Hi everyone and Merry Christmas! I hope you are all ready for the big man in red to arrive?!
Welcome back to the Cocoa Vanilla blog today! It’s Tarrah back with you today to share a Christmas gift box idea using the gorgeous new Merry and Bright collection.
I found a free pillow box template online, printed it out and traced it onto some vellum. I then used the vellum as my template and scored the pillow box shape onto 3 different patterned papers from the Merry and Bright collection! For the larger stripe one, I used a 12 x 12 piece of paper and the 2 smaller ones, I used the A5 paper pad papers. The A5 paper pad is perfect for projects like this!
I cut and folded the gift boxes and then assembled them together. They are super cute and easy to make! They are perfect boxes to gift money, vouchers, lollies, chocolates, earrings anything small really! I attached some white twine from my stash to each one and chose a tag for each and tied a bow.
For each gift box I added a tag and embellished each tag by adding a sticker or 2 from the Accessory sticker sheet and a die-cut from the ephemera pack. I also layered underneath each tag a die-cut flower for extra decoration. To fill your gift box, you just open one end and add the gift inside and close it back up! Super cute and easy!
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.
