Design Team

Sweet Memories | Bohemian Dream | Rachel Lowe

Rachel Lowe 07/11/2019

Hi CVS friends! I adored Bohemian Dream collection with its purple and blues, crisp white contrasts, florals and beautiful die cuts. I have created a super pretty girly layout featuring Bohemian Dream.

I have used a beautful balloon cut file from the Silhouette Design Store. I have used Dreamer paper, both sides and the fun polka dot blue paper. The purple side of Dreamer I used an embossing paper to create the polka dot effect on keeping with the navy dot paper (also the texture added is gorgeous).

Once I had paper pieced the balloons I decided to hand stitch some of the balloons and balloon string. As I do with most designs I use the rule of threes or odd numbers for visual balance (note I used three different papers for the balloons) I hand stitched three of the balloons in white thread and silver thread for the stings. It created a wonderful texture and ensures the balloons do not look flat.

I next added my 3×3 inch photo using the thin frame from the die cut pack and attaching with foam tape to add more dimension. I chose tiny floral bunches to embellish around my frame as I didn’t want the balloons covered too much which I tucked under my photo and frame. I also added several to the outer of three balloons.

I then chose word and phrase sentiments from the accessory sticker sheet in between the balloons, adding some purple sequins to draw your eye to them and break up the white.

To finish off I added my title, a sentiment banner from the die cut pack and two pretty butterflies (added with foam tape).The most time consuming part of this layout is the stitching but it really is worth the effort.

Thank you for stopping by and if you have any questions about my layout please leave in comments. Have a wonderful and creative week.

Rachel X

Love You | Midnight Collection | Zoe Pearn

Sue Plumb 06/11/2019

Hi everyone, it’s Sue here today popping in with a Throwback Thursday share with a difference. Today I am sharing a layout on behalf our beautiful boss lady, Zoe. Unfortunately Zoe doesn’t get to create as often as she would like to (because she is so busy keeping the Cocoa Vanilla wheels turning) but when she does get a chance to put a page together, her work is always stunning.

The layout I am sharing today was created by Zoe using the ‘Midnight’ collection, which she used to document a gorgeous photo from her and her hubby Marty’s wedding day.

The ‘Midnight’ collection is perfect for wedding photos as it features a soft colour palette; delicate florals; and lots of sweet sentiments. Zoe used the white-washed wood grain print of the Shine Bright paper as the base for her page, then added lots of luscious layers on top using a variety of other papers from the range.

For her page title she used the LOVE YOU words from the ‘Wild at Heart’ collection chipboard accent stickers (the chipboard stickers have now sold out, but you will find most items from the range are still available). She also used a few small chipboard heart stickers from the same sheet, but you could easily substitute die cut ephemera pieces adhered with foam tape to achieve the same effect.

Zoe is a master at creating layered embellishment clusters. Here you can see how she stacked a pair of sweet mason jars and a variety of floral pieces all from the ‘Midnight’ die cut ephemera pack alongside her photo. She used foam tape between the layers to help separate them and create dimension – so gorgeous!

If you missed purchasing the ‘Midnight’ collection, or perhaps your stash needs a top-up, you can find it in the Cocoa Vanilla Studio online store HERE

And thank you Zoe for allowing me to share your page today (I know I am not the only one who is a big fan of your work!) X

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.

LOVE YOU | HAPPINESS | GWEN WRUCK

Gwen Wruck 03/11/2019

Hi Creative Friends,

I hope you are all well! Gwen back on the Cocoa Vanilla blog today with a new share using the beautiful ‘Happiness‘ collection. This one is a little different for me because it features 5 photos! I usually create with only one or two photos per page so when my sister and I took this fun series of photos, I knew I had to come up with a plan to get them all on the one layout.

My initial thought for getting this many photos on my page was to print them small which I did first up. Then, I got to thinking about a grid design and pulled out this cut file by CUT to YOU. I had thought about placing the photos within the squares of the cut file, however I had printed them too small for that and didn’t want to waste the prints I had done… so, Plan C it was!

Unsure what to do about the photos, I put those aside and started working on the cut file. I’ve gone about backing some of the squares in the stunning blue of the ‘Good Vibes‘ paper. Then, in the heart shapes, I backed with the pink of the ‘Meadow‘ paper. To help the title stand out, I’ve backed that in the ‘Botanical Bliss‘ pattern paper. I love the deep navy with the fresh white of the cut file.

With the elements of the cutfile backed, I’ve then placed the entire design onto some white card from my stash. I have used foam tape in between the layers here for added dimension. I’ve then created a border by mounting this large piece onto the ‘Expressive‘ paper. I’ve made sure to take the centre of the pattern paper to save it for another project, this one is my favourite from this collection!

I’ve then mounted all of this onto a backing piece of the ‘Botanical Bliss‘ pattern paper. I will often use a contrasting border on my page and find it really does finish off the edges nicely.

Next, I’ve mounted my photos with a very fine border of the ‘Expressive‘ paper and then mounted onto foam tape. It was now a matter of playing with the design and layout to get it how I want. After a little trial and error, I decided to go along the same line as the cut file. You will notice the letters run from the top left the bottom right. I’ve positioned my photos in much the same way so that your eye runs across the layout top left to bottom right. Everything just flows across the page.

At this point, the page is nearly done but of course, I need some smaller elements to bring it all together! I’ve fussy cut some pretty butterflies from the ‘Bright and Beautiful‘ paper (just the pink and blue ones to match my pattern papers) as well as two of the flair from the ‘flair pack‘. I’ve also selected some stickers from the ‘Accessory Sticker Sheet‘ and a die-cut element from the ‘Die Cut Ephemera‘ pack.

I’ve added all of these elements running along the same line of my page, top left to bottom right, keeping with the flow of the photos and title of the page. It was at this stage that I changed the title to be ‘Love You’ by adding in the die cut word ‘you’ from the ‘Die Cut Titles‘ pack and it finishes the page up perfectly.

Thanks for popping by today to see my latest project, I hope it inspires you to get creating and using some of your ‘Happiness’ stash. If it does, I’d love to see what you make over on the Cocoa Vanilla Studio Facebook group. There is so much inspiration over there and worth checking out!

Until next time,

Gwen

Love This Layout | Unforgettable | Anita Bownds

Anita Bownds 02/11/2019

Hi there crafty friends,

Anita here with you today sharing a love layout using the beautiful unforgettable collection.. I using a photo of my kitty Kushan, I guess most people wouldn’t know this but he is blind as he had a stroke 3 years ago and has become very clingy to the point he meows all the time and wants to be picked up and hugged or just be close so he like to lay on my legs while I play video games or watch tv…

Ok so for my layout today I was inspired by a plate I have for my ephemera and bits on my desk that has triangles scattered on it so I thought this triangle confetti background cut file from Paige Evans was just perfect.

I used my cameo to cut out the background on white cardstock and back it with black cardstock

Then using another cut file from Paige Evans this time the word love I cut with my cameo in white cardstock

And backed the heart with my photo and the rest of the letters with natural beauty from the 6×8 paper pad

Then I added some double sided foam tape to the back a added it in the middle of the layout

Then I fussy cut out some flowers from patterned paper glorious to add floral’s around the cut file word

And for the other part of my title I use the word this from the foam title stickers and a few phrase stickers from the accessory stickers to the bottom of the love cut file.

Then I pulled out the ephemera and started adding it around the photo and cut files

Then to finish off the layout with a few enamel dots at the top and bottom of my layout.

check out my process video here

I hope I’ve given you some more inspiration today.

Happy crafting..

Love You | Unforgettable | Mandy Melville

Mandy Melville 31/10/2019

Hello everyone!

Mandy here today to share another layout using the gorgeous new Unforgettable collection! I’ve used a lot of the beautiful bright pink on my layouts so far using this collection, so this time I decided to focus on the coral and mint colours, along with that lovely woodgrain patterned paper. I love this colour combination, and I think it works perfectly with this selfie of Eleanor and I!

I started by trimming down the Natural Beauty woodgrain patterned paper to about 9 1/4 inches square, and adhering it to the middle of my white cardstock background. I then added some machine stitching around the edge, and distressed the edges a little as well to give it some additional texture.

Next I fussy cut a couple of the floral clusters out of the Glorious patterned paper and I arranged them vertically down the page to make one large floral cluster. I chose clusters that had more of the coral and mint colours in them, and then covered any of the pink flowers with floral die cuts that matched my colour scheme. To bulk out the cluster even more, I tucked some additional die cut leaves and flowers around it, and I also added some leaves that I cut on my Cameo using the Unforgettable Cut Files.

I matted my photo with the reverse side of the Natural Beauty patterned paper, and I also tucked a 3×4″ piece that I cut out of the Pretty Bits patterned paper under the left hand side. To add a little bit more interest to the left hand side of the photo I also added a little flag banner sticker under the side of the photo and I adhered a flair button on the edge.

For my title, I once again couldn’t go past using the awesome Foam Title Stickers. I love the contrast that they add, and the scripty font is so pretty! I also added a couple of the little foam black hearts around the layout to create a visual triangle with the black title. Above the title I adhered an aqua phrase sticker which I cut in half to make it two shorter pieces rather than one long one.

To finish the layout off, I added a couple of die cut butterflies, a sprinkling of white enamel dots, some gold ink splatters, and lastly, my typed journaling strips.

Thanks so much for joining me here today! I had so much creating this layout, and I hope that you’ve been inspired by it!

Mandy x

Zombie Apocalypse | Boy Collections | Tarrah McLean

Tarrah McLean 30/10/2019

Hi Cocoa Vanilla friends!

It’s Tarrah back with you and today I am sharing a Halloween layout created for the October mid month challenge over at CSI: Colour, Stories, Inspiration I used lots of the boy collections on this layout!

CSI: Colour, Stories, Inspiration Case File No. 298

I took inspiration from the skull and cross bones design in the image and also the colours. I cut out a skull and cross bone design from black cardstock using my Silhouette Cameo and used is one of the main focal points on my layout. I popped up the skull using craft foam and adhered the cross bones flat to the page. In the eyes of the skull, I backed one of them with one of the paper s from the You Rock collection and added one of the woodies from the Totally Rad collection to the other eye. The Totally Rad collection has lots of pieces with the skull and crossbones so I pulled out what I had left and used them as embellishments. The large white and black skull and cross bones was fussy cut from the ‘Stuff’ paper from the Boys Rule collection The photo is of my eldest son dressed up for Halloween as a zombie a couple of years ago. I just had to add the ‘Admit One Crazy Town ticket and the unbelievable sticker’as they went perfectly with the theme of my layout. I added some of the wood veneer stars from the Flying High collection – I couldn’t believe I still had these! To finish off, I added the chippie crown in the chipboard pieces pack from the Boys Rule collection and added a few last bits and pieces like the arrows, the star flair, the date stamp and some splatters of black mist.

Thanks so much for stopping by today!

Happy creating!

Tarrah x

Halloween layout | Bohemian Dream Collection | Anita Bownds

Anita Bownds 29/10/2019

Hi there crafty friends, Anita here with you today sharing a fun Halloween layout using the beautiful bohemian dream collection … I had a fun idea to make a little witches hat and put it on our kitty Luna’s head and take a photo as you can see she was not impressed at all but I think it’s pretty cute…

I started off by choosing abstract pattern paper and a cut file spiderweb heart from Paige Evans and adhered the cut out spiderweb heart in the center of the white cardstock. Then using embroidery thread I had stitched around the web in purple then I matted the rest of the abstract pattern paper behind my trimmed white cardstock and machine stitched around the edges

Using my cameo and another cut file Halloween from Paige Evans

I used pattered paper abundant and then using beautiful mess pattern paper to back the Halloween cut file

I then matted my photo on Gypsy heart and dreamer and adhering it down

I then added double sided foam tape to to the back of the Halloween word to pop it up and adhered it down across the bottom of the photo

Using the accessory stickers I added a few to the top of my photo then some flowers from the ephemera pack around the photo and web and to finish off the layout I add a few enamel stars in 3 different colours.

check out my process video here

I hope I’ve given you some cute Halloween inspiration today..

Happy crafting..

You and me | Midnight Layout | Anna Komenda

Anna Komenda 27/10/2019

Hello Friends! It’s Anna here and it’s my turn to inspire you with a project created with Cocoa Vanilla Studio collections. This time I left the new “Happiness” line on the side and came back to a little bit older, but still amazing, “Midnight” collection. I am such a big fan of flowers added to this line and soft colors. Pretty combination of dark navy, pink and orange was so inspiring. I was in a mood for die cutting, and I didn’t mind some repetitive job to be done. I spend some time cutting out many hexagons out of “Sunset strip” paper. I knew I wanted to arrange them in the similar color order as they are on the original paper. This is the final result of my efforts:

Such a vivid combination of hexagons needed some calm background. That’s why I decided to use “Moonlight” paper as a base. White color and soft script font works great as a starting point of every colorful project. Each hexagon is mounted with a layer of foam adhesive to add extra dimension to my page.

Flowers cut out from “Sophisticated” paper are my favorite flowers ever. I love how sketchy and whimsical they look. They are quite easy to cut out too. I scattered them around the page. They created such a lovely embellishment clusters highlighting the feminine theme of this page.

Title of my layout is made with word from Die cut titles pack. This is such an amazing product, if you have problems with figuring out clever titles for your pages. I love the font, colors, everything about this product.

Final step of embellishing my page was adding bits and pieces from Ephemera pack and Chipboards pack. Just a little words and simple tabs. I didn’t want to cover too much of my pretty background. I also reached for older products – some glittery enamel dots from “Make a wish” and “Wild at heart” collections. They matched perfectly to this layout. I had so much fun playing with dies and paper creating unique background. Since I got my electronic die cutting machine, simple metal dies got neglected. Rediscovering them was very refreshing to my mojo.

Thank you for stopping by and see you in two weeks.

XO Anna

Little Moments | Unforgettable | Amanda Baldwin

Amanda-Jayne Baldwin 26/10/2019

Hi Cocoa Vanilla Studio Friends!

Amanda here, & today I am sharing another super pretty layout with our gorgeous UNFORGETTABLE collection. For today’s layout, I wanted to create something really special for my sweet girl – I hope she likes it!

Here’s what I came up with…

“Little Moments”

Oh how preeeeeeeeeetty!!! Such a beautiful, floral page for my darling daughter!

Here’s a better look for you…

Absolutely stunning!

You’ll spy the B-side of pattern paper CV-UF 001 GLORIOUS taking center stage! I fussy cut this paper along its own pattern line, and took advantage of the directional quality it posesses. Not only does this clever cut paper encourage movement and flow, it essentially draws attention straight into my sweet photo – LOVE!!! Such a clever way to trim & use this paper! For added impact, I adorned this paper with that sensational floral cut file.

***Note: The cut file is called: Floral Bouquet Set and is courtesy of Cut To You***

It really is something, isn’t it?! I used papers from the 6 x 8 PAPER STACK, as well as some peach coloured cardstock to back this file. I filled the flower centers with ENAMEL DOTS pollen, and then embellished on and around the cut file with DIE CUT EPHEMERA blooms & leaves. To complete the look, I positioned a DIE CUT EPHEMERA butterfly in between the two large cut file flowers. Perfect! Like the GLORIOUS pattern paper, these cascading blooms lead you straight to my beautiful photo…..

Beautiful, indeed!

I tuck my photo into that gorgeous array of blooms, which are from the DIE CUT EPHEMERA pack. I also anchor my layout with a half inch trim of the reverse side of pattern paper, CV-UF007 SPRIGHTLY. This trim is errrrything!!! I just adore how it encompasses my overall design and forms the perfect base to this page!

I embellish this photo cluster with tiny fussy cut butterflies from the 6 x 8 PAPER STACK, more DIE CUT EPHEMERA flowers, and a couple of ACCESSORY STICKERS which I position beneath my photo!