April 2023

You’re Epic | No Limits Collection | Laura Alberts

Hi y’all! Diving into one of my favorite collections today! I absolutely love the bold red and navy in the No Limits collection, so it is one I automatically reach for to scrap photos of my sons. For this photo of my son in his new snarky t-shirt, it was perfect!

I focused primarily on using up a ton of paper scraps on this one! The small stripes of color on the branding strips and 1/4 to 1/3 inch strips leftover from previous layouts were layered together to create a fun, colorful background on the Spark patterned paper.

To extend my photo cluster, I tucked in two cut apart pieces from the A5 paper stack to the right side of the photo. To give the photo more presence on the page, I added a frame from the ephemera pack that I cut in half and wedged in on either side of the photo cluster. Then, I finished it with a light embellishing of stars, cut apart phrases, and a chipboard title for a finishing touch!

I hope this layout inspires you to try and use up those tiny paper scraps and branding strips floating around your stash! If you’d like to see how “You’re Epic” came together, check out the process video below!

So Happy | Happy Days collection | Mandy Melville

Hello everyone!

I’m so thrilled to be sharing my first layout featuring the brand new Happy Days collection! As always, Zoe has knocked it out of the park with this collection! It’s bright and fun and it’s perfect for scrapping all of your happy snaps! The hardest part for me was deciding which photos I should scrap first with these beautiful products! I ended up deciding to document the first time that my eldest daughter rode her bike with no training wheels.

I couldn’t resist using all of the gorgeous patterned papers in the collection and decided to trim the papers into one inch strips and arrange them along the top and bottom of the page. I love the way this adds lots of beautiful pattern and colour to the page and draws the viewer’s eye in towards the photos. I also added the rainbow border from the Feel Good paper along the edge of the strips. For my background I chose to use the Rainbow Bright paper with the tiny hearts on it as this provided a nice neutral contrast to all of the patterned paper strips. I matted my photos with the magenta Flutterby paper and adhered them to towards the left hand side of the page, using craft foam for added dimension.

Tucked under the top edge of the photo on the left, I added a die cut pinwheel and a flag banner. These add a fun element to the page, complementing the theme of the photos. I adhered the pinwheel with foam tape and added a chipboard star to the middle of it for some extra interest.

Of course I had to use that sweet bicycle die cut on this page! I also added the ‘Love that smile’ die cut and one of the super gorgeous Puffy Hearts to finish off this little cluster of embellishments. The puffy hearts are soft and pretty!

For my title I used the words ‘So Happy’ from Chipboard Titles pack. I love the fun and playful font that’s been used for these titles! To finish off the layout I added some typed journaling, and I couldn’t resist adding a few blooms from the Floral Ephemera pack.

Thanks so much for stopping by the blog today and taking a look at my layout! I hope that you’re as excited for this new collection as I am! I can’t wait to share more projects using Happy Days!

Mandy x

Handmade diary | Storyteller Collection | Anna Komenda

Hello everyone! It’s Anna here with something a little bit different than usual! I know you love all the layouts (and I love them too), but sometimes you are not in the mood for memory scrapbooking. Sometimes you just want to have some fun, use up some embellishments and make something useful. This was exactly my motivation to make this notebook, that can be used as a diary. I am impatiently waiting for the brand new “Happy days” collection to arrive to my doorstep. In the meantime, I still have plenty of other gorgeous lines to play with so I chose “Storyteller” to make my notebook. You can still find plenty of elements from this line in CVS Shop!

As I mentioned, I made this notebook from scratch. If you would like to make something similar, you would need a binding machine like Cinch. I own this tool for years and it still serves me well. I use it to make not only notebooks but also mini albums.

If you would like to make something similar and you have a proper tool, you need to start with choosing your size. I was using A5 sized inserts so my cover needed to be a little big wider and taller. Depending if you wish to add some dividers or tabs, the cover can be a bit wider or shorter – it’s the big advantage of making your own notebook from scratch. I chose “Dits daisy” pattern papers for my front and back covers. I simply cut out pieces of cardboard to the needed size and wrapped them with paper.

I also cut smaller rectangles for the insides of both covers using pretty paper with florals. Now you are ready to punch holes in the covers. You can adjust how many you want, how long the wire should be – it’s all up to you.

From A5 Paper Stack Pack I chose few sheets to add them between the pages of the notebook. They can be used as a dividers or just some decorative pages, to add something extra to your notebook. I gathered them along the regular sheets and made holes too. With covers and inserts prepared I was ready to bind everything together with 1 inch wire.

After everything was connected, i could start embellishing pages and covers. I started with the dividers, adding some stickers from 6*12 Stickers Sheet and Ephemera Pieces. I challenged myself to use up the whole sheet of stickers and I managed to do so! Mission of making room for new collection completed! :)

I tried to keep the decorations as flat as possible so the notebook wouldn’t turn out too bulky. It will not close nicely if you add to many dimensional elements inside. However, I added Foam Title Sticker on the first divider and on the notebook cover.

I also added a big pocket on the back cover to hide some extra journaling cards to add to the pages later. You can also keep there some memorabilia! Pocket is decorated with Floral Ephemera. I also added a wreath of flowers on the front cover.

How do you like my idea of handmade notebook? You can use it by yourself or give away as a gift! And you can easily make one with collection leftovers so use up all the bits and pieces!

That is all for today. I will be back in two weeks with another inspiration. Maybe even made with brand new line! Fingers crossed for the fast shipping. “Happy days” is totally my jam and I can’t wait to dive into those yummy colors.

XO Anna

Days Together | Daydream Collection | Melissa Vining

Hi everyone, Its Melissa here and I’m back with a new layout.  Its Thursday which means Throwback time! Yay!! What I love the most about Throwback Thursday is going through my stash of gorgeous Cocoa Vanilla Studio and deciding which collection to create with!  For this layout I decided to use the beautiful Daydream collection to document a family photo from Mother’s Day 2021.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This collection has gorgeous florals, and for this layout I decided to feature ‘Daisy Days’.  A great way to feature a patterned paper is to tear it, and place it on a white background.  This enables breathing space against a busy paper, and the use of mixed media helps integrate the two paper and cardstock. I used a distress oxide ink and the packaging technique to create some interest.

I used lots of ‘Die Cut Ephemera’ florals for my embellishing, some ‘Accessory Stickers’ and also a couple of fussy cut moths from ‘All Aflutter’.  I bent up the edges of the flowers for interest and dimension.   I was also very happy to get one of the ‘Flair Buttons’ onto the page!

For my titles I used one of the ‘Die Cut Ephemera’, and a word from the ‘Die Cut Titles’. I love that combining the two made for a very easy title!!

I hope you enjoyed seeing a layout created with Daydream, and I hope I’ve inspired you to dig into your Cocoa Vanilla Studio stash.  If you’re like me you may want to hoard pretty supplies, but there is nothing like using up products and documenting memories!

Have an awesome week.

Melissa xx

Happy Easter | Daydream | Josefine Van der Hoeven

Hello Paperlovers,

I hope you all had a wonderful easter weekend and welcome to the Cocoa Vanilla blog today! On this layout, I turned myself into an Easter bunny and chose for the amazing “Daydream” collection. One of my favorite things to do at Easter is painting eggs and, of course, baking fresh Easter cupcakes with the kids. The beautiful soft pastel shades from the “Daydream” collection fit this Easter theme perfectly. The cutfile of the bunny ears and the Easter eggs are from the Cricut store.

 

 

First, I cut eight strips of patterned paper to size and use two edge punches from Martha Stewart and stitch the top of the strips with light blue sewing thread. I place the strips of patterned paper centered on the white cardstock.

I placed my Easter selphy on top of the paper strips and start decorating on the left side of the photo. I used different embellishments from the “Daydream” collection and a view elements from the “These Days” collection. I found a view butterflies from my previous scrapbook project and they fit the theme perfectly. I layered the flowers, butterflies and a cute yellow heart from fabric by using double-sided tape and 3D foam.

 

 

I cut three Easter eggs from a piece of white cardstock just as I did with the bunny ears. I colored the eggs with three different colors of distress oxide inks. ( evergreen bough, mustard seed and kitch flamingo)  I playfully lay the colored  Easter eggs on top of each other on the right side of the photo then I placed the rabbit ears above the photo and I think it gives a very funny snapchat effect.

 

In some places of the strips of patterned paper I curl and fold it a little bit. With white gesso I make some fun and festive splatters on my layout. For the title I use the word “Happy” from the Cocoa Vanilla word ephemra and used a mustard colored alpha set from my own stash to create the word easter.

 

I want to thank you for visiting the Cocoa Vanilla blog today and hope I was able to inspire you with the Easter bunny layout. I wish you a beautiful and happy day and until next time.
XoXo,
Jo

 

Easter Gift Tags | These Days Collection | Michelle Stokes

Hello Hello, it’s Michelle here today with a fun gift tag project to share with you all. After a few years of minor easter celebrations due to Covid (and another thats about to be spent in ISO again) I was lacking in photos to scrap so I made these cute little gift tags to add to our family Easter presents.

I’ve used the These Days collection, some cute bunny cut files from the silhouette store and a couple of mini paper treat bags that I made and now they’re ready for gifting to our loved ones when were well enough to see them.

I used papers from the A5 paper stack to create the Bunnies and the strips layered behind. I mixed up the patterns to create some really pretty bundles then tied string bows around the necks. I couldn’t not add some fussy cut flowers which I adhered using glue dots, then stapled on the pom pom trim and the Hip Hop Happy Easter tags into place.

Here’s a close up of each

So cute! I might have to make some more so that I can keep one for myself.

Once these were made I worked on creating some mini treat bags. I searched the inter webs high and low, but I couldn’t find a pattern or tutorial anywhere for the type of bag I wanted to use so I just winged it with some rough measurements and so far they’ve not fallen apart. They came together really well once I tied the tags onto them

I made 4 of these little bags using pieces of 12×12 cardstock that I cut down to an 8x12inch piece. I used my scoring blade in my paper trimmer to score lines to assist in folding and gluing together then added the bunny tags using some white ribbon that I had in my stash. I’ll work on making a tutorial for how I made them if anyone is interested, just leave me a comment below.

The other 2 tags I added to some larger white paper bags for the smaller kids in the family

You can find bags like these in Art n Craft stores, or even discount stores in packs of different colours. They’re the perfect size for small gifts

Well friends thats all from me today, thanks so much for stopping by.
I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing this quick little gift tag idea, it really was a lot of fun to create.

Until next time, Happy Crafting!
Michelle x

Happy Easter | Happiness collection | Tarrah McLean

Hi creative friends and Happy Easter!

It’s Tarrah back with you today, I hope you are enjoying Easter celebrations with loved ones! I was given the theme of Easter for my project this week and have created a scrapbook layout featuring the gorgeous Happiness collection!  The Happiness collection is so beautiful and perfect for my Easter themed layout documenting a sweet photo of my niece from last Easter!

I chose the gorgeous woodgrain paper from the Happiness collection for my background and trimmed down a piece of white cardstock to measure 11′ x 11′ adhering this on top of the woodgrain paper. I then machine stitched a border around the edge to add some texture and interest. Next I cut out a pretty floral Easter egg cut file from CUT to YOU from white cardstock also. I did attempt to machine stitch the very fine egg outline of the cut file, however it did not go that well with how thin this piece was. I took the A5 paper stack and chose some pretty papers from it to back the flowers and leaves in the cut file with. This was the most time consuming part of this layout but I LOVE how it looks. Once the flowers and leaves were all backed, I added craft foam to the underneath and adhered it in the centre of the white cardstock background. The thin outline of the egg, I did adhere this flat to the background as any sort of foam adhesive would have been visible.

I wanted to add a little bit of mixed media ( I know! Shock!) but not too much so I took a fine paintbrush and dipped it into my Tumbled Glass distress Oxide ink and painted around the outline of the egg shape on the right. I also added some water and the ink on some plastic packaging and did some small mist drops around the edge in 3 colours: Tumbled Glass, Spun Sugar and Worn Lipstick.  I love how the subtle misting and painting looks to define the cut file a bit more. One thing I love about cut files is, that they often help with the design of your page, with this one in particular, my photo placement was obviously going to be to the right of the florals. I adhered my photo to the die-cut frame, tucked in the frame from the Accessory Sticker sheet, added some twine through the hole in the top and then added craft foam underneath the frame to adhere it to my page. I stapled a banner sticker to the top right corner, added the phrase banner at the top and also added my title to the bottom of the frame.

To the left on top of the flowers in the cut file, I added more flowers from the floral ephemera pack, I just LOVE how bright and gorgeous those flowers look! I also added another flower on the right hand side, tucking it in under the frame. I also fussy cut some butterflies out of the ‘B’ side of the woodgrain paper and adhered those on the right as well. I bent up the wings to give the sense of movement and dimension on the layout. I added a heart from the clear sticker sheet here as well. Like with all of my layouts, I like to get the largest elements laid on my pages first and then embellish with smaller things like die-cuts and stickers etc.

My title is made up of the alphabet stickers from the Life is Beautiful collection. At the top of the photo, I tucked in the ‘Fun’ ticket die-cut from the ephemera pack and stamped the date stamp of when the photo was taken. I also added some of the word and phrase stickers from the Accessory sticker sheet around the page to help tell the story of my photo.

Thanks so much for stopping by the Cocoa Vanilla blog today! I hope you enjoyed reading about how I created my layout as much as I enjoyed creating it!

Happy creating!

Tarrah x

Happy Easter | Make a Wish collection | Sue Plumb

Hi everyone, it’s Sue Plumb here to share my latest design team project with you. As we are currently enjoying the Easter break and counting down to the arrival of the bunny tomorrow, I wanted to share a layout featuring one of my favourite Easter photos of my kids. This one was taken 10 years ago, when my boys were still babies – I miss those little squishy faces!

For my layout I decided to dig DEEP into my stash and pull out a collection that I have used for Easter projects before – ‘Make a Wish’. Although this collection was originally designed as a birthday collection, it had the perfect colour palette for my cute Easter page.

Although I was working with ‘Make a Wish’, I did borrow the background paper from the ‘These Days’ collection as I wanted to start with a yellow base. I then applied some blue acrylic paint with a brayer to help define the focal area.

As I had some of the chipboard sheet left, I decided to use one of the frames to frame my photo with. (This is not something I often do, as I usually prefer to use frames for layering around my page.) I also added a couple of layers of patterned paper behind it, along with a small yellow paper doily and some frayed gauze for texture.

I knew before I started this layout that I wanted to include an egg shape on my page, so I decided to create a broken egg from patterned paper and position my photo as though it had come from inside the egg. I used a simple template and traced around it onto the paper, then cut it and positioned the pieces on either side of my photo, adding a little foam tape underneath to help pop it up from the page. I also cut out a strip of hand drawn grass which helped anchor everything on the page.

Tucked amongst the grass on the left side of my page, I added a sweet little chipboard bunny from the ‘Joyful’ collection. As the bunny was wearing a small sprig of mistletoe on its head, I covered it up with a small heart from the ‘Make a Wish’ Die Cut Ephemera pack.

From the same ephemera pack, I used a number of floral and leafy pieces to add some clusters around my page; plus two hearts, a pink bow and a butterfly. (You didn’t really think I’d have no butterflies on this page did you? haha) I added text to my page using a mix of stickers from the Accessory Sticker sheet and a couple of chipboard pieces. (I especially loved the fact the small phrase stickers featured a mix of different coloured text.)

A tiny arrow from the puffy sticker sheet was the only other embellishment I used, then some pretty blue splatters around the page and I was done.

I hope you have gained some inspiration for scrapping your own Easter photos, and enjoyed the walk down memory lane using one of our old collections – I certainly had fun using it again after so long. Wishing you & your families a fun and safe Easter break with plenty of treats from the bunny!

Until next time, happy scrapping!

Grow with Love | These Days Collection | Rachel Lowe

Hello CVS friends! Today I have a layout created using the beautiful These Days   collection.

My envelope with hearts cut file is from the Silhouette Design Store, this cut file provides a novel way to include your photo and a journal block.

I created a water colour wash on my background page, mixing up a peach/apricot colour. A great technique to use when you have chosen a patterned background photo. I also tore three edges of my base paper and then backed with a blue paper from the A5 paper pad. I next added my cut file cut in white cardstock.

I used the small floral paper for the actual envelope and then a mix of the two peach coloured papers from the A5 pad. I added these papers with foam tape to create dimension. I also cut a few extra hearts to double layer several of them.

I next added my 3×4 inch portrait photo. I fussy cut the journal block from one of the Pocket Cards and used the word stickers from the Accessory Sticker Sheet.

I created a floral cluster to the right side of the envelope, slightly tucking under the envelope.

I created an embellishment cluster below the floral cluster, adding the books die cut and cup from the Die Cut Ephemera pack, fishing off with another cup from the Clear Sticker Sheet.

I added a smaller embellishment cluster to the left of the envelope cut file, layering and using the Wood Epoxy Buttons to add dimension. I finished off my layout adding a small floral cluster to the top of my photo and a butterfly because I just can’t do a layout without a butterfly somewhere on it!

This layout is quite busy for me but I really wanted to challenge myself by using a patterned background paper instead of my standard white.

Thank you for stopping by and later in the month I have another layout using These Days collection, sadly using the last of what I have.

Rachel X

 

LOVE STARTS WITH A NOSE.. | THESE DAYS | SOPHIE DELORME

Hey Cocoa Vanilla friends!

It’s Sophie on the blog today with a cute layout to share!

 

I used a collection that I LOVE: These Days! I paired it with a beautiful cut file from Echo Park Paper for the title of my page.

I cut the cut file on white textured cardstock on the left side of the page, and used it for my title. I placed a sweet photo of Sabrina and our dog Fiona right next to the title, mounted the photo on tissue paper, patterned paper and foam adhesive.

 

I backed the cut file with different patterned papers from the These Days A5 Paper Stack. I popped a few words slightly off from the cut words to add interest and dimension to the title.

 

I decorated with Die Cuts around the photo, scattered a few butterflies and handwrote my journaling on a wreath cut out from a pocket card.

Here are some close-ups:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This layout came together in no time at all! A big title cut file, a beautiful photo and a few embellishments from an amazing collection is all it takes to create precious memories!

I hope you found some inspiration in my page today,

Happy crafting!

Sophie xx

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