Hi everyone, it’s Melissa here and I’m back with another layout I created with gorgeous Happy Days. My assignment was Mother’s Day, and I just knew I needed to create a layout with a heart.
I created a layout recently with a heart where I used the cut-out shape. For this layout I took the negative heart and punched lots of small hearts from the A5 Paper Stack and glued them on randomly to cover the heart. I trimmed around the edge, and then machine stitched around the edge.
I chose a sweet photo of my girls at our photo booth from church at our Mother’s Day photobooth in 2021. I backed it yellow patterned paper from the A5 Paper Stack.
I embellished with lots of Die Cut Ephemera. I used the Chipboard Words for my title, so easy and fun!
It’s Tarrah back with you and today I am sharing a new layout featuring the gorgeous new Happy Days collection!
Have you seen the gorgeous new gold foiled specialty paper in this collection? It is soooo beautiful! I knew I had to use it for a layout! I decided to document some dress up photos of my niece, adding a total of 3 photos on this layout!
Make sure you get the specialty paper in your Happy Days collection order, you won’t be disappointed!
I took the gold foiled specialty paper and carefully cut out the centres of the ‘frames’ with my craft knife, leaving just the outline of each ‘frame’. I put the centres aside in case I want to use these on a project in the future. I then took the A5 paper stack and chose 1 of each of the papers from the pack and backed all the spaces in the papers where there were no photos. My title is made up of the gorgeous chipboard alphabet stickers. I placed the title split up so that it helps draw your eye around the layout.
Once all of the spaces were backed, I trimmed down the specialty paper and adhered this piece to the ‘B’ side of the ‘Definitive’ paper to frame the entire layout. I chose a variety of the beautiful embellishments in the collection to embellish each of the ‘frames’ including die-cuts from the ephemera pack, enamel hearts and dots, fabric puffy hearts and accessory stickers. Many of the embellishments have been adhered using craft foam underneath to add dimension to the page, I love how the craft foam creates shadows and dimension.
On some of the spaces, I chose to leave the embellishments off as I felt that the paper was enough for that space. You can in the below image, I left them off the rainbow paper and the round butterfly space. I also left the orange and lemon space free of embellishments and the horizontal rectangle at the bottom as well. Some of the spaces only have subtle embellishments such as the round space with the rainbow paper, I have only added 2 enamel hearts to this space.
I love how colourful and bright this collection is and how easy it is to create pretty projects! The collection made this page come together so easily and I love how it turned out! I can’t wait to see what you all create using this beautiful collection! Make sure you get your hands on it soon!
Thank you so much for stopping by the Cocoa Vanilla blog today! I hope you enjoyed reading about how I created my layout as much as I enjoyed creating it!
Hi everyone, it’s Sue Plumb here and I am SO excited to be sharing my first design team project using the brand new ‘Happy Days’ collection. I am sure by now you have seen the collection in full (either here on the blog or in person), so I know you will agree with me when I say how gorgeous it is! All those bright, vibrant colours really do make me happy.
For my first layout I decided to document some recent happy photos I took – my daughter on her 15th birthday. She was ecstatic to receive her first pair of “Docs” (Dr Marten boots) as a gift – definitely a happy day for her.
I chose to start with the yellow plaid pattern on the B side of the “Feel Good” paper, which is the cut apart sheet for this collection. I didn’t really want to sacrifice the cut apart first up, but I could not resist that gorgeous happy yellow for my background. To add a little extra colour I added some teal acrylic paint using 2″ wide brush and the dry brush technique. Initially I had planned for the brush strokes to be horizontal on the page, but after spinning the page, I decided I like them better vertical.
Next, I started building my paper layers. I matted each of my three photos using the sweet strawberry print on the B side of the “Lush Blooms” paper. I also used an extra piece of this paper to place horizontally across the page as an anchor point for my photos. I tore along one edge to add a textural element. I topped the strawberry paper with a thin stripe of plum purple, which was cut from the top edge of the striped pattern on the “Sunshine Lollipops” paper. I then added some frayed gauze and an aqua paper doily before adding my photos on top.
Now it was time to start embellishing my page. I couldn’t resist reaching for the gorgeous florals from the collection; so I used a mix of flowers fussy cut from the “Lush Blooms” paper and pieces from the Floral Ephemera pack. The first cluster I created was around the top left corner of my photos. I also used a small banner piece from the Die Cut Ephemera pack across the top edge of my photo.
The second cluster I created was below the centre photo and here I used a larger fussy cut floral piece with foam tape behind it to add a little height. (I had already planned at this point that my title was going to go alongside it, even though I hadn’t added it yet.) With two clusters in place, it was time to add my third cluster to balance my page.
The position of the last floral cluster was alongside the photos on the right edge. The positioning of this final cluster completed my visual triangle around the focal point of my page. Again, I used some foam tape to create dimension.
With all the flowers in place, I then set about adding some text to the page. I chose the die cut hello flag from the ephemera pack to place along the bottom edge of my main photo. This formed the first part of my subtitle, which was Hello 1st Docs, with the letters for the second part coming from the Mini Puffy Alphabet Stickers pack. The main part of my title, So Awesome, was using words from the Chipboard Titles pack.
At this point it was simply a matter of a few finishing touches. I created a small cluster along the bottom edge of the page using a scrap of paper, a flower, a phrase stickers from the Accessory Sticker sheet and a sweet little heart shaped Puffy Sticker. I added a couple of extra phrase stickers and heart puffy stickers to the page as well. I also added a die cut butterfly (I am sure you already know how much I love them) and the final finishing touch was one of the gorgeous Puffy Hearts stuck directly onto my centre photo. Oh, and a little black ink splatter.
And that was it!! I hope you love my layout and it inspires you to get creative too. Even if you don’t have the ‘Happy Days’ collection yet, grab out some other Cocoa Vanilla goodies and get busy! ‘Happy Days’ is already shipping to retailers so keep an eye out at your favourite store.
Hey y’all! Laura back again with a new layout featuring the stunning new collection Happy Days! These sweet photos from our trip to Michigan over Thanksgiving were perfect for this color scheme and I just had to give them a big bold purple mat to let them pop off the page!
One of my favorite pieces in this collection are these puffy fabric hearts! They are so soft and add a sweet, whimsical feel to the page. I used them to embellish the cut-apart labels that I wrote out my journaling on.
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To give my design a little extra flair, I layered some floral and icon ephemera with this “Awesome” cut-apart piece to create a dramatic title that helps focus the attention on my photos as well as accent the shape of this simple, linear design.
I hope this layout inspires you to pull out your puffy embellishments from Happy Days or any of the past collections and give them some love! To see how “Awesome” came together, check out the process video below.
Today I have a layout to share using the beautiful These Days collection. I am a little sad as this is the last of it but on a positive note I have the new Happy Days collection to start creating with (happy dance).
As I only had the butterfly 12×12 paper left I decided to use it as my base paper but adding a white scalloped square to the middle with a blue colour wash to add contrast. Using a cut file I cut 5 butterflies to layer them for dimension. I used my sewing machine to add stitching down the centre.
I next added my 3×4 inch photo of me hanging out in Paris as you do lol! Which I matted and used foam tape to add. My photo is where I added a larger embellishment cluster. I cafe die cut reminded me of Paris so it had to be added to my cluster, I added a tree die cut behind it and then used phrase sentiments from the accessory sticker sheet to journal.
On the opposite side I created a floral cluster and finished off my adding a die cut tab at the top of my photo and a puffy heart sticker on the tree.
I added of the wood epoxy buttons on the butterfly wing. I then used the puffy stickers alphas to add Paris to the other butterfly wing. This layout is simple and quick to put together but the butterfly paper, mixed media background and layered butterfly cut file give it lots of visual impact.
There are some These Days product left in the CVS shop.
Thank you for stopping by and I look forward to sharing my first layout using Happy Days!
I cut two strips of the “Take Flight” polka dot paper and placed them on the top and bottom part of a 12×12 thick white cardstock. I added some stitching with yellow thread and white embroidery floss.
I used a precious photo of me and my son Gabriel. I mounted it on tissue paper and foam adhesive, and centered it on the page.
I fussy cut three frames out of the “Wall of Fame” paper that I placed around the photo, and decorated them with Die Cut Ephemeras, stickers and fussy cut flowers.
I created my title with a mix of alpha dies from my stash and some Foam Title Stickers from the collection.
I placed a few phrases from the Accessory Stickers sheet, and scattered a few butterflies as the finishing touch.
Here are more close-ups:
I am so happy with the result and hope you like it too!
Hey CVS fans, welcome back to the blog and I’m so excited to share my first page using the BRAND NEW ‘Happy Days’collection.
This collection is so bright and fun with lots of cute icons…. I don’t think it would be possible to not create something that would make your heart happy. Here is a look at my page..
My assignment for today was to focus on the specialty paper from this range. It is a full sheet of gold frames with lots of cute icons such as butterflies, cameras, florals etc. I was immediately inspired to cut the whole sheet up and use some of the pieces individually. To start I pulled out some of the circular frames and decided these would form the base of my page, popping my photos behind some of them.
My background paper is the gorgeous ‘Juicy Fruit’paper … I love this paper for the mixed media look it has around the edges.. a great way to have the mixed media look without the mess!
I positioned my photos horizontally across the middle of my page, then I added some circles cut from the 6×8 paper stack to add more colour to my page.
For my title I used the ‘Happy Days’ die cut piece from the ephemera pack. I cut the letters out individually so I could wrap them around the circles….the word ‘Happy’ at the top, and ‘Days’ at the bottom. I love how this looks and emphasis’ the circular look. I also popped these up on foam to pop them off the page.
I wanted to add some of the icons from the specialty paper…you will see I added a banner on the left side of my page and a rainbow and florals to the right.
Next I added a bunch of pieces from the ephemera pack, some stickers from the ‘Accessory Sticker Sheet’ and I also cut some rainbows out from the ‘Sunshine Lollipop’patterned paper.
The ‘Puffy Hearts’are so sweet and dimensional so I HAD to add one to the centre of my page …they are a little sparkly too which adds to the fun!
To finish my page I used some of the Puffy Stickersand a light spray of gold mist…
I hope you are excited to get your hands on this collection and get creating. I cant wait to create more with Happy Days!
Hello everyone! It’s Anna here with something a little bit different than usual! I know you love all the layouts (and I love them too), but sometimes you are not in the mood for memory scrapbooking. Sometimes you just want to have some fun, use up some embellishments and make something useful. This was exactly my motivation to make this notebook, that can be used as a diary. I am impatiently waiting for the brand new “Happy days” collection to arrive to my doorstep. In the meantime, I still have plenty of other gorgeous lines to play with so I chose “Storyteller” to make my notebook. You can still find plenty of elements from this line in CVS Shop!
As I mentioned, I made this notebook from scratch. If you would like to make something similar, you would need a binding machine like Cinch. I own this tool for years and it still serves me well. I use it to make not only notebooks but also mini albums.
If you would like to make something similar and you have a proper tool, you need to start with choosing your size. I was using A5 sized inserts so my cover needed to be a little big wider and taller. Depending if you wish to add some dividers or tabs, the cover can be a bit wider or shorter – it’s the big advantage of making your own notebook from scratch. I chose “Dits daisy” pattern papers for my front and back covers. I simply cut out pieces of cardboard to the needed size and wrapped them with paper.
I also cut smaller rectangles for the insides of both covers using pretty paper with florals. Now you are ready to punch holes in the covers. You can adjust how many you want, how long the wire should be – it’s all up to you.
From A5 Paper Stack Pack I chose few sheets to add them between the pages of the notebook. They can be used as a dividers or just some decorative pages, to add something extra to your notebook. I gathered them along the regular sheets and made holes too. With covers and inserts prepared I was ready to bind everything together with 1 inch wire.
After everything was connected, i could start embellishing pages and covers. I started with the dividers, adding some stickers from 6*12 Stickers Sheet and Ephemera Pieces. I challenged myself to use up the whole sheet of stickers and I managed to do so! Mission of making room for new collection completed! :)
I tried to keep the decorations as flat as possible so the notebook wouldn’t turn out too bulky. It will not close nicely if you add to many dimensional elements inside. However, I added Foam Title Sticker on the first divider and on the notebook cover.
I also added a big pocket on the back cover to hide some extra journaling cards to add to the pages later. You can also keep there some memorabilia! Pocket is decorated with Floral Ephemera. I also added a wreath of flowers on the front cover.
How do you like my idea of handmade notebook? You can use it by yourself or give away as a gift! And you can easily make one with collection leftovers so use up all the bits and pieces!
That is all for today. I will be back in two weeks with another inspiration. Maybe even made with brand new line! Fingers crossed for the fast shipping. “Happy days” is totally my jam and I can’t wait to dive into those yummy colors.
It’s Tarrah back with you today, I hope you are enjoying Easter celebrations with loved ones! I was given the theme of Easter for my project this week and have created a scrapbook layout featuring the gorgeous Happiness collection! The Happiness collection is so beautiful and perfect for my Easter themed layout documenting a sweet photo of my niece from last Easter!
I chose the gorgeous woodgrain paper from the Happiness collection for my background and trimmed down a piece of white cardstock to measure 11′ x 11′ adhering this on top of the woodgrain paper. I then machine stitched a border around the edge to add some texture and interest. Next I cut out a pretty floral Easter egg cut file from CUT to YOU from white cardstock also. I did attempt to machine stitch the very fine egg outline of the cut file, however it did not go that well with how thin this piece was. I took the A5 paper stack and chose some pretty papers from it to back the flowers and leaves in the cut file with. This was the most time consuming part of this layout but I LOVE how it looks. Once the flowers and leaves were all backed, I added craft foam to the underneath and adhered it in the centre of the white cardstock background. The thin outline of the egg, I did adhere this flat to the background as any sort of foam adhesive would have been visible.
I wanted to add a little bit of mixed media ( I know! Shock!) but not too much so I took a fine paintbrush and dipped it into my Tumbled Glass distress Oxide ink and painted around the outline of the egg shape on the right. I also added some water and the ink on some plastic packaging and did some small mist drops around the edge in 3 colours: Tumbled Glass, Spun Sugar and Worn Lipstick. I love how the subtle misting and painting looks to define the cut file a bit more. One thing I love about cut files is, that they often help with the design of your page, with this one in particular, my photo placement was obviously going to be to the right of the florals. I adhered my photo to the die-cut frame, tucked in the frame from the Accessory Sticker sheet, added some twine through the hole in the top and then added craft foam underneath the frame to adhere it to my page. I stapled a banner sticker to the top right corner, added the phrase banner at the top and also added my title to the bottom of the frame.
To the left on top of the flowers in the cut file, I added more flowers from the floral ephemera pack, I just LOVE how bright and gorgeous those flowers look! I also added another flower on the right hand side, tucking it in under the frame. I also fussy cut some butterflies out of the ‘B’ side of the woodgrain paper and adhered those on the right as well. I bent up the wings to give the sense of movement and dimension on the layout. I added a heart from the clear sticker sheet here as well. Like with all of my layouts, I like to get the largest elements laid on my pages first and then embellish with smaller things like die-cuts and stickers etc.
My title is made up of the alphabet stickers from the Life is Beautiful collection. At the top of the photo, I tucked in the ‘Fun’ ticket die-cut from the ephemera pack and stamped the date stamp of when the photo was taken. I also added some of the word and phrase stickers from the Accessory sticker sheet around the page to help tell the story of my photo.
Thanks so much for stopping by the Cocoa Vanilla blog today! I hope you enjoyed reading about how I created my layout as much as I enjoyed creating it!
Hi everyone, it’s Sue Plumb here to share my latest design team project with you. As we are currently enjoying the Easter break and counting down to the arrival of the bunny tomorrow, I wanted to share a layout featuring one of my favourite Easter photos of my kids. This one was taken 10 years ago, when my boys were still babies – I miss those little squishy faces!
For my layout I decided to dig DEEP into my stash and pull out a collection that I have used for Easter projects before – ‘Make a Wish’. Although this collection was originally designed as a birthday collection, it had the perfect colour palette for my cute Easter page.
Although I was working with ‘Make a Wish’, I did borrow the background paper from the ‘These Days’ collection as I wanted to start with a yellow base. I then applied some blue acrylic paint with a brayer to help define the focal area.
As I had some of the chipboard sheet left, I decided to use one of the frames to frame my photo with. (This is not something I often do, as I usually prefer to use frames for layering around my page.) I also added a couple of layers of patterned paper behind it, along with a small yellow paper doily and some frayed gauze for texture.
I knew before I started this layout that I wanted to include an egg shape on my page, so I decided to create a broken egg from patterned paper and position my photo as though it had come from inside the egg. I used a simple template and traced around it onto the paper, then cut it and positioned the pieces on either side of my photo, adding a little foam tape underneath to help pop it up from the page. I also cut out a strip of hand drawn grass which helped anchor everything on the page.
Tucked amongst the grass on the left side of my page, I added a sweet little chipboard bunny from the ‘Joyful’ collection. As the bunny was wearing a small sprig of mistletoe on its head, I covered it up with a small heart from the ‘Make a Wish’ Die Cut Ephemera pack.
From the same ephemera pack, I used a number of floral and leafy pieces to add some clusters around my page; plus two hearts, a pink bow and a butterfly. (You didn’t really think I’d have no butterflies on this page did you? haha) I added text to my page using a mix of stickers from the Accessory Sticker sheet and a couple of chipboard pieces. (I especially loved the fact the small phrase stickers featured a mix of different coloured text.)
A tiny arrow from the puffy sticker sheet was the only other embellishment I used, then some pretty blue splatters around the page and I was done.
I hope you have gained some inspiration for scrapping your own Easter photos, and enjoyed the walk down memory lane using one of our old collections – I certainly had fun using it again after so long. Wishing you & your families a fun and safe Easter break with plenty of treats from the bunny!
