design team

Falalalala | Joyful collection | Sophie Delorme

Sophie Delorme 05/12/2021

Hello Cocoa Vanilla friends!

It’s Sophie on the blog today and I am so excited to share my very first page with the gorgeous Joyful collection!

I was inspired by the lovely December mood board. Here it is:

The color scheme caught my attention with the confettis and many circular elements like the wreath on the top left image and the Christmas ornaments on the bottom left.

I started with a thick white cardstock for my background and cut two large strips of the “Feeling Festive” patterned paper for the top and bottom of my layout and created a zigzag stitch with white thread.

I punched many 1 ¼ inches circles out of two patterned papers from the A5 Paper Stack, cut them in half and created a scalloped border along the upper strip of the “Feeling Festive” paper.

I used a tiny photo of my son playing guitar in his room, that I discreetly took from the stairs…! I framed it with a gorgeous scalloped frame from the Chipboard Sticker sheet and built my embellishments in a diagonal line around it.

I fussy cut numerous cute critters out of a A5 patterned paper that I placed around the photo, just as if the critters were listening to his music!

I fussy cut a big floral cluster out of the “Tis The Season” patterned paper and added die cuts from the Joyful Die Cut Ephemera pack and Chipboard stickers.

I printed my journaling and cut it into strips before adhering it to the page.

I splattered gold ink from my stash and finally placed a few beautiful gold Puffy Stars around my page as the finishing touch !

I am so happy with how it turned out !

That mood board is so inspiring !

Here are a few more close-ups:

I hope you will have to chance to document beautiful Christmas memories with this gorgeous collection!

Thank you for stopping by!

Sophie xx

OH WHAT FUN | JOYFUL | GWEN WRUCK

Gwen Wruck 03/12/2021

Hi Creative Friends,

Gwen on the blog today with my very first share using the new Joyful collection. I adore this collection so so much, it’s so pretty AND it’s so easy to work with, this page was so fun to make! I’m documenting a fun selfie that was taken of my family from a few years back including our sweet little Elf On The Shelf named Candy. Have you started your Christmas scrapbooking yet?

The first paper I was drawn to in the collection was the ‘Holly Days’ paper. I love the wreath design and it really helped me to pull this page together quickly. I used the wreath as a guide for the design for the layout.

I have also used the ‘Making Spirits Bright’ pattern paper as a border for my layout base, the green is a really lovely tone and the print is so sweet. I’ve used this same pattern paper to back a cut file, this one from CUT to YOU and then layered these cut file leaf pieces over a section of the wreath. I’m using the leaves to add extra layers in the wreath for interest. I’ve also fussy cut some florals from the ‘Tis the Season’ pattern paper and layered those into the wreath and cut file as well. The idea was to take the one dimensional wreath that was printed on the pattern paper and make it layered and three dimensional.

I’ve added in my signature stitching around the photo as well as the layout edge which you can see here.

For my embellishments, I’ve kept them all running in the same direction as the wreath; circular around the page. I’ve tried to just work with the flow of the layout around that feature. I’ve mixed and matched elements from the ‘Die Cut Ephemera’ pack including this super sweet reindeer as well as the ‘Chipboard Stickers’ such as this one that says ‘Family Traditions’.

I’ve also added in several of the shimmery gold stars from the ‘Chipboard Pack’ and a flag and tab element from the ‘Die Cut Ephemera’ and ‘Chipboard Packs’. To finish the page I added in one of the ‘Epoxy Buttons’, they are such a sweet element to add for dimension and texture.

I have made a YouTube process video for my share today which you can watch here:

I hope my page has inspired you to get Christmas crafting and to check out this beautiful collection.

Until next time,

Gwen

You are Awesome | Legendary Collection | Mandy Melville

Mandy Melville 01/12/2021

Hello everyone!

Mandy here today to share a new layout for our Throwback Thursday feature this week. I decided to pull out the awesome Legendary collection for this layout! The masculine themed collections from Cocoa Vanilla Studio are always amazing and Legendary is definitely one of my all time favourite collections for creating layouts about my boy! On this layout I documented a photo of Isaac from earlier this year. It was just an everyday kind of photo, but I wanted this layout to convey how awesome I think he is!

I started my layout off with a sheet of white cardstock as the background, and then I trimmed down a piece of the yellow Wild One patterned paper to adhere to the top half of the background. Instead of cutting it straight across, I decided to cut the bottom edge on an angle to give it some more interest. I also tucked a strip of both the navy Explorer paper and the All Star paper under the bottom edge of the yellow paper, and I distressed the edges of all three papers to give them lots of texture. Once my background was done I added some black machine stitching around the edge of the page.

Next I matted my photo with my woodgrain Outdoors Type patterned paper and I adhered it on the left hand side of the page using craft foam for extra dimension. I added a little banner sticker to the top left hand corner of the photo that says ‘You’re pretty rad’, and I also tucked a tag under the top edge of the photo that I cut out of the Brave Heart paper.

I knew I wanted to add lots of stars to this page as they complement the theme of the layout. This boy is a super star! I used quite a few from the die cut ephemera pack in various sizes, and I also fussy cut a few from the All Star paper. I scattered them vertically down the left hand side of the page behind my photo. The larger open die cut stars were backed with vellum, and some were adhered with foam tape to give the layout lots of interest.

On the bottom right hand corner of the photo I added a Rubber Charm from the You Rock collection, as well as a little word sticker from the Legendary Accessory Sticker sheet.

To finish my layout off I added my title and journalling on the right hand side of the page. I followed the angle of the yellow patterned paper when adhering both. For my title I used a word from the Die Cut Title pack, combined with some white alpha stickers from my stash. To the right of my title I added another die cut star, as well as a couple of arrows from the Clear Stickers.

Thanks so much for popping by today! I hope that you’ve been inspired by my Throwback Thursday layout using the Legendary collection!

Mandy x

Joyful Day | Joyful Collection | Danni Visser

Danni Visser 30/11/2021

Hi Cocoa Vanilla Studio fans! Danni here with my first layout using the gorgeous new Joyful collection. I have a sweet collage photo of my daughter playing in the rain to document today. It is not necessarily a Christmas themed photo, but it was early in December and she has a bright red dress on so I thought it was a perfect lead in to my Christmas layouts for that year’s album.

I started by taking the Very Merry 12×12 patterned paper as my background paper because the subtle spotted pattern reminded me of falling snow or rain, which was perfect for my rainy day theme. To highlight my photo I matted it using the mustard script paper from the A5 paper stack and lightly distressing the edges for texture. I added further softness and texture by including a couple of layers of pink tissue paper as a second photo border.

For my title I couldn’t go past the incredible puffy gold title stickers – they are the perfect shade of bright Christmassy gold and the metallic shine on them is just amazing. I spelt out ‘Joyful Day’, which describes this moment perfectly, and layered it across the bottom of my photo.

Next I took a pile of stars that I fussy cut from the Making Spirits Bright 12×12 patterned paper, as well as stars from the corresponding paper in the A5 paper stack to create a variety of sizes. I created layered stars with some of these by adding a larger star underneath with patterned paper and adding dimensional foam in between the layers. Other stars I added foam behind or just left as is for a variety of heights and added dimension.

I wanted to create the feel of hanging Christmas ornaments so I glued a variety of different threads and twine in between my star layers and positioned my stars at various heights across the page, with the twine hanging from the top of the layout. I love this effect!

To fill in any gaps left between the larger stars, I added some of the smaller fussy-cut stars and three of the puffy gold glitter stars in the empty spaces. Those gold puffy glitter stars are just so incredibly gorgeous, I had to use them immediately!

To finish off the layout I added a sprinkling of the stars from the puffy gold title stickers in amongst the star clusters, then layered the ‘Fa la la la la’ chipboard banner piece from the chipboard stickers across the top of my photo. I hope you like this layout! There is a process video on the Cocoa Vanilla Studio YouTube channel linked below if you would like to watch the full process. Happy scrapping!

Danni x

Our Memories | Joyful Collection | Laura Alberts

Laura Alberts 28/11/2021

Hey y’all! Laura back again with a super sweet baby layout featuring the new holiday themed Joyful collection. I love to challenge myself to scrap outside the theme as much as possible to stretch my creativity and get the most of my favourite collections. One of the inspirations for this layout was the adorable animal icons on the Magical Moments patterned paper. I just had to fussy cut them out and create a mobile with them above these sweet photos of my daughter cuddled up with me. To create the hanging lines, I simply free-handed some loops and then hand-stitched them with floss.

I added several fabric stars and wood buttons amid the hanging animals to fill in the gaps and give the impression of a sky. Both the mobile and the night sky are imagery that fits these sleeping baby photos perfectly and really help to set the mood for the overall page. On the top left of the photo, I pulled in a few stickers from 6×12 sticker sheet as well as a scattering of these puffy stars from the puffy titles. Love the pop of gold in this collection, it’s just the perfect addition to the soft color tones.

Along the right and left side of my photos, I added a cluster of florals that I fussy cut from the A5 paper stack, including these teeny tiny ones that I use to add details around the outside edge. To add a bit of definition to this page, I outlined the main photo mat with a pen. The finishing touches to this lovely layout was a puffy gold title, journaling, and splatters. Overall, I think I captured the soft, sleepy mood perfectly with the Joyful collection and I can’t wait to see what other photos I can scrap with it!

I hope this layout inspires you to scrap outside the theme too! If you’d like to see how Our Memories came together, check out the process video below.

Baby joy | Joyful Layout | Anna Komenda

Anna Komenda 27/11/2021

Hello crafty Friends. It’s Anna here and today I want to share with you super cute baby page made with not so baby themed “Joyful” collection. This brand new line was designed for christmas and it’s filled with with patterns and elements that correspond with winter and December celebrations. Howver, when I say all those cute critters like deer, fox and bunny, I knew I have to make a baby page. Let’s be honest – I am a bit of Grinch when it comes to christmas projects. I love the season but I prefer scrapbooking summer and travels. Most of christmas collections has very traditional color palette and the same motiffs. It kind of gets boring after a while. That’s why I was so exctited to see “Joyful” collection. This line has such a beautiful colors and many versatile patterns so I knew I will be able to use it whole year round.

As a mom of two lovely girls I always find a photo to scrapbook with any cute collection. I picked pictures of Maja, when she was less than a year old and paired them with all the pink and beige I could find in “Joyful” collection. I not only went through 12*12 papers, but also checked the 6*8 paper stack and pocket cards. I finally settled with very neutral background called “Very merry” and “Advent for one of the clouds. Did you noticed that 6*8 paper stack contains of a little bit different patterns or the same patterns but in different colors? It makes it a must have product! I managed to find two red – pink papers there and I cute a biggest cloud and backed my photos with them. Pink stars pattern is the back of one of the pocket cards!

This page is quite simple so I wanted to add some extra texture to the clouds by stitching the clouds with pale pink thread. Photos are surrounded with cute critters and generic words and other elements. I just love the drop of metallic gold added to this line. I also love new chipboard stickers!!!! They are so fun to use and look just beautiful. Deer and fox doesn’t look christmassy and can be used for any kind of project. That’s why I decided to use them here.

I embellished my composition with a lot of stars. They are often combined with baby themed collections so I thought they will match to my page as well. I fussy cut some bigger ones from “Making spirits bright” paper, added few smaller ones from ephemera pack and few with gold foiling from cardboard stickers sheet. Few wooden buttons and puffy stickers and my page was almost ready.

My title is a combination of word “joy” from cardboard stickers sheet and some pink foam alpha from my stash. Making this page gave so much fun and I just loved looking for elements that I might use. I also can’t wait to make some christmas themed project with it!

That is all for today. Thank you so much for stopping by and see you in December! I can’t believe it’s almost here. It feels like I just cleaned up the last year christmas tree and decorations. What a crazy year it has been.

XO Anna

These Sweet Memories | Josefine vd Hoeven | These Days collection

Josefine van der Hoeven 26/11/2021

Hello paperlovers,
Welcome to the Cocoa Vanilla blog today! So great to share a new layout with you. I was inspired by the March 2021 Moodboard. I thought the little yellow clouds were a fun idea to slide them between the paper layers.I love how that turned out.

I started with a white piece of cardstock. I cut the beautiful designer paper from the “These Days” collection to size by 6×6 inches. I stitched the square with gold sewing thread in the center of the layout with my sewing machine. I picked out several pocket page cards and folded them in half. I created layers and put them on top of each other with adhesive tape.

I placed the photo on top of these design paper layers. I start by making a cluster on the left side. I use different flower die-cuts, leaves from white cardstock and wooden buttons. I cut photo frames from the design paper and sew the edges with gold thread. I slide the photo frames between all these layers.

I am decorating my layout with more beautiful embellishments from this amazing collection by Cocoa Vanilla studio. I used word strips, stickers and butterflies. I cut the clouds from white cardstock and colored them with Distress Oxide. The color I used is “spiced marmalade” I stitch the clouds with gold thread and I placed them between these paper layers.

I combined the title “These Sweet Memories” with the beautiful black elegant foam words and the small colored puffy alphas. At the top of this layout I placed a black metal clip. This way it looks just like a clipboard. I placed the white cardstock on top of a woodgrain design paper and splattered with white acrylic paint. I am surprised how this layout turned out and am happy with the result.

I hope I was able to inspire you with this layout and hope to see you next time on the blog. For now, I wish you a happy and creative day! Enjoy your creativity friends.

XoXo, Jo

Christmas Joy | Joyful collection | Tarrah McLean

Tarrah McLean 22/11/2021

Hi creative friends, it’s Tarrah back with and today I am very excited to be sharing my first scrapbook layout using the stunning new Joyful collection!

This collection is absolutely amazing and I hope you love it as much as I love it too!

I started by choosing 2 background patterned papers, I chose the white with gold spots and the multi stripe paper also. I trimmed down the white with gold spots and matted it to the multi stripe paper. I then machine stitched a border around the outer edge. I decided to cut out a gift cut file from CUT to YOU and backed all of the spaces with papers from the A5 paper stack. Once the cut file was all backed, I adhered it to the gold spotted paper using craft foam to give some dimension to the page.

I adhered the black and white photo of my sons, taken one Christmas Day, slightly over to the right tucking in one of the 3′ x 4′ journal cards here also. I also layered 2 pieces of ephemera from the ephemera pack on top of the photo too. To the left of my photo, I placed my title which is ‘Christmas Joy’ from the chipboard icons. I decided to keep the embellishing pretty minimal since the cut file takes up lots of space and is the focus of the page.

I did pull out a few super cute puffy stickers though and placed the reindeer one to the left of my page, the FaLaLaLa one I placed at the bottom section of the cut file. The stars also got a spot on this page as well as one of the gorgeous epoxy wood buttons that I placed in a small cluster over to the left of the page. I added a few more ephemera pieces like the stars, the pink gift that I placed at the bottom of the photo and the Merry Days tag above the photo. I don’t know about you but when I create a layout with one whole collection, I like to add at least 1 of everything to my page! I guess I feel like I am honouring it by using all the things haha!

Thank you so much for stopping by the Cocoa Vanilla blog today! Make sure you get your hands on this stunning Christmas collection called Joyful from Cocoa Vanilla Studio as soon as you can! I promise you will not be disappointed! The online store will not have it as yet, you will need to find your nearest stockist or an online retailer who will have it in stock!

Happy creating!

Tarrah x

Ho Ho Ho | Joyful collection | Sue Plumb

Sue Plumb 20/11/2021

Hi everyone, Sue Plumb here today to share my very first layout using the new ‘Joyful’ collection.

You may have noticed that I haven’t shared a project here on the blog for a while? Unfortunately I haven’t had access to my scrap stuff for quite some time while we were going through the process of moving house. I am pleased to report however, that I am now settled into my new house and after many years, I finally have a craft room again – happy days!

I was super excited to receive this new collection, and as usual, Zoe has totally hit it out of the park! I am not usually a big fan of Christmas collections because of the strong red/green colour palette they often use, but this one is so beautiful with its more muted tones and sweet little animals scattered throughout. I was also surprised to find myself drawn to use the Holly Days paper, which features a gorgeous wreath (a design I don’t often reach for first).

The photo I was working with was a photo of my three kids and my cat that I took in front of our tree on Christmas Eve, not long before they went to bed. (You can tell by the expression on their faces they were excited about what was to come the following day… except for the cat of course, who was horrified at the fact they were making him wear a turkey hat! haha)

I decided to keep the wreath paper intact and use it as my layout background. This gave me a good base to work from, with the focal area already defined for me. The first thing I did was choose some patterned papers from the A5 Paper Stack to use as a mat behind my photo and to create some layers on my page. I tore along the bottom edges of the papers, then ruffled them up a little more with my fingernail to add texture. I also added a small mint coloured doily into my layers, and some frayed gauze on top of them, then stapled the entire stack together and attached it to my page.

I then chose two different colour Distress Oxides (Rustic Wilderness and Worn Lipstick), mixed them with a little water, and used a fine brush to add tiny splatters around the entire wreath. I then repeated the process with some gold mist as well. Once dry, I adhered my photo down on top of my paper stack using a liquid adhesive and set about adding some embellishments.

In the top left corner of my photo, I tucked in a Chipboard Sticker present underneath the edge of the layers, then the sweet little season’s greetings envelope from the Die Cut Ephemera pack over the corner of the photo. (Embellishing directly onto my photos is something I love to do.) I also added the magic moments banner piece along the bottom edge of the photo (also from the ephemera pack).

To the right of my photo I added the ho ho ho Chipboard Sticker for my page title, and underneath I added the sleeps til Christmas sticker from the Accessory Sticker sheet. (For the number 1, I actually used one of the Mini Puffy Alpha Stickers from the ‘These Days’ collection.) In the bottom right corner of my photo I added that sweet little fox from the Die Cut Ephemera pack, and put a little foam tape behind him to pop him up to the same height as my photo.

To embellish around my wreath, I fussy cut some large stars from the Making Spirits Bright paper, which I mixed with a few smaller ones from the Die Cut Ephemera pack.

I finished off with a few gold foil phrase stickers from the Accessory Sticker sheet and I was done! I am so happy with how this page turned out (especially considering I thought I would be a little rusty after my time away, but this collection made it so easy!)

If you haven’t gotten your hands on this beautiful range yet, then make sure you do. As it is seasonal, it will not be re-stocked after it sells out, so grab it while you can. You can find a retailer near you via our stockist list HERE. (Please note that not all stockists carry all collections, so you will need to contact individual retailers to enquire.)

Until next time, happy scrapping!

Amazing Walk with You | These Days | Sophie Delorme

Sophie Delorme 19/11/2021

Hello Cocoa Vanilla friends!

It’s Sophie with you today with a new autumnal page created with the lovely These Days collection !

I used the Pretty Posies woodgrain paper as the main part of my background. I paired it with a scalloped border punched out of the Home Grown paper and created a little hand stitched line with white embroidery floss.

I printed my photo in black in white so that it wouldn’t compete with all the colors I planned to use on my page. It softens the overall look of the layout and it drives the eye easily to the photo.

I wanted to use clusters of branches and flowers all around the photo, since it was taken in the forest new our home.

I cut two cut files from the Anett Design store on white paper and backed the beautiful leaves with different patterned papers from the These Days A5 Paper Stack. I also cut strips of the Family Ties paper in different colors. I bent each strip in different length and placed them at the base of all the leaves. I added a handstitched knot to each bent paper in matching colors. Although it was a very simple little thing to do, I love the beautiful dimension it adds to the page.