My Lovely | unforgettable and Happiness | Anita Bownds
Hello Cocoa Vanilla friends and welcome back to the blog! For my project today, I decided to do a Throwback Thursday inspired layout and play with some older collections that I haven’t played with in some time, namely the More Than Words collection and Wild At Heart. I’m really happy with this layout I created mixing the two lines even though they are so different in color palette and theme.
Today, I am scrapbooking a photo of our little lady, Minerva, as she was taking a catnap on our bed. I started off by picking out pattered papers, which I almost never do, and layered the three papers over each other. I wanted to create a shadow box type of effect using my papers so I propped the floral paper up off the other two patterns using a ton of foam tape. I love ripped edges in my scrapbooking – I think it adds a ton of texture and dimension to the page and having the frayed edges on the papers added interest to the background and made it so much more fun.
After creating my background, I matted my photo of Minerva on some patterns from the cut apart sheet and ripped the edges on those papers as well to continue the distressed feel from the background papers. Once I completed this, I went to work on embellishing the layout. I literally had five die cuts left from the More Than Words pack so I added those first before pulling out the Wild At Heart pack and adding some elements from that one. I then pulled out my chipboard sheets to continue building and adding dimension and color to my layout.
Next, I went to work creating a cluster in the upper left half of my layout to balance out the one on the bottom right that held my photo. I did the same thing here, mixing cardstock stickers, die cuts and chipboard pieces to add height, dimension and color in the cluster. I love that large circle element and the phrase sentiment. After creating this cluster, I added my title, mixing a chipboard sentiment from the More Than Words chipboard title pack and some stickers from the Love Always line to create my title, My Heart, and called this layout good!
I hope you enjoyed this layout and your time here. Fingers crossed you drew some inspiration from this page and will try some of the techniques you learned here today. Till next time, keep it crafty!
Hello Cocoa Vanilla family! I’m back with some MemoryDex inspiration for you! I’ve been bitten by the crafting small bug and my favorite part of this system is you get to use up products that you wouldn’t ordinarily use on a layout. If you have a bit of ephemera or a cardstock sticker that you have no idea what to do with, throw it on a memorydex card and instant gratification!







Hello Friends, Its Michelle back again with a bonus layout share for this month! I’m trying to crank out as many pretty layouts as I can using the beautiful Happiness Collection before the brand new Unforgettable collection arrives on my doorstep and all other collections are forgotten HAHA
The layout was inspired by a sweet photo of a few familiar faces from this years Creative Escape Retreat in Coffs Harbour. LOVE LOVE LOVE spending time with these lovely ladies and it was SO good to meet Anna in person
To begin the layout I cut out the Floral Banner cut file from CUT to YOU using white cardstock and backed it using block colours of bright patterns Good Vibes, Expressive & Frame of Mind. The main banner piece is backed using the multicolour spot paper Sprinkles and layered together with a strip of vellum and the woodgrain pattern of the Bright & Beautiful paper. I also cut the florals off the main banner rather than keeping them as one whole piece. This gave an extra layer of depth and dimension. We all know I love small hints of dimension on a layout!
The photo is adhered to the reverse pattern of Botanical Bliss with the addition of a couple of ephemera pieces to create part of the cluster top right.
I had a handful of florals and butterflies, fussy cut from previous layouts, that I added to the florals of the die cut. I tucked in a couple of leaves from the ephemera pack too
I fussy cut a few more florals from the Botanical Bliss paper to tuck into various places of the layout adding hints of orange. There’s also a couple of clear stickers added here n there
The title is made using a couple of accessory stickers and cardstock title piece, raised slightly using glue dots.
Lastly a few splatters of gold ink, a date stamp and handwritten journalling and it was finished.
Thats all from me for my final share this month, thanks so much for stopping by. Be sure to share all your crafty goodness using all things Cocoa Vanilla Studio in the Facebook group HERE
Until Next time, Happy Scrapping!
Michelle xx
Hi Cocoa Vanilla friends!
It’s Tarrah back with you and today I am sharing a new layout using the gorgeous Free Spirit collection. Today my inspiration comes from the awesome sketch from Page Maps some of the design team were given to work with for this week.
Here is the awesome Page Maps sketch we were given for inspiration. It can be found under the October 2018 archives here
I still have a few bits from some of the older CVS collections so I decided to pull out the pretty Free Spirit collection and work with that. I stuck to the sketch design pretty closely, even adding the same elements the sketch suggested. I changed it slightly to balance the page and also replaced a suggested photo for paper instead. I started off by trimming some white cardstock down and then machine stitching 2 circles. I then adhered the white cardstock to one of the gorgeous floral papers. 


Be sure to check out Page Maps for inspiration, there are so many designs over there to kick start your creativity.
Check them out and get creating with your favourite Cocoa Vanilla collection!
Happy creating!
Tarrah x
Hi Cocoa Vanilla friends,
It’s Tarrah back with you and today I am sharing a new layout using the Hello Sunshine collection. I decided to challenge myself by not using much patterned paper on this layout, the only piece I added was the piece underneath my photo. If you want to grab some Hello Sunshine, be quick as there are only a few pieces left from this awesome collection in the online store!



Thanks so much for stopping by today!
Happy creating!
Tarrah x
Hi crafty friends,
sharing a fun layout of our kitty Luna using the happiness collection
So you might remember last month I shared a layout using the layered fringe behind a cut file and because I had some of that beautiful layered fringe leftover from that project I wanted to use it on another layout .
I started with white cardstock and a (flower 290299) cut file from Paige Evans from white cardstock and back with vellum.
Using the layered fringed pattern paper good vibes and the same pattern paper from the 6×8 paper pad
I added the fringe paper to the left hand side of my cardstock and with the 6×8 piece of pattern paper I trimmed about a inch off one side and tucked the biggest piece underneath the fringed paper and the 1 inch to the right hand side of the layout
Then using the leaves of the cut file I cut apart I then tucked just underneath the strip of pattern paper.
Then to add a flower I used a (layered flower with leaves 288406) cut file from Paige Evans that I cut out of meadow pattern paper and layered the flowers together making 2 a bigger and smaller for the smaller I added a flower from the ephemera in the centre and then a brad to add more texture and dimension. Then I started clustering more of the ephemera
I backed my photo with papers from the 6×8 paper Pad and using a few to layer behind my photo and adhered it down using some double sided foam tape. Then I added the big flower on top of a vellum backed flower And adding a flair button in the centre.
I tucked another set of vellum backed leaves behind my photo layers and added my title using the cardstock titles I then added some rhinestones around the big flower and around the cluster of ephemera
And to finish of the layout with some cardstock stickers at the top of the photo.
check out how this process video came together
You can watch how this layout came together on the Cocoa Vanilla Studio YouTube channel here:
I hope I’ve given you some inspiration today!!
Happy crafting friends..xx