embellishments alongside my photo, and there were several phrase stickers used as well. From the Clear Stickers sheet I used three small clusters of crosses and a green brush stroke. This coordinated beautifully with the green Epoxy Wood Button that I also included.
I finished off my layout with handwritten journalling; stamped phrases and date; and some black stamped doodled circles and dots (stamp from Viva Las VegaStamps).
I have a process video available for this layout. If you would like to see how it came together you can watch it here:
Thanks so much for stopping by today so I could share this with you. Until next time, happy scrapping! X
Hi everyone, today I am popping in to share another layout I created earlier this month for Cocoa Vanilla Studio using the gorgeous new 'These Days' collection. As this range has such a lovely home / family theme I decided to document one of my favourite ever family photos. This photo of the five of us was taken not long after we had finally brought our boys home. After being born prematurely, we spent over 10 weeks (which at the time felt like forever) in hospital and just looking at this photo reminds me of the elation I felt when we were finally able to be a family at home.
I knew I wanted to use a patterned paper background for my page, but I started with a sheet of white cardstock as the base. I chose 3 papers - the tiny heart print Good Life; the adorable house print Neighbourhood and the spotty green Family Ties. Starting from the left edge, I added various sized vertical strips of paper, slightly distressing the overlapping edge as I went.
For my photo, I added two layers of patterned paper to mat it – the black and white floral and the wood grain print, both from the A5 Paper Stack. On top of those paper layers I also added some frayed gauze for texture before adding some cardboard and then my photo on top.
I then turned my attention to my embellishments, beginning with the Wall of Fame patterned paper with all the doodled frames on it. I fussy cut three of the frames, and then tucked them in around my photo to create the bases for my embellishment clusters.
For the cluster in the top right corner of my photo I used the home sweet home sticker from the Accessory Sticker sheet, which I placed inside the frame I had tucked there. I then chose several floral pieces from both the Die Cut Ephemera pack and the Floral Ephemera pack and tucked them in around the frame. I then added a small heart and small butterfly – both from the Puffy Stickers sheet; a small Wood Button; and a couple of leafy branches from the Foam Title Stickers pack. I also added a die cut butterfly to the corner of my photo.
To keep my design cohesive, I used the same types of embellishments in the cluster on the bottom left corner of my photo – Die Cut Ephemera, Floral Ephemera, Wood Buttons, Puffy Stickers and Foam Title Stickers. I topped this cluster with the oh happy day! sticker from the Accessory Sticker sheet. I arranged this cluster so that it trailed towards the bottom left corner of my page, which helped give my layout design a horizontal flow through the photo from top right to bottom left.
My title was the focus of my final cluster, along the bottom edge of my photo. I used the fussy cut frame I had placed there as the spot for the first word of my title, finally, which I created using the Mini Puffy Alphas. (These alphas are so gorgeous, and one of my very favourite things from this collection.) For the second word of my title, I used the word together from the Foam Title Stickers pack. These stickers are a beautiful script font, and a lovely charcoal colour. I love mixed font titles, and I think the combination of these two styles look great together. Below my title I added a brush stroke sticker and a small cluster of crosses from the Clear Stickers sheet.
Along the left edge of my layout, I added a couple of sweet phrase stickers from the Accessory Sticker sheet so that they ran vertically in line with the layered paper strips. And that was my layout done!
I am loving working with this collection so far; it’s one of those ones that is just so easy to work with, and I love how many embellishments there are to choose from! If you haven’t gotten your hands on it yet, ask your favourite scrappy retailer, or check with a stockist from the stockist listHERE
Hi everyone, I know I have some catching up to do here. Life has been pretty complicated at my end lately and I have to admit, I have been struggling. I know there are lots of others out there who are also struggling for a variety of reasons, so I am sending hugs to all of you.
Today I am sharing the very first layout I created a little while ago using the new ‘These Days’ collection from Cocoa Vanilla Studio. I have been crushing on this collection since Zoe revealed it, but I think I fell in love with it even more once the box was actually in my hands and I could touch everything. And believe me, there is SO much to love in this collection with more embellishments than we have ever had before!
I have to admit, whenever I get a new collection to play with I am always overwhelmed to start with because there is just so much to choose from, so it takes me a little bit of time to cut into it. It was for this reason that I decided to keep things simple for my first layout to document a sweet photo of my daughter and one of my sons taking a nap together on the couch.
I started my page with a sheet of white cardstock as the base and I chose two patterned papers to use for my background. The first was the beautiful watercolour striped Family Ties paper, which reminded me of the t-shirt my daughter was wearing in the photo. The second was the Wall of Fame paper, which features adorable hand drawn frames. I cut a couple of wide strips from each paper, distressed the edges a bit, and then adhered them to the cardstock in an alternating pattern, leaving a small space between each one.
I then matted my photo using the smaller scale version of the black and white floral print of the Neighbourhood paper from the A5 Paper Stack. I also added a white paper lace doily from my stash and some frayed gauze for soft texture.
Once my photo was in place I set about adding my embellishments around it. My plan was to create a cluster in the bottom left corner, the top right corner, and the bottom right corner. I used pieces from the Floral Ephemera pack to create my layered cluster in the bottom left corner, adding foam tape under some of the flowers for dimension. I also added a sweet little Wood Button in one of the flower centres.
In the top right corner of my photo I again used pieces from the Floral Ephemera pack as the basis of my layered cluster. This was where I also chose to place my title, overlapping the top edge of my photo. I used the word sweet from the Foam Title Stickers and paired it with the new Mini Puffy Alpha Stickers to form the word slumber. (I am in loooove with these alphas!) I also added a small blue butterfly from the Puffy Stickers nearby.
In the bottom right corner of my photo I used a few pieces from the Die Cut Ephemera pack – the sweet little house, the picture perfect moments banner and a small heart. I also added the little blue home flag from the Puffy Stickers set. I finished off with some of the tiny little black leaves from the Foam Title Stickers, my handwritten journaling inside one of the frames on the background paper, and some splatters of black ink.
If you would like to watch my process to see how it all came together, check out my video on my YouTube channel here:
