boy layout

You Got This | No Limits collection | Sue Plumb

Hi everyone, it’s Sue Plumb here with another design team project for you. Today I am sharing a mixed media layout that has been inspired by this month’s “Seeing Stars” challenge. As an avid boy scrapper, stars are one of my absolute favourite things to put on my pages, so I couldn’t help myself but join in on the fun. The first thing I did was choose which collection I was going to work with, and I couldn’t go past the ‘No Limits’ collection, which is filled with all kinds of celestial themed elements. I paired it with a photo of my son at soccer, who was definitely a star on this particular day.

I began this layout with a sheet of white cardstock and a piece of the star print Orbit patterned paper that I had left over from another project. As it wasn’t a whole sheet, I decided to tear along the edges of it and have it run vertically on my page. Before sticking it down, I used a pencil to mark out where the paper would sit, then turned my attention to the background.

I wanted to add a splash of colour first, so I used my Mowed Lawn green Distress Oxide to add some loose watercolour underneath where the paper would sit. Once dry, I used some star-themed rubber stamps from my stash to add extra detail over the top. I used a large star first, which I stamped three times to form a triangle; then a background stamp featuring tiny stars to scatter around. I then stuck the starry patterned paper down on top.

With the large piece of paper in place, my background was complete, so I turned my attention to the photo and embellishments. I cut a mat for my photo using a green sheet from the A5 Paper Stack and secured it to the page. I topped it with a grey paper doily, frayed gauze, and then my photo which had some cardboard underneath to help pop it up from the page.

I then added my embellishments, focusing on creating three clusters – above, to the left and to the bottom right of the photo. On the left side I used the you’re the best banner from the Die Cut Ephemera pack. I also added the hand from the same pack, and placed it directly onto the photo. I finished off this cluster with a couple of stars nearby, that were fussy cut from the Nebula paper.

To the right of my photo I created another embellishment cluster, this time using a handmade heart embellishment from my stash, which I topped with a CVS limited edition flair button (from many moons ago). Both of these embellishments were to tie in with the print on my son’s t-shirt. As with the previous cluster, I also added some fussy cut stars nearby. I balanced the stars out by adding a couple more above the photo as well as my third “cluster”.

There were only a few elements left to complete at this point – my title, using the Die Cut Title words alongside the photo. A few more small stars from the Puffy Sticker pack and some small word stickers from the Accessory Sticker sheet. And finally, my handwritten journalling and I was done!

If you love stars as much as I do, then make sure you enter our June “Seeing Stars” challenge which is hosted in our Facebook Cocoa Vanilla Studio Community group. You can enter as many times as you wish (providing each entry is created specifically for our challenge) and there is a $25 store voucher to be won. Looking forward to seeing all those starry projects!

Until next time, happy scrapping!

Wild & Free | Great Escape | Rachel Lowe

Today I am sharing another layout using the fab! Great Escape collection! This layout has been created using only the A5 Paper Pad.

The only thing you have to remember is that anything you cut must be 6×8 inches. This is a great way to either save your 12×12 inch papers or when your supply of the 12×12 inches papers is running low. I cut 10 scallop strips using different colours and patterns to create my background. So they stood out I added some black machine stitching to each strip.

I next cut my title Wild & Free using a cut file from the Silhouette design store which I then offset using a darker colour to add contrast so my title really popped on the white background paper.

Using another cut file from the Silhouette Design store, polaroid Frames, which I back filled with the journal cards also from the A5 paper pad. I added my two photos and set about embellishing this with Puffy Stickers, Accessory stickers and ephemera die cuts.

I used chipboard pieces to add over my scallop paper strips to add dimension. I layered the stars and used foam tape to add dimension.

This layout was super easy to put together and you could do a 8 1/2 x 11 inch version. You could also add larger photos or more photos. I love the colours of this collection and the A5 paper pad has some colours/designs that are not in the 12×12 collection pack.

As always thank you for stopping by and I hope I have inspired you to get out your A5 paper pad and think of ways you can use it to create a layout.

Rachel X

 

 

 

 

Fun Times | Great Escape | Rachel Lowe

Hello crafty friends! Today I am sharing a layout using the fab Great Escape collection. I just love these photos of my youngest when he was a little one. The orange T shirt and ‘nature’ background are perfect colours for this collection.

I love white as my base but adding bright and patterned borders really make it stand out. I used Adventure paper and Happy Camper paper to border the white.

I used a cut file from the Silhouette Design Store to create the paper strips on the white cardstock. I used Horizon and Star Gazing paper.

I next added my 3×4 inch photos matting them using a paper from the A5 paper stack.I created embellishments clusters around my photos using the Ephemera Die Cuts adding them with foam top over and under my photos.

To add dimension to my layout I used the Chipboard and die cut stars to layer over the stars on the star paper strips. I also added stars from the Puffy Star Stickers to the centres of those stars.

I used the Accessory Stickers to create my sub journalling using the phrase sentiments and added them by following the curve of the yellow paper.

I used the Chipboard word ADVENTURE as my title in amongst the star paper with foam tape.

I added more chipboard, using the repeat method to tie the outer border paper into the actual layout.

This was a fun layout to create and I am happy that I finally scrapped these photos. Thank you for stopping by and see you again soon.

Rachel X

Happy B’Day | Happy Days collection | Sue Plumb

Hi everyone, it’s Sue Plumb here to share another design team project with you. Today I am sharing a layout that has been inspired by our April “Chasing Rainbows” challenge. This month the criteria is to use a BIG rainbow as the main design element of your layout. Now if you know anything about me, you already know I am not great at following rules, which is why anytime I try to follow a sketch I end up somewhere completely different. So it should be no surprise to you that my interpretation of this challenge is a little loose. Here’s what I came up with…

 

I was determined to create a boy page for this challenge, so how do you create a boy rainbow? Simple! You just cut the pink and purple off! I really loved this striped Sunshine Lollipops paper from the ‘Happy Days’ collection so decided to use it as my big feature. I really wanted the colours to pop, so I first added some dark grey acrylic paint to my cardstock for my background. I wanted to keep the paper intact for my main feature, but add some extra interest, so I snipped a little along the line between each colour and used a narrow wooden skewer to help roll the ends up (some I curled a little more than others).

The photo of my boys was taken whilst we were out celebrating their 11th birthday, so using bright colours was perfect for the occasion. As the rainbow was to be the main feature of my page, I didn’t want to mess it up by muddling the colours at all, so I decided to use the tone-on-tone technique for my embellishments.

I used a mix of pieces from the Die Cut Ephemera and Floral Ephemera packs (yes, you CAN have flowers on a boy page!) as well as Accessory Stickers. I placed the embellishments on top of (or as close to) the corresponding colours on the paper and used foam tape to add dimension to some of them.

I really love the effect that using this technique gives, and it makes it super simple to decide where to place things, so putting this page together was a breeze! I finished off the page by adding the Chipboard Title across the top (I ADORE these chipboard titles – the font is so awesome!)

Thanks so much for stopping by today so I could share this with you. I hope I have inspired you to tackle this month’s challenge (who doesn’t love rainbows?!) You can load your entry over in the Cocoa Vanilla Studio Community group to be in with a chance to win. I can’t wait to see all those rainbows!

Until next time, happy scrapping!

 

You Are Awesome | Boys Rule collection | Tarrah McLean

Hi creative friends!

It’s Tarrah back with you and today I am sharing a new layout inspired by the new April challenge to include a big rainbow as the main element on your layout. I decided to go with a non-traditional rainbow and created my own using various papers from the Boys Rule collection.

The new monthly challenge for April is to include a BIG rainbow as the main design element on your layout.

To help create the arches of the rainbow, I used various sized dinner plates and traced around the tops of them on the different patterned papers I chose from the Boys Rule collection.  I chose these following papers from the Boys Rule collection: ‘Fun and Games’, ‘Straight and Narrow’, ‘Entitled’, ‘Expressionist’ and ‘Star Fall’. I then arranged them on a plain white cardstock background and adhered them down. I trimmed the white cardstock down to measure roughly 11′ x 11′ and adhered it to the ‘Boys Stuff’ patterned paper. I then machine-stitched each individual colour in the rainbow with matching thread.

At the base of the rainbow, I adhered a strip of the ‘Straight and Narrow’ paper horizontally to add another layer to my layout. I added craft foam underneath my photo and placed it over on the right side of my page, I layered the frame and journal spot from the ephemera pack tucked in on the left hand side of the photo, on top of the photo I added one of the banner stickers from the Accessory Sticker sheet. My title is from the chipboard pack, I love these words! I added the ‘You’ and  ‘Are’ words at the top of the rainbow and the ‘Awesome’ word under the photo. Either side of the ‘Awesome’ word, I added the scalloped border sticker from the Clear Sticker sheet. Above the photo, I added one of the banner stickers from the Accessory Sticker sheet. I punched out some stars from the ‘Happy Go Lucky’ paper and then layered some of the star stickers over the top. I placed a few of these around my page.

Once I was happy with how the larger elements were placed on my layout, I started adding some smaller embellishments including more clear stickers, more accessory stickers and some more ephemera also. One of my signature features on my layouts is to stamp the date of when the photo was taken and this layout is no exception, I stamped the date stamp using some black ink.

I don’t often journal on my pages so I love the phrase and word stickers from the accessory sticker sheet. I add them to all of my Cocoa Vanilla layouts, where I can, to help tell the story. Boy layouts are one of my favourite projects to create and this one was so much fun to create! I really love how it turned out too. Make sure you create a layout and add a big rainbow element as your main design feature and share it with us by uploading it to the Cocoa Vanilla Studio Community Facebook page.

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!

Happy creating!

Tarrah x

Adventure Awaits | Great Escape | Rachel Lowe

Hello CVS crafty friends Rachel here! Today I am sharing another layout created using the fab Great Escape collection scrapping an older photo of my youngest.

Boys and stars just go together! Firstly I cut the  Star Gazing paper at 5×12 inches. I used the banner paper strip from the Wild Life paper and added to the bottom of the star paper piece. I used a note book border cut file from the Silhouette Design store and cut this using the blue part of the Horizon paper and added to the top of the star paper piece.

I chose a dark blue to ensure I had contrast against the busy star paper. I next cut two stars using both sides of the Starry Night paper, 5 1/2 and 5 inches. I layered these off centre to the left.

I next added my 3×5 inch photo, matting it on the yellow side of the Horizon paper and then adding a strip of the Journey paper, green side. I added my photo with foam tape to create dimension. I love the Chipboard pieces and created an embellishment cluster to the left side of my photo finishing of it with a phrase sentiment die cut.

I used the Adventure Awaits journal strip from the Wild Life paper and added under my photo, this being my title of my layout. I added the compass die cut with foam tape so this element didn’t look ‘flat’.

I always use the Accessory Sticker Sheet to add sub journalling and these phrase sentiments suite my boy so much!

To balance my layout I added a embellishment to the top left of my page, using the tag and ‘play’ banner from the Accessory Sticker sheet, adding the Puffy Star stickers and then some twine.

You could add a larger photo on this layout or even two smaller landscape photos. I did go back and add some Chipboard Stickers and Puffy Star Stickers over some of the stars of the Starry Night paper to add more dimension.

And there you have it another boy layout that is fun and fabulous!

Thank you for stopping by and see you again soon!

Rachel X

Hello Fun Times | Great Escape collection | Sue Plumb

Hi everyone, it’s Sue Plumb here to share another design team project with you. Today I am sharing a mixed media layout featuring the brand new ‘Great Escape’ collection. Of course I took the opportunity to create a boy page and documented a photo of my hubby and sons.

I started my layout with the gorgeous white wood grain print from the Starry Night paper for my background. I first added a little grey acrylic paint using a 2″ wide brush, then added some stamping over the top with black ink. This just adds a little extra depth to the background, which helps the foreground layers to pop more.

For the paper layers in the focal area of my page, I used a combination of the Adventurer and Happy Camper 12×12″ papers, as well as the compass print from the A5 Paper Stack. I cut and tore the papers then shuffled them until I was happy, before adding a grey doily and frayed gauze on top. I then backed my photo with some scrap cardboard before sticking it down on top of the stack.

In the space alongside my photo I chose the word hello from the Puffy Title Stickers pack; I also added the cute little signpost with fun times on it from the Die Cut Ephemera pack as the second part of my title. Below my photo, I used a journal card from the Wild Life cut apart paper which I had popped into my typewriter to add my journalling.

With the main elements of papers, photo, title and journalling in place, the only thing left to do was add my embellishments. I chose a compass piece from the Die Cut Ephemera pack which I placed over the bottom left corner of my photo and then the we were here phrase from the Accessory Sticker sheet nearby. I finished this cluster off with some fussy cut stars from the Star Gazing paper.

Back on the other side of my layout, I added a sweet little flag from the Die Cut Ephemera pack below my journalling to complete the cascading line of text and some more fussy cut stars. I also added a cluster of stars near to the top of the page to complete my “visual triangle”. I finished off with some scattered stars from the Puffy Title Stickers pack and some small stamped phrases.

Thanks so much for stopping by today so I could share this with you. The fabulous new ‘Great Escape’ collection is shipping out to retailers now, so look out for it at your favourite scrappy store. I’ll be back in a couple of weeks with some more inspiration. Until then, happy scrapping!

Wild Thing | Great Escape collection | Sue Plumb

Hi everyone!

I am so happy to be back on the blog today and sharing a mixed media layout with you using the brand new ‘Great Escape’ collection. To say I was excited when I opened this box is an understatement. As a mum of two active pre-teen boys, I can see many projects coming up with this one! I had this first layout completed within a couple of hours of first opening the box…

This layout documents a funny story about one of my boys, who is currently obsessed with all things military. I chose the compass print of the Direction paper to be my page background, and added some dark grey acrylic paint with a brayer to define the focal area.

I then added a wide strip of the B side of the Happy Camper paper horizontally across the page to serve as the anchor point for my design. This was topped with a narrow strip of the B side of the Horizon paper to further help draw the eye across the page. The larger of my two photos was matted with the darker green print from the Journey paper and I also added some frayed gauze for texture underneath it.

I then took the same Horizon and Journey papers again, and cut two tags from them, adding hole reinforcement stickers and bakers twine to each. The tags were then tucked alongside the smaller of the photos and I used the twine to join them together. This was to keep with the military theme, and were reminiscent of the dog tags worn by soldiers. I added a small phrase sticker from the Accessory Sticker sheet to one, and used the second to stick my typed journalling onto. (I’ll post a longer explanation of the back story of this page at the end of the post for those who are interested.)

To embellish the layout, I used a number of pieces from the Die Cut Ephemera pack, including the get outside and roam badge, which I mounted on some foam tape to pop it up from the page. I also loved the arrow signpost from the Chipboard Stickers sheet that I placed along the yellow horizontal strip too.

At this point I went back and added some white acrylic paint using a stencil and brush. The purpose of this was to bring a bit of added lightness to the page over the darkness of the grey paint and it also helps add depth to the design as well.

I finished off by adding the wild thing Chipboard Sticker along the bottom of my main photo for my title; a large yellow star from the Die Cut Ephemera pack near the top of the page; and then scattered smaller stars and circles from the Puffy Stickers pack.

I really love how this page turned out, and my son does too! The ‘Great Escape’ collection will be hitting the shelves of scrappy retailers very soon. Look out for a pre-order at your favourite store – you’re going to love it!!! Thanks for joining me today, I’ll be back with another project to share soon.

Now for anyone who has stuck around this far and wants to know the story of this page….

My son had dressed up in his dad’s old camos and had his big Nerf gun wrapped in plastic when he went for a stroll around the block. (Disclaimer: my son is not a big boy, and is clearly recognisable as being a kid.) Upon being spotted by someone on a street nearby, they called the police to report “a man with a gun”, and two police cars were immediately dispatched to the area. (One containing police in tactical response gear.) The police cars came rolling down our street, spotted my son and sounded the siren, who immediately panicked and ran. Luckily, my hubby had gone outside to see what was happening and he was able to speak with the police to explain. The officers all had a good laugh about it and were surprised they had been called as he “was clearly a kid”. It will definitely be a funny story for him to tell his own kids one day. Document your stories!

The Best | No Limits collection | Tarrah McLean

Hi creative friends!

It’s Tarrah back with you and today I am sharing one of my favourite to create – a boy layout! Because I have 2 sons, there is never a shortage of boy photos around here! I decided to pull out the awesome and very cool No Limits collection, one of my favourite boy lines by Cocoa Vanilla Studio! This photo is an older one of my youngest son who is now 13 – he is about 5 or 6 in this photo! I loved the way the shirt he is wearing matched some of the colours from the No Limits collection – that is where I got the inspiration from for my layout today.

I started off with a plain sheet of white cardstock – as I mostly do- then trimmed it down to measure approximately 11′ x 11′, backing this onto the ‘B’ side of the Big Bang patterned paper (the woodgrain side). I then pulled out a few of the various papers from the A5 paper stack and sorted through them to find some that co-ordinated with my son’s shirt. I decided to cut some into triangle shapes and then layered them top and bottom of the page. For some extra texture, I bent the edges of these papers and also applied a little mixed media to create a sort of shadow effect.

I placed craft foam underneath my photo and placed it in the centre of my layout, adding some layers underneath like a pocket card, a die-cut frame and a sticker and tag both from the Accessory sticker sheet. I love to layer embellishments on top of my photos and under my photos too, how about you? In the top right corner, I stapled a banner sticker here and tied a bow through the tag using some white wax cotton. In the bottom right corner, I placed the large star die-cut and added some chipboard ones on top.

In the bottom cluster of papers, I added another chipboard piece and also one of the super cute wooden epoxy buttons all from the No Limits collection. I love how these small details add some interest to an area to help draw your eye in. My title is ‘The Best’ letters from the chipboard sheet, I also added a phrase under the title, cut from the ‘Universal’ patterned paper. Another of the wooden epoxy buttons was also placed here and I love the teal/aqua coloured chipboard arrow pointing to the photo too.

Once I had most of the design in place and the larger elements on the page, I started to add smaller details for the finishing touches. I added some phrase stickers around the page and stamped the date stamp and added some sprinkles of mist in various colours also. Lastly I machine stitched a border around the entire edge using white thread.

Thank you so much for stopping by the Cocoa Vanilla Studio blog today! I hope you have been inspired by my layout in some way! Make sure you share your creations with us if you get some time to pull out your Cocoa Vanilla collections and create some cool projects!

Happy creating!

Tarrah x

Cool Kid | No Limits collection | Tarrah McLean

Hi creative friends!

It’s Tarrah back with you and today I am sharing a new boy-themed layout using the awesome No Limits collection! The No Limits collection is a bit of a throwback to one of the older Cocoa Vanilla collections but I love revisiting older collections! I don’t know about you but if I have heaps of a collection left, I like to challenge myself to use it up!

I started out with a white cardstock background as I mostly always do, trimming it down to measure 11′ x 11′ and adhering it to a sheet of black cardstock. I took the Nebula paper and tore rough edges down each side. I then took some of the Latitude paper and tore a piece vertically, I adhered the Nebula paper down and the yellow side of the Latitude paper on the right side. I trimmed the colourful border strip from the Universal paper and adhered this piece to left of the Nebula paper. I bent the edges of the papers using my fingers to add some texture and to add to the grunge/boy theme feel of the page.  On the right of the papers, I added some black twine also for some added texture.

The photo is of my youngest son just after a haircut, he was loving his haircut and I just loved the look on his face so I snapped a few photos of him! I placed the photo in the centre of the papers, I layered one of the 3′ x 4′ pocket cards under the photo for an extra layer. I added some phrase stickers from the Accessory Sticker Sheet here to help tell the story of my layout. Although Certified Wild and Beast Mode may not be quite true lol! The One of a Kind chipboard certainly is true though and I placed this piece at the very top of the page.

To the right of my photo, I placed my title which is made up of the Die-cut Titles, I used craft foam underneath these to pop them off the page. I don’t know about you but I love the font of these titles! I added some phrases below the title here and then began to add some of the smaller embellishments. I added lots of star embellishments, including die-cuts, chipboard stars and puffy stars. I also added wood epoxy buttons and some tab stickers from the Accessory Sticker sheet.

I love the dimension, detail and texture that all the different papers and embellishments add to a page. The last thing I did was I stamped the date of when my photo was taken, I sprinkled some black mist and freehand drew a black border around the edge using my journal pen. I love how my boy themed layout turned out and hope you enjoyed reading about how I created it.

Thanks so much for stopping by the Cocoa Vanilla blog today!

Happy creating!

Tarrah x

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