Tazhiana Gordon

About Tazhiana Gordon

https://preciselytazhi.wordpress.com/

Posts by Tazhiana Gordon:

Happy | Midnight Collection | Tazhiana Gordon

Tazhiana Gordon 05/12/2019

Hello Cocoa Vanilla friends and welcome back to the blog for a new project! I’ve been on a crazy December Daily kick so it was kind of nice to switch gears and relax those Christmas muscles and make something fun with the Midnight collection.

I know I’ve said this before but the Midnight collection has me all over it with the color palette so I figured I would scrap a recent selfie I took with my new phone while exploring portrait mode! I really like how this layout came out and it is an EXCELLENT stash buster.

I started with 6 3x4inch pieces of patterned paper and literally pulled out all the embellishments I had left from the Midnight collection, including the chipboard set and the cardstock ephemera. I then set out to create three individual clusters – one for my photo and the other two to just feature some embellishing. I wish I had a rhyme or reason for why I did what I but it kind of just came together organically. I picked up bits, stuck them down, added foam stickers when I wanted some additional height and just had fun creating the clusters.

For my background, I actually used patterned paper! I know, incredibly shocking. I used the white and gold marble paper as my background and then layered two ripped pieces of paper from other sheets in the collection to add interest and texture since there was already a whole lot of texture in my embellishment clusters. I then attached my three clusters in a diagonal across the page. I love how they look against that marble paper.

To finish off the layout, I added the “Happy” chipboard piece to serve as my title even though this layout would have worked just fine without one and I added a few chipboard hearts. This layout was pretty easy to complete and such a fun process.

I hope you enjoyed my project and you give this technique a try. Seriously, pick it and stick it. That freedom to create is life changing. Till next time, keep it crafty friends.

The Good Life | Happiness | Tazhiana

Tazhiana Gordon 19/11/2019

Hello Cocoa Vanilla friends, and welcome back to cutfile week! I am not a pro when it comes to using cut files but I have a few tips and supplies to make them a bit more accessible. I’m scrapping a selfie this week that I took on my 29th birthday and I’m using the Happiness collection as well as a cut file from the Cut To You shop for Cocoa Vanilla.

I started but cutting the florals on white cardstock and cutting an offset piece on vellum. I knew I wanted a more abstract look rather than perfect backing, and I knew I wanted to make my own backing paper using watercolor paper and Distress Oxides and the vellum would be perfect to mask any imperfections. I can’t take any credit for this idea – I borrowed it from my friend, Laura Wonsik. So for tip number 1: get to know your design software. I’ve had a Silhouette for years and I’m just learning all of its features like offsetting and print and cut. Watch some YouTube videos and give yourself time to play before you actually sit down to make your project.

After cutting my elements and making my watercolor backgrounds, I traced the floral pieces, roughly cut it and adhered it to my cut file. This brings me to tip number 2: gather supplies. For cutfiles, a sharp pencil for tracing, a fine tipped pair of scissors, a fine tipped glue bottle and some clear vellum safe adhesive will go a long way. My fussy cut scissors are from EK Tools and I keep my glue in an 18 gauge Fineline bottle.

Once my cut file elements were ready, the rest of the layout was easy to assemble. I ripped off some patterned paper to add some interest to my background, matted my photo with some papers from the 6×8 paper pad, and embellished using the die cut ephemera and the cardstock stickers. My title came from the cardstock title pack and I popped a few elements up on foam to add some dimension to the page.

That’s it for me this week! I hope you found some inspiration here as well as some tips to demystify the cutting machine. Till next time, keep it crafty friends.

MemoryDex Inspiration | Midnight and Happiness | Tazhiana

Tazhiana Gordon 05/11/2019

Hello Cocoa Vanilla family! I’m back with some MemoryDex inspiration for you! I’ve been bitten by the crafting small bug and my favorite part of this system is you get to use up products that you wouldn’t ordinarily use on a layout. If you have a bit of ephemera or a cardstock sticker that you have no idea what to do with, throw it on a memorydex card and instant gratification!

For this project, I decided to use Happiness and Midnight and to make two cards with each collection – one that is textured and dimensional and one that featured a shaker pocket.

To create my shaker pockets, I used my Fuse tool but you can sew the pockets shut or use vellum and good, old fashioned adhesive to create this effect. My sequin mix was quickly thrown together after drawing inspiration from the collections – a rainbow mix for Happiness, and a mix of blues, pinks and silver for Midnight. I actually don’t own the MemoryDex dies but I do have the punch, so I start all my cards with a 4×4 inch base and then punch the bottom to place it in my storage box. In the case of the shaker pockets, I took a 2×4 inch strip, scored it at 1 inch, folded it in half, adhered it to my shaker, and then punched it so the final result was a 4×4 inch card.

To embellish, I grabbed a mishmash of die cuts, cardstock stickers, and chipboard pieces from both collections and layered to my heart’s content.

I did make a tiny envelope for my Happiness piece, I thought it would be fun to add an interesting element and tuck the stickers inside of it so it looked like there were elements escaping.

For my dimensional pieces, I stacked and stacked pieces until my cards have pretty good height and heft.

For my Midnight card, I made a large paper rosette that I layered on top of two doilies. For my rosette, I started with a strip of 1.5×12 inch paper, scored it evert quarter inch, accordion folded it, and then sealed it and pressed it into a circle. I then layered some cardstock stickers and chipboard over the top for more height and dimension, and topped it off with a flair button. This card might be my favorite of the bunch.

For my Happiness card, I started by pleating some crepe paper and layering that under some pleated fabric trim that I had in my stash. I layered that over a tag that I cut from a scrap of paper, added some floral and leaf die cuts, added my title from the cardstock title pack, and then for even more dimension, propped up the label sticker on foam for added height. I then added some cardstock stickers for more interest.

I hope you enjoyed these cards! They were so much fun to make and it’s really easy to try a lot of techniques and embellishments on this smaller scale. I hope you found inspiration here and give scrapping small a try! Till next time, keep it crafty friends.

Living The Dream | Unforgettable | Tazhiana

Tazhiana Gordon 19/10/2019

Hello Cocoa Vanilla Family and welcome back to the blog! For my assignment this week, I was given the task of documenting in a traveler’s notebook, and considering this is the medium that made me fall in love with scrapbooking, this happened pretty seamlessly. I decided to play with the Unforgettable collection because it’s so delicious and I needed some floral action in my life. I chose to print my photos in black and white so I could use all the colors on my layouts.

For my first spread, I decided to create a sunburst of sorts using triangles I cut out from the 6×8 paper pad. I cut rectangles, then cut those in half to create the triangles and arranged them across the top half of my layout. That was the hard part. The rest of this came together pretty easily!

I chose to mat my photo on just one patterned paper since there were already so many going on in my background and then I popped the large floral element on foam, stuck it on the bottom left of my photo and added the circle die cut right behind it for dimension and interest.

On the left side of my page, I started with a card from the cut apart sheet since it was the same size as my photo, added a floral die cut and then adhered my title – also from the ephemera pack. With traveler’s notebooks, dimension can get out of hand really quickly so I chose to use a flat ephemera piece as my title as opposed to chipboard or foam. I added a single butterfly to the left side and a blue tab element to the right and called this layout done!

For my second project, I knew I wanted to use these branches that I had left over from a previous layout so I started with the pink cardstock background so the white of the cutfile would pop against the background. Then I printed my photos at 2×3 inches and matted them on three papers from the 6×6 patterned paper stack. I used strips of the same patterns on the right side of the spread to carry over the color and patterns and I added two more branches to the right side to continue the theme.

Now we embellish! I used some small elements from the ephemera pack as well as stickers from the accessory pack to add some texture and interest to the photos.

On the right side, I used a piece that I cut from one of the 6×8 patterned papers, layered it over a tag, flower, and butterfly, and added some additional flowers along the branches to tie the whole layout together. A couple of enamel dots on both sides finished off this spread and I am super happy with how both projects came out this week.

I hope you found inspiration here and are fired up to scrap small and make something beautiful today in a traveler’s notebook today. Till next time, keep it crafty friends and have a great day.

Captured | Unforgettable | Tazhiana

Tazhiana Gordon 05/10/2019

Hello crafty friends and welcome to another blog post. Today, I am playing with the lovely Unforgettable collection as well as some fun cut files from Cut To You!

I started my layout by choosing four 6×8 papers and cutting out these layered butterflies that I attached using my Tiny Attacher. After cutting and assembling the butterflies, I used my circle punch hoard to punch out photos of my darling friend, Charlotte as well as circle photo mats. I thought it would be fun to play with a different shape on this layout. While I had my cutting machine on, I cut out these branches with a cut file from the Cut To You shop that you can get for free!

I decided to keep embellishing around my photos pretty light as I knew that I had the larger butterflies as well as the branch elements. I chose to use some doilies for texture and add a few bits and pieces from the ephemera pack to add some color and texture. I also added a tassel and a bow to each of my photos to add more texture and visual interest to my background.

After creating my embellishment and photo clusters, I glued the circles as well as the branches to my background. I chose this woodgrain paper because I love a good woodgrain pattern and I thought it would go really well with the florals I chose for my layout. After adhering the photos and the branches, I worked on arranging the butterflies around the page. My title came from the foam titles pack and I added some enamel dots around the page for some added interest and the icing on the cake.

That’s all I have for you today, crafty friends! I hope you enjoyed this layout and are tempted to give the Unforgettable collection a try.

Shine Bright | Unforgettable | Tazhiana

Tazhiana Gordon 22/09/2019

Hello Cocoa Vanilla family, and welcome to my first layout featuring the super lovely Unforgettable collection! Every time Zoe releases something new, I’m convinced this new collection is my favorite one and then she manages to shock and impress me once again. Unforgettable is me in a collection with all the lush florals, pinks, aquas and neutrals. I’m officially obsessed.

For this layout, I decided to scrap a photo of one of my very good friends and I. I started by picking a more neutral paper and this lovely tone on tone pink paper and layered the two together. I love the look of distressed edges so I tore the pink paper to give the ruffled edges and glued it down on top of the white paper. Next, I worked on matting my photo using the 6×8 paper stack – the 6×8 paper pads tend to be my favorite product in a collection besides the ephemera pack because there is so much use you can get out of smaller papers and patterns.

After matting my photo, I worked on creating my embellishment cluster. I knew I wanted that large floral element to shine so I popped it up on foam dots and then used a bunch of other elements from the ephemera pack to embellish my photo, layering them underneath the picture. I propped up the smaller flowers and butterfly on foam dots as well to give some further dimension to the layout so everything wasn’t on the same plane and this is one of my favorite techniques to add height and interest to pages.

After gluing down the massive complex that was my photo and embellishment cluster, I reached for the foam title stickers to create my title. Since the black was so stark against all the soft colors in the background, I added a few of the black foam hearts around my photo to carry the black across the layout. Next, I created the small cluster in the bottom left corner using the accessory stickers and a few elements from the ephemera pack. A few enamel dots across the page finished the layout off and I am so happy with the overall flow and look of the page!

I hope you enjoyed this layout and I hope you give this collection a try! Till next time, keep it crafty friends.

Perfect Moments | More Than Words | Tazhiana

Tazhiana Gordon 05/09/2019

Hello Cocoa Vanilla family, and welcome back to another blog post! For this week’s project, I’m playing with the lush pastels and warm neutrals of the More Than Words collection and I’m scrapping a photo of one of my very good friends and her daughter.

I love how spontaneous and fun summer can be, and this photo was on a very spur of the moment trip to the zoo with my friend. She quite literally hit me with her stroller as they were walking a few weeks ago and inevitably, I tagged along on their outing. This picture, and many others, was a result of that outing.

For this layout, I knew I wanted to play with texture. I’m down to the very last of my stash for this collection so I knew that I wanted to make the patterns of the paper pad shine and work with a few embellishments to make an impactful layout. I began by punching squares from seven patterned papers and arranging them in a sort of bricklaying fashion across the top and bottom of a piece of white cardstock. I then used some basic white crepe paper to add some more texture to the rows and followed that with some trim I had in my stash that I grabbed from my local fabric store. I then rolled and distressed the paper rows so they wouldn’t lay perfectly flat because I needed a bit of mess in my pages.

Next, I worked on the photo. I used the remnants of the papers I used for my paper squares to create a layered photo mat and then grabbed some mini doilies from my stash, also to add texture and more color to the page. The only ephemera I have left from this collection was the vellum die cut pack, so I used some floral elements from that pack to add some interest around the photo, and I really love how it softened the picture and added a new texture to the page.

For my title, I used one of the chipboard stickers from the collection coupled with some gold thickers from my stash to carry the gold theme from the trim to the rest of the layout. I finished the page with a cluster in the upper left corner of pieces from the accessory sticker sheet that I mounted on foam dots to add some height to that element.

I hope you enjoyed this layout and were inspired to look at elements in your stash in a completely different way. It was fun to take something that’s not a conventional scrapbooking element like crepe paper and trim and work it into a layout – and I hope you give it a try. Till next time, keep it crafty friends.

Hello Noah | Happiness | Tazhiana

Tazhiana Gordon 19/08/2019

Hello Cocoa Vanilla family, and welcome back to the blog! This week, my assignment was to play with a sketch from Page Maps and it was an interesting assignment because sketches and I generally do not get along. I think sketches are a double edged sword – they are literally the very definition of bittersweet. For a newer scrapbooker or even if you just need a bit of inspiration, they are a godsend, especially if you don’t know where to start. However, I always feel like I’m struggling to get all of the things on the page and the layout feels constrained instead of a free expression of creativity like scrapbooking normally is for me. So what I decided to do for this layout was pick a few elements from the sketch that I liked and work them into my overall design.

Here is the Page Maps sketch from October 2018 that we were working with.

I love paper layers, so I kept that aspect, as well as the big circle element, and to challenge myself, I decided to work with horizontal photos, which is something I never do. With all of the my bits and pieces sorted out, I pulled out the Happiness collection and decided to scrap a photo of my sister and her husband at their baby shower this summer.

Before I did anything else, I distressed the edges of the sheets and layered my papers for my background so I had an idea of how much white space I had to play with. I then used some watercolor paints to paint a series of concentric circle like shapes. They are definitely more oval than circular, but I painted them in shades of blue and green. Next, I matted my photos – I printed them in 3×2 so considerably smaller than the sketch was calling for – using papers from the 6×8 patterned paper pad.

After arranging my photos on my background, I worked on embellishing. This week, I used the ephemera pack, as well as a flair button, the cardstock stickers and the clear sticker packs. I aimed for a more monochromatic layout, which was challenging in itself because my layouts tend to be very pink and floral and this was my first time attempting a more “masculine” layout and I restricted myself to blues, greens, and butterflies. While I was creating the clusters around the photos, I also created the cluster in the top left corner as the sketch had a bit of paper layered in the upper corner and this is very much my speed.

Next, I went to work on my title. I knew I wanted a bigger, more whimsical font to spell out the baby’s name, and since the shower colors were blue and gold, I used this old pack of gold thickers that I had in my stash. To finish my title, I added the word “hello” from the cardstock title pack, and embellished with a combination of stickers and ephemera hearts. The gold looked a bit out of place since there was nothing else metallic on the layout so I pulled out my trusty color shine in gold and added some splatter to add some sparkle and shine to the layout.

That’s all I have for you today, guys! It was a bit of an experience making this sketch my own but once I got into the groove of things, it became much smoother to hit the ground running and to do things that made this layout my own. I hope you found inspiration here and you try to create something using this sketch today. Till next time, keep it crafty friends.

Family Memories | Midnight | Tazhiana

Tazhiana Gordon 05/08/2019

Hello Cocoa Vanilla family and welcome back to another blog post!

I am so excited to be playing with Midnight again for this one. I’ve been playing around with using one of the premodern cut-file backgrounds but I never really took the leap because they’re so beautiful and I was afraid I would ruin it. Well, today I decided to throw all that self doubt out the window and make something with that large circle element.

I decided to scrap a photo of my teammates and I. These women have been life changing for me since the day I met them and we really are a family, so this was a perfect photo to work with. I also opted to print it in color instead of in black and white because I knew the soft tones in the Midnight collection would work with all the colors we’re wearing in the photo.

I created a huge photo mat using three papers from the 6×8 patterned paper book, and just layered my photo over and over until I ran out of paper. Then, which is a bit unusual for for, I stuck my title down to my photo. Normally, my title is the last element I put down on a layout but I knew I wanted it directly on the picture so I just went for it. Next, I used a combination of the ephemera pack, cardstock stickers and clear stickers to embellish the space around my photo. I propped my photo up on kid’s fun foam and then stuck the embellishments around it. One of my favorite things to do on a layout that is as soft as this one is to play with dimension, so I love propping some elements on the page higher than others. I think it adds visual interest and texture to the page. Also, combining different textures in the elements used, like mixing cardstock, chipboard, and clear stickers adds interest and fun to the page.

After I created my main element, I decided to make a counterbalance to kind of even the page out. On the opposite corner, I used the same embellishments to create a kind of cluster that just adds a bit more interest to the page. I aimed for a nice diagonal line because that’s my preferred style for pages like this, especially with the large circle element in the background. I finished the layout off with some cardstock and clear heart stickers, propping some up on foam dots and leaving some level on the page. I wanted one more bit of dimension, so I added a flair button to the right side of the layout, played around with adding another, and quit while I was ahead. I’ll never be accused of being a neat and tidy scrapbooker, but I think that’s part of my charm.

That’s all I have for you today, friends! I hope you found inspiration here to stop hoarding a favored supply, to pull out your patterned paper and photos, and make something fun today. Till next time, keep it crafty friends.