Amanda Baldwin

Sweet Thing | More Than Words | Amanda Baldwin

Amanda-Jayne Baldwin 26/08/2019

Hi Cocoa Vanilla Studio Friends & Fans!

Amanda here, & while I am desperately awaiting for our new UNFORGETTABLE collection to arrive, I have decided to make room for it by stashbusting the gorgeous MORE THAN WORDS collection. So, for today’s post, I am sharing a super pretty stamped layout with this lovely line….

“Sweet Thing”

Oh my heart! Sweet thing, indeed! So many beautiful details to this pretty page of my darling girl! And who said old couldn’t be made new again?! I am LOVING creating with this soft and romantic collection again!

To begin, I trim one inch off the side of my 12 inch white cardstock, so that I can layer it onto the reverse side of pattern paper, CV-MT009 SKETCHBOOK. I just love the soft peach tone of this pattern paper, and it frames my layout beautifully! Next, I stamp up the top left and bottom right corners of my cardstock base with the amazing MORE THAN WORDS CLEAR STAMP. To maintain a soft and delicate look, I use a mix of soft blue, pink and yellow inks. So pretty!!! That stamp is all kinds of wonderful!

Here’s a closer look….

The stamped base really breaks up the white space, and adds that ‘extra’ point of interest to the main embellishment clusters.

Next, I create a layer of DIE CUT EPHEMERA blooms, and fussy cut butterflies from pattern papers CV-MT003 GOSSAMER and CV-MT006 TREASURE in the top left corner. Onto this bed of blooms, I position my sweet girl’s photo, which I have backed with a small piece of white tissue paper. I embellish her photo with the sentiment, “My Darling” from the DIE CUT EPHEMERA pack. I tuck a few more DIE CUT EPHEMERA blooms beneath my photo, as well as the wreath sticker from the ACCESSORY STICKERS sheet. Here’s more detailed look for you….

Aren’t those layered embellishments the best?! I just adore how the blooms and fussy cut butterflies draw further attention to my cherished photograph! To complete the photo cluster, I add a few VELLUM ACCENTS butterflies, a scattering of ENAMEL hearts & dots, and some journaling with the typewriter font ACCESSORY STICKERS.

Beautiful!

For the lower right corner of my layout design, I embellish with a larger bloom CHIPBOARD STICKER, and the Sweet Thing fussy cut wreath from pattern paper, CV-MT006 TREASURE….

I tuck a VELLUM butterfly under the CHIPBOARD STICKER bloom, and add a few more of the fussy cut butterflies from the CV-MT003 GOSSAMER paper. I add in an extra typewriter font sentiment with more of the ACCESSORY STICKERS, & while I have these stickers out, I also use the fabulous “love you so much” circular sticker for an added point of interest.

For finishing touches, I apply more of the ENAMEL hearts and dots.

Voila!

Simple, Elegant & Oh So Beautiful creating! I just LOVE how this turned out!

I hope I have inspired you to dive into your Cocoa Vanilla Studio stash while you wait for UNFORGETTABLE to arrive too!

Thanks so much for joining me today,

til next time,

Happy Arty Days,

Amanda xo

Love This | Midnight | Amanda Baldwin

Amanda-Jayne Baldwin 12/08/2019

Hi Cocoa Vanilla Studio Friends!

Amanda here, and today I am sharing my take on this week’s design team theme post using the divine MIDNIGHT collection. The theme this week is….

creations that “put a ring on it”.

Think rings, wreaths, circles, dots – basically include any round element! Such a fun theme!

Here’s what I came up with….

“Love This”

Oh.my.heart!!! So dreamy & divine!

The MIDNIGHT collection is so elegant & beautiful! It’s the perfect collection for documenting stories of my sweet girl!

Here’s a closer look for you….

So incredibly beautiful!

I start this layout with pattern paper, CV-MN007 INKY DEPTHS – it’s the perfect base! Such a stunning background paper & I just love how it reminds me of the night sky and clouds. To this paper, I trace a circle shape to create a guideline for my wreath (ring) design.

To form the wreath, I fussy cut pattern paper CV-MN001 BLOOM &GROW. I arrange these larger blooms over the traced circle, and adhere with a mix of double sided tape and foam mounting tape. This adds a sense of dimension, soft texture, and brings interest to the design.

I also fussy cut the wreath icon from the CV-MN006 ALL THE THINGS pattern paper, and adhere it to the opening of my ring design (top right corner). Here’s a close up for you…

SO pretty!!!

Next, I pull out my gel pens, and draw a mix of sketchy leaves that are not dissimilar to that of the BLOOM & GROW pattern paper. The white gel pen is super striking on the INKY DEPTHS paper!

The scribbled leaves serve two purposes – they add a new design element (& visual stimulus) to the layout, plus they also ‘build up’ the wreath so that it looks full and attractive. In keeping with the whimsical feeling of the page, I add lots of tiny dots in both white, pink & blue pen.

I just LOVE how effective the gel pen looks!

Design Tip: If you like this look, but are nervous about drawing on your layouts, you could always achieve the same look using stamps and white embossing powder.

Next, I tuck my photo into the left hand side of the wreath and decorate around it with a few ACCESSORY STICKERS. I also embellish with that fabulous FLAIR BUTTON (which also features a pretty wreath on it!). Lots of rings and wreaths and pretties on this sweet page!

With the ACCESSORY STICKERS handy, I also add some butterflies to the wreath and add a subtitle to the bottom right corner, Love you so….

For finishing touches I foam mount the Love this DIE CUT EPHEMERA title to the fussy cut ALL THE THINGS wreath, and sprinkle a few HELLO LOVELY sequins!