December 2021

Christmas Eve Memories | Joyful Collection | Danni Visser

Danni Visser 31/12/2021

Hello and Happy New Year to all our Cocoa Vanilla Studio friends! It’s Danni here, ready to get started with a brand new year of creative fun. I have lots of photos left over from my holiday celebrations to scrap, so today I am sharing another festive layout using our Joyful collection.

We have several Christmas traditions that have developed over the years with my little family, and one of my favourites is going out for dinner on Christmas Eve for South/East Asian food in our old neighbourhood. The photo I have chosen was from Christmas Eve 2019 where my son learned to use chopsticks for the first time – he did so well!

To begin the page I took a sheet of white cardstock and cut a Christmas tree background cutfile by COAPA Cutfiles using my digital cutting machine. Instead of using the outline cutfile, I took all the negative pieces and adhered them on top of Making Spirits Bright 12×12 patterned paper. This way the patterned paper peeks through all the gaps in the cutfile and creates a different texture than usual. I left some of the white pieces out so a few of the trees were a solid green for interest.

I wanted a fun bold title, and I noticed one of the double-sided 3×4 cards said ‘Christmas Eve’ which was perfect. I carefully fussy cut the letters from the card, then outlined them in black pen to make them stand out. I wanted a pop of red to prevent the green title blending into the green background, so I used the A5 paper stack to add some red paper behind my title and fussy cut around the outside to create a border. I finished off the title with a beautiful piece from the puffy gold title stickers.

I matted my two photos using the A5 paper stack and layered them slightly overlapping each other. Using the die cut ephemera I created three embellishment clusters – one either side of my photos and another at the bottom of the page. I used a cute animal embellishment in each of the clusters because I thought they looked as if they were frolicking through a forest of Christmas trees! I filled out the clusters with small foliage pieces, flags, a tree and a smattering of stars.

I adore the puffy stickers in this collection so I couldn’t resist adding a few puffy stars to each cluster. I used a sticker from the accessory stickers to add a few lines of journaling below my photo, then added a tiny puffy star to this as well. To add some extra details I added a bunch of messy splatters using distress oxide inks in green, pale pink and golden mustard.

I hope you enjoyed joining me for this layout today. Happy scrapping!

Danni x

Together | Joyful Collection | Laura Alberts

Laura Alberts 28/12/2021

Hey y’all! Laura Alberts here with a sweet Christmas layout using the gorgeous new Joyful collection. I fussy cut this stunning wreath from the Holly Days patterned paper and backed it onto the Feeling Festive paper. I love the way these little dots give the appearance of confetti bursting around the wreath! In addition to giving this wreath a 3D look by backing it on a different patterned paper, this fussy cut background brings the attention straight in to the photos.

For my title, I used the gold puffy words from the Joyful collection to add a simple ‘Together’ to the top of the wreath and drew my journaling lines underneath. This filled in the open white space above my photos and gave it a purpose. To add details to the wreath itself, I added gold Nuvo drops in the centers and white Nuvo drops around the outside. These tiny gold stars from the puffy words sheet were the perfect scattering bits to finish off this page!

Along the bottom of my photos, I added a swag of florals that I fussy cut from the Tis the Season patterned paper. This covered the connection between the photos and the bottom of the wreath and helped them blend more seamlessly together. My favourite part though was adding these puffy gold fabric stars around the wreath. These are such a beautiful touch to this collection!

If you’d like to see how ‘Together’ was created, be sure to check out the process video below! I hope you will give fussy cutting a try and see how you can elevate your scrapping with your scissors!

Joyful day | Joyful Layout | Anna Komenda

Anna Komenda 27/12/2021

Hello everyone. It’s Anna here with my last page in 2021! Staying in christmas mood I scrapbooked fresh from the oven photo of my girls under the christmas tree. I took it on Christmas Eve, that is the most celebrated day of christmas in Poland. We eat special supper that day and Star is bringing gifts to everyone, who was nice. If you thought it’s time to hide your christmas papers and collections until next year, hold your horses!!! Use them to make few pages with new photos and all the memories, that are still fresh in your head. Write everything down to read it next year. I don’t like adding journaling to my pages, where it’s visible so I usually write few words on the back of the layout. “Joyful” collection is just perfect for all the christmas photos – so cute, fresh and modern.

This layout was inspired by all the gifts under the chtistmas tree. I looked at them and thought it would be fun to mimic boxes on page and add photo as a gift tag. I went through the “Joyful” pattern papers and choose two that look like a wrapping paper: “Advent” and “Feeling festive“. I also added strips of red “Tis the season” as a ribbon with a dimensional bow. Smaller gift is decorated with strips of mint paper from A5 paper stack. My background paper is a little more busy. I decided to use “Making spirits bright” with super fun stars.

I printed my photo vertically and trimmed it to the size of rectangle, cutting of two corners with my tag corner punch. You can also use dies to cut this shape or just scissors. Next step was to make a hole and add circle of pattern paper as a decorative element. My photo tag was ready. Just make sure, that you picked the right photo that can be trimmed down to this quite narrow shape. You don’t want to cut off piece of head or whole arm of the person on the picture.

I decorated the photo and area around it using golden phrase stickers, chipboard stickers and few elements from ephemera pack. I didn’t want to overdo it so it still looks like a gift wrapping. Tag seems like hanging loose but I glued it down to the background so it won’t be destroyed while storing in the pile later.

I also added smaller tag to the other gift, this time without any photo on it. They are both decorated with bows that I made with strips of paper. You can use proper die if you have one but I was just too lazy to reach for it. I trimmed my bows with the scissors without measuring anything, trying to keepmthem simple. You can replace the paper with actual ribbon and make real bows with it. They will be harder to destroy while storing the layout.

I finished my page adding few stars fussy cut from “Making spirits bright” paper mixing them with gold glitter puffy stars. Thay are so cute and can be used whole year round, not only for christmas projects. This page came together pretty quickly thanks to my inspiration, found under the christmas tree. I had a vision in my head and just went with it.

You can easily recreate this page as a birthday one too! Just change patters and embellishments. You can add more gifts and more photos as a tags if you shrink them.

That is all for today and for this year. Thank you for stopping by and see you in 2022!

XO Anna

December Daily Days 1 & 2 | Joyful Collection | Melissa Vining

Melissa Vining 26/12/2021

Hi everyone, its Melissa here and I’m back to show you the first two days of my December Daily in my handmade Traveller’s Notebook. As I shared in my last blog post I’m creating my entire notebook with the gorgeous Joyful collection, which is so perfect for my summer photos! We also moved into our new house a month ago so this album will be so special to document new memories in our new town.

My Day 1 is always my kids with their Advent Calendars, and this is a tradition that we all love! Unfortunately Sam had already gone to school when this photo was taken. The large photo is of my 12 year old daughter Azaria wrapping gifts at church for our Christmas Boxes that we give to nominated people in our community. I kept things very simple with small areas of embellishment, and focussing on the photos and journalling.

I cut apart Advent which is perfect for numbering each day. I distressed the edges and outlined the square with my journaling pen. I can’t add any bulk or dimension to my album so outlining is a great way to add extra detail. I backed my photo with a paper from the A5 Paper Stack.

Day 2 was a super cute photo of Brielle (7) with her advent calendar and Azaria and I late night shopping. When I made my Notebook I included a piece of Deck the Halls paper to break up the white pages. For my large photo I cut a banner from one of the papers from the A5 Paper Stack and outlined it. I embellished with a fussy cut flower, a Puffy Star from the Puffy Gold Title Stickers, and a phrase from the Accessory Stickers.

The photo of Brielle printed with a small mark on the top of her hair. I covered this up with a santa hat from the Die Cut Ephemera. It looks so adorable!

For the second page I lined everything up centrally. I embellished with an ephemera tag and an accessory sticker. I love how this page looks with the patterned paper as the background.

I hope you enjoyed seeing two of my pages! I’m looking forward to creating this album now that the pre-Christmas craziness is over!

Take care

Melissa xx

CHRISTMAS JOY | JOSEFINE VD HOEVEN | JOYFUL COLLECTION

Josefine van der Hoeven 25/12/2021

Hello Paperlovers, Welcome to the Cocoa Vanilla blog today! It’s Josefine here….Have you had a nice Christmas and enjoyed the family moments together. Today I have a new Christmas themed layout for you. I think the Joyful collection is really a great Christmas collection. The soft but also some brighter colors make this collection beautiful.

I used the beautiful designer paper with the Christmas wreath for this layout. Love, love, love the beautiful wreath design and also so easy to use with all the great embellishments. I cut the center and glued a design paper behind it with golden dots.

I made two rosettes from the beautiful design papers. I punched out several leaves and stitched them with gold thread. I put everything in a wreath on the design paper and used adhesive tape and 3D foam. This way I create different layers. I cut different flowers from the design paper and put them between the leaves. I used die-cuts, stars, chipboard figures and puffy stickers to decorate my layout.

I cut the photo of my daughter during the holidays into a circle and placed it on top of the chipboard frame. Have you spotted the sweet little deer, what a cutie. I punched some white branches from white cardstock and placed them in between all the gorgeous embellishments.

For the title, I used the gold chipboard words Christmas and Joy. Perfect for this Christmas layout. I splash with white acrylic paint for a snow effect. I fold three 3D Christmas baubles by using 1 inch punch and placed them between the leaves and flowers. I am happy with the result of this layout. Simple, easy but with a cool Christmas result. I hope I was able to inspire you during the holidays. I want to thank you for visiting the blog today and hope to see you here again next time with a new project! I wish you happy days and see you soon!
XoXo, Jo

Cards for Christmas | Joyful collection | Michelle Stokes

Michelle Stokes 24/12/2021

Hello Hello and a very Merry Christmas to you all. It’s Michelle here today with a new festive crafty share using our beautiful Joyful Collection. I’ll keep this post short and sweet too, as I know you’re all probably out there enjoying the day with family.

I’ve been wanting to make some handmade cards for our immediate family at Christmas for years now, and this year I finally carved out some time to make some. The Joyful collection contains so many pretty elements that can easily be transformed into quick cards ready to pass along to loved ones near and far.

I made a couple different sizes of cards, the usual 4×6 size a 5×5 and a 6×6. All started with some white cardstock for the base of the card then a pattern paper background using the A5 paper stack. Smaller prints make the perfect background for smaller projects.

Each card has a different design while incorporating similar elements. Fussy cut florals from the ‘Tis the season‘ paper and some tiny gold puffy stars from the Puffy title stickers pack

A couple of them have accessory stickers, ephemera pieces and chipboard words

And each of them have machine stitching for a little extra detail

I cant quite pick a favourite out of the mix as all of them turned out so cute. I’m going to find it hard to figure out who gets what card, but I cant wait to give them out later today.

Well thats all from me today, I did promise short and sweet on this festive day. Thanks so much for taking the time out of your busy day to check in and see my creations. I wish you all a wonderful festive weekend!

Until next time, Happy Scrapping, food eating and present opening.

Michelle x

Christmas Joy | Joyful Collection | Kylie Kingham.

Kylie Kingham 23/12/2021

Hello friends! It’s Kylie back with you today and I have another layout to share featuring the new ‘Joyful’ collection. I wanted to create a layout for the festive season based on lots of colour and dimension on the page. Since the papers of the ‘Joyful’ collection have the most beautiful colour palette I knew I could achieve this quite easily.

Using a ruler I began tearing strips of paper from many of the different designs. They were all torn at different widths and lengths and once I had a good selection I began layering them over the FEELING FESTIVE paper which would be my background page. I made sure to use the longer and wider pieces through the centre of the page, moving out to the shorter and more narrow. Once I was happy with the placement of each strip I used my fingers to fold and distress the edges a little further.

My photo was trimmed to measure 4.75″x 3.75″ and was adhered to a photo mat I cut from paper to measure 5″x4″. Once I had adhered it into place over the background I was able to embellish with some of the gorgeous die cuts. I created a title using the chipboard stickers placed over the lower portion of my photo.

This type of layout was really quick to create and would be a great way to use up a lot of left over strips pf paper. It would also be a great option for a double page layout.

Thanks for stopping by today. Wishing you and your families a wonderful festive season.

Kylie.

Family Memories | Joyful collection | Tarrah McLean

Tarrah McLean 22/12/2021

Hi creative friends and Merry Christmas!

It’s Tarrah back with you today, I hope you are not going to crazy in this busy time of year and that you are getting some time to relax and enjoy your family or perhaps some crafting time?

I am very excited to be sharing a new layout with you featuring the gorgeous Joyful collection.

I decided to create a layout with some clusters built up at the top and bottom of my page, the bottom cluster includes the photo of my beautiful nieces dressed in their Christmas jumpers (they live in England) to go to school recently. They are so adorable and this photo had perfect colours to match with the Joyful collection. I placed my title, made up of the gold title puffy stickers, in the centre of the page to balance out the top and bottom clusters.

On the right of my photo, I just had to add the super cute bear die-cut from the Ephemera pack! He is just gorgeous and it suits the page so well, looking as though he is cuddling up next to the girls. Under the photo, I layered the oval frame die-cut and placed one of the small puffy stickers at the top of the photo. To the left of the photo I added the tag die-cut and the super cute rabbit die-cut too. At the top I added some more tags with twine through the holes.

Some of the smaller embellishments I added were some of the gorgeous wood epoxy buttons and some of the chipboard icons. I also popped up some of the star die-cuts with foam tape and scattered these down the page to tie in the top and bottom clusters together. Lastly I stamped the date stamp and sprinkled some gold mist around my page.

Thanks for stopping by the Cocoa Vanilla blog today! I hope you enjoyed my layout as much as I enjoyed creating it?!

Check out the Cocoa Vanilla store if you would like to purchase the gorgeous Joyful collection!

Happy creating and wishing you all a very Merry Christmas from my family to yours.

Tarrah x

3D Christmas Crackers and Gift Tags | Joyful Collection| Rachel Lowe

Rachel Lowe 21/12/2021

Hello CVS friends, well the Christmas countdown is almost done and today I have some quick and easy gift tags and Christmas crackers created using the new Joyful collection!

I love Christmas wrapping and making my gifts extra special. I use brown paper and then decorate with my tags and ribbon. I used the 6×8 Joyful paper pad to create these, I love the smaller prints of these papers which are perfect for smaller items. My tags are 3×4 inches which gives you enough space to decorate.

On two of my tags I created a 3d heart so you can add a note inside, this cut file is from the Silhouette design store. I chose my colour hues so they coordinated but also provided a contrast against my brown paper wrapping. I used a mix of Joyful die cut ephemera, chipboard and puffy stickers to decorate. The puffy stickers are perfect when you are creating smaller paper crafts.

I created a sequin shaker on the third tag. I used the Christmas tree shaped sequin shaker dome by Sizzix, they are cheap and so easy to use! I filled mine with a sequin mix I made by combining numerous sequins from my stash.

See how perfect the puffy stickers are for decorating the Christmas tree finished off with a glitter star and wooden flair.

I used a cut file from SVG cuts to create my crackers, I love the heart opening/closing ends. These are big enough to add sweet treats or small gifts.

These tags and gift crackers are so cute and Joyful is a wonderful modern Christmas collection that can be used for more then just scrapbook layouts.

I wish you all a wonderful and safe Christmas with family and friends. I can’t wait to share more inspiration with you in 2022!

Rachel X

BAKING SPIRITS BRIGHT | JOYFUL COLLECTION | SOPHIE DELORME

Sophie Delorme 20/12/2021

Hello Cocoa Vanilla friends!

It’s Sophie with you today ! It’s almost Christmas !! Who’s ready ??! Who’s been baking like crazy ??!

I have and like every year around Christmas, we prepare tons of different deserts and cookies and pastries ! I had to highlight that on a layout !

I used the beautiful Joyful collection for this page.

I started by creating a soft mixed media background on thick white cardstock on the upper side of the page, where I planned to put my big title.

I bought this title cut file from the Silhouette Store. It’s designed by SAS Creative. I cut the three words on different patterned papers from the A5 Paper Stack. I also did an offset cut on white cardstock to back each letter, and mounted them on adhesive foam before adhering them to the layout.

I teared a big chunk of the “Very Merry” patterned paper that I placed at the bottom of the page to ground my photo.

I embellished around it with beautiful elements from the Joyful Die Cut Ephemera Pack and fussy cut flowers and wreaths from the “’Tis The Season” and “Very Merry” patterned papers.

I fussy cut numerous stars out of the “Making Spirits Bright” paper that I placed around the title, and added a few Wood Buttons as the finishing touch.