Happiness collection

The Good Life | Happiness | Tazhiana

Hello Cocoa Vanilla friends, and welcome back to cutfile week! I am not a pro when it comes to using cut files but I have a few tips and supplies to make them a bit more accessible. I’m scrapping a selfie this week that I took on my 29th birthday and I’m using the Happiness collection as well as a cut file from the Cut To You shop for Cocoa Vanilla.

I started but cutting the florals on white cardstock and cutting an offset piece on vellum. I knew I wanted a more abstract look rather than perfect backing, and I knew I wanted to make my own backing paper using watercolor paper and Distress Oxides and the vellum would be perfect to mask any imperfections. I can’t take any credit for this idea – I borrowed it from my friend, Laura Wonsik. So for tip number 1: get to know your design software. I’ve had a Silhouette for years and I’m just learning all of its features like offsetting and print and cut. Watch some YouTube videos and give yourself time to play before you actually sit down to make your project.
After cutting my elements and making my watercolor backgrounds, I traced the floral pieces, roughly cut it and adhered it to my cut file. This brings me to tip number 2: gather supplies. For cutfiles, a sharp pencil for tracing, a fine tipped pair of scissors, a fine tipped glue bottle and some clear vellum safe adhesive will go a long way. My fussy cut scissors are from EK Tools and I keep my glue in an 18 gauge Fineline bottle.
Once my cut file elements were ready, the rest of the layout was easy to assemble. I ripped off some patterned paper to add some interest to my background, matted my photo with some papers from the 6×8 paper pad, and embellished using the die cut ephemera and the cardstock stickers. My title came from the cardstock title pack and I popped a few elements up on foam to add some dimension to the page.
That’s it for me this week! I hope you found some inspiration here as well as some tips to demystify the cutting machine. Till next time, keep it crafty friends.

You make me happy | Happiness Layout | Anna Komenda

Hello CVS friends! It’s Anna here with my project created with no white background. It is a theme for this week – “White-out”. Each Cocoa Vanilla collection has plenty of amazing pattern papers to choose from so it was a real pleasure to play with them. I was going through my paper stack thinking of what line I should use this time and I was drawned to pretty colors of “Happiness”. You all know that I love colorful designs and ugly fall outside need some proper, colorful medicine to be scared away.

I started with cutting out my title using electronic diecutting machine. I did it twice in the same size using two different papers: “Good vibes” and “Botanical bliss“. I layered them creating kind of a shadow. I also added white false stitches around the top one using white pen. Pretty paper with navy hearts is perfect as a background paper. I added a thin layer of white acrylic paint to help my title pop a little bit more.

I placed my photo on one of the empty spots between the letters and embellished it with tickets and flowers from ephemera pack. I can never have enough of those amazing flowers added to this line. Pretty shape and watercolor look, combined with juicy colors are the perfect match.

Between the paper flowers I also mixed in some flowers from clear sticker sheet. Their colors are more intense and they look amazing on light background. Butterflies cut out from “Bright and beautiful” paper are great embellishment too. Fussy cutting is one of my favourite techniques. I finished embellishing by adding one of the flair buttons on top of the title. I needed some darker accent in this spot.

After I finished working with paper, I decided to add some more colors to the background. I know that usually we work in opposite order but I felt that this project is unfinished. I gently added some watercolor stains here and there with pink and green paint. It made my layout looking more cheerful and complete.

That is all for today. I love working with pattern paper as a base of my page as much as I like using white backgrounds. It’s a double joy :) Thank you for stopping by and see you in two weeks my friends.

XO Anna

MemoryDex Inspiration | Midnight and Happiness | Tazhiana

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!

For this project, I decided to use Happiness and Midnight and to make two cards with each collection – one that is textured and dimensional and one that featured a shaker pocket.
To create my shaker pockets, I used my Fuse tool but you can sew the pockets shut or use vellum and good, old fashioned adhesive to create this effect. My sequin mix was quickly thrown together after drawing inspiration from the collections – a rainbow mix for Happiness, and a mix of blues, pinks and silver for Midnight. I actually don’t own the MemoryDex dies but I do have the punch, so I start all my cards with a 4×4 inch base and then punch the bottom to place it in my storage box. In the case of the shaker pockets, I took a 2×4 inch strip, scored it at 1 inch, folded it in half, adhered it to my shaker, and then punched it so the final result was a 4×4 inch card.
To embellish, I grabbed a mishmash of die cuts, cardstock stickers, and chipboard pieces from both collections and layered to my heart’s content.
I did make a tiny envelope for my Happiness piece, I thought it would be fun to add an interesting element and tuck the stickers inside of it so it looked like there were elements escaping.
For my dimensional pieces, I stacked and stacked pieces until my cards have pretty good height and heft.
For my Midnight card, I made a large paper rosette that I layered on top of two doilies. For my rosette, I started with a strip of 1.5×12 inch paper, scored it evert quarter inch, accordion folded it, and then sealed it and pressed it into a circle. I then layered some cardstock stickers and chipboard over the top for more height and dimension, and topped it off with a flair button. This card might be my favorite of the bunch.
For my Happiness card, I started by pleating some crepe paper and layering that under some pleated fabric trim that I had in my stash. I layered that over a tag that I cut from a scrap of paper, added some floral and leaf die cuts, added my title from the cardstock title pack, and then for even more dimension, propped up the label sticker on foam for added height. I then added some cardstock stickers for more interest.
I hope you enjoyed these cards! They were so much fun to make and it’s really easy to try a lot of techniques and embellishments on this smaller scale. I hope you found inspiration here and give scrapping small a try! Till next time, keep it crafty friends.

Happiness Is | Happiness Collection | Michelle Stokes

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

 

 

Hello Noah | Happiness | Tazhiana

Hello Cocoa Vanilla family, and welcome back to the blog! This week, my assignment was to play with a sketch from Page Maps and it was an interesting assignment because sketches and I generally do not get along. I think sketches are a double edged sword – they are literally the very definition of bittersweet. For a newer scrapbooker or even if you just need a bit of inspiration, they are a godsend, especially if you don’t know where to start. However, I always feel like I’m struggling to get all of the things on the page and the layout feels constrained instead of a free expression of creativity like scrapbooking normally is for me. So what I decided to do for this layout was pick a few elements from the sketch that I liked and work them into my overall design.

Here is the Page Maps sketch from October 2018 that we were working with.

I love paper layers, so I kept that aspect, as well as the big circle element, and to challenge myself, I decided to work with horizontal photos, which is something I never do. With all of the my bits and pieces sorted out, I pulled out the Happiness collection and decided to scrap a photo of my sister and her husband at their baby shower this summer.
Before I did anything else, I distressed the edges of the sheets and layered my papers for my background so I had an idea of how much white space I had to play with. I then used some watercolor paints to paint a series of concentric circle like shapes. They are definitely more oval than circular, but I painted them in shades of blue and green. Next, I matted my photos – I printed them in 3×2 so considerably smaller than the sketch was calling for – using papers from the 6×8 patterned paper pad.
After arranging my photos on my background, I worked on embellishing. This week, I used the ephemera pack, as well as a flair button, the cardstock stickers and the clear sticker packs. I aimed for a more monochromatic layout, which was challenging in itself because my layouts tend to be very pink and floral and this was my first time attempting a more “masculine” layout and I restricted myself to blues, greens, and butterflies. While I was creating the clusters around the photos, I also created the cluster in the top left corner as the sketch had a bit of paper layered in the upper corner and this is very much my speed.
Next, I went to work on my title. I knew I wanted a bigger, more whimsical font to spell out the baby’s name, and since the shower colors were blue and gold, I used this old pack of gold thickers that I had in my stash. To finish my title, I added the word “hello” from the cardstock title pack, and embellished with a combination of stickers and ephemera hearts. The gold looked a bit out of place since there was nothing else metallic on the layout so I pulled out my trusty color shine in gold and added some splatter to add some sparkle and shine to the layout.
That’s all I have for you today, guys! It was a bit of an experience making this sketch my own but once I got into the groove of things, it became much smoother to hit the ground running and to do things that made this layout my own. I hope you found inspiration here and you try to create something using this sketch today. Till next time, keep it crafty friends.

You are Awesome | Happiness Collection | Michelle Stokes

Hello Scrappy friends It’s Michelle back today with a new layout share! This is definitely one to be added to the favourites using the Happiness collection and a pretty awesome cut file from fellow DT member Gwen.

The sweet photo I’ve chosen to document is of Leila taken back on Mothers Day with her ‘new’ friend Kermit – best op shop find ever! She truly is an awesome kid, and this cut file from CUT to YOU was the perfect accompaniment for this collection. I managed to pull all of this together with just scraps of papers used on previous creations and 1 full piece of pattern paper for the background edging.

I backed all the pieces of the cut file using the scraps I mentioned before then adhered to the white cardstock using some foam tape for dimension. I layered the cardstock with a full piece of my favourite MEADOW paper for even more colour, and sewed around the edging using white thread.

I added some more of my favourite paper colours to the photo stack. These are the smaller designs you can find in the 6×8 paper pad.

At the top of the photo and bottom of the cut file I added some floral ephemera pieces to give the slight hint of a diagonal design element. I also used the negative star pieces left over from the cut file and some enamel dots (which are making a come back with our upcoming collection and goodness I am excited about it)

Lastly I added a sprinkling of gold colour shine, some handwritten journalling and a date stamp to complete the page.

Well thats all for today. Be sure to pop by the CVS Community group on facebook to share all your scrappy goodness using all things COCOA VANILLA STUDIO

Until Next time, Happy Scrapping!

Michelle x

Craft A Happy Life | Happiness Collection | Rachel Lowe

Hey CVS friends today I have a fun ‘no people’ layout to share created using the stunning Happiness collection. My daughter bought me this super cute bowel for my craft room, perfect for bling I say!

I firstly cut a piece of white cardstock down to 8 x 9 inches  before adding it to the Little Things paper. I added floral die cuts to each side, layering them over each other and adding extra leaves and sprigs.

I used a heart background cut file from the Silhouette Design store. I used a die cut frame from the Happiness ephemera pack and added my photo over the cut file. I typed my journalling and added under my photo. I have used the Meadow paper to cut the heart background.

My title Craft A Happy Life is a cut file from Cut to You (created by Gwen). You will see that some of the letters I have added with foam tape to add visual interest. I have used the Expressive paper to create my title. I tucked the date/year in amongst the floral bunch.

I finished my layout off adding a paint splotch clear sticker from the collection finished off with a die cut butterfly.

I love how this layout turned out, light, bright and pretty!  Thank you for stopping by today and if you have any questions  leave me a comment and I will respond. Have a great week and see you again soon!

Rachel X

 

You Are Lovely | Happiness Collection | Sue Plumb

Hi everyone!

Sue Plumb here today to share my latest design team project with you. I am sure you have all seen the stunning new ‘Unforgettable’ collection that was revealed over the weekend? Such a beautiful range, I can’t wait to get my hands on it! Until then, I am still busying myself with the ‘Happiness’ collection, which I used to create this page.

I began my layout with the gorgeous floral print of the Meadow paper, which I wanted to use as a base. I then cut a piece of white cardstock down to 10×10″ and adhered it over the top, which left a 1″ border around the sides.

I then set about creating some layers in the centre of my page where my photos were going to be placed. I started with a piece of wood grain print paper from the 6×8″ paper pad; which I layered with a piece cut from the Frame of Mind paper; then topped it off with a yellow painted stripe cut from the Radiant paper from the More Than Words collection.

Once I had worked out exactly where my photos were going to be placed, I also added a scrap of the Expressive paper (that I had previously used to cut some hearts from); and a tag from the Die Cut Ephemera pack tucked in above my photos.

To embellish my page I started with a die cut flower pot and a rosette, which I placed on either side of my photos; along with a small tab that I added onto my layers above.

For my page title, I used the word lovely (also from the ephemera pack), which I adhered using foam tape to pop it up from the page. I paired this with the you are small phrase sticker from the Accessory Sticker sheet. To help ground my title, I also added a floral frame from the ephemera pack, which I tucked in behind.

I couldn’t resist adding some butterflies, so I fussy cut a handful of different coloured ones from the Bright & Beautiful paper and placed them in the top left and bottom right corners of my page to give a sense of movement through my design. I then added an extra one alongside my photos to provide the final point for my “butterfly triangle”.

I finished off my page with the stay colourful banner along the bottom edge, a few hearts from the Clear Sticker set and some small splatters of pink and yellow mist.

That’s all from me today. I hope I have inspired you to pull out your stash and get creative too. (Besides, you need to make room for the new ‘Unforgettable’ collection anyway, right?!) If you haven’t entered for your chance to win the entire ‘Unforgettable’ collection yet, then hurry – there are only two days left to enter! You can head to the giveaway post HERE

Until next time, happy scrapping!

SISTERS | HAPPINESS | GWEN WRUCK

Hi Creative Friends,

It’s Gwen with you on the blog today sharing a very special page.  Today is International Sister’s day and to celebrate, I’ve created a page that documents my relationship with my sister.   It features the stunning ‘Happiness’ collection and a photo taken with my sister at a lunch outing we had recently.

The inspiration for this page absolutely started with my photo.  I love how blue that sky is behind us and was immediately drawn to the blue watercolour design of the ‘Good Times’ pattern paper.  I then took a cut file from my stash, this one from CUT to YOU as it was perfect for today’s theme celebrating sisters.  I’ve cut it out as a statement title for my page using the ‘Botanical Bliss’ pattern paper.  I wanted a real contrast between the file and the background for my layout which I had planned to make white.  I backed it with the stunning blue watercolour pattern paper; ‘Good Times’.

With my cut file sorted, I went to work on the design of my page.  I mounted my photo with the ‘Expressive’ pattern paper and then backed on foam for dimension and added machine stitching.  Once I was sure where these large elements were going to go, the page looked a little too plain for what I had in mind, so I thought it might be fun to add a little bit of mixed media onto my background.

I’ve added clear gesso to some thick white cardstock and then used some mists, spraying and moving around the colour until I was happy.  I like my mixed media to be a little subtle and soft, but do love the addition it makes to this page.  It adds another layer of detail and softens the plain white background I had previously.

Once my background was dry, I’ve added my cut file (with foam tape for dimension) and my photo… Now it was time for some embellishing!

I began by fussy cutting out some pink butterflies from the ‘Bright and Beautiful’ pattern paper.  I also pulled out some of the floral pieces from the ‘Die Cut Ephemera’ pack.  I then went about creating a floral cluster down the right-hand side of my photo.  I then scattered the butterflies over my page and added a few more elements from the Die Cut Ephemera pack.  The bow you see below has been cut with a die with some of the scrap ‘Botanical Bliss’ pattern paper.

To finish the page off, I’ve grabbed some sentiment stickers from the ‘Accessory Sticker Sheet’ and added.

Thanks for popping by today to see my latest project.  I hope my page inspires you to get creative with the ‘Happiness’ collection, it is one of my favourites!  And, if you have a sister, why not create a special page to celebrate her; I bet she’s awesome like mine! xo

Until next time,

Gwen

xo

 

Happy Vibes | Happiness | Anita Bownds

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

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