Totally Rad

Unique Kid or Legend | Mixed Boy Collections | Laura Alberts

Laura Alberts 16/02/2022

Hey y’all! Laura Alberts back again with a fun boy layout! This month we were challenged to scraplift ourselves and I immediately knew which layout I wanted to lift! This super fun Sunkissed layout featuring my youngest daughter has such a fun vertical design that I definitely wanted to convert to a more masculine style! Using the You Rock collection mixed with a little bit of Legendary, I scrapped these fun photos of my oldest son and his Lego city. He adored Legos for ages and I love finding these gems in my albums!

Like the original layout, I started with strips of paper down the left and right side of this layout. The original was a 9×12, so I’d just used two fairly small strips, but to match the scale of a 12×12, I added a third strip on both sides. The stars are a mix of fussy cut stars from the Starshine patterned paper and punched scraps left over from previous layouts. Since this layout only had two photos, instead of three, I added a decorative cut apart piece in the middle, adding washi strip phrases and the last robot ephemera piece from the Totally Rad collection.

For my title, I used a mix of wood veneer pieces from the You Rock Collection and die-cut titles from Legendary. I’ve tied in these wood veneer pieces with two plus signs that I added to each of my small clusters on the page. These small clusters add a little bit of whimsy to the page, breaking up the heavy linear design with a bit of fun.

A fun detail on this page are the rows of tiny rectangles along each set of borders. These are actually the punched out leftover pieces from an ephemera piece in the You Rock collection that looked like a viewfinder reel! They made a great vertical embellishment on this page. The stars that border the left side of my photos vary in sizes and colors, mimicking the floral clusters along the original layout.

I hope you enjoyed this look at how I scraplifted myself, changing not only the color scheme and theme, but also the size! Such a fun challenge! To see how this layout came together, check out the process video below!

Boy album | Mix of collections| Anna Komenda

Anna Komenda 27/10/2021

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.

XO Anna

There’s new king in da castle | Layout | Anna Komenda

Anna Komenda 27/09/2021

Hello, hello crafty people. It’s Anna here with a little surprising (at least I think so) page in masculine style made with a big mix of many masculine CVS collections! You know it’s a rarity for me to make boy pages as I have two daughters and I am faithful to all things pink and glitter. You may also remember that I was a mom to the pretty beagle boy named Pirat. He was the hero of some of my layouts and albums. We lost him last year and we promised ourselves it will be our last dog as the loss was so heavy. However, after almost a year, we started missing fur on our clothes, couch and in the cup of tea. One thing led to another and now there is new king in our little castle!!!

Ladies and gentlemen – meet Filut (Jester in English). He is 4,5 months old beagle boy and he is with us since July. It’s like having little baby in the house again. He makes me laugh, sometime he makes my cry (after eating piece of wall…) but out house and our hearts are full again. Be prepared for more masculine layouts coming!!! He is so cute and I can’t resist taking pictures of him. For his first layout I had a very specific idea in mind with a child like page with wonky scene.

I started with picking background from the very first Cocoa Vanilla collection called “Flying high”. It’s not available anymore but you can purchase it’s digital version. You can also fing digi version of “Totally rad” line for even more fun! I then went through many other papers picking few to make a house. Some of them were only scraps. I didn’t measure anything, didn’t skecth any shapes. Just took the scissors and made few cuts. From all of the lines I used only “Legenday” is still available to purchase. So you may consider this page as using up older stash.

After my house was done, I added photo and embellishments around it. Again – I reached for the mix of stickers, cardboard stickers, chipboards and ephemera pieces. I keep them all in one bag – leftovers from old masculine collections – so I can’t even tell which line they belong to. In an empty area in upper left corner I added a title. I ased old alpha stickers from CVS too. Longer phrase perfectly fits here. I like adding my letters tilted and moved – I don’t need to worry they do not line up perfectly then! Make them cricket on purpose!

Whole page came together pretty fast and it was so fun to make. I just love using up my older stuff and plaing with basic supplies. You can make more girly version of this page too, with wonky house and random elements from various collections!

That is all for today. Thank you so so much for stopping by and see you again in October. Fall officially started on northern hemisphere which means much less daily light, gloomy weather, rainy days and cold. Not a fan here! However I am happy scrapbooking and Filut will be my companions during long evenings.

XO Anna

You Rock | You Rock Collection | Laura Alberts

Laura Alberts 28/06/2021

Hey y’all! Laura here and I decided for these wild and crazy photos of my oldest son, I wanted to dig deep into my Cocoa Vanilla stash and play with the You Rock collection from 2017. I’ve almost finished it off and am determined to use it up this year. For this layout, I grouped my three photos across the center and layered scraps behind them to create a foundation for my photos. The title is cut from the paper pack packaging that I cut into a banner shape, with a small washi banner behind it.

In each of the four corners, I placed a piece of washi from the washi tape booklet that accompanied You Rock and then layered random embellishments together to create L-shaped clusters. These are a combination of fussy cut stars, ephemera, chipboard, wood veneer, and stickers. Loved seeing how I could puzzle together a variety of sizes and textures into each cluster!

The bottom right corner is my absolute favorite! I had just a few pieces left from the Totally Rad collection (as in about five pieces of ephemera!), so I created a hilariously cute little globe with a mustache that I fully admit sends me into giggles every time I see it. I think it perfectly captures the goofy personality of my oldest son! Finishing off the layout with my typical Nuvo Drops, but in black this time, and gold ink splatters.

I hope this layout inspires you to dig into your older Cocoa Vanilla Studio stash for your next layout! To see how “You Rock” came together, check out the process video below!

Super Totally Rad | Totally Rad collection | Sue Plumb

Sue Plumb 06/08/2020

Hi everyone, it’s Sue Plumb here to share my latest design team project with you. As we all excitedly await the gorgeous new ‘Daydream’ collection, I have been inspired by some of my fellow team members who have been getting ready by doing some stash-busting. So I decided to have a dig into my own stash and see what I could find to use up. I finally settled on the ‘Totally Rad’ collection. For those of you who have been Cocoa Vanilla fans for a long time, you might have some of this hiding in your stash too; and for everyone who missed this range the first time around, you can now purchase it as a digital collection HERE

Here is my layout “Super Totally Rad”…

When it came to the background, I was limited with paper choices so I chose to use the sun burst style pattern on the “Good Times” paper from the ‘Boys Rule’ collection instead. I had a couple of photos from my boys recent 8th birthday, and I thought the colours of the cake would make it a fun subject to pair with the colourful ‘Totally Rad’ collection.

Based on the limited paper I had left to work with, I decided to go with a vertical design using a piece of the cute camera print “Happy Snaps” paper for the focal area of my page. Alongside that, I added a strip of the yellow chevron print which was the reverse side of the cameras. I also added a second strip of the chevrons along he right edge of my page. Because the photos I was working with were different orientations, I wanted to keep them contained on the vertical strip of paper and then fill around them.

The key to keeping this busy design cohesive, was to ensure that all the different elements I planned to use needed to be touching each other. This cascading arrangement meant that the viewer’s eye was automatically drawn down through the design. I used a mix of die cut ephemera pieces, as well as pieces that I had fussy cut from the “Mix Tape” cut apart sheet. I also used a flair button and some enamel shapes.

I am not a huge fan of symmetry in my work, so to balance out how heavy my design was along the central line of the page, I added a small embellishment cluster in the bottom right corner of my page, along with my hand written journalling.

I finished off with some black ink splatters and by stamping the phrase happy birthday to you a few times around the page. I am really happy with the clean simplicity of this page, but also with the fact I got to bust some stash and re-visit a collection that I loved.

I will be back again with another share in a couple of weeks time…and expect a certain new collection to be the star of the show! Until then, happy scrapping!

The Best | You Rock and more…… | Rachel Lowe

Rachel Lowe 21/01/2020

Hey there CVS friends! Well here is the boy themed layout as chosen by you earlier in the month. I have used a mix of Boys Rule and You Rock collections.

I love grids and this is the basis of my design.

I used Boys Rule Messed Up paper as my background paper, who doesn’t love a paper where the mixed media is done for you! I then cut a 3×12 inch of Boys Rule Straight & Narrow paper and attached vertically to my base paper. I then hand punched different sized stars from Boys Rule Star Fall paper and arranged, slightly tucking some under the green paper and added some with foam tape slightly over the green paper. I added a row of stitching on the right side of the green strip to add texture.

I decided on a grid of three which allowed me one square for my photo and two to embellish. I started at the top creating an embellishment cluster, cutting a 3×3 inch square from Boys Rule Fun & Games paper. I added some random messy machine stitching and added a paper strip from the You Rock black cross paper. I then used the die cut ephemera from Boys Rule to embellish and finishing off with a flair from You Rock collection.

I next added my photo which is 2×2 inches, I used a die frame from the die cut pack and then matted onto Boys Rule Fun & Games denim square. I finished this off with some phrases from the Boys Rule Accessory Stickers and a flair from Made of Awesome collection.

I used another die cut frame for the Rubber tag Awesome. I used another phrase die cut and finished this off with enamel crosses from Made of Awesome collection, which I also added to the corners of my base page.

My title is created using Foam titles from Unforgettable collection (they don’t count as girl on this page lol!), they add such a wow factor in strong black with added height, a close second fav of mine, clear stickers being my absolute fav!

Of course you could add more photos, make your grid with 5 squares instead of three! I hope I lived up to the hype of creating a boy layout to inspire you. I can’t wait until the new boy collection Legendary arrives.

Thanks for stopping by and see you again soon!

Rachel X

2019 Favourites | Sue Plumb

Sue Plumb 20/12/2019

Hi everyone! It’s hard to believe we are mere days away from Christmas isn’t it? I hope your preparations are going well and that you don’t have too much left to do.

Today is my turn to share some of my favourite projects that I created during 2019. I am starting off with a layout that features the stunning ‘Happiness’ collection that was released earlier this year. I adore this range, with all its bright colours and beautiful florals. This page also features a photo of myself and a few of my crafty peeps that was taken at a retreat, bringing back some fun memories too.

This layout was actually inspired by a page from my fellow team member Gwen, as part of a “scraplift” theme that we did earlier in the year, and I love how it turned out! I even got my scissors out for some fussy cutting for this page, because those flowers were just begging to be cut out! One of my other favourite things from this collection is definitely the Clear Stickers – especially all the “painty” style ones!

You probably already know that as a mum of twin boys that I am partial to a good boy page; so for my next favourite, I couldn’t go past this mixed media layout of my dynamic duo using an old favourite – the ‘Totally Rad’ collection from 2016. I actually created this one whilst I was at the Cocoa Vanilla retreat, and besides the end result, I think I also love it because I created it whilst I was so relaxed and in such good company. (Seriously, if you have never been to a retreat before, make sure you put it on your bucket list!)

Despite the fact that this collection is no longer available, there is good news for fans of this range that may have missed getting their hands on it. This collection was recently released as a digital range, which you can purchase to print and cut at home! It includes all the papers (which are easy to print A4 size on a normal home printer); all the cool elements, and Zoe has even included three A4 sized ready to print PDFs, so you just have to print them off and cut them out. You can find the bundle in store HERE

My final favourite layout from this year also featured one of our older collections – ‘Life is Beautiful’ and a photo of my daughter and one of her best friends. This range was released waaay back in 2015, and to date it still remains a firm favourite of mine. The colour palette is just SO fresh and pretty, with the navy, aqua and apricot colour combination.

This layout is also a favourite of mine because it features butterflies. (And anyone who has seen my tattoo will already know how much I love butterflies.) I created these large layered butterflies using cut files from Cut to You, which I coloured with Distress Oxides, backed with some of my precious patterned paper scraps, then topped with butterfly stickers from the Accessory Sticker sheet. Combined with fussy cut florals and just enough ink splatters, it makes my creative heart happy. (This range is also now available as a digital collection and you can find it HERE)

Finally, I have to give a mention my other favourite project from this year that wasn’t a layout at all. It was the mini album that I created recently using the ‘Boys Rule’ collection for one of my sons to document the time following his premature birth. This one invoked all kinds of memories as I put it together (both good and bad) and truly was a labour of love.

You find my post with all the details of the album HERE or watch my flip through of the album below.

That’s all from me today, wishing you & your families a very merry Christmas! I hope you get a chance to spend quality time with the people you love most, and make plenty of happy memories to document later. XX

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.