Hello Hello and a very Merry Christmas to you all. It’s Michelle here today with a new festive crafty share using our beautiful Joyful Collection. I’ll keep this post short and sweet too, as I know you’re all probably out there enjoying the day with family.
I’ve been wanting to make some handmade cards for our immediate family at Christmas for years now, and this year I finally carved out some time to make some. The Joyful collectioncontains so many pretty elements that can easily be transformed into quick cards ready to pass along to loved ones near and far.
I made a couple different sizes of cards, the usual 4×6 size a 5×5 and a 6×6. All started with some white cardstock for the base of the card then a pattern paper background using the A5 paper stack. Smaller prints make the perfect background for smaller projects.
Each card has a different design while incorporating similar elements. Fussy cut florals from the ‘Tis the season‘ paper and some tiny gold puffy stars from the Puffy title stickers pack
And each of them have machine stitching for a little extra detail
I cant quite pick a favourite out of the mix as all of them turned out so cute. I’m going to find it hard to figure out who gets what card, but I cant wait to give them out later today.
Well thats all from me today, I did promise short and sweet on this festive day. Thanks so much for taking the time out of your busy day to check in and see my creations. I wish you all a wonderful festive weekend!
Until next time, Happy Scrapping, food eating and present opening.
Hey Everyone! It’s Michelle here today and a Happy Festive season to you all. I hope you’re having an enjoyable month and aren’t as stressed out an unprepared as I am. Our Elf only made her appearance for these photos, and has since disappeared again lol. As you can see I’ve created something a little different, a fun little Christmas Advent ‘Calendar’ (aka completely forgot to buy one from the shops) using the sweet Joyful Collection. We’ve set it up in Leila’s smaller Christmas as the pastel colours suited a white tree background.
As soon as I saw the Advent Paperin this collection I just knew I needed to create something using it, and what a perfect way to do so by creating a hanging “Advent calendar”. Each pocket was made using all the different pattern papers from the A5 paper stack and decorated using ephemera pieces, accessory stickers and fussy cut florals from the ‘Tis the Season‘ Paper in both 12×12 & A5 sizes. Oh and of course, numbered using the ‘Advent’ paper which only comes in the 12×12 size.
Here’ how the pockets look hanging from the tree…
You’ll see in these close ups I’ve cut the tops of each pocket in different ways, attached the string randomly and also added some white cardstock stars and the cute gold puffy stars. The paper chain was made a couple years back using the bohemian Dream collection
As the tree has so much decoration we left all other decorations off and only added the Santa llama and angel on top.
All the empty pockets are left either at the bottom of the tree, or in a little basket I’ve sat next to the elf house to the left of the tree.
Heres a closer look at all of the different pockets, they’re all so cute I cant pick which ones are my favourite.
I kept all pockets roughly 4 inch tall and 2.5 wide to ensure we could fit full size Freddo Frogs, Caramello Koalas and theres even a mini Chomp bar here and there. Love us come Cadbury Favourites here YUM!
Each pocket is folded over at the back and adhered along the bottom edge using a stapler as the tape adhesive wouldn’t stay shut once the chocolates were inside. You could also sew along the bottom edge for a little extra detail on the pocket.
Embellishments are layered using different forms of adhesive, from regular double sided roller tape to foam for a little extra dimension. Although once the chocolate is inside the entire pocket pops with dimension/.
The cute hand-drawn animals in this collection are just so sweet, and easy to use on these little pockets of chocolatey goodness.
And thats the lot. I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing something a little different from me this time around? Let me know in the comments below if you enjoy seeing different crafty ideas other than layouts, or are you purely a layout crafter like I usually am?
Thanks so much for stopping by, I’ll be back in a couple weeks to share my last creation for 2021, although I’m still unsure what it might be.
Until then, have a safe and HAPPY Festive season, which ever way you celebrate. Stay safe, enjoy and Happy Scrapping!
Michelle x
Hello Friends. it’s Anna here and it’s time for another Throwback Thursday. I recently dug up some older masculine collections from CVS and I decided I need to use them up finally. You know I usually am a bigger fun of flowers and pink so I still had plenty of papers and embellishments to play with. I went bold with this project, cutting into dozen of papers, using up to the last bit 5!!! sheets of 6*12 stickers and 3 sheets of transparent stickers! I am so proud of myself for putting those old goodies in good use. Ladies and gentlemen – I present you a big boy album with a mix of many CVS collections:
Can you name all of the lines I used here? I think I managed to squeeze in every single masculine collection that was ever released at Cocoa Vanilla. You can finds bits and pieces from: “Flying high”, “You rock”, “Boys rule”, Totally rad”, “Legendary” and “Made of awesome”. Most of them are no longer available in the store but “Flying hight”, “Made of awesome” and “Totally rad” were released as digital versions too! So you can print yourself as many papers and elements as you wish.
My album is sized 21*21 cm and it holds 5 pages inside. Each page has some flaps or pockets to hold many photos at 10*15 and 13*18 cm size. There is also plenty of room for a journaling and other keepsakes. I made everything from scratch starting from the cover. I used false leather with a wooden print to make album more durable. I mixed it with kraft cardstock that seemed to work better with all those patterns and colors.
Colorful papers are so joyful and fun – perfect for a little boy album. Even though they are from different collections, they still look good and cohesive together. I am not going to lie – I used so many 12*12 sheets here but I also managed to squeeze in many smaller paper scraps. However I was holding those papers for years and they totally deserved to shine and bring joy to someone.
I embellished my pages with a lot of various embellishments like ephemera pieces, 6*12 stickers, transparent stickers, chipboard stickers, washi strips, flair buttons, wooden elements and resin stars. All of them comes from the collections I listed previously. To be honest, many of them were stored in one bag together as a “boy stuff” that I can no longer tell which collection they belong to. It doesn’t matter though. I am just happy I managed to use up as many of them. It always feels so good to throw away used up sheet of stickers. Does it feel this way for you too?
Some of the pages are more “fancy” with shakers filled with sequins or transparent foil piece. They serve mostly decorative purposed but I can imagine it will be more fun for kids to browse through this kind of album. Hidden spots, pockets, magnets make the album more interactive.
Making this album took me few days for sure (much more hours than I planned) but it was such a great experience. It’s not filled with photos as it will be a gift for my friend and her little boy. I even added his name on the back of the cover.
I hope it will bring her joy and adding photos will be a great dive into memory lane. This is the essence of scrapbooking for me! Now it’s time for a girl version, don’t you think? I still have some of the boy collection left so I will be able to make few mini albums too. There is a chance you will see them here :)
Photos will not give justice to this album so I recorded a flip through video for you. You will be able to see all the flaps and pockets this way.
Thank you so much for stopping by and see you in November.
Hello Hello! Its Michelle here with you today. I hope you’ve all had a wonderful festive season and are all rested and ready to see this crazy year off and start a fresh new one in the next couple of days. I have another instalment of Christmas Memory sharing for you all – the second half of the 2019 album I shared with you last month featuring loads of bits n bobs from the very cheerful Merry & Bright Collection. Like the first post, this one is also very photo heavy so lets jump straight into it..
… starting with the middle of December. There was lego building, tree building and secret letters from Twinkle our Elf. I’ll leave links for all the products I’ve used at the very bottom of this post
This time of year is also when Leila or one of us in this house tends to fall ill. In 2019 for Leila sadly it was a stomach bug that had her wiped out next to the undecorated Christmas Tree’s for an entire day
I created a flip/ shaker pocket to conceal the photo and journalling from that day using a label from the cut apart sheet Oh What Fun and ’14’ from the Countdown paper. There’s some glitter and a couple of ephemera hearts sprinkled into the front of the pocket on top of the pocket page card. To keep them all in place I sewed the flap directly onto the pocket page below.
Over the page I’ve kept things pretty simple using more numbers from the Countdown paper. I’ve repeated this step through the entire album to keep things cohesive.
In between the pocket pages I’ve added a giant paper tag insert using 2 pieces of pattern paper from the A5 paper stack – Joy to the World and the text side of Oh What Fun. I’ve created the round glitter shaker over the top of the floral pattern using the large circular wreath ephemera piece, some left over clear packaging, a tonne of sliver glitter and machine stitched around the wreath to keep out closed. I added flowers and banner from the ephemera pack, then stapled a piece of coordinating ribbon to the top.
I kept the text side of the tag blank as the album is already quite bulky, plus theres a lot going on in the photos to the right. The 18th of December last year was quite the busy day – we treated ourselves to a new car and Twinkle got up to mischief in my craft room creating signs for the Christmas Tree. It was a sad time for Leila saying goodbye to our first family car, but we were all very excited with our new wheels!
Top right of the pockets is another see through glitter pocket using the numbers from the Countdown paper, a single puffy gold star and machine stitched along the top edge to stop the glitter going everywhere.
As we start to creep towards the last third of the month it gets a little busier. The end of school, long days at work, House Elf getting up to mischief and HOT HOT HOT weather.
Another flip pocket using pocket page cards, ephemera and some off cut strips of Jingle all the Way (candy cane stripe) conceal more photos of Leila’s last day at school. One a photo of the crazy mask she made and the other a photo with one of her favourite teachers ( not shared for privacy reasons)
This kid is a hoot! An accessory sticker was perfect to embellish the photo I took of a well needed coffee at work. What a crazy time of year working in Pharmacy can be, and not because its Christmas!
We made it to see Santa to share with him all the things Leila was hoping to receive for Christmas. I had Leila write on the Dear Santa card herself which was the perfect touch to this spread. If you’d like to do the same with your children you can find this card on the Oh What Fun cut apart sheet.
We didn’t get the chance to ‘trim the tree’ until quite late in the month. The lead up to and start of December is always chaotic for us with work, school and Leila’s Birthday so the poor tree always gets neglected until the last minute. We make sure to enjoy it for a few weeks into January before packing it all away.
I used some of the wonderful woodgrain found on the Seasons Greetings paper or in the A5 paper stack as a base for this mini layout. I cut a frame out of the Candy Cane stripe Jingle all the Way to frame the photo then layered 2 trees from the ephemera pack and some stickers to finish it off. On the right hand side I used the darker green print of Oh Christmas Tree to cut a tree design cut file from CUT to YOU. I backed it with some clear velum and sprinkled glitter within each circle to create twinkling lights. I’ve machine stitched the tree onto the Oh What Fun paper to keep it in place.
On the back I created a simple sequin shaker pocket using another ephemera frame and adhered it to some Countdown paper with ephemera pieces and a strip of ‘Christmas rainbow’ diagonal stripe that can be found along the bottom of the Oh What Fun paper.
Over the page I kept the pockets simple using cards from the pocket page card pack. I also documented a photo I screen shot from facebook when our beloved country was on fire.
Were on the home stretch now, just a few more to go…
Another simple insert between pages of photos using vellum, ephemera pieces and a puffy gold star
with a very similar cluster created on the reverse to coincide with the photos of family from Christmas Eve.
Another photo heavy spread with pocket page cards as fillers with the addition of a couple accessory stickers and a cute ephemera house
All the fun of Christmas Day contained in 1 spread. This is literally all the photos I took on this day minus a few extra blurry ones. I chose to live the moments in person rather than a face behind a phone camera, but I’m happy I took just these few.
Lastly we round out the month with a few crazy faces from New Years Eve. Every year so far this crazy kid has been awake and ‘celebrated’ it well and truly into the new year with us. Last year it was on the couch watching fireworks from around the country on tv with her beloved stuffed animals.. and a few crazy selfies with me. You’re welcome lol
Well friends thats a wrap on my 2019 Christmas Memories album, and my creative shares here with you for 2020. Its been a crazy year for us all, and I cant wait to see what the next year brings.. Lets hope its a little less chaotic than 2020 but a heck of a lot more happy!
Thank you all for your love and support throughout the year.
Hello Hello, it’s Michelle here today and boy do I have a project share with you all this week. I suggest you sit down with a cuppa and have a read as theres a lot to share in this little post. If you cant tell by the title or sneak peek I’ve started an album to document last years December Memories using the magical new collection – Merry & Bright.
This collection is the perfect mix of Christmas and signature Cocoa Vanilla Studio designs. Full of beautiful colours, patterns and pretty florals which are all perfect for documenting an Aussie Christmas as theres not a snowflake insight. I’ve used the BRAND NEW Pocket Cards for this project as they make creating albums like these so fast. Pick a card and pop it in, pair it with a photo and call it done! You can jazz it up with a little ephemera, cut files, vellum and glitter. Don’t forget there’s also an A5 paper stack, 2 cut apart papers (Count Down & Oh What Fun), and some super cute gold puffy hearts that are all perfect for creating one magical album full of December Memories..
I’ve got half the album to share in this post today so apologies now for the photo overload. I’ll try not to write too much as there’s A LOT to get through
Lets begin…
The Album size I’ve used is 6x8inch and I’ve used a mix of different configurations in pocket pages. I kept the front opening page quite simple using a full A5 sheet in the Star Bright pattern, ‘Christmas’ and ‘Oh what fun’ tags are from the Oh What Fun cut apart paper, holly leaves from the ephemera pack, sticker from the Accessory sticker sheet and the numbers are from an ancient CCV collection.
Flipping over to the first pocket page – I’ve used another full A5 pattern paper Jingle All The Way with a piece of note paper sewn on to document the month ahead, then added some florals from the ephemera pack to the corner of the paper. You will see throughout the pockets of the albums I’ve used the Countdown paper to document most of the days, the numbers all cut down to just over 2inch square. For the right hand side I added the number to a pocket card using my tiny attacher
Heading over to the next page, sharing more of December 1 memories as a couple of things happened that day – our house elf arrived and I went out for dinner with my work colleagues. I created a ‘privacy shaker’ pocket to hide their faces using a flip flap pocket. Inside I’ve added the large floral cluster from the ephemera pack to some vellum and a tonne of glitter then used my sewing machine to stitch the edge closed. The ‘eat drink + be merry sticker is adhered to the outside along with the ephemera tag.
The shaker pocket turned out so cute.
Page 3… Still documenting the rest of December 1st haha How stinkin cute are those little gingerbread houses! Our house Elf Twinkle didn’t seem to get up to too much mischief last year, hoping she’s on her best behaviour if she makes it back into the country this year.
I used another flip flap to add an extra layer of embellishments to this corner of the page. Those gold hearts are so soft and not bulky at all, its hard not to use them all in one go!
Over the page and I’ve used the smaller frame from the ephemera kit to frame a smaller photo and documented a not so fun trip to the doctors. Between these 2 pages I’ve added a vellum insert using the 3 ornament pieces from the ephemera pack
I sewed these to the vellum and added some stickers
Theres a larger frame in the ephemera pack too, I’ve used it on this side to document an early Christmas present I gave to myself and am still yet to use. Whoops.
Some pockets I left plain with just photos and cards. Not everything needs a bunch of words to document, the photo is enough. The other side of the page however needed some words. I used a label from the cut apart paper for one and a journalling card from the pocket cards pack for the other. This pack is FULL of different designs, quote cards, filler design cards and journalling cards. Each card has a design on both sides so every design in the pack can be used once or twice if you need.
December is a big month for everyone, even bigger for those of us who have a birthday to throw into the mix. Leila’s falls in the second week of December and last year we were lucky to be able to throw a party for her and some friends and cousins. So much fun.
I created another flip pocket with the journalling on top and photos underneath
The kids had so much fun. Faces blurred for privacy
Of course the birthday girl and her cake needed a special insert! I love adding inserts to pocket page albums to create a focal interest and break up all the smaller pockets. I created this one using a star cut file from CUT to YOU and adhered the photos back to front, either side of the cut file, and then the entire piece sewn into the pocket page to stop it from moving or falling out
The cute photo on the reverse is from the following day with more cake to celebrate with family at home
On the right side of the page are more photos documenting the family celebration, the day prior to her actual birthday.
Over page and more photos to document our Elf, a couple more filler pocket cards, a label from the cut apart paper Oh What Fun, fussy cut florals from the A5 version of Joy to the World
On the right I used a smaller pocket page made up of 2x2inch squares. I created a couple of mini shaker pockets using ephemera, stickers and a gold puffy heart sewn in using my machine after sprinkling each with glitter. I added a couple of photos of Leila to document her last night of being 8 and filled the rest with pattern papers
Over page again and Its an entire spread dedicated to her actual birthday. Photos of present opening, more pattern paper to fill in the blanks. Photos of our house Elf and the spectacle she set up overnight. We never know what mess we might come out to on Leilas birthday, but theres always a basket full of presents for Leila all Christmas themed. Our elf does this in place of a December 1st basket.
And were onto the last of the pages I’ve created for this album. Our tree finally came out of its box so I could finally use the cute ‘Oh Christmas tree’ card
and one last flip flap pocket just because!
Phew, did you get through that ok? I hope you enjoyed seeing the first half of last years December memories. I like to keep things pretty simple within my pocket pages branching out with a little shaker page or insert to add a little extra fun. Everything within the album is either adhered using a tape runner, tiny attacher or sewing machine to save on bulk as theres a lot more to add so I need to save space as best I can.
Well thats all from me today. Thank you so so SO much for stopping by and reading through all of that! I aim to get this album complete and ready to share in a future post so keep an eye out next month. For now be sure to share with us the Christmas Creations that you’re making. We love to see what you all create. And if you haven’t already RUN to one of the many Scrapbooking Stores that are carrying this collection and buy it all before it sells out ! You won’t regret it.
Hi everyone, happy World Card Making Day! (And yes, it’s totally a thing and we did not make it up.) Today is a day for all the card makers out there, as we celebrate your special corner of the paper crafting world and the art of creating handmade cards.
So where did cards begin? The custom of sending greeting cards can be traced back to the ancient Chinese, who exchanged messages of goodwill to celebrate the new year; and also to the early Egyptians who used papyrus scrolls to send greetings. In the 1400’s Europeans began selling and exchanging greeting cards (including Valentine’s cards). The first known published Christmas card can be traced back to 1843, although the official Greeting Card Industry was not formed until almost one hundred years later in 1941. These days, despite a booming industry in mass-produced cards, there are still many who prefer the personalised touch of a handmade card, and today we celebrate them with cards created by our entire design team.
(After you have scrolled through the cards, we’ve got a challenge to you at the end of the post!)
First up, a floral friendship card from Sophie using our ‘Daydream’ collection…
And another sweet sentiment, also from Sophie using ‘Daydream’…
A layered birthday card from Tarrah, using our ‘Make a Wish’ collection…
A cute shaker card from Gwen (with a bow, of course!), using ‘Daydream’…
Another beautiful shaker card using ‘Daydream’, this time from Laura…
A simple rainbow thank you card from Sue using ‘Daydream’…
A sweet card to make you smile from Anita, also using ‘Daydream’…
A gorgeous pair of happy cards from Rachel using the ‘Daydream’ collection…
A glorious floral greeting to make you feel fantabulous from Kylie using ‘Daydream’…
Sweet, simple, and sure to make your day brighter – this pair from Anna B, also using ‘Daydream’…
A super fun concertina fold card from Danni, also using ‘Daydream’…
Look at the amazing layered detail when you open Danni’s card…
Super pretty, positive vibes using our ‘Daydream’ collection coming from Raquel…
A stunning pop-up box card bursting with happiness from Anna K using ‘Daydream’…
Pretty and elegant using a floral cut file combined with the ‘Daydream’ collection from Melissa…
And finally, a sweet congratulations shaker card from Michelle also using ‘Daydream’…
We hope you have found plenty of card making inspiration from our team today. Now it’s time to put your own card making skills to the test with a card making challenge (or two!) Pop over to our Facebook Community group where you can join our card sketch challenge or our card colour challenge. We’ve got two $10 store vouchers up for grabs for our lucky winners, but get in quick as entries close midnight (AEST), Monday 5th October.
Happy crafting!
Hello everyone! Wherever you are in the world right now, I hope you are happy,safe and well. It’s Kylie back with you today to share some more Easter inspiration. I really wanted to challenge myself for today’s project and try something new.So I decided to create some Easter themed, fold out cards using the Happiness and Unforgettable collections combined.
Whilst looking for inspiration via the Silhouette store, I did a search for Easter items and found the templates for both cards. The first card I created was predominantly the ‘Happiness’ collection.
I’ve also used some white and chocolate brown card stock from my stash for the basket, flowers and rabbit, just so I had the tonal effect I wanted. Each card consists of a liner page which had all the necessary slots for the positioning of all the eggs, the lettering and the rabbit. Once in place I added some extra flowers and one of the cute bows from the ‘Unforgettable’ collection.
For my second card I have predominantly used the ‘Unforgettable’ collection.
This card also had a liner for all the 3D elements to be added.I found it easier to have everything in place before adhering it to the card base.A tape runner has been used to adhere the liner as glue may of ‘wrinkled’ a little and I wanted to have it sitting flat.
Extra flower die cuts and a bow have again been added to finish off the card nicely and to ensure a neat balance. I have also used a white marker pen to add a free hand drawn border to the edges of the card. Once completed each card folds down relatively flat so that they can be sent to someone special!
I hope you have enjoyed seeing my cards today and they have given you a little inspiration to try something new also!
Hey all today I have some Christmas goodies to share. I love creating Christmas gift boxes and bags, because who doesn’t love pretty things! I have used the gorgeous Unforgettable collection for my Christmas trio.
I created a simple Christmas card using the 6×8 Unforgettable paper pad. I used Sprightly as my background paper measuring at 5×7 inches. I then chose three papers to create the Christmas trees, Story Teller, Glorious and Garland. I used a cut file for my tree’s but these could easily be cut by hand. I added some machine stitching to the curves of each tree piece to add definition. I added white glitter to the Garland (turquoise) pieces. My tree’s were then attached with foam tape to create dimension. I added gold glitter stars and tree trunks because although not a huge fan of bling, Christmas is a time you can add as much as you like right!!!! To finish off I added some tiny flowers from the ephemera die cut pack and a Merry Christmas sticker from my stash.
This Coffee Cup gift box is a cut file by Lori Whitlock, easy to assemble but oh so cute! I filled this one with Lindt Chocolates and it will be a gift for one of my boys teacher. I cut the cup part using the Natural Beauty paper as this provides a great contrast to use brighter coloured paper and embellishments. I cut the coffee cup lid in white cardstock.
I used the turquoise strip side of the Sprightly paper to add the coffee cup heat sleeve and then added one of the large floral bunches from the ephemera die cut pack with foam tape.
I added a paper star created using Unscripted paper finished off with a little bling. The Spiral Star is by Lori Whitlock.
To finish off I added one of the bows from the collection to break up the white of the lid. These are so easy to create and perfect for little Christmas treats.
And finally to finish off my Christmas trio I created another box, this is a Noodle Box from the Silhouette Design store. The outer box I used Sprightly paper and inside the box I used Glorious. I used the papers from the 6×8 inch paper pad to create the layered flower finished off with an Enamel Dot from the collection. I have filled this treat box with bath bombs.
You don’t need a Christmas collection to create Christmas cards or boxes, I love pink and turquoise as Christmas colours. Thank you for stopping by today and I hope you find a little time in the busy month of December to create.
Hi everyone! It’s Sue Plumb here to share my latest design team project with you and it’s one that is pretty special to me.
Today is World Prematurity Day – a globally recognised day that is aimed at increasing awareness of preterm births, as well as highlighting some of the challenges that are often faced by these babies and their families. Each year approximately 1 in 10 babies are born prematurely, including all three of my children. My post today is for all those babies born too soon.
For my project I decided to create the first in a series of mini albums for my children to document the time following their births. (It has taken me over 7 years to get around to tackling the photos of my boys and all the memories that come with them, so please bear with me for the long post today.)
I began my mini album with the fabulous ‘Boys Rule’ collection and a small 6 ring planner that I purchased from Kmart. (These make perfect mini album covers once everything is removed from the inside.) After choosing the patterned papers I was going to work with, I cut them into a variety of sizes to form the pages of my album.
I used an adjustable 6 hole punch (purchased via eBay) to punch holes on each of the pages, and then used white hole reinforcement stickers (from my local newsagency) to help protect the holes from becoming damaged through handling.
On some of the pages I added extra interest by using border punches to create decorative edges. This, combined with the variety of different page sizes, placements and patterns throughout, is what gives the album so much character.
If you are planning on giving something like this a go, be sure to mix things up as much as you can! Don’t feel like all your pages have to run vertically – a horizontal page thrown in here and there not only adds extra interest but makes the album more interactive as it is turned to be read.
Depending on the theme of your album, you will find that some pages require no more than a photo and some simple embellishments; whilst others may have lots of journaling and very little room for embellishments.
For the sake of continuity across my album, I printed most of my photos in black and white with a few colour feature shots added in. I printed them in a variety of sizes and orientations as well.
Don’t be afraid to add embellishments such as stickers or journaling directly over part of your photos, or to include pages that have no photo at all and are simply decorative. You can even punch directly through photos and use them as a page in your album.
One of the other benefits of making your pages different sizes is being able to get a “sneak peek” at what is coming on the next page. This adds to to the anticipation as you leaf through the album.
To further enhance the cohesion across the album, I typed all my journaling on my computer. When putting each page together I began with photo/s and journaling placement first before deciding on embellishments.
For an extra bit of fun, add some interactive elements such as tip-ins, pockets, or pull out tags. You can see how I used one of the small cards from the Die Cut Ephemera pack with a couple of pieces of washi tape to form a tip-in (fold out flap) to include my journaling underneath.
One of my tips for putting together each page in an album is that whilst I approach each page individually, I am also mindful of what is on the facing page. You can see how I carried across the same colours in the spread below. (Working with the same collection throughout the album helps enormously.)
The only other embellishment I included in my album were a few stickers from the ‘Love Always’ Accessory Sticker sheet, as it had a few more love-filled and generic phrases that suited some of my photos.
Another way to mix things up with your photos is to create a collage or include a series of shots taken close together. (And let’s face it, who doesn’t take 20 shots when you are trying to get the perfect one?!)
I know I have included a LOT of photos in this post, but sometimes the best way to explain things is to show them, right?
My final tip if you are going to create something similar in a planner cover or album, is to not forget about the extra pockets that are built into the cover. I made some small tags to tuck into the front of my album and added some extra photos, and in the larger pocket I included a letter to my son with some of the details about his birth story.
If you are interested in seeing a few more details of my album I have filmed a flip through of the entire thing so you can see how it all looks together:
Thanks so much for sticking with me through my long post today. I do hope I have inspired you to try creating something like this yourself. It could make an ideal Christmas gift for a loved one, or just something for yourself to treasure.
It’s Shannah Bartle here, and I’m so excited to be a Guest Designer with the fabulous Cocoa Vanilla Design Team! I’ve created three cards for you today, using the gorgeous new ‘Unforgettable’ collection. This is such a beautiful range, with a fantastic variety of paper patterns and fun coordinating elements.
For my first card I wanted to create an easel card and thought the cute polaroid frame from the Die Cut Ephemera pack the was just perfect for the pop-up piece! When the card is folded flat the polaroid feature is framed by the stunning floral 6×8” papers…
… And once opened the polaroid frame, backed with aqua paper, sits up nicely showing off the Accessory Stickers and Die Cut Elements.
The inside of the card is covered with wood panel paper, and I’ve used a strip of crochet lace and two heart Foam Title Stickers as a ‘stopper’. I heat embossed a sentiment from Uniquely Creative’s All Occasions stamp set onto aqua paper and framed it with more of the floral paper.
I finished it with a sprinkling of sweet Unforgettable Enamel Dots.
For my second card, I was inspired by the “Shine” Foam Title Sticker to make a glitzy shaker card!
I used lots of the gorgeous 6×8” papers for the card base and shaker element and filled it with gold sequins for the ‘shine’.
I arranged lots of Die Cut Elements around the card and finished with a butterfly in the top corner.
For my last card I chose two of the beautiful 6×8” papers which I cut into a square, then divided in half diagonally.
I layered one of each pattern on a slightly larger square of black cardstock, then trimmed the remaining diagonal pieces smaller and layered onto another black square, then onto the centre of the card.
I chose a third patterned paper, again matt with black cardstock, then added it to the centre of the card using 3D foam for dimension. I adhered the “hello” Foam Title Sticker and several Die Cut Elements and finished with a few Enamel Dots.
Here are all three cards together… hope they inspire you to get creative!
I absolutely LOVED playing with the Cocoa Vanilla Unforgettable collection… and you can check out my Quick Makes feature using this range in Issue 5 of Love Cardmaking International magazine soon!
