cocoa vanilla

Hello Sunshine | Sunkissed collection | Tarrah McLean

Tarrah McLean 22/01/2022

Hi creative friends!

It’s Tarrah back with you and today I am sharing a new Summer themed layout featuring the gorgeous Sunkissed collection! I have had this awesome photo of my Mum in the pool printed for ages and I took it especially to use with this collection! I am finally getting around to documenting it!

Free Cocoa Vanilla Summer cut files

I started by choosing some background patterned papers – I chose the sunset ombre paper for my main background and trimmed down the ‘B’ side of the Sunny Days paper. I adhered this piece to the centre of the sunset ombre paper and bent up the edges to create some texture. Next I chose one of the really colourful 3′ x 4′ cards from the journaling cards pack to add lots of colour and layered it under my photo. I placed my photo and arranged them it how I liked it, making sure to leave enough room for the cut file title at the bottom.

Next I cut out the Best Ever card from the Fun in the Sun paper (again I love the different colours in it) and placed it to the left of my photo. From plain white cardstock, I cut out the ‘Hello Sunshine’ title from the Free Summer cut files. I added foam tape underneath the cut file once it was cut out and adhered it to the bottom half of the Sunny Days paper. I overlapped some of the cut file on the photo and also on the Best Ever card. I love the shadows that are created on the page by adding foam tape under the cut file title.

Tip: If you want to break up the plain look of a cut file without getting messy with paint, add some small repetitive embellishments like the cute heart puffy stickers to add some small detail and colour without taking away from the cut file itself.

I couldnt go past adding some gorgeous florals from the Floral Ephemera pack I mean look at all those gorgeous colours! I tucked some into both the left and the right of the cut file title. I further embellished my page with clear stickers, more ephemera, accessory stickers, wood epoxy buttons and puffy stickers. Lastly I sprinkled some white mist on my layout and stamped the date stamp.

Thanks so much for stopping by the Cocoa Vanilla blog today! I hope you enjoyed my layout as much as I enjoyed creating it!?

Make sure to get yourself the AMAZING Sunkissed collection and get creating with it!

Happy creating!

Tarrah x

You | Happiness Collection | Sophie Delorme

Sophie Delorme 19/01/2022

Hello Cocoa Vanilla friends!

Sophie here and it’s Throwback Thursday !

I am sharing a layout created with the colorful Happiness collection !

I played with some Lindy’s Stamp Gang magical powders and shakers and a lot of water on a thick white cardstock for a colorful mixed media background. I let it dry completely.

I went for a vertical design today, and my starting point was the little pink frame that comes in the Die Cut Ephemera pack.

I created several frames and squares that I placed together under and around my photo. I machine stitched on a few of them.

I printed my photo in color as it is quite neutral. I added tissue paper and adhesive foam behind it.

I printed my journaling directly on a rectangle cut out of a paper from the 6×8 Paper Pad.

I used the Happiness Die Cut Titles for my title and subtitles.

Finally, I embellished the page with a few beautiful Die Cuts. I fussy cut the blue butterfly out of the “Little Things” patterned paper. I added a Flair Button, a few Clear Sticker hearts and some sequins from my stash.

Here are more close-ups:

I love the end-result and hope you do too !

Thank you for stopping by, and I will see you again soon !

Sophie xx

You Rock | Legendary Collection | Raquel Bowman

Raquel Bowman 18/01/2022

Hey everyone, it’s Raquel here with you today sharing my latest layout that I have created for Cocoa Vanilla. This layout features mainly the Legendary collection with a small touch of Boys Rule. The layout is featuring my boy who is now seven and looking more and more grown up each day.

Here is the layout that I created;

As I mentioned about. This layout features our little man and a gift that hubby and I recently brought him. He has expressed a love of music and singing for a while now and more recently shared that he would like to learn guitar. We were able to find one online and boy, his year has been made. The smiles and excitement was just infectious.

I used a Triangle cut file from the Cut to You store and backed it with patterned papers in the Legendary collection. I love that I can find a cut file to for every layout topic/purpose. When documenting layouts of my son I tend to choose shape style cut files like stars!

I adhered both the cut file and my two wallet size black and white photos to the layout with a thin foam adhesive tape. This gives a subtle pop of dimension.

To embellish the page I have used mainly stars from the ephemera pack. I also added a few accessory stickers and enamel dots. Such a perfect finishing touch.

The ‘you rock’ title is created from the clear sticker sheet. I simply adhered the stickers to white card stock and then fussy cut around them. This gave me my own ephemera piece that I could use on the layout. The sentiment was perfect for these photos.

The final step before I finished the layout was machine stitching around the edge. I love the finished look this gives to a layout.

I hope this layout has inspired you today. Thanks so much for stopping by the cvs blog.

Raquel

Memories | These Days collection | Laura Alberts

Laura Alberts 16/01/2022

Hey y’all! Laura Alberts back again with a hand-stitched layout featuring the stunning These Days collection! For this beautiful title, I used a stitching cut file from Paige Evans. Instead of using an electronic cutting machine, however, I printed out the image and used a paper piercer to poke the holes by hand. Then, using a variety of coordinating colored floss, I chain-stitched the title. While three days of stitching was certainly a time commitment, I think the end results were worth it!

I backed the entire layout with a stunning wood grain paper called Pretty Posies and then reached into the A5 paper stack for these beautiful banners and mat behind my photo. The florals I’ve clustered on either side of the photo are fussy cut from the Home Grown patterned paper as well as the floral ephemera pack. Even those tiny little scattered florals are fussy cut! I do enjoy prepping new collections by fussy cutting all the florals first!

On opposite sides of my stitched title I added florals from the ephemera pack that I fussy cut the white border off of, with little fabric hearts for a bit of added texture. That is the name of the game with this layout! Stitching is a brilliant way to add texture and dimension to a layout without adding a lot of bulk to your albums! I finished off the layout with gold Nuvo drops around the clusters for extra detail and a bit of gold ink splatter. My favourite part was adding my journaling to the ‘O’, such a fun and unexpected place for journaling!

If you’d like to see how ‘Memories’ was created, be sure to check out the process video below! I hope you will give hand-stitching a try and see how you can elevate your scrapping with added texture!

Magical Christmas | Joyful Collection | Mandy Melville

Mandy Melville 15/01/2022

Hey everyone!

Mandy here today to share some more inspiration using the gorgeous Joyful collection. I can’t get enough of this collection, and I’m having so much fun using it to document our Christmas memories! For my layout today, I decided to scrapbook a couple of super sweet photos of my youngest daughter Eleanor, taken on Christmas Day, and I love the way the beautiful colours in this collection really complement these photos.

I started the layout off by dividing the page into quarters to create four triangular segments. I cut two triangles from the pink Feeling Festive paper, and another two from the aqua Deck the Halls paper to fill in the four sections of the background. I distressed the edges of each of the papers to give them lots of texture. I then matted my photos with the reverse side of the Advent paper and adhered them in the middle of the page.

Of course I couldn’t resist fussy cutting some of the beautiful floral clusters from the Tis the Season paper! Once I’d cut them out, I arranged them around the bottom edges of the photos to provide a ‘ledge’ for the photos to sit on. I adhered some of the flowers with foam tape to give the cluster some nice dimension and interest. I also tucked that sweet little chipboard deer in amongst the flowers and I think he looks super cute there!

I also added a few die cuts into the floral cluster, including the cute envelope and the ‘north pole’ flag. To the left of the photos I added a die cut label, layered on top of a frame, which I used to add the details of the photos to.

For my title I couldn’t go past using one of the Puffy Gold Title Stickers, and I decided on the phrase ‘Magical Christmas’. I added this above the photos, and then to finish the layout off I added a sprinkling of gold stars, which are also from the Puffy Gold Title Stickers. I think the gold elements add the perfect touch to a festive layout!

Thanks so much for joining me here on the blog today. I hope that you’ve been inspired by my layout. I’ll be back to share some more inspiration next month. Until then, happy scrapping!

Mandy x

All I Want For Christmas | Joyful Collection | Danni Visser

Danni Visser 14/01/2022

Hi Cocoa Vanilla Studio friends! Danni here with a fun mixed media layout featuring the absolutely beautiful Joyful collection, because I still can’t get enough of it! I have a couple of sweet photos of my little girl to document, so I decided to keep everything bright and add lots of texture using machine stitching.

I started the layout with a white cardstock base and added a border with the soft pink gingham side of Advent 12×12 patterned paper. I added a line of machine stitching around the edge to add extra security and added detail. This gave me an idea to add a quilt-inspired design to the page – I’ll explain more about that later.

I have been eyeing off the gorgeous double sided 3×4 cards for a while, and this is one of my favourite ways to use a bunch of them on a layout. I overlapped my two 3×4 photos slightly, then chose four of the cards to build a large cluster to go in the centre of the page. I distressed all the edges of the cards then layered them around and behind my photos at different heights and widths to create variety. I adhered all these together then set them aside while I worked on my background.

I wanted to add some mixed media to the plain white background, so I took some distress oxide ink pads and diluted the colour using water and some white acrylic ink. White acrylic ink is great because it mutes bright colours while also making inks more opaque. My colours ended up still being brighter than I wanted, but I’m totally ok with that. I used the packaging technique to add messy splotches of the ink to the white cardstock.

Once the paper was completely dry, I went in with my sewing machine and added lots of cross hatching lines of stitching in a quilted-style pattern. I made sure to add the stitching where it would be visible around my central cluster. Because my photo and card cluster was already adhered together, I could just go ahead and glue it down to the centre of the page in one piece. I ended loving the quilted stitching effect peeking out from behind everything!

I finished off the ‘All I want for Christmas’ card with some small phrase stickers from the accessory stickers – I just love that shiny gold typeface font. I also took a couple of flag accessory stickers and layered them below the lower 3×4 card, plus a tab accessory sticker at the top. I embellished lightly with some chipboard sticker holly leaves either side of my photo, and some shiny chipboard sticker stars cascading down my layout.

Finally I added some puffy sticker holly leaves layered with the chipboard sticker ones, then some tiny puffy sticker stars. I love how this one turned out, I hope you did too. There is a process video linked below on the Cocoa Vanilla YouTube channel if you would like to watch this layout come together. Happy scrapping!

Danni x

All I want for christmas is you | Joyful Layout | Anna Komenda

Anna Komenda 13/01/2022

Hello scrappy Friends. It’s Anna here with my newest page. I still haven’t finished scrapbooking christmas photos so the bag with “Joyful” collection is still on my desk. I had this one, fun photo of my puppy spending time under the christmas tree that I wanted to use on the project. It was such a funny moment, when he found a perfect spot for the nap there, when all the presents were handled and christmas was done and dusted. All I could think of while looking at him was a Mariah Carey’s song “All I want for christmas is you”. He was like a self wrapped gift :) It have me an idea of a layout title.

I gathered all solid patterns from “Joyful” line, going through both 12*12 sheets and A5 paper stack. I decided to use “Deck the halls“, “Feeling festive“, “Making spirits bright” and “Tis the season” plus few small papers fromt the stack. Next step was to hand cut the letters for the title. I haven’t sketched anything so each letter if different. I tried to keep them around 5 cm tall. If you want to recreate my idea and you don’t feel confident enough to cut them by your own, you can reach for bigger alpha dies or digital die cutting machine. My desk is a total mess right now, swamped with few projects in progress so I didn’t have room for the Cameo to put up.

I tried few pattern papers for my background but they were mixing with the patterns I used for letters so I decided to use sheet of kraft cardstock instead. I arranged the letters and the photo and glued everything down. I only applied glue in the middle of each letter to be able to tuck something behind them if needed.

Next step was to decorate everything with ephemera pieces and stickers. I went through ephemera pack, chipboard stickers and puffy stickers to choose matching elements. I found a tall gift and I replaced one of the I letters with it! Am I brilliant or what? :D I also fussy cut some starts from “Making spirits bright” and added them to composition. You all know how I love papers with elements that can be easily cut out!

Here you can see my precious gift from up close. Isn’t he the cutest? My final step was to add few wooden buttons and golden splatters. To my surprise, this page came together really fast. Cutting the letters took me less than half an hour and placing all the elements another half making it an one hour page. I had a lot of fun with the big title and I will for sure revisit this idea for some other topic. It’s also a perfect opportunity to use up smaller paper scraps or make a page when you run our of full 12*12 papers and have only leftovers.

That’s all for today. Are you still creating christmas themed projects like me, or after the December is done, you no longer find it enjoyable? Let me know in the comments. Thank you so much for stopping by and see you in two weeks.

XO Anna

JOYFUL MEMORIES | JOSEFINE VD HOEVEN | JOYFUL COLLECTION

Josefine van der Hoeven 11/01/2022

Hello Paperlovers,
Welcome to my new post on the Cocoa Vanilla blog today! It’s Josefine here with a new scrapbook layout. For this layout, I chose a winter layout that I created with the amazing Joyful Collection and was inspired by the Cocoa Vanilla Moodboard.

One of the things that inspired me was the winter photos and the light blue color of course I added some extra colors to my design. With the velum and white gesso splatters, I tried to capture the winter vibe.

I start with a mixed media background that I created with the distress oxide ink. I chose the color “Victorian Velvet” I applied the ink with a stamp to my white cardstock background by stamping several times. This is how I created a stain of ink in the center of my layout. I punched out several butterflies from the design paper, vellum and light pink tissue paper.

I used gold sewing thread and stitched the butterflies together. I also punched out a photo in a butterfly shape. I placed the butterflies in the center of the mixed media background and start decorating using die-cuts, flowers, stars, stickers and wooden buttons.I placed die-cuts, flowers and stickers between the butterflies. I loved how that turned out. Look the gorgeous word strips on my layout and the gold title Memories under the butterflies. I splashed white gesso and gold acrylic paint splatters on top of the butterflies and embellishments.I punched some white twigs out of white cardstock and gave them a winter look with the Nuvo glacier. WoW, such a cool effect! I really love the shimmers. Curious to see more details and exactly how I made the layout! Just hop over to the Cocoa Vanilla Youtube channel for the process video! https://youtu.be/lkJee7SFoG8

I want to thank you for visiting the blog today and hope I was able to inspire you with this layout! I wish you a very happy and creative day today and enjoy watching the process video.
XoXo, Jo

Believe | Joyful collection | Tarrah McLean

Tarrah McLean 09/01/2022

Happy New Year creative friends!

It’s Tarrah back with you and yes I am still creating Christmas layouts!! I just can’t get enough! The stunning Joyful collection makes it so super easy to create pretty Christmas pages! I documented a Snapchat selfie photo taken on Christmas Day.

I chose the Holly Days paper as my main background paper and trimmed it down so that I could back it with the woodgrain side of the Pretty Posies paper from the These Days collection. I like how the woodgrain paper helps to make the fox die-cut pop and the flowers in similar colours on the page. I machine stitched a border around the edge so that the 2 papers attached to each other.

I cut out a pretty cut file from CUT to YOU and used the A5 paper to back all of the open spaces. On the bow of the cut file, I added red and then added 2 different greens to the leaf parts of the cut file. I adhered it down using regular adhesive, I love how the wreath on the Holly Days paper peeks through and adds a layer and some extra detail between the cut file and paper.

I layered one of the cards from the Pocket cards pack under my photo and adhered the photo down using craft foam over to the right of the layout. For my title, I chose the Believe word from the Gold Puffy title stickers and placed it below my photo. I fussy cut out some of the Poinsettia flowers from the smaller paper in the A5 paper stack and adhered some around the page. In the centre of the bow at the top, I placed the round Making Spirits Bright chipboard sticker. A few of the smaller embellishments I added were wood epoxy buttons, Accessory stickers and some more die-cuts. I also added a few of the small stars from the Gold Puffy Title stickers. Lastly I stamped the date stamp and my layout was complete.

Thanks so much for stopping by the Cocoa Vanilla blog today! I absolutely love how my layout turned out and I hope you were inspired in some way?

Be sure to get yourself this gorgeous collection from the Cocoa Vanilla Studio online store!

Happy creating!

Tarrah x

My Joy | Joyful collection | Sophie Delorme

Sophie Delorme 06/01/2022

Hello Cocoa Vanilla friends!

It’s Sophie with you today with a very cute layout to share !

I used the Joyful collection for this page.

I teared big chunks of three patterned papers from the collection: Very Merry, Magic Moments and Advent papers.

I centered them in a horizontal line on a white cardstock and added a gold machine stitch on the Advent paper. I distressed and curled up the edges of each paper.

I used a black and white photo of our sweet dog Fiona in front of our Christmas tree. I mounted it on adhesive foam and added tissue paper behind it.

I used two pocket cards from the Joyful collection Pocket Cards pack on each side of the photo, printed my journaling on velum and added it to the right card.

My title comes from the Joyful Chipboard stickers. I stamped the word “my” with an alphabet stamp set from my stash.

I created two big floral clusters that are from the Joyful Die Cut Ephemera pack and some fussy cut out of the gorgeous Tis The Season patterned paper. I also created leaves with a leaf punch from my stash.