September 2022

Love This | Storyteller Collection | Laura Alberts

 

Hey y’all! Laura Alberts back again with a fun art sculpture inspired layout! Back in April, my son and I visited a beautiful sculpture garden in Twin Lakes, Minnesota, USA. It was such a fun, quirky place to explore art and experience sculpture in a new way. I decided to channel the quirky feel of the garden with this layout using the Storyteller collection! Using the Cross It Off patterned paper for my background, I built a diagonal layout with a really fun collage look. Loved squeezing four 3×4 inch photos on this one!

For my title, I used the Love This from the Chipboard stickers and then layered a journaling spot and hearts from the icon ephemera underneath. For the photos themselves, I kept the embellishing very simple, so that it didn’t become too busy! I set two photos in each of the cross-filled corners and layered them up with word phrases, a banner, and a label.

I really enjoyed playing with white space on this layout, leaving large areas to allow the eye to rest on the opposite corners and keeping a fairly tight cluster of embellishments in between my pairs of photos. This adds a lot of balance to the page and made for a clever place to add splatters as well!

I hope this layout inspires you to find ideas in the least likely of places! It’s such a fun design and captures the mood and feel of the garden really well! To see how ‘Love This’ came together, check out the process video below!

Needy baby | No limits Layout | Anna Komenda

Hello Cocoa Vanilla fans. It’s Anna here with my newest page. I decided to put the new “Storyteller” collection away for a short while to use up my stash of older lines. They looked so sad and lonely in the box :) First, I need to add a disclosure and explain myself a bit. We got a new puppy over a year ago, and as my daughters are quite big and independent, I poured all my parental feelings into my poor dog. 99% of my phone photos are of my furry boy… Crazy pupparazzi – I know! So most of my pages are with my dog’s photos recently as those are almost the only pictures I get. Last time I shared with you his sleepy version mixed with “Storyteller” and today will be his needy version with a bit older “No limits” line. Masculine collection for a good boy!

Let me start with a back story of the photos. As I work from home, I have this big privilage to work from the cosy couch covered with soft blanket. My dog is always somewhere near as he is very social and coodependent (my fault…). He likes to be a star of the show, so when the attention is not on him, he is not the one who waits patiently. When my computer took his place, he decided it’s time to try to sneak into my laps. I snapped few photos of him checking which side would be the best to approach. He is very needy when it comes to attention hence the title of the page.

I had a little bit of trouble figuring out how I should scrapbook those photos. I didn’t want to repeat my usual patterns so insted of straight lines, I decided to add some funky waves. I picked three pattern papers: “Latitude“, “Spark” and “Nebula” and nested them together sketching a simple wave pattern, that would be wider on the one side and making thinner on the other. I started with the orange paper and drew and cut the wave. Then I glued it over the yellow paper, marked the lines with pencil and cut everything again. I repeat the same with the greenish one. My original idea was to put everything on “Stardust” paper as a background buy it was just too busy. I switched to white cardstock instead adding some mixed media layers.

I first marked when my paper layer will be, and then gently added some yellow ink using a brush, on the top and on the bottom. Then I used star stencil and lime green ink to add a layer of stars and finished everything with orange splatters. When everything was dry, I glued my wave on top and started embellishing. I picked some tickets and stars from ephemera pack and tucked them behind the photos and my wave. You can spot some stickers from 6*12 sheet too. Next step was to add a title using some Thickers from my stash, following the curve of the wave. Who said your titles have to be straight? Actually, I love keeping them messy and uneven!

Tiny enamel dots and stars were a perfect finishing touch along with wood epoxy button. I think this is the embellishment piece I use up the fastest in each CVS line. I just love them. The final result has a bit retro vibe I would say. Do you have similar feelings about it? I think I need to reach for wavy, handcut lines more often as they create very unique result.

That’s it for today! I really enjoyed making this layout and scrapbooking another photos of my puppy / son. He is my youngest baby, and you know how tempting it is to scrapbook baby photos, right? I can not promise my next page will be with people either…

Thank you so much for stopping by and see you in two weeks!

XO Anna

Together | Storyteller Collection | Melissa Vining

Hi everyone, its Melissa here and I’m so happy to be back again with you.  This month we are creating with sketches, which is something I love to do!  I know some people find it hard to create from a sketch, but I find it a great way to kick start my creative flow.  Last week I put a poll up on the Facebook Group asking for people to vote for which collection I should use.  Storyteller was the winner, and because of this I decided to choose a sketch by co-creator Traci Reed (of Traci Reed Designs).  Here is my layout:

And here is Traci’s super fun sketch:

I decided to use Fly Away for my background torn paper strips.  I just love the green colour and the subtle circular patterns. I also fussy cut several butterflies from the other side of the paper to use as embellishments.

I fussy the Love this Life heart from one of the Pocket Life Cards and used it as embellishment.  Then I used lots of florals for the pinwheel shapes on the sketch.  I love how they look through the central white card stock background. I also embellished with more fussy cut butterflies and Puffy Hearts.

I love using the Foam Title Stickers to make an easy title.  I used the word “Together” which was perfect to document Brielle and Ava dressing up and eating watermelon.

I had fun making this layout, and you can watch the video below.

Take care

Melissa xx

Precious Moments Together | Storyteller Collection | Michelle Stokes

Hello Hello! It’s Michelle here today to share another layout for our month of sketch inspiration using the wonderful Storyteller Collection. I had so much fun creating my last layout that I thought, why not create another using a fun sketch from Page Maps. This one was based on a grid design and brings together multiple photos to tell a story, perfect for sharing one about a new blossoming doggy friendship.

We recently welcomed another sweet pup into our home, his name is Sonny and boy is he a handful. He’s the most hilarious little ball of fluff we’ve ever encountered, and is a great new addition to our little family. Our first doggo Daisy only took a few days to get use to having him around, and so far they seem like they’re going to be the very best of friends.

As you could imagine theres been a lot of photo taking in the last few days, so it was hard to narrow the selection down to just 4 for this project. I edited them all using an iPhone app and printed them out in black and white as per the size on the sketch below.

The sketch I was inspired by from the Page Maps website has a grid of pattern papers with 4 photos across the middle, machine stitching around the edges and clusters of flowers. I love creating with sketches as it takes the guess work out of how to start a layout when you’re stuck in a creative ‘rut’.

Seeing this little friendship begin has been so magical..

I used 4 different pattern papers from the A5 paper stack cut down to roughly 4inch squares, distressed the edges slightly and adhered to the white cardstock using pieces of foam sheet to raise them up off the page. I sewed around the edges next using my machine and some off white coloured thread.

I added the photos across the middle of the layout using the same foam sheets to add a little more dimension to the layout.

Next I worked on creating the clusters, bottom right was first using the ‘Love this’ tag from the STORY TIME cut apart sheet, a bunch of florals fussy cut from the A5 version of SPRING FLING,  journaling tag from the EPHEMERA pack, black heart from the FOAM TITLES pack and sticker from the ACCESSORY STICKER sheet.

In the top left corner I added another cluster of fussy cut florals, black heart and ephemera pieces. Using coordinating elements within all the clusters on a page really helps to give it a cohesive look

I added the title to the top left of the grid cluster also, using a mix of both a word from the FOAM TITLE STICKERs and a piece from the EPHEMERA pack

In the top right corner I created a smaller cluster, again using the same floral elements as the other 2 clusters. I used different types of adhesives in all 3 clusters to create different heights of dimension giving the clusters a more 3D feel. My go to adhesives for this are double sided foam tape, sticky thumb ‘sticky dots’ and tacky glue.

I added the usual splattering of gold ink to the layout after adding some hand written text to the journalling card

Here’s one last look at the entire layout..

Well thats all from me today, thanks so much for stopping by. I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing another sketch inspired post from me, and the rest of the team this month. It sure was a fun theme for us to be inspired by. Be sure to share your sketch inspired layouts with us in the Cocoa Vanilla Studio Community Group on Facebook, we love seeing what you all create using the CVS Collections!

Until next time, Happy Scrapping
Michelle x

 

So Happy | Storyteller Collection | Kylie Kingham.

Hello everyone, it’s Kylie back with you all! Over the past few weeks on the blog the design team has been creating layouts following a sketch. A scrapbooking sketch provides a guide for the placement of photos, a title, journaling and embellishments for your layout. But it doesn’t mean that it’s set in stone. Based on your photos and scrapbook supplies, you may alter the sketch to fit your needs. There are lots of websites that can provide some wonderful sketches, however for my layout today I have created my own sketch for you. Whenever I find a sketch I want to create from, I usually like to print it out and place in a binder folder. That way I can create and recreate using the same sketch as many times as I like.

Sketches don’t necessarily provide measurements, however for my design I did provide the size I trimmed my photo. Sometimes that’s all you need to be able to bring all the other elements together into place. As I mentioned previously creating with a sketch plan doesn’t have to be followed ‘exactly’ – but in this case I did with my own layout. I thought the new ‘Storyteller’ collection would be perfect since I have a strong feature on blooms!

When scrapbooking, I like to co-ordinate the colours in my photo memories with the papers etc that I use. In this case I knew I wanted to include some lovely blue and yellow tones. I chose the reverse side of the SPRING FLING paper. It has a lovely watercolour effect to it in the most perfect shade of blue. From there I followed my sketch and layered several contrasting papers to include the fun LITTLE LOVE paper. For once I did not adhere any of the papers or my photo with foam squares. I kept everything flush except for the floral die cuts. These were layered with foam adhesive squares to really ‘pop’ and stand out from the page.For texture and pure cuteness I also added some of the wooden flairs.

What would a layout be without a big title?? This was secured snuggly next to my photo using the foam title stickers. My photo was trimmed down to a 5″ x 4″ size- mostly because I had a lot of open negative spacing I felt I could trim away. Once completed I also think this sketch would allow journal space too if you like.

I hope you will have some fun too creating with my sketch!

Kylie.

 

Beautiful | Storyteller collection | Tarrah McLean

Hi creative friends!

It’s Tarrah back with you and today I am sharing a new scrapbook layout featuring the STUNNING Storyteller collection. For this project, I had free choice to create whatever I wanted with no theme or anything. I chose to scrap lift one of my friend and fellow design team member Mandy Melville’s gorgeous layouts.

This is the layout I created using the gorgeous Storyteller collection, documenting a pretty photo of a beautiful rose from my Mum’s garden.

This is Mandy’s stunning layout below that she created using the beautiful More Than Words collection.

I decided on the Ditsy Daisy 12′ x 12′ patterned paper as my background paper and took a piece of plain white cardstock and trimmed this piece down to around 8′ x 10′, I then chose the ‘B’ side of the Spring Fling paper to mat under the white cardstock. Like Mandy did on her layout, I decided to machine stitch the white cardstock and the Spring Fling paper together and then I adhered it to the Ditsy Daisy paper. I love the look that machine stitching adds to a layout, I love the texture it gives the page and the extra detail it adds as well.

For the main element where my photo was placed, I created some paper layers underneath the photo using various papers from the A5 paper stack and also tucked in a pocket card for some extra colour and another layer. I did distress some of the papers here to add some texture and I adhered some down using craft foam for some dimension also. Here in the bottom right corner of the photo cluster I tucked in some of the beautiful flowers from the floral ephemera pack, added a banner sticker to the photo from the accessory sticker sheet and also placed a phrase die-cut from the ephemera pack.

On the left of the photo, I created a small floral cluster using some of the florals from the floral ephemera pack and I added a wood epoxy button here to the centre of one of the flowers. In the top right corner of the page. I added the cute banner die-cut piece from the ephemera pack using pop dot adhesive. I love the shadows and dimension this adds to my page. I also took the small frame with hearts die-cut from the ephemera pack and tucked this piece into the top of the photo layers. I like how this peeks out from the top.

I decided to place my title in a similar position to where Mandy had placed hers and also created another small embellishment cluster in the bottom left corner. My title is one of the gorgeous foam title sticker words and I also took a phrase sticker from the accessory sticker sheet and placed it the bottom of the title. You can see in my floral cluster in the bottom left corner that I have adhered some of the florals flat to the page and then I have adhered the red one with some dimensional adhesive, again I love the shadow this creates and the extra interest it brings to my page. I also like to bend the edges of the flowers and leaves to make them look a little more realistic. Some of the smaller details and final things I added to my page were the gorgeous heart puffy stickers and another cute wood epoxy button. The last thing was to stamp my date stamp which is something I always add to my layouts.

Thank you so much for stopping by the Cocoa Vanilla blog today! I love how my scrap lift layout of Mandy’s page turned out and I hope you enjoyed reading how I created it!

Make sure to keep an eye on the Cocoa Vanilla online store as the Storyteller collection should be in store really soon!

Happy creating!

Tarrah x

 

Storyteller | Our Story | Rachel Lowe

Hello crafty friends, today I have another layout based on a sketch. I have used a Page Maps sketch and agin I have gone with a 8.5×11 inch layout. I have gone bright and bold using the new gorgeous Storyteller collection.

 

I chose a strong background for this layout and I must admit usually I avoid stripes but the Brighter Days paper is wonderful with its large brushstroke strips broken with a little white. I need to use a white based paper next to provide a contrast, I have used the Oh My Heart paper. Before adhering this I added the smaller paper strips at the top and bottom. To be honest I just used some left over paper strips from the A5 paper pad.

Instead of creating a large title as the sketch shows, I chose one of the Pocket Cards, which still is my title but it adds another pretty paper layer. I added some of the heart puffy stickers over the printed hearts to add some definition and dimension to the pocket card.

 

 

I used two of the floral pocket cards to mat my photos, one larger floral print and one smaller. I added my photos with foam tape for dimension. I have used the same photo of my daughter and I, the colour one I cropped so our faces were more the focus and the other I converted to black and white.

Next was to add some embellishment clusters. Where the sketch has banners I added a floral bunch using the Floral Die Cut Ephemera, adding the circle puffy stickers to the centres of the flowers.

To the lower right of the layout I created a pretty embellishment cluster using the Die Cut Ephemera pack. Lastly I went back and added some tabs above and under my photos and a Wood Epoxy Button.

And there you have it, I love this sketch and next time I will try a 12×12 layout.

When your mojo is just not working always go to a sketch to kick things off, Often when I am having one of those days I often scrap lift my own layouts or use a sketch.

Thanks for stopping by today and have a wonderful and crafty week.

Rachel X

Together | Storyteller | Kellie Moore

Good morning CVS fans, Kellie back on the blog today to share some more inspiration with you!

For todays project, I decided I wanted to use a cut file to showcase lots of the patterned paper in the gorgeous Storyteller collection. I wanted to record these two pics of me and my baby girl Penny (she is totally my girl in a house full of boys!). Here is my page…

I had this cutfile sitting in my craft room for quite some time, I ‘think’ it could be Paige Evans?! Anyhow I decided I wanted to create a ‘pretty’ page as I do scrap a lot of pics of my boys! How gorgeous are all these papers ?! I started with a blank piece of cardstock, added on some distress oxide and gold splatters.

Cutfiles are a great way to incorporate lots of different patterned paper if that is something you are wanting to achieve. The cutfile came as one piece but I decided to cut it in half and place it on each side of the page so my photos stayed central on the page and it draws your eyes in to the photos.

Next I backed my photos in 2 different patterned papers from the A5 paper stack and got embellishing around my photos. As you can see, I used a mix of just about everything….ephemera, pieces from the Accessory Sticker Sheet and chipboard.

I also thought it would be fun to use some of the wooden buttons to serve as centres for my flowers…

For my title, I used the word ‘Together’ from the foam title stickers, then popped some of the word phrases under it from the Accessory Sticker Sheet. Because the title is black, I also wanted to add some of the hearts from the tile pack to balance out the design.

I hope you have enjoyed my page today, I am happy with how it turned out. Please be sure to share your CVS creations over on our Facebook page, we would love to see what you are making.

Till next time,

Kel

 

Happy Heart | Storyteller | Lina Monaco

Happy day friends, Lina, here today on the blog to share this layout I created with the ever so versatile, Storyteller collection. I documented a photo of my happy girl from this summer in a field of glorious yellow flowers. I just thought the background of the photo played so nicely with the yellow in this collection and so I played on that idea.

I began with a white piece of cardstock; I use a 120 lbs cardstock but you can use whatever you have on hand. I used a Distress Ink in yellow and a blending tool to add some colour to the top right hand corner and then a larger patch on the bottom left since that’s where my photo is going and I wanted to be able to still see yellow ink peaking through. I then matted the white cardstock onto the lovely background paper you see with all the hearts entitled, “Oh my Heart”.

Next, I matted my photo with pieces of card from the A5 Paper Stack with some papers that matched nicely. I popped my photo up with some dimensional foam for height. Following that, I added pieces from both the Die Cut Ephemera and the Floral Ephemera packets. I created a larger cluster of beautiful florals on the right side of my photo and created a nesting spot for my title.


My title is created with the Foam Title Stickers and reads “Happy Heart”, which perfectly describes my lovely girl. The black colour of the foam was perfect to anchor down my layout. On the left side of my photo, I added some gold thread purposely made to look messy. My photo is also adorned with a phrase from the Accessory Stickers sheet that reads, “Got the Shot”. The phrase works wonderfully with the photo and her peace sign holding pose. :)


In the top right hand corner of my layout where I had originally added yellow ink with the blending tool, I created an additional smaller cluster of embellishments to drawn the eye upwards and lighten up the heavy, bottom positioning of my layout. I added a cut label, and a lovely blue floral piece. I also took that opportunity to add a nest of gold thread and adhere a Wood Button that features a cute little yellow butterfly.
Lastly, I added some Puffy Stickers and some gold ink spray to finish of my layout and add that last bit of my style. This layout came together super easily, mainly because you just can’t create something hideous with the collection. It’s just such a lovely and happy collection and I see myself using every last piece of it.

Thanks for joining me today! Enjoy your day!
xoLina

The Story Behind the Photo | Storyteller Collection | Laura Alberts

Hey y’all! Laura Alberts here again with another t-ball layout using the gorgeous Storyteller collection. These fun photos of my daughter and my husband capture perfectly their bond. Sports aren’t really Olivia’s preferred activity, but she was more than happy to trail her Daddy around the ballfield. Love that these memories are preserved with this beautiful layout. Using this lovely sketch I created as a guide, I’m creating two clusters of photos and embellishments, connected by the title.

In the top cluster, I’ve added tags from cut apart in the A5 paper stack, with puffy circles in the holes. I’ve layered a frame to the right, peeking behind the photos and anchoring my title at the bottom. These sweet little butterflies are the perfect whimsical touch.

For my title, I pulled out an ephemera piece that perfectly nestles with this camera and a floral cluster to create a detailed connection between my two photos. I love the way the gold ink and Nuvo add a bit of texture and fun around the edges.

On the bottom photo, I’ve added a tab and a floral cluster with a chipboard banner, then tucked a journaling card behind it. This gives me a place to journal about the t-ball experience without taking away from the overall design. I especially love these little Nuvo butterfly trails, they add so much movement to the page!

I hope this sketch inspires you to try a new design! If you’d like to see this layout come together, check out the process video below!

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