design team

Sugar | Happiness Layout | Anna Komenda

Hello Friends. It’s Anna here with my newest layout. This time I reached for quite new line called “Happiness”. It is one of my favorite CVS collections, because of the joyful colors and amazing flowers. You can find all rainbow there and I already made many pages with it. This time I scrapbooked two cute photo of my younger daughter. I bought her everyday care lipstick in a cherry flavour and she made herself pretty :D She scared me with a big, redish spot around her lips asking if she looks good. I needed to scrapbook her cuteness and snapped few photos. They finally made their way to the layout.

I started with a wooden pattern paper called “Bright & beautiful“. You have to agree that this kind of paper works perfectly as a background for many projects. I chose paper scraps in various colors and cut the title using my Silhouette Cameo. Each letter is in different color. You can use you smalled paper pad for this purpose too. I also fussu cut some butterflies from the other side of my background paper using second sheet.

I kept my composition simple and clean with no mixed media. Pretty papers and embellishments play the main role here. After my title and photos were glued down I added bits and pieces from Ephemera pack, like flower clusters, tassels and words.

I placed my butterflies color on color, combining them with letters. If you don’t own any die cutting machine you can hand cut the letters in various shapes and sizes. It’s quite fast and simple technique. We do not aim in being precise here. I wanted to achieve more whimsical effect here.

This page came together really fast. With no mixed media background I didn’t have to wait for layers to dry. Even though I love getting my fingers dirty, I appreciate simple and clean designs from time to time. After all, my cute girl is the best embellishment of this layout :)

That is all for today. Thank you for stopping by and see you in two weeks <3

XO Anna

YAY 6! | Make a Wish Collection | Melissa Vining

Hello and happy Thursday!!  Its Melissa here and I’m so excited to be here with you for a ‘Throw Back Thursday’ where we use an older collection!  I’ve been patiently waiting my turn for this, and I’ve always known that I’d create with the gorgeous Make a Wish collection, which reminds me of when I first fell in love with Cocoa Vanilla Studio.

I decided to make a birthday layout with the pieces of this collection that I have left, and if I’m honest have been hoarding! Brielle turned 6 during our Lockdown, and we still tried to make it a fun day for her.

For my layout I was inspired by this cut apart with beautiful paint stripes that I recreated on my background with watercolour paint.  I added several splatters too for extra interest, and because I couldn’t help myself!

I used a cut file around my photo to bridge the gap between the stunning floral patterned paper and the paint stripes.  I then embellished on the cut file.

I used the chipboard “YAY” for my title with a 6! from my letter and number sticker stash. I also added a little cluster on the bottom right of my page to provide balance.

I loved adding dimension to this page by using dimensional adhesive behind my floral clusters. I added sparkle with the shimmery hearts from a mixed embellishment pack and some glittery enamel dots, also from the collection.

You can watch how I put this layout together below in my process video.

Thanks so much

Melissa

 

Is it over yet? | Life is Beautiful Collection | Rachel Lowe

Hello CVS friends today I have a layout that although the subject matter is of a more serious matter it doesn’t mean it can’t be pretty! I have used Life is Beautiful (Digital collection available) collection, which remains one of my fav CVS collections.

Let’s talk about texture. If you are not a fan or experienced in mixed media how do you add texture to a layout? I focused on texture when creating this layout. Paper tearing is one way to add texture, and paper tearing also allows you to add elements under and over the tears which also adds more visual impact.

Another way of adding texture is to sew on your layout, either by hand or using a sewing machine. I always add machine stitching to my layouts. Another technique with stitching is sewing over a strip of paper and then tearing the paper away from the stitching.

 

Paper layers, dimension (ie foam tape to attach some elements and enamel dots) and a light spray of paint (here I have used black) all add texture to a layout.

Recently I have dusted off my embossing folders and started to add texture to papers and elements using various embossing folders. So my 2020 did not look ‘flat’ I embossed with a polka dot folder and added dimension fluid dots which I also added over my title also.

I really enjoyed putting this layout together focusing on textures! I also wanted to scrap a part of the Covid 19 journey that I am involved in, because memory keepers is what we are.

 

Thank you for stopping by today and keep safe and well!

Rachel X

Super Totally Rad | Totally Rad collection | Sue Plumb

Hi everyone, it’s Sue Plumb here to share my latest design team project with you. As we all excitedly await the gorgeous new ‘Daydream’ collection, I have been inspired by some of my fellow team members who have been getting ready by doing some stash-busting. So I decided to have a dig into my own stash and see what I could find to use up. I finally settled on the ‘Totally Rad’ collection. For those of you who have been Cocoa Vanilla fans for a long time, you might have some of this hiding in your stash too; and for everyone who missed this range the first time around, you can now purchase it as a digital collection HERE 

Here is my layout “Super Totally Rad”…

When it came to the background, I was limited with paper choices so I chose to use the sun burst style pattern on the “Good Times” paper from the ‘Boys Rule’ collection instead. I had a couple of photos from my boys recent 8th birthday, and I thought the colours of the cake would make it a fun subject to pair with the colourful ‘Totally Rad’ collection.

Based on the limited paper I had left to work with, I decided to go with a vertical design using a piece of the cute camera print “Happy Snaps” paper for the focal area of my page. Alongside that, I added a strip of the yellow chevron print which was the reverse side of the cameras. I also added a second strip of the chevrons along he right edge of my page. Because the photos I was working with were different orientations, I wanted to keep them contained on the vertical strip of paper and then fill around them.

The key to keeping this busy design cohesive, was to ensure that all the different elements I planned to use needed to be touching each other. This cascading arrangement meant that the viewer’s eye was automatically drawn down through the design. I used a mix of die cut ephemera pieces, as well as pieces that I had fussy cut from the “Mix Tape” cut apart sheet. I also used a flair button and some enamel shapes.

I am not a huge fan of symmetry in my work, so to balance out how heavy my design was along the central line of the page, I added a small embellishment cluster in the bottom right corner of my page, along with my hand written journalling.

I finished off with some black ink splatters and by stamping the phrase happy birthday to you a few times around the page. I am really happy with the clean simplicity of this page, but also with the fact I got to bust some stash and re-visit a collection that I loved.

I will be back again with another share in a couple of weeks time…and expect a certain new collection to be the star of the show! Until then, happy scrapping!

Happy Times | Happiness Collection | Laura Alberts

 

Hey y’all! Laura back again and this time to spread some Happiness! When I saw these two photos, the first thing that popped in my mind was to make a quilt pattern. Inspired by my lovely grandma, I cut several of the papers from the 6×8 paper pad with a 1 inch hexagon punch and then puzzled the pieces together to create a quilted flower effect. Such a fun design and so easy to make!

Once I punched all of the hexagons, I cut out small 1 inch square papers to use as a base and then taped each individual hexagon piece into a simple flower design. It doesn’t really matter which piece starts in the center, I changed up each of mine a little bit from the others. It’s a lot of fun to play with quilted designs!

To add a bit of movement along the page, I added fussy cut butterflies all throughout the quilted flowers and even created little Nuvo gold trails behind them, this gives the appearance of movement! Plus, I added clear stickers underneath clusters and butterflies to give it the appearance of depth. This works because the butterflies’ wings are popped up just a bit.

 

I hope this quilted floral layout inspired you to look at your patterned papers a little differently! It’s fun to see how you can use every little piece up in a new way. If you’d like to see the Happy Times layout come together, I have the entire process in the video below!

https://youtu.be/vJ9E4-lA-mk

Happy | Happiness Collection | Danni Visser

Hi there! Danni here with a soft and subtle mixed media layout using the stunningly pretty Happiness collection. I still adore all the bright happy colours in this collection and I had so much fun dipping back into it. The colours were a perfect match for the blue floral dress I am wearing in this photo.

I started with the lovely Sprinkles 12×12 patterned paper as a background because it already has that mixed media effect . I applied some iridescent gel medium in a diagonal across my page; this is a really fun medium to play with that adds a beautiful pearlescent finish. While it was still wet, I added some colour with distress oxide ink pads and sprays in a variety of blue and pink shades, using both a paintbrush for splattering and spraying directly onto the paper.

While that mixed media dried I took some butterfly die cuts I had lying around and traced them onto patterned papers, fussy cut those shapes out then glued them together along the centre of the butterfly body, leaving the rest of the shape free to add dimension.

I backed my photo with patterned paper as well as some white crepe paper ruffle along the sides for lots of lovely texture. I popped my photo right in the centre of my page and added the butterflies along that diagonal line of the mixed media. I filled in the gaps with the beautiful little butterflies fussy cut from Bright & Beautiful 12×12 patterned paper, bending them in the middle and only gluing down the centre to make it seem as if they are flying off the page!

I added a few florals and leaves from the die cut ephemera either side of my photo and a simple “happy” title from the die cut titles. I adore the script font of these, it is just so pretty! I went ahead and added several tiny word phrases and another butterfly from the accessory stickers and added a few lines of simple journaling on strips of white cardstock above my photo.

To finish off the layout I added a sprinkling of gold ink; you can never have too much sparkle in my opinion! There is a process video linked below if you would like to watch me talk through the process. Thank you so much for joining me today.

Happy scrapping!

Danni x

 

End of school year | Bohemian dream Layout | Anna Komenda

Hello Friends. It’s Anna here with my newest page. My challenge for this post was to use pattered paper for the background of my layout. And I have to tell you – I went bold with this one. I not only used one paper, I mixed 5 or 6 patterns, creating very colorful and busy page with “Bohemian dream” collection.

I started with soft “Dreamer” paper as a base for all those squares cut out from the various “Bohemian dream” papers. You can easily use smaller paper pads to cut them, like I did here. This is a perfect way to use up paper scraps too. Each of my squares is 2 inches big. I didn’t add glue close to the edges so I could bend them a little, adding dimension to the page.

To mix things a little bit I arranged my squares in a diamond shape. I did the same with the photos. I was a little bit of a challenge because you need to print them much bigger to be able to cut them into diamond shape too. Unless, having them tilted doesn’t bother you. I picked four photos of my daughters documenting the end of this very weird and unique school year. They we snapped in my living room because all the school events vere cancelled due to the COVID infections. This school year needed a separate page to document it for sure.

I decorated each square without the photo adding title and bits and pieces from ephemera pack. I also used up few flair buttons and cardboard stickers. I used up most of my “Bohemian dream” embellishments already so playing with paper was a great solution for me to keep the page busy.

Even though this page is busy, I love how it turned out. Love the texture and I will definitelly come back to this kind of design. If you don’t feel comfortable with mixing so many patters, you can use only one or two “calmer” papers and add texture by bending and tearing the edges. It will add a lot of interest to the background and make your photos pop.

I hope you like my idea of using up papers and replacing white background with pattern madness. Thank you for stopping by and see you in August.

XO Anna

You Captured | Unforgettable Collection | Melissa Vining

Hello again!! It’s Melissa here and I’m back today sharing a layout focussing on using a patterned paper background using the gorgeous Unforgettable collection!  For this layout I made sure I selected a paper that wasn’t white based, because lets be honest – that would easy!!  I also didn’t gravitate toward a woodgrain, which also would be easy for me! In order to not overwhelm myself, and to really focus on the paper I chose a neutral photo (without a lot of colours) and I printed it large because I adore this photo of Brielle dressed up in her bother’s stormtrooper costume. The patterned paper I used for my background is called Lacewing, and it is the B side of the gorgeous butterfly paper. I added some small splatters of water activated sparkly gold mist for a little bit of interest, but most of it got covered up!!

I backed my photo with Forget Me Not and made two triangles with a scrap of Unscripted from the 6×8 Paper Stack. Of course I had to distress all the edges of the paper! I used some leaf and flower cut files (designed by Anita for International Scrapbooking Day) that were left over from my scraplift layout. It was very satisfying to use them up on this layout!

I created two main embellishment clusters and once smaller one.  I used lots of Die Cut Ephemera, the cut file flowers and leaves, and fussy cut butterflies from Lacewing.  I always give butterflies more dimension by glueing them in the centre and popping up their wings with dimensional adhesive.  Here’s a close up look at the butterflies on my top cluster.

 

For my small cluster I featured a Flair Button and another fussy cut butterfly. The “love this” flair button was perfect for my photo.

I also used the some of the Accessory Sticker phrases and a label which I lifted up on some craft foam for extra stability and dimension. I wrote my journaling on a  label that I cut from Story Teller.

Two of the Foam Title Stickers were perfect for my title, and I used three of the foam hearts as embellishment around my page too. White Enamel Dots were my final touch!

I hope I’ve encouraged you to try using a patterned paper for a background.  Cocoa Vanilla Studio collections have a wonderful mix of both bold and subtle patterns, and I find that the more subtle B sides work beautifully for backgrounds.

Thanks for looking!

Melissa xx

 

Beautiful | Bohemian Dream collection | Tarrah McLean

Hi everyone. Its Tarrah back with you today on the Cocoa Vanilla blog sharing a new layout featuring the gorgeous Bohemian Dream collection!

I am not normally a purple person when it comes to clothing or scrapping but when it comes to the Bohemian Dream collection, how can you go past that gorgeous purple?! The dress that my niece is wearing in this photo together with my Mum was the inspiration for my layout today. The colours in Amelia’s dress were the perfect match with the Bohemian Dream collection!

To start my page, I chose my background, which is the Dreamer paper and then started to build from the background up. I cut 2 strips of paper from the A and B sides of the Flower Child paper and placed them horizontally, I then trimmed the blue with white spots paper and cut it into a rectangle shape. Next I layered a paper doily underneath my photo, one of the journal cards from the Beautiful Mess paper and also layered one of the die-cut frames from the ephemera pack under the photo. The photo and frame have craft foam underneath them to add dimension to the page.

To embellish my layout, I took some of the florals, feathers and butterflies die-cuts from the ephemera pack and tucked them into various places around the page. On the left of my photo, I added one of the gorgeous flair buttons and the ‘Beautiful’ die-cut became my title for the page.

Thank you so much for stopping by the Cocoa Vanilla blog today! I hope you can take a little inspiration from my layout today.

Happy creating!

Tarrah x

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