Melissa Vining

Shine Bright | Unforgettable Collection | Melissa Vining

Hello, its Melissa here and I’m so happy to be back for another Throwback Thursday layout!! I love Throwback Thursday because it enables me to dive into my stash and work with some older Cocoa Vanilla products.  I decided to go into my stash and work with the first older collection (as in not from 2021) that I came across – hence the beautiful Unforgettable Collection!  The photo is the offical school photo of my 7 year old daughter for this year.

I find school photos challenging to scrapbook because of the size of the photo, and often the colour tones that I can’t alter because the photos come printed. I decided to use “Natural Beauty” for my background, and I also layered up “Forget Me Not” and “Lacewing”.  I used my scallop edge punch for extra texture.  For my photo I fussy cut out the floral edges on one of the cut apart cards on “Story Teller”.  I also used embellishments from the “Die Cut Ephemera”, Accessory Stickers and “Flair Buttons”.

I decided to use several of the “Clear Stickers” and I layered them in two positions next to my photo to provide a minimal mixed media look.  I love how they look!

I created my title with one of the phrases from the Foam Title Stickers.  I finished my layout with some black ink splatters.

I hope I’ve inspired you to create layouts and projects with Unforgettable.

Take care

Melissa xx

 

 

 

Summer Sun & Fun | Sunkissed Collection | Melissa Vining

Hi everyone, I’m back with another Summer Layout using the beautiful Sunkissed collection!! I’ve been making my way through scrapbooking my Summer beach holiday photos from earlier in the year and Sunkissed has been perfect for all of these happy memories. For this layout I decided to document a photo of my teenaged son, because I’m very aware that probably 90 percent of my layouts are girly!  I hope that those of you that love boy layouts enjoy seeing this page!

The cut file is a free one from Paige Evans, and it was perfect for my title because I could make it work for a boy themed layout.  I used a large piece of Just Chillin’ for the cloud background, and positioned the horizon line of the sun along the line of the paper.

I backed the cut file with Sunny Days, Summer Lights, and Fun in the Sun.  The gold glitter paper that I used to back the ampersand is from my stash.

I used art crayons to add some interest behind the words of the cut file in matching colours.  It’s very subtle, but definitely adds some interest. I kept my embellishment very simple, and tried to avoid girly icons and flowers (although I did use one Puffy Sticker flower).

I also embellished with Die Cut Ephemera, Wood Epoxy Buttons and one Accessory Sticker.  My final touch was to add white splatters from watered down acrylic paint.

I created process video that you can watch below.

 

I hope I inspired you to create boy themed layouts with Sunkissed!

Melissa xx

 

Remote Learning Fun | These Days Collection | Melissa Vining

Hi everyone, it’s Melissa here and today I’m sharing a layout that I created with the stunning ‘These Days’ collection. My assignment brief was to focus on puffy hearts and puffy stickers.  As we’re currently in lockdown again here in New Zealand I decided to scrapbook some photos from our lockdown in 2020 showing three of the kids doing their online remote learning.

I knew that I wanted to use some of the frames from ‘Wall of Fame’ and I fussy cut three of them.  I cut out the centres of them and put my photos inside.

I was very keen to use the beautiful woodgrain of ‘Pretty Posies’ and tore pieces of ‘Home Grown’ and ‘Take Flight’.  Normally I would use Take Flight for fussy cutting, but I love having a large piece of it on my page.   I hand stitched in matching embroidery thread from my stash.

 

I used the ‘Mini Puffy Alphas’ for my title and the ‘Puffy Stickers’ for embellishing the frames, either side of my title and on the strings holding the frames.  The puffy stickers are so adorable!!

I used the ‘Puffy Hearts’ as feature embellishments on the strings holding frames, and I love how they add a touch of bling.

I added tails onto each frame with beautiful black and white leaves from the ‘Foral Ephemera’.  They were the perfect finishing touch.

I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing my layout.  I don’t have a video this time as things have been very hectic in lockdown trying to balance work and parenting.

 

Take care

Melissa xx

 

 

 

 

Always Happy | These Days Collection | Melissa Vining

Hi everyone, Its Melissa here and I’m so happy to be back sharing my second layout created with the beautiful new “THESE DAYS” collection.   For this layout I really wanted to create a layout mixing two patterned papers as my background, and I chose “TAKE FLIGHT” and “FAMILY TIES”.  I love that one is subtle and the other is bold.  My photo is of my daughter and her TY soft toy collection, and the colours in my photo were perfect for the soft colours in These Days.

 

My sewing machine is broken at the moment, and ordinarily I would have stitched between the two papers, but I actually love that I distressed the edge of the white polka dot paper and left it lifted.  I added mixed media with inks and shimmery splatters, predominantly on the white paper to tie the two papers together.

I backed my photo with papers from the “A5 PAPER STACK” and embellished with lots of flowers and some leaves from the “FLORAL EPHEMERA”.  I also cut out one of the small cut aparts from the A5 Paper Stack and used it as additional journalling.

I fussy cut lots of butterflies from “TAKE FLIGHT” and placed them to look as though they flew over my photo.  I glued the centres down and lifted up the wings with dimensional adhesive.

The “FOAM TITLE STICKERS” were perfect for my title, and I love how the two words look nestled together.

I created a process video which you can watch below:

Have an awesome weekend!

Melissa xx

Cherish These Days | These Days Collection | Melissa Vining

Hello!! It’s Melissa here and I’m super excited to be here with you today sharing my first layout with the beautiful new ‘These Days’ collection.  My assignment was to use the ‘A5 Paper Stack’ and the ‘Pocket Cards’, and of course I just had to use These Days!!  I decided to scrapbook three cute photos of Ava that I took outside the bigger girls school.

I just had to use the gorgeous ‘Daybreak’ patterned paper as my background, and I selected the B side.  This paper is so stunning you’ll want to get serval of it!! I added some light mixed media with gel crayons, but then of course I covered most of it up!! I chose three of the ‘Pocket Cards’, and honestly it was difficult to choose, especially as they are double sided.

I distressed the edges of two of the cards, and popped them up on foam for dimension.  The title card was perfect for my title.  For the third card, I cut it in half and then fussy cut around the painted stripes and used it as embellishment above and below my photos.  I love how it looks!!

I used two torn pieces of paper from the ‘A5 Paper Stack’ to provide extra layers behind the cards and to provide texture.

For my embellishment I used butterflies and floral clusters from the ‘Die Cut Ephemera’, ‘Clear Stickers’, a ‘Puffy Heart’, and a couple of ‘Puffy Stickers’.  I didn’t need much else because I felt that the background paper, torn paper strips and pocket cards did most of the work for me!

I finished off my page with some splatters in black and dark gold.  I hope you enjoyed seeing my first layout with These Days!

Have a lovely week

Melissa

 

Chill Out | Sunkissed Collection | Melissa Vining

Hello everyone!! Its Melissa here and its well and truely winter here in the south of New Zealand, so I thought it was time to create another summer layout with the gorgeous Sunkissed collection!! This time its an inside photo of my daughter making breakfast, and one of the best things about being on holiday is that everyday is chilled with no time pressure to be anywhere or do anything.  This week we are featuring 3 layouts created with the beautiful “Feelin’ Fine” paper and I chose to use a cut file by Paige Evans called “Corner Doily”.

I backed the cut out doily with white card stock in order to provide a contrast to the busy patterned paper.

Using the patterned paper as a full background meant that this layout had the potential to be very busy.  In order to avoid this I printed my photo as a large square, and backed it with “Fun in the Sun” and a dark blue paper from the “A5 Paper Stack”.    I also used one of the “Pocket Cards” for my journalling.

I embellished with lots of “Floral Ephemera”, and I cut a lot of them in half to get more use from them.

I was really happy to get some of the “Die Cut Ephemera” onto my page, especially the watermelon and orange slice!

I created my title with two of the “Glitter Foam Title Stickers” which were perfect for the theme of my page!!  My final touch was to add some ink splatters in grey and black.

I made a process video which you can watch below.

I hope you enjoyed my summery layout!
Melissa xx

 

 

 

 

Summer Days | Sunkissed Collection | Melissa Vining

Hello everyone!! It’s Melissa here and I’m so happy to be back sharing my latest layout created with the gorgeous Sunkissed Collection.  And yes it’s another beach holiday layout for my Riverton album!  I was inspired by the patterned paper called Good Vibrations, specially the B side that has all of the paint stripes in rainbow colours.  I knew that I wanted to cut the stripes apart, and then paper piece them back together.   I ended up unintentionally creating a sunburst!

 

The photo is myself with Ava in the background.  I edited it to back and white so it wouldn’t compete with the business of my layout.  To start with I cut all of the stripes off the white background, and then cut them evenly apart.  I placed all of the stripes together in each of the respective colours, and then created a circle in the centre of my page.  The way in which I placed the stripes is difficult to explain, but you can see my process in my video linked at the end of my post. I machine stitched the central circle in white thread, going around messily three times, but unfortunately I covered all of this with embellishments!

 

I curled the edges of each of the paper stripes, and then used small pop dots to provide dimension.  At this point I wasn’t sure what to make of my layout, but the addition of ink splatters in matching colours definitely helped!

I placed my photo on craft foam to pop it up, and then added the Summer Days Accessory Sticker which became my title.  I embellished around my photo and the sticker with Die Cut Ephemera, Floral Ephemera and two Wood Epoxy Buttons.

I ended up loving how this layout turned out!! The ink splatters and embellishments definitely helped to tie everything together!

I made a process video which you can watch below.

I hope I inspired you to use your patterned paper in a creative and different way!

Have a wonderful rest of your weekend!

Melissa xx

 

Love This | Sunkissed Collection | Melissa Vining

Hi everyone, its Melissa here and I’m back today sharing a new layout I created with the gorgeous Sunkissed Collection.  I used one of the two free exclusive cut files that were available during International Scrapbooking Day called ‘Floral Wreath’.  You can find this cut file in the Cocoa Vanilla Studio Community Group on Facebook.  My photo is of my youngest daughter Ava (aged 4) in the bush at the beach house we stayed at in January on our summer holiday.

I created my layout using the B side of ‘Brightside’ for my background.  Its a beautiful shade of blue and during my Facebook Live scrapbooking session during the weekend of International Scrapbooking Day I nearly used this paper.  I told everyone watching that I would use this paper for another background, hence this layout!!  I added splatters of watered down white acrylic paint before I adhered my cut file.

I predominantly used papers from the A5 Paper Stack to back my cut file, and I focused on solid patterns or small repeating patterns.  I embellished around my photo by adding Floral Ephemera and Puffy Stickers.

I also fussy cut a floral cluster from Growing Wild and used it to embellish the top of the wreath. I even got two of the Wood Epoxy Buttons onto my layout!

I used a phrase from the Die Cut Ephemera pack for my title. It was perfect against the blue background, and I popped it and lots of the flowers up on dimensional adhesive. I wrote my journaling with a silver pen.

I made a process video which you can watch below.

Have an awesome rest of your weekend!

Melissa xx

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Love This | Sunkissed Collection | Melissa Vining

Hi everyone, its Melissa here and I’m back today sharing a new layout I created with the gorgeous Sunkissed Collection.  I used one of the two free exclusive cut files that were available during International Scrapbooking Day called ‘Floral Wreath’.  You can find this cut file in the Cocoa Vanilla Studio Community Group on Facebook.  My photo is of my youngest daughter Ava (aged 4) in the bush at the beach house we stayed at in January on our summer holiday.

I created my layout using the B side of ‘Brightside’ for my background.  Its a beautiful shade of blue and during my Facebook Live scrapbooking session during the weekend of International Scrapbooking Day I nearly used this paper.  I told everyone watching that I would use this paper for another background, hence this layout!!  I added splatters of watered down white acrylic paint before I adhered my cut file.

I predominantly used papers from the A5 Paper Stack to back my cut file, and I focused on solid patterns or small repeating patterns.  I embellished around my photo by adding Floral Ephemera and Puffy Stickers.

I also fussy cut a floral cluster from Growing Wild and used it to embellish the top of the wreath. I even got two of the Wood Epoxy Buttons onto my layout!

I used a phrase from the Die Cut Ephemera pack for my title. It was perfect against the blue background, and I popped it and lots of the flowers up on dimensional adhesive. I wrote my journaling with a silver pen.

I made a process video which you can watch below.

Have an awesome rest of your weekend!

Melissa xx

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Love This | Unforgettable Collection | Melissa Vining

Hello everyone! It’s Melissa here and I’m thrilled to be back with a layout I created for Throwback Thursday!  I always love when its my turn to use an older collection, and today I decided to go back to 2019 when life was what we considered normal! I created my layout with the beautiful Unforgettable collection, and I specifically wanted to challenge myself to use a cut apart patterned paper as a full sheet.  The paper I chose to use is ‘Pretty Bits’ and ordinarily I would cut this paper up to use as layers, or use it to back a cut file.  The photos are of my youngest daughter Ava with a friend who my little girls consider to be their older sister!

I used black embroidery thread to stitch between the lines of the different papers and I love how it created a pocket page look, but without the pockets.

I decided to place my two photos on two patterns that were small and repeating.  I used papers from the ‘6×8 Inch Paper Stack’ and distressed the edges.  I also cut out some of the smaller cut aparts from the paper stack because the smaller size was perfect to use as embellishments for my page.

The top left hand part of the paper had a very subtle black floral on white which was perfect for my title.  I used several of the ‘Clear Stickers’ and even layered them to create a mixed media look.  I created my title from two of the ‘Foam Title Stickers’ and placed them directly on top of the clear stickers.  I love how this turned out, and I added a fussy cut butterfly.

For my journalling I used a circular frame from the ‘Die Cut Ephemera’ pack and I glued it onto the striped side of ‘Sprightly’ so that I could use the lines for my hand writing.  I embellished with a ticket from the Die Cut Ephemera, a ‘Flair Button’ and another fussy cut butterfly.

The bottom left had side part of the paper had 4 larger butterflies printed on it.  I fussy cut the same butterflies from another piece of the same paper, and then adhered them by glueing the centres and lifting up the wings and adding dimension.  I also added lots of subtle shimmer to the butteries, and several other features on the layout.

I made a video of my process which you can watch below.

I hope I’ve inspired you to use a cut apart as a whole entire sheet.

Have a lovely rest of your week!

Melissa xx

 

 

 

 

 

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