Tis the Season

2019 Favourites | Tarrah McLean

Tarrah McLean 22/12/2019

Hi creative friends!

It’s Tarrah back with you and today its my turn to share some of my favourite layouts from 2019.

First up is this one I created recently using some of my last pieces of the gorgeous Tis the Season collection that I had been holding on to! This layout is one of my favourites because it has lots of my favourite things included on it, a photo of my boys, Christmas, a cut file, machine stitching and I also love the super cute shaker pocket that I filled with lots of the sequins from this collection.

Thankfully I can now have an endless supply of this stunning collection with the release of this collection in digital format! Never have to run out of it again! You can get your hands on the Tis the season digital collection in the Cocoa Vanilla store here.

My next favourite is this one I created using the amazing Unforgettable collection. I just Love all the florals in this collection and the colour palette is so beautiful too. I chose this one as a favourite because I love the design and how the soft colours of the collection make the darker black and white photo really pop. I also love all the layers of florals, papers and embellishments. The gorgeous foam titles in this collection are awesome to use too and the re-introduction of the bitty bows and tassels makes my bow heart happy!

Of course there has to be a boy themed layout in the mix having 2 sons and a husband! I used the awesome You Rock collection and used a sketch as inspiration to create my layout about my eldest son and hubby.

This layout is a favourite because I love the simple design and that I was able to use up some of my stash of the You Rock collection. The You Rock collection is probably my favourite Cocoa Vanilla boy collection. Unfortunately there are not too many pieces left from this collection and as yet its not a digital collection so if you have some left, lucky you!

Last but not least is this pretty layout using the stunning Happiness collection. This layout is one of my favourites because I absolutely LOVE the Happiness collection! This collection gets my colour loving heart skipping a beat! I mean just look at those stunning colours!!

I love that I was able to include lots of the different papers and I also fussy cut the colourful butterflies and scattered them around the layout.

Its also one of my favourite layouts because of the photo I added to the page, this photo features some of my people and they include boss lady Zoe, fellow team member and good friend, Sue and her gorgeous sister Mandy as well as former team member, Raquel and another friend Amy. I love spending time with ‘my people’ who get my passion for creating with pretty things!

Thank you so much for all your support this past year! I hope I inspired you in some way?!

Wishing you and your families all a very safe and Merry Christmas, I hope you get to spend time with the people you love the most and cherish those times with them.

All the best for a prosperous new year!

Happy creating!

Tarrah x

FAVOURITES | MIXED | GWEN WRUCK

Gwen Wruck 17/12/2019

Hi Creative Friends,

I hope you are all well! Gwen here on the blog today with my last share for Cocoa Vanilla Studios for the year. This week the design team are featuring our favourite layouts for 2019.

I so love all of the pages I created this year, it really is hard to choose but I couldn’t go past this layout of my daughter and I and our Elf on the Shelf ‘Candy’. This one is not only a favourite because it is a Christmas page, but I’m also really loving the soft watercolour I’ve used on the background in this one, the cut file (CUT to YOU) and the layers of Christmas die cuts from the ‘Tis the Season‘ collection.

My second choice is “Bloom” created using the ‘Unforgettable‘ collection. I chose this page for a couple of reasons, firstly it documents me and I really don’t do enough of that! It’s about a personal journey I’ve been on these past 2 years. I also love that it was a page I taught at my local store. I love teaching and to be able to do that with the stunning collections Cocoa Vanilla makes really is a dream come true.

Lastly, I’ve included this layout “Dream”. I couldn’t help but put this in as it features my all-time favourite collection “Bohemian Dream“. The colours in this collection will never get old for me even after using it on a stack of layouts. For this one, I set about using up some of the smaller scraps I had; not wanting to throw any of it out! I’ve backed this cut file (CUT to YOU) mixing and matching all of the patterns to create this bright and happy page.

Thanks for popping by today, and for your support both personally and for Cocoa Vanilla Studios. I wish you all a very Merry Christmas! It has been such a fun year and there is lots more to come in 2020.

Until next time,

Gwen

Christmas cards | Tis the season | Anna Komenda

Anna Komenda 13/12/2019

Hello Friends. Counting down to christmas is starting to look serious. Only 10 days!!! If you didn’t have time to mail your christmas cards, it’s the last call. I prepared some isnpirations for you for quick and easy cards. Cocoa Vanilla had a christmas collection – “Tis the season” – few years ago and I still got some bits and pieces left, mostly papers. When Zoe recently released the digital versions of older lines, including the christmas one, I thought it’s the perfect moment to revisit “Tis the season”. I printed myself three sheets of embellishments included into this line. They are already prepared as a PDF versions, so all I needed to do is to pust the “print” button.

Making those three cards took me about an hour, including some fussy cutting of printed elements. It’s a combination of paper scraps, few stickers, ephemera leftovers, wooden elements and digital pieces.

I usually make 10*14 cm cards but I wanted to use up some longer stickers from the sticker sheet so I decided to use 10*20 cm size for the first card. I arranged longer strips, combining them with a piece of paper and glued them over a dotty background.

Something I like to include into all of my projects is dimension. I knew that the cards have to survive being mailed so I used solid cardboard instead of foam squares under the bigger surfaces. I finished my card adding few flowers cut out from printable sheets and wooden elements.

Second card is smaller. Once again I reached for papers scraps. I had few 3*4 elements from one of the papers and I decided to use them on cards. I started with a green background, then I added 3*4 card and finished it with a title from sticker sheet. Winter flowers are from digital version. Even if you don’t have papers, you can print them too!!! If you have a regular printer, you will get A4 size paper – perfect for any cardmaking.

Last card I made has a cute, retro Santa as a main element and it was also taken from cut apart paper.

Santa is quite big so there was no much room left for embellishing. I created my title using ephemera leftover – word “christmas”. I added word “merry” using alpha stickers, that were included into the older lines. You can buy them really cheap now! I mixed real wooden element with the printed ones to finish my card.

I am so, so happy that Zoe decided to release those printable versions of older lines. I can come back to my favorite lines and use up the leftovers. And using up the leftovers always makes me happy and I know I am not waisting anything.

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

XO Anna

Tis The Season | Tis The Season Collection | Tarrah McLean

Tarrah McLean 08/12/2019

Hi there creative friends!

It’s Tarrah McLean back with you and today I am sharing a new Christmas themed layout using the gorgeous Tis the Season collection.

I started my layout by cutting a Christmas Tree cut file design (sorry I am not sure where this one comes from) from white cardstock. I don’t have much of the traditional collection left now but I am so happy to be able to get everything I need in digital form! I will never run out again! If your stash is getting low of Tis the Season, make sure to grab the digital collection here and print your own! There are some of the older collections available in digital form now, so check them all out in the Cocoa Vanilla Store here! I did have some of the green holly paper left and I love how it looks behind the cut file design. I also had a small amount of the red and white diagonal stripe paper and decided to adhere a strip of that to the left side of the page. I chose a photo of my youngest taken on Christmas Day when he was about 3 weeks old, he just turned 9 yesterday so the photo is quite old but its one of my favourites! I changed the colour of the photo to a soft black and white as the colours in the photo would have clashed with the soft colours in the collection. Underneath the photo I layered a small paper doily and a smaller piece of the red and white stripe paper to the right of the photo. I also layered a wood veneer frame on top of the photo, I like how this draws your eye to the photo. I popped up the photo using craft foam and then placed embellishments around the photo. The ticket that says ‘Child’ die-cut definitely had to be added, it was perfect tucked at the bottom of my photo.I used accessory stickers, enamel dots, die-cuts, wood veneer, sequins and a bitty bow to embellish. I have tons of the sequins left, I love the gold stars so I scattered a few of those around to add some sparkle. I placed the white bitty bow at the base of the tree to separate the tree from the pot. To finish the page, I added the date stamp of when the photo was taken. I love how my page turned out even with only minimal pieces from the Tis the Season collection!

Thank you so much for stopping by today! I hope you enjoyed my page today and that you are inspired to create your own Christmas themed layout using your stash of Tis the season!

Happy creating!

Tarrah x

Happy Christmas | Tis The Season Collection | Tarrah McLean

Tarrah McLean 20/11/2019

Hi creative friends!

It’s Tarrah McLean back with you on this Thursday! I hope all my fellow Aussie friends are all safe from these horrendous bush fires we are experiencing in our country at present?

Today I am sharing a layout for the Cut Files theme we have on all this week and being that its Thursday I was also given ‘Throwback Thursday’ where we create with an older collection. I decided to create a Christmas layout since it is fast approaching!I started my page by taking a sheet of white cardstock and adding a piece of vellum over the top to mute the white a little bit, as I had lots of the sequins left from the Tis The Season collection, I decided to add lots of them under the vellum to create a shaker pocket. Once I had added the sequins, I then machine stitched all the edges so that they wouldn’t fall out. I love how this turned out! I like that it adds another feature to my layout.

I took two of the 12 x 12 papers and cut some vertical strips from them and placed them down each side of the layout. then chose a gorgeous cut file title design by Cut To You and added some of the patterned papers behind each of the words. I added craft foam to the underneath and placed it in the centre of my page. I also popped up the photo of my sons on Christmas Day with craft foam so that it was at the same level as the title on my page. I love the shadows and dimension this creates on my page.

I then began to embellish my page using some of the accessory stickers (that are still available in the store) some of the die-cuts, wood veneers and of course a bitty bow and the tiny metal key! I only had 1 of the poinsettia flowers in the die-cut pack left so I added just the one to the very bottom of the title and layered the bow over the top. Lastly I added some of the enamel dots from the Tis The Season collection. Have you got any of the Tis The Season collection left? Pull it out and get creating with it! Its such a soft and gorgeous collection for Christmas photos.