Hello Hello! It’s Michelle here today with a new layout share for you all. I’ve continued on with my Christmas crafting in January using the Merry & Bright Collection and a bunch of fun and oh so flattering photos from Christmas Eve and Christmas Morning.
I based this layout off one that I made a few years back that grouped photos together over a chunk of pattern paper with a big floral cluster underneath. This was a fun layout to recreate, even with the cringeworthy photos I chose.
All papers used are from the Merry & Bright Collection with a mix of both 12×12 and A5 papers used. Jingle all the Way was the paper of choice to use behind all the photos, combined with a strip of Happy Holidays to use as a base for the title.
I added a massive cluster of florals under the title banner using the wreath design from the HappyHolidays paper along with a mix of ephemera and fussy cut florals from the A5 version of Joy to the World.
Different forms of adhesive used for this cluster to achieve dimension of all kinds.
I used my all time favourite whitealphas for the title, with a pop of machine stitching to keep them in place for years to come.
I added more fussy cut florals around the page and tucked in ephemera pieces, accessorystickers and even layered in a couple of old school doilies within the photo groups. Also, please excuse the hot mess shown above, we were having a little too much fun with the photo booth set up haha
Even the sweet doggo’s made an appearance in this layout.
The papers used to back the photos all came from scraps I had left from past projects, with the addition of some vellum behind a couple.
Here’s a final look at the entire layout, splattered with gold ink to finish it off.
Well thats all from me today, thanks so much for stopping by.
Hello Hello! Its Michelle here with you today. I hope you’ve all had a wonderful festive season and are all rested and ready to see this crazy year off and start a fresh new one in the next couple of days. I have another instalment of Christmas Memory sharing for you all – the second half of the 2019 album I shared with you last month featuring loads of bits n bobs from the very cheerful Merry & Bright Collection. Like the first post, this one is also very photo heavy so lets jump straight into it..
… starting with the middle of December. There was lego building, tree building and secret letters from Twinkle our Elf. I’ll leave links for all the products I’ve used at the very bottom of this post
This time of year is also when Leila or one of us in this house tends to fall ill. In 2019 for Leila sadly it was a stomach bug that had her wiped out next to the undecorated Christmas Tree’s for an entire day
I created a flip/ shaker pocket to conceal the photo and journalling from that day using a label from the cut apart sheet Oh What Fun and ’14’ from the Countdown paper. There’s some glitter and a couple of ephemera hearts sprinkled into the front of the pocket on top of the pocket page card. To keep them all in place I sewed the flap directly onto the pocket page below.
Over the page I’ve kept things pretty simple using more numbers from the Countdown paper. I’ve repeated this step through the entire album to keep things cohesive.
In between the pocket pages I’ve added a giant paper tag insert using 2 pieces of pattern paper from the A5 paper stack – Joy to the World and the text side of Oh What Fun. I’ve created the round glitter shaker over the top of the floral pattern using the large circular wreath ephemera piece, some left over clear packaging, a tonne of sliver glitter and machine stitched around the wreath to keep out closed. I added flowers and banner from the ephemera pack, then stapled a piece of coordinating ribbon to the top.
I kept the text side of the tag blank as the album is already quite bulky, plus theres a lot going on in the photos to the right. The 18th of December last year was quite the busy day – we treated ourselves to a new car and Twinkle got up to mischief in my craft room creating signs for the Christmas Tree. It was a sad time for Leila saying goodbye to our first family car, but we were all very excited with our new wheels!
Top right of the pockets is another see through glitter pocket using the numbers from the Countdown paper, a single puffy gold star and machine stitched along the top edge to stop the glitter going everywhere.
As we start to creep towards the last third of the month it gets a little busier. The end of school, long days at work, House Elf getting up to mischief and HOT HOT HOT weather.
Another flip pocket using pocket page cards, ephemera and some off cut strips of Jingle all the Way (candy cane stripe) conceal more photos of Leila’s last day at school. One a photo of the crazy mask she made and the other a photo with one of her favourite teachers ( not shared for privacy reasons)
This kid is a hoot! An accessory sticker was perfect to embellish the photo I took of a well needed coffee at work. What a crazy time of year working in Pharmacy can be, and not because its Christmas!
We made it to see Santa to share with him all the things Leila was hoping to receive for Christmas. I had Leila write on the Dear Santa card herself which was the perfect touch to this spread. If you’d like to do the same with your children you can find this card on the Oh What Fun cut apart sheet.
We didn’t get the chance to ‘trim the tree’ until quite late in the month. The lead up to and start of December is always chaotic for us with work, school and Leila’s Birthday so the poor tree always gets neglected until the last minute. We make sure to enjoy it for a few weeks into January before packing it all away.
I used some of the wonderful woodgrain found on the Seasons Greetings paper or in the A5 paper stack as a base for this mini layout. I cut a frame out of the Candy Cane stripe Jingle all the Way to frame the photo then layered 2 trees from the ephemera pack and some stickers to finish it off. On the right hand side I used the darker green print of Oh Christmas Tree to cut a tree design cut file from CUT to YOU. I backed it with some clear velum and sprinkled glitter within each circle to create twinkling lights. I’ve machine stitched the tree onto the Oh What Fun paper to keep it in place.
On the back I created a simple sequin shaker pocket using another ephemera frame and adhered it to some Countdown paper with ephemera pieces and a strip of ‘Christmas rainbow’ diagonal stripe that can be found along the bottom of the Oh What Fun paper.
Over the page I kept the pockets simple using cards from the pocket page card pack. I also documented a photo I screen shot from facebook when our beloved country was on fire.
Were on the home stretch now, just a few more to go…
Another simple insert between pages of photos using vellum, ephemera pieces and a puffy gold star
with a very similar cluster created on the reverse to coincide with the photos of family from Christmas Eve.
Another photo heavy spread with pocket page cards as fillers with the addition of a couple accessory stickers and a cute ephemera house
All the fun of Christmas Day contained in 1 spread. This is literally all the photos I took on this day minus a few extra blurry ones. I chose to live the moments in person rather than a face behind a phone camera, but I’m happy I took just these few.
Lastly we round out the month with a few crazy faces from New Years Eve. Every year so far this crazy kid has been awake and ‘celebrated’ it well and truly into the new year with us. Last year it was on the couch watching fireworks from around the country on tv with her beloved stuffed animals.. and a few crazy selfies with me. You’re welcome lol
Well friends thats a wrap on my 2019 Christmas Memories album, and my creative shares here with you for 2020. Its been a crazy year for us all, and I cant wait to see what the next year brings.. Lets hope its a little less chaotic than 2020 but a heck of a lot more happy!
Thank you all for your love and support throughout the year.
It’s Tarrah back with you here on the Cocoa Vanilla blog and today I have a new Christmas themed layout to share with you featuring the stunning Merry and Bright collection! I just can’t get enough of this gorgeous Christmas collection! It’s my most favourite Christmas collection ever!
I decided to use the gorgeous large Christmas Tree die-cut and the backing paper but used it slightly differently to how it comes. I pulled off the die-cut from the backing patterned paper and backed all the spaces with papers from the 6′ x 8′ paper pad. These papers were different to the patterns on the backing paper it comes with. Once it was all backed, I added craft foam underneath and adhered it back to the backing paper, however I moved it over to the right so that the tree pattern underneath could be seen. I love the shadows this creates on my page.
On the right, I layered some of the awesome 3′ x 4′ journal cards under the photo of my Mum with my boys and niece. To the right of the photo I tucked in a tree die-cut and also added 2 over on the left, I tucked one in and the other is adhered on top. I also decorated the tree with a few more die-cuts and accessory stickers too. The flairs are super cute from the Merry and Bright collection, I added the pink one that says 25 December on the left side of the page.
I added more die-cuts including some hearts and phrases and those gorgeous gold puffy stars! One had to be added to the top of the tree and I added 2 more to the other embellishment clusters. To finish I trimmed down the backing patterned paper and backed it with the ‘B’ side of the Countdown paper. I then trimmed this paper down again and backed the entire layout with gold glitter cardstock. Lastly I splattered some gold mist around the layout and stamped the date stamp.
Thanks so much for stopping by the Cocoa Vanilla blog today, I hope you enjoyed my layout and that you were inspired in some way!
Hi Creative friends, Gwen back on the blog today with a new share for Cocoa Vanilla Studio using their brand new ‘Merry & Bright’ collection. For today’s share, I’m working with this picture of me! This one was taken on a Christmas cruise we did a few years back.
It’s been a while since I’ve scrapbooked a photo of myself, so it was definitely the inspiration for the page. I knew I wanted to go with a vertical design and thought it might be fun to include this Christmas Tree Cut File by CUT to YOU. The idea is that both the tree and the photo run vertically and draw your eye up and down the page.
I’ve started by backing the tree in the ‘Star Bright’ pattern paper. I’ve also used this paper as the background of my page. For the trunk of the tree, I’ve used the ‘Seasons Greetings’ pattern paper and I’ve also used that as a feature border around the edge of my background. I almost always add a border to my pages, I love how it finishes the edges off and am always sure to add stitching for extra detail.
I’ve backed my photo with a cut candy stripe from the ‘A5 Paper Stack’ and mounted on foam for dimension. I’ve added stitching to it as well which you can see below.
For the embellishments, I’ve decided on one main cluster in the top left-hand corner of my photo. I’ve used a mix of Die Cuts from the ‘Ephemera Pack’, some cut apart elements from the ‘Oh What Fun’ pattern paper some fussy cut florals from the ‘Joy to the World’ pattern paper and a flair button.
I also decided to add some cute decorations to the tree. For this, I’ve used some more fussy cut florals from the ‘Joy to the World’ pattern paper and some die cut ornaments from the ‘Ephemera Pack’. All finished off with a star from the ‘Puffy Gold Stars’ pack.
I’ve also made a YouTube video of my layout process which you can watch here.
Hi Creative friends, Gwen with you on the blog today. For today’s share, I’m working with this sweet picture of Miss C wayyy too excited about Christmas M&M’s. On the blog this week the Design Team have been challenged to mix an older collection with a new one, so I’ve decided to mix the new Christmas collection (Merry & Bright) with Tis the Season. I just love how these two collections came together.
The design for my page is a central one which started with this title cut file by CUT to YOU. I’ve positioned my photo on top taking care to ensure everything is nicely centred.
Then, working with the larger ephemera pieces first, created three embellishment clusters, one in the top left hand corner of the photo, one in the bottom right hand corner of the photo and one centred, at the bottom of the page. I’ve started with the large Santa die-cut element from the ‘Ephemera Pack’ and mixed and matched ephemera pieces from both collections.
Here you can see the die cut piece ’25’ from the ‘Tis the Season collection’, sitting next to the Santa and Holly elements from the ‘Merry & Bright’ collection. I just love how I can use up those leftover pieces of the older collection and give it a fresh new look with the new one.
In the top and bottom clusters, I’ve also added in two of the gold ‘Puffy Stars’ from the ‘Merry & Bright’ collection. These are a great textured piece to add to a layout and are the perfect shade of gold.
You can also see here that I’ve added in a ‘Flair’ from the ‘Flair pack’ as well as some Enamel Dots, these are from the ‘Tis the Season’ collection.
I’ve also made a YouTube process video which you can watch below.
I hope you have enjoyed seeing how this page came together. Be sure to join the Cocoa Vanilla Studio Facebook group to see even more inspiration and ideas for using this collection.
Hi Creative friends, Gwen back on the blog today with a new share and today I’m using the brand new ‘Merry & Bright’ collection. I’m working with this sweet picture of Miss C on Christmas morning. The colours in the collection were the perfect match for this photo including the gold of the puffy stars. So fun right?!
For the design of this page, I wanted to keep things pretty clean and simple so decided on a centred design with my photo on the left and a large title on the right. The title is a cut file from CUT to YOU which I have backed with pattern papers from the ‘Paper Stack’. I’ve placed these elements onto the ‘Happy Holidays’ pattern paper and then added a frame using the ‘Jingle All the Way’ pattern paper. I love the sweet candy stripe as a border here.
I’ve mounted my photo with the ‘Oh Christmas Tree’ pattern paper, it’s the sweetest shade of green ever! I’ve also added my signature stitching here for added detail.
With the photo and title elements done, it’s time to have some fun adding the embellishments. The embellishment pack for this collection is full of really fun die cuts. For interest and dimension I’ve raised some of them up on foam tape, its a cheap and effective way to give paper die cuts a more layered feel.
For the page, I’ve created three main embellishment clusters, one in the top right hand corner of the photo, the second along the right hand edge of the photo and the third near the ‘R’ in my title ‘DECEMBER’. The three clusters help draw the eye around the page.
I’ve finished the page off with a flair from the ‘Flair pack’ as well as three of the super cute gold puffy stars. These are so fun for Christmas pages AND as it turns out, the perfect shade of gold to match the tinsel on our tree!
Here’s one more close up of the details including the sweet tree die cuts from the ‘Ephemera Pack’.
Thanks for popping by today, I hope you enjoyed seeing the details of my layout and if you haven’t already be sure to check your local store for this collection, it really is beautiful!
I’ve also created a YouTube process video for this page so if you’d like to see how I put it together, you can watch it below.
