Hi everyone, Its Melissa here and I’m back today to share a layout that I created with the beautiful Storyteller collection for our current Tell a Story theme! If you’ve followed my work for a while you’ll know that the story behind the photo is just as important to me as the photo! So for this layout I carefully selected a photo that had a big story I wanted to tell. The photo is of Ava at her first Pediatrician’s appointment when we first moved a year ago.
I had a lot to write for my journaling on this layout. So I went into my stash to find lined paper to ensure that I wrote straight! My background paper is Spring Fling and if you watch my video below you’ll see that this isn’t the paper I started with. I added white acrylic paint splatters to make it more painterly.
I added some distress oxide ink using the packaging technique to provide some distress and interest onto the lined paper. I love how it looks against the mixed media look of the blue background paper.
I backed my sweet photo of Ava with three papers from the A5 Paper Stack. I distressed all of the edges and went with an lining them up unevenly. I embellished with a cute banner from the Die Cut Ephemera, and I created my title with two of the Chipboard Stickers.
Other embellishments I used are Chipboard Stickers, Accessory Stickers and Wood Buttons. I added twine from my stash and machine stitching helped adhere the lined paper and added texture.
I adore the sweet camera ephemera pieces, and was thrilled to get on onto this layout.
Hey Hey Scrappy friends! It’s Michelle here today with a new layout share featuring the beautiful Storyteller collection, documenting a sweet little furry face and a peek at the human child. I dipped into my stash of CUT to YOU cutfiles and went with a rainbow theme to bring this all together.
Leila always greets Daisy with the saying “Sweet Puppy Face” and I would absolutely agree, especially when she’s looking as scruffy as she does right now. I snapped this sweet pic of the two of them a few hours before creating the layout, when we were all snuggling on the couch after breakfast.
It’s been a little while since I shared something using a cutfile so I thought I’d go big with this one. Theres even a splattering of inks in multiple colours to compliment the heart, which may or may not have taken me multiple tries to get it right after a few failed attempts at a more messier background.
Let’s walk through how it all came together, starting with the cutfile. I chose the Sunburst Heart file from the CUT to YOU store and resized it in silhouette studio to fill up a large portion of the cardstock background. Once cut out, I backed all the individual ‘bursts’ of the heart with a rainbow assortment of patterns from both the 12×12 and A5 paper stack, then added machine stitching for extra detail.
I drew a rough outline of where the heart would sit on the layout and splattered the inks around in the same order that the papers are on the cutfile, then once dry I adhered the heart over the top using foam and double sided tape to pop it off the page.
I added the photo to a piece of the woodgrain paper (Cross it Off) and adhered to the right of the heart, then using the Foam title stickers and some older alpha stickers created the title to the left of the photo.
I created 3 floral clusters within a ‘visual triangle’ to embellish the layout and draw the eyes attention around the page. The clusters are made up of both fussy cut (Spring Fling) and ephemera florals, puffy stickers and a couple of word stickers from the accessory sheet.
I kept some of the threads loose for added texture, and used a range of different adhesives within the clusters for different depths of dimension
I ended up cutting the white cardstock down and matting the entire layout on to the Ditsy Daisy paper then added more machine stitching into 2 opposite corners.
Here’s a final look at the entire layout
Really loving this collection , and am very quickly using up so much of the pretty papers. I’ve got a mini book in the works that I hope to share soon thats used up a tonne of this collection, can’t wait for you to see it!
Well Scrappy friends thats all from me for now, thanks so much for stopping by.
Howdy friends! It’s Kylie back with you all again for a new month and a new project! My assignment for this week was to ‘tell a story’ within my project. As Scrapbookers, I think we always ‘tell’ or ‘preserve’ a story in the pages we create. But I wanted to share with you all a few extra tips of how to spell out a complete novel on your pages. For todays design I have used the sublime ‘Storyteller’ collection.
To really tell a story on a layout I believe you need more than one photo. A ‘series’ of photos will showcase an event or happy memory you wish to preserve. The first thing you will notice with my page is that I have used a true grid design for my layout. By doing so I was able to add 6 different photos from a fun day at the Strawberry Farm. Now I know it looks like I have a major in Geometry to get everything SO square and neat but the truth is I cheated! I have used a fabulous 16 square grid cut file designed by Gwen at Cut To You.
First I resized my cut file to around 9.5″ x 9.5″ and cut from white cardstock. This was sat aside whilst I prepared my background or ‘border’ pages. I cut a 10″ x 10″ piece of ‘SPRING FLING’ paper and adhered it centred over the ‘DITSY DAISY’ paper. I saved the inside squares from my cut file mat to use as templates for my photos and cardstock to fill each square. It was very simple, I held a template over cardstock and with my scissors I cut a square just slightly larger than the template. These were then added to my grid.
‘But how did you print your photos so small?’ I hear you ask?? I have two methods I use to do this. It can be done by resizing all of the images onto one page using my Silhouette software and then printing on an A4 sheet of photo paper. However for these photos I resized them on an **app called ‘Moldiv’ which then allows me to just print them out on my printer. (**I am in no way affiliated with Moldiv, this is just a recommendation.) Once they were printed I used the exact same method as I did with my cardstock to cut them out.
Another great way to tell a story is to write one! I have added some journal strips which I typed on sticker paper and cut out. They are never the same width and are often crooked but I always love that rustic appearance. It gives a fun sense of ”homemade”. With my photos and cardstock squares in place it was fun to start embellishing. I added a cute title with the ‘FOAM TITLE STICKERS’ and used quite a few of the CHIPBOARD STICKERS which added a nice dimension.
One of the many things I love about Cocoa Vanilla is the very generous FLORAL EPHEMERA packs. Florals are my jam and there are always oodles to play with. I layered several together and combined them with the WOODEN EPOXY FLAIRS also.
Thanks so much for stopping by the blog today. I hope you find my few tips useful with your own creating! Have fun!
It’s Tarrah back with you and today I am sharing another new scrapbook layout featuring the stunning Storyteller collection!
I have had this lovely photo of my parents printed for ages, I was finally able to document it using the Storyteller collection because look how the colours in the photo match perfectly with the colours in the collection?!
I chose the gorgeous woodgrain side of the Cross It Off paper as my main background paper, trimming this down and adhering it to a plain sheet of white cardstock. I decided to cut out a gorgeous book cut file from CUT to YOU from white cardstock using my Silhouette Cameo machine. I chose a variety of the papers from the A5 paper stack and backed them behind the cut file. Once the cut file was backed, I added some craft foam to the underneath and adhered it down on the woodgrain background paper. The reason I do this is so it creates dimension, shadows and texture. Once it was adhered to the background, I bent the edges of the ‘pages’ to make it look a little more realistic and to add even more dimension.
I adhered the photo to the right side of the cut file and tucked in one the pocket cards on the left side of the photo. Under the bottom left corner I took one of the accessory stickers and placed it down. Further left of the pocket card, I took one of the banner chipboard pieces and adhered this down. Around my photo I added a few different embellishments including at the bottom of the photo, I added the ‘Love This’ ephemera piece using craft foam and tucked the half circle Our Story ephemera piece below it. To the right of the photo I added one of the super cute wood epoxy buttons and a small heart die-cut between the photo and the pocket card. Above the photo and below the chipboard banner I added some phrase stickers from the accessory sticker sheet to help tell the story.
The title for my layout is ‘Our Story’ made up from the gorgeous black foam title stickers. I placed this at the bottom of the cut file and love how it looks there. I also placed the swirl and a heart from the same pack here too. As I had the black at the bottom of the page, I wanted to create a visual triangle and did this by adding 2 more hearts in 2 different places on my layout to draw your eye around the page. Creating a visual triangle is important when designing and for the finished result as it becomes pleasing to the viewer. With my layout all of the colour going on in it, the visual triangle with the solid black elements helps to break up some of the colour. Under the title, I took more of the phrase stickers from the accessory sticker sheet and placed them down.
At the top of the book cut file, I knew I wanted to tuck in quite a few of the stunning florals from the floral ephemera pack. I played around with a few of them for a little while until I as happy with how it looked, I bent the edges of the petals and leaves also. In either corner of the book cut file, I took 2 of the floral chipboard pieces and tucked these in how I liked them. After the florals were added to the top, I felt like the very bottom of the page was a little bare so I took the floral book chipboard and placed it in the centre at the bottom of the page. I love how that added a little something to the page. I also placed a phrase sticker from the accessory sticker sheet on top of it. Lastly I stapled the ‘Love This’ tab on the right of the cut file and stamped the date stamp below the title.
Thank you so much for stopping by the Cocoa Vanilla blog today! I hope you enjoyed seeing and reading about how I created my layout as much as I enjoyed creating it?!
Haven’t got yourself the beautiful new Storyteller collection yet? Make sure you keep an eye out in the Cocoa Vanilla online store for its arrival soon!
Hi everyone, it’s Sue Plumb here to share my latest design team project with you. This month we are focusing on the reason we all scrapbook, and that is telling stories. For today’s layout I decided to document the story of my son and his friend. These two have known each other since they were babies, and it is so lovely to see that their friendship has lasted. I decided to use the gorgeous Storyteller collection for my page, and kept my photo black and white so that it wouldn’t clash with any of the colours of the collection.
I began my layout by creating a mixed media background, using a combination of pale peach acrylic paint and ‘Prize Ribbon’ Distress Oxide ink. I applied the acrylic paint with a brayer over an area approximately half of my page, leaving a white border around the edge. I really love the effect the brayer creates, and it also helps the paint to dry fast because the coat is so thin. On the other half of the page I applied the Distress Oxide by mixing it with water and using a wide brush, before setting it aside to dry. I love the contrast using two different mediums give the page – both from the colours and the effect of the different techniques.
Whilst my background was drying, I turned my attention to the paper component of my page. I cut a piece of the vibrant Oh My Heart paper to sit horizontally across my page where the paint and ink met. This provided separation between the lighter colour at the top and the darker colour at the bottom. I also added a very thin strip of the green pattern on the the reverse of the Fly Away paper behind where I planned to sit my photo. My photo was matted with a blue paper from the A5 Paper Stack, and I also tucked in a small yellow doily and some frayed gauze underneath it. In the top right corner of my photo I added the so happy banner sticker from the Accessory Sticker sheet.
Alongside my photo, I added one of the Pocket Cards which featured a coordinating strip of coloured hearts, and I used my typewriter to add my journalling to it. I then topped the card with the the story behind the photo die cut from the Die Cut Ephemera pack, which was mounted on some foam tape to help it stand out. Along the bottom edge of the card I added another die cut, this time a small banner which read happy little moments, that was also mounted on some foam tape. A Wood Epoxy Button with a sweet little camera completed my cluster on that side of the page.
Near the top edge of the page along the border of my paint, I added a second strip of the Oh My Heart paper, which I used as the anchor for another embellishment cluster. This one featured two die cuts – a camera and a floral piece, which were both adhered using foam tape. I also added another Wood Epoxy Button, this time the smaller size, over the lens of the camera. Alongside that was the noteworthy banner piece from the Chipboard Stickers sheet.
Below my photo I added yet another piece from the ephemera pack – a beautiful strip of bunting which provided a lovely underscore for my photo. This was also popped up on foam tape to ensure it sat up at the same height as my photo.
At the bottom of the page I added the words So Sweet from the Foam Title Stickers pack to form my page title, and a small foam heart from the same pack nearby. I finished embellishing my page by adding three butterflies from the ephemera pack and then last of all I added some small black ink splatters to tie it all together.
I am so happy I documented this story of friendship for my son and I know this layout will mean so much more to him with my words included on it than if it was just another pretty page. I know we can all be guilty of not including enough journalling on our layouts from time to time, so hope you are feeling inspired to get a story told on your next page.
If you’d like to see exactly how this page came together you can watch my process video:
It’s Sophie on the blog today and I am happy to share a brand-new page created with the Storyteller collection.
I used two cut files for this layout. They are designed by Paige Evans.
I used a thick white cardstock for my background. I backed a few of the clouds with a blue patterned paper from the A5 Paper Stack. I added a little bit of white gesso on some areas to create a more faded and fluffier look.
I placed the clouds on the upper part of the page, mounted on foam adhesive.
I backed the little houses cut file with many different patterned papers, again from the A5 Paper Stack and added a few white scalloped borders created with a border punch.
I also created a shaker heart on the middle bigger house and used some coral sequins from my stash.
I used a colored photo of my daughter Sabrina watering the garden with the “help” of our two dogs…
My title comes from the Foam Title Stickers pack.
I wrote down my journaling on a fussy cut piece of patterned paper and embellished around the shaker heart, journaling and photo with bits and pieces from the Die Cut Ephemera pack. I scattered a few Puffy Sticker Hearts as the finishing touch.
Here are more close-ups:
I love to use cut files on my pages. Do you use them often?
Well, thank you for passing by, and I will see you again soon!
Today I have another layout made with the gorgeous ‘Storyteller’ collection.
For my layout today I wanted to incorporate alot of the patterned papers as a base for my background.
I started with the ‘Oh my Heart’ paper as a base for my page. While this paper is gorgeous, I needed to add something with it to tone down the busyness that would then allow my pictures shine. I decided the subtle yellow paper ‘Little Love’ would be a great addition so decided to add it on an angle …this really add an interesting format to my page.
i have used two pictures of my hubby and I today, both set at a slight angle. I used a small strip of the navy patterned paper from the ‘A5 paper stack’ to ground my photos to the page.
I decided i wanted my title to sit directly under my photo on the left and I used some of the black ‘Foam title stickers’ for this…..LOVE!
I really want to make a focus of the florals on my page so I used a mixture of the florals from the ‘Floral Ephemera’ pack and some fussy cut ones from the ‘Spring Fling’ paper. I put these to the top left and bottom right of my photos and had a few flowing down around my title.
To finish of the bottom of my page I added some of the ‘chipboard pieces’ ….butterflies and hearts for the win! Not to mention some of the ‘puffy stickers’…these hearts are perfect, I could add them to anything! To add some interest above my photos, I used a few of the stickers from the ‘Accessory Sticker Sheet’….perfect sentiments!
I hope you enjoyed todays share and you are enjoying the new Storyteller collection as much as I am!
Hello Friends,
Lina here today on the blog with a Throwback Thursday layout for you. I used the latest boy themed collection, No Limits, for my layout and I have no doubts that I made the correct decision with this one. It’s full of bright colours with fun accents and decor pieces such as lightning bolts, arrows and stars. I mean, it was an obvious choice for me!
For my layout, I decided I wanted to incorporate a grid of some sort. I wasn’t sure how I’d accomplish this right off the hop but after looking at my photos and noticing that I had printed off duplicates of this photo of my darling nephew, one in black and white and one in colour, I thought using the photos and pocket cards was the way to go. The background paper I used is called Stardust and it’s the most perfect aqua tone with splatters and distressing.
I matted my photos and two Pockets Cards with papers from the collection including Latitude, Nebula, and Big Bang. The pops of colours make my rainbow heart happy ☺️
For a pop of darker blue, I used two additional Pocket Cards to matte the original cards. I just adore how the inky blues subtly pop out from behind the cards, it just makes them leap off the page. I arranged both my photos and my Pocket Cards in a grid style and went to work on embellishing my layout.
I used the Die Cut Ephemera, Accessory Stickers, along with the Chipboard Stickers to add pops of embellishments around the page. I also used the Chipboard Stickers for my title, pulling “You’re Awesome” from the sheet. I adhered it down using hot glue on the edges and securing it down. I enjoy the loose and playful placement of the title as it adds a bit of whimsy in my opinion.
I continued to embellish the page with Puffy Stickers, tucking them in and around the layout. I felt the layout needed a bit more expression and sentiment and so I used some of the small phrases from the Accessory Sheet to add some much needed micro titles. This is how I personally convey sentiment on layouts as I almost never journal on them. If I want to document something specific, I do so on the back of the layout.
Lastly, as per my style, I finished off my layout with a good splattering of gold paint spray. I feel like it just pulls everything together and rounds out the layout nicely.
I hope you enjoyed my layout and wish you the best day!
Mandy here with you today to share a new layout featuring the fabulous new Storytellercollection! Over the month of August, our design team will be sharing projects that focus on story telling, and I’m up first with my project today. I wanted to tell the story of a friendship that my eldest daughter Abi has with one of our closest family friends. These girls have grown up together and have been friends their entire lives, and I think that that is a great story to document! We have many photos of them together of the years, but I decided to include just three – one from when they were very young (Abi was two years old, and Karla was one); another from Abi’s 7th birthday party; and a very recent one taken at her 18th.
I started my layout off with a sheet of the yellow Little Love paper as my background. I tore a strip off the bottom of the patterned paper and layered it over the top of the Ditsy Daisy paper. I also tucked a torn strip of the blue side of the Little Love paper under the edge of the yellow paper to provide some contrast. I then added some machine stitching around the edge of the page to bring it all together and add some more texture.
Next I cut my title using a cut file from the Silhouette Design Store. I wanted a long title that added to the story telling, and the quote “Friends are the Family we Choose” perfectly summed up the story that I wanted to tell on this layout. I cut the title first from the blue Little Love paper, and then I offset it and cut it again from white cardstock to create a border. I adhered the title using foam tape to help it to really pop off the page.
I printed the more recent photo at 4×6″ and the older photos at 3×4″. I matted all of them with the green Fly Away patterned paper as well as a paper from the A5 Paper Stack. I adhered the larger photo underneath the title, and the two smaller ones at the top of the page.
To the left of the larger photo I added a floral cluster that I fussy cut out of the beautiful Spring Fling patterned paper. I also added a cute Die Cut banner on the top left hand corner of the photo that says ‘This is Our Story’.
To balance out the cluster in the bottom left hand corner of the page, I created a smaller one in the top right. This one includes a Chipboard floral sticker as well as another small fussy cut flower. Around the floral clusters I added a sprinkling of hearts using Chipboard and Puffy Stickers.
To finish the layout off I of course had to add some journaling! I typed my journaling onto white cardstock, which I then cut up into strips and adhered to the right of the larger photo. This is my favourite way of adding journaling to my layouts.
I really enjoyed focusing on the ‘story telling’ aspect of this layout, which I think I achieved through the use of multiple photos, journaling, and a long title. And most importantly, I’m so glad that I got this story documented!
Hey y’all! Laura Alberts back again with another t-ball layout featuring my daughter and my husband. The colors in her uniform were just perfect for the Storyteller collection and I loved the idea of taking a very different spin on my last layout. In this one, I still used a small section of that Paige Taylor Evans star wreath cut file, but this time layered it in the background at the top of the page. Backing it with papers from the A5 paper stack for a splash of fun colors, this cut file really pops!
To give the appearance of dimension, I layered icon ephemera buttons on top and larger circle pieces underneath of the the cut file. These darling little flowers that I fussy cut from the Fly Away patterned paper are the perfect details to add around my clusters. With epoxy wood buttons for a decidedly non-paper addition, the clusters have texture too!
Adding in a cut apart piece and word phrases to match those details on the first half of this spread, I squeezed in so many words that truly capture the feeling of this moment. I kept my title small on this one, using the foam word “Happy” to keep it simple. Finishing it off with a frame to house my journaling and a camera from the icon ephemera, this layout is complete!
I hope this layout inspires you to scrap a wide variety of photos with this beautiful collection! If you’d like to see how “Happy” came together, check out the process video below.
