Hey everyone! This is Niki (@nikiclairecreates) and I’m still determined to be festive throughout December even though I don’t have any Cocoa Vanilla Studio Christmas Collections! For today’s layout and Process video, I’ve used Heart & Home. I picked out some of the pinky-red tones and a green paper and a blue paper.
Out of the two papers, I cut squares in increasing sizes, and then folded them into triangles, then folded the corners down to make ‘trees’ – layering the three together really looks like branches! I made two of these origami trees, one in blue and one in green. I arranged them across the layout together with my photo in a horizontal like.
I embellished the trees with red and pink flowers and I punched pink stars to go on top of the trees. I felt the top of the layout was looking a little sparse, so I added a strip of pink paper and a flower and phrase sticker.
For my title I used a mixture of Gold Title Ephemera ‘let’s stay’ and then the word ‘home’ I made from the Mini Puffy Alphabet Stickers.
I finished off with my journaling on the left side of the layout, splatters of gold paint and a few Puffy Stickers. I’m really happy with how this layout turned out and even though it’s not a Christmas collection, I think that it does have a Christmassy-feel about it!
Hey everyone! This is Niki (@nikiclairecreates) with a new layout and process video. I was determined to make Christmassy layouts in December but I don’t have any Cocoa Vanilla Studio Christmas Collections anymore – I loved them so much that I used them all up at the time! So I’m using the two latest collections, Happy Days and Heart & Home and getting Christmassy with those! For this layout I’ve mostly used Happy Days but the big green stars are from Heart & Home.
I love 3D stars and stars are perfect for Christmas. I also love modern Christmas colours, so pink & turquoise mixed with greens and golds so it was absolutely no problem for me to make a Christmas layout with these colours!
I settled on a horizontal design across the layout but I also added a little pink ink as a base colour and some splatters of the pink and gold paint too. I used several of the specialty paper Gold Frames from the Happy Days collection.
I picked out my papers and then used metal dies to make lots of stars. I then scored them at all five points, and folded them to make the 3D stars. I added flowers and hearts from Happy Days in the same colours.
For my title I used a mixture: ‘wonderful’ and ‘time’ were the chipboard words from Happy Days, ‘the’ and ‘of’ were the gorgeous gold word Ephemera from Heart & Home. The little letters are the puffy mini alphabet stickers from Happy Days.
I love how it turned out and I think it is very Christmassy! You can see the process video below
Hey everyone, this is Niki (@nikiclairecreates) and today I am missing summer so have gone back to using Happy Days! I’ve used photos from my little boy’s 5th birthday this year when we spent the day at a water park having lots of fun.
I started off with the turquoise paper which I cut into a large circle, and I added this to a white background. I mounted my three photos and added them to the circle together with two colourful stripes from A5 paper stack. I also added that gorgeous tassel ephemera from the Die Cut Ephemera.
I then added some floral clusters using a mixture of Floral Ephemera and fussy cut flowers. For my title I used one of the Chipboard Titles and the lovely Mini Puffy Alphabet Stickers. I added some puffy stickers and handwrote my journaling as well as adding some white paint splatters.
I hope you enjoyed this layout, it was fun to go back to summer time, I adore this bright happy collection so much!
Hey everyone, this is Niki (@nikiclairecreates) and today I’m doing something a little different and am having a go at some paper weaving! I’m using the Heart & Home collection and started off with that beautiful stripy paper called Harvest. I spent a bit of time cutting out all the coloured stripes. They are quite narrow which is why I had the idea for the paper weaving.
Once my stripes were cut, I then cut them all in half. I then took a spare piece of cardstock and arranged the stripes in colour order, onto the cardstock in a vertical orientation. When I was about happy with the order and the size of the stripes altogether, I taped one end of all the stripes to the cardstock. I then took the horizontal stripes and began weaving them into the vertical ones, under, over, under, over etc. I repeated this until all stripes were weaved.
To secure the weaving I carefully peeled the taped ends from the cardstock and turned over the weaved piece. I then made sure the weaving was quite tight and then I put tape all over the back so the stripes couldn’t move. I ended up with a beautiful piece of paper weaving about 6” square.
I then set about making my layout. I added the weaved paper piece to a white card background, added two mounted photos and then added several pieces of Floral Ephemera. I also added a title using the beautiful gold foiled Title Ephemera and a few phrases cut from the Golden Fields paper.
I finished off with a few Puffy Stickers and some splatters of gold paint. Enjoy watching the process video below.
Thanks so much for joining me today and happy scrapping
Hey everyone! This is Niki (@nikiclairecreates) and here is my latest creation with the beautiful Heart & Home collection. I have made a process video too, which is below. I love gingham and check prints so was drawn to the check side of Flurry paper. I cut it into squares by following the lines on the paper and then layered these up in diamond formations onto a white background.
I added in additional squares but with the other side of the paper showing, I love that dark blue. I mounted my photo and placed this on the bottom diamond.
I added floral clusters using Floral Ephemera and the Die Cut Ephemera. I pinch the flowers first to give them some curl and then also raise them on foam pads too so there is lots of dimension.
I added a title using the gorgeous Gold Title Ephemera ‘love this’ but I also wanted to include a sub title ‘ticket to ride’ which I did using the Mini Puffy Alphabet Stickers – these are so cute and great for titles and subtitles.
I added some cut apart words from the Golden Fields paper manufacturing strip, all of which I distressed the edges and raised up on foam pads.
I finished off by adding my journaling, and some Puffy Stickers, as well as some splatters of white paint.
Thanks so much for joining me today and happy scrapping
Hi everyone! This is Niki (@nikiclairecreates) with another layout and video using the Happy Days collection. I decided to make ‘medals’ out of my photos on this layout using those fabulous colourful stripes from the Sunshine Lollipops paper.
I started off by gutting the middle of the Sunshine Lollipops paper, in order to preserve the outer edge: I can use this for a different layout (I have a tendency to be a bit of a thrifty scrapper sometimes!). I then cut apart the stripes from the gutted piece. I chose 7 stripes to use as a main feature on this layout, and I distressed the edges of all of them, folded them in half and also machine stitched down the middle of each one.
I then decided that a white background just wasn’t doing it for me…and went looking for what patterned papers I could use for a background instead. I settled on the B side of the Rainbow Bright paper, I love the white with ditzy hearts and this was perfect to add some interest to my background. I trimmed it down, distressed the edges and added it to a sheet of white to give it a boarder.
I arranged my colourful stripes onto the background together with my large photo which I cut into a circle shape. I cut three more smaller photos into circle shapes too. From the offcuts of the colourful stripes, I created little ribbons to add to the bottom of each photo – making them into ‘medals’ or ‘rosettes’. I also did this with a fussy cut frame from the Specialty Paper.
I added my photos to the layout together with Die Cut Ephemera ‘Amazing’ rosette. I then added small embellishments to each one: Floral Ephemera, Chipboard Phrases, fussy cut words from the Definitive paper, Chipboard Shapes, Puffy Stickers and phrase stickers from the Accessory Stickers.
I finished off with a few splatters of white paint over the colourful stripes and also handwrote in a few lines of journaling. If you would like to watch how this layout came together, you can watch my process video below! I hope you enjoy it.
Thank you so very much for joining me today, I am really pleased with how this layout turned out!
Hi everyone! This is Niki (@nikiclairecreates) and I’m so happy to be back with another layout and process video using Happy Days. After my Guest Designs over the past two months, I was delighted to be invited to join the team on a permanent basis! Thank you so much to Zoe & Cocoa Vanilla Studio for having me!
For today’s layout I decided to use THAT rainbow paper – you know the one, it’s called Rainbow Bright and has a big beautiful rainbow on it!
I cut all the arcs apart, distressed the edges of all, then stuck them back together, overlapping a little, onto a piece of white card. They overlapped the right edge of the cardstock background quite a bit so I just chopped off the excess. I then added machine stitching around each of the arcs.
I added my photo to the left side of the page. I wanted to mount it on yellow paper but didn’t have any left! So I used a piece of the A5 Paper Stack that I had a small piece of and just about managed to mount two sides of the photo!
I added some clusters to the top and bottom of the layout. I included two fussy cut clouds, that I had leftover from when I made a mini album. I also added Die Cut Ephemera, and Floral Ephemera to these clusters and Accessory Stickers too.
For my title I used ‘super’ fussy cut from the Definitive paper and the word Awesome from the Chipboard Phrases. I also added a sub-title ‘best ever’ also fussy cut from the Definitive paper.
I finished off by handwriting my journaling around the yellow arc, and adding a few chipboard hearts and puffy hearts to the layout! I have created a process video for this layout, which can be watched below, I hope you enjoy it.
I absolutely love how this one turned out and I hope you do too! Thanks so much for joining me today and happy scrapping!
Hey everyone! This is Niki (@nikiclairecreates) and I’m excited to be back with another project and process video Guest Designing for Cocoa Vanilla Studio! This time I have made a mini album. It is a box in the shape of a rainbow, with an arch shaped mini album inside!
To make the box, I started with the front and back covers. I hand drew a rainbow onto a piece of scrap cardstock and cut it out and then used this as a template. I traced around it onto lots of different papers from the A5 paper stack and cut them all out, then distressed the edges and layered them all together. I then mounted this onto a piece of white card and cut out leaving a white border. I added pink hand stitching around the edge using embroidery thread I did all this twice so I had identical rainbows, one for the front of the box and one for the back.
To make the clouds I did the same: hand-drew a cloud onto a piece of scrap cardstock and cut it out to use as a template. I drew around it onto that super-cute ditsy heart print which I cut out and mounted onto white card. I added pick stitching around all of the clouds, then added them to my rainbows.
To make the inside part of the box, I used yellow cardstock to make an insert. I make these really simple, just two pieces of cardstock cut and folded – you can see more details on the process video.
With the box assembled, I moved on to making the mini album itself. I again created a template from white cardstock for the pages and cut that out. I then used this as a template for all pages. I drew them onto more papers from the A5 Paper Stack and cut them out. I then stuck them all together, back to back, to make a super-easy album, which I secured around the outside with ribbon.
I embellished the front of the box with a Chipboard Title, a few pieces of Floral Ephemera, a fussy cut butterfly and some phrase stickers. I also added the title ‘Rainbow Run’ using those adorable Mini Puffy Alphabet Stickers, to one of the clouds.
To embellish the album itself, I wanted to include the wooden medal from the Rainbow Run (this mini album is all about a sponsored run I took part in) and the actual ribbons from the medals at the event. I managed to incorporate those onto the front page and the ribbons are what tie the album together I think it’s really great to include momentums like that within albums if possible and these were perfect!
The album itself is quite interactive – I have 40 photos to include, so it had to be! Some pages have photos that flip up or flip out, there is a ball-chain containing 11 photos, there is also a pocket page. On one of the pages, I made a shaker pocket: I cut a piece of acetate to the same size as the page, pierced holes all the way around the edge and chain stitched with the same pink thread used for the album covers, trapping the sequins inside. I love how this looks!
I used more papers from the A5 paper stack throughout the album to decorate the pages and mount my photos. I’ve also used lots of Floral Ephemera,Phrase Stickers and several of the puffy heart stitchers throughout the album. I also used some of the other Chipboard Titles to make feature pages.
I absolutely love how this turned out, it is just adorable and so pretty to look at and I had the perfect photos for a rainbow album! I really hope you have enjoyed it too. I have made a process video of this mini album, which includes a flip through too, you can watch it here: https://youtu.be/jvOZK-Qy43o . Thank you so much Cocoa Vanilla Studio for having me as a Guest Designer, I have loved it!
Hello again everyone! This is Niki (@nikiclairecreates) and I’m so excited to be back sharing my third layout as a Guest Designer today using Happy Days!
For this layout I wanted to feature the Specialty paper which consists of beautiful foiled gold frames on white card. Inside all the frames are also gold foiled icons – all TOTALLY perfect for fussy cutting! I cut out a few of the frames and cut the middles out too. I then added two of the tiny journaling cards from the A5 Paper Stack inside the frames. They were the perfect size. They needed mounting onto a piece of scrap card first so that the frame had something to stick to (as they were exactly perfect for the apertures). I raised he frames on foam pads. The two cards I chose were the two rainbow ones – these look gorgeous inside the gold foiled frames.
I chose to use the yellow check side of the Feel Good paper for my background. I trimmed this down a bit, distressed the edges and added it to a sheet of white card. I then arranged my frames and my photo onto the yellow background.
I embellished the frames with Floral Ephemera and with the gold foiled icons fussy cut from within the frames – these are amazing as extra embellishments! I added some other little bits of Die Cut Ephemera to my clusters and added some small Puffy Heart Stickers too.
I added a title using ‘my sunshine’ from the Chipboard Title Stickers – I love this font! And the white letters stood out beautifully against my yellow background.
I finished off by handwriting my journaling and splattering my embellishment clusters with white paint! Here is the link to the process video I made for this layout: https://youtu.be/sb-V5KniUa8
I hope you have enjoyed seeing this layout, I loved making it!
Hi everyone! This is Niki (@nikiclairecreates) and I’m delighted to be back Guest Designing with my second layout and process video using Happy Days. I am obsessed with those gorgeous words on the Definitive paper and have spent some time fussy cutting a lot of them out. I wanted to make a feature out of them on this layout.
I chose the purple side of Flutterby paper as my background, which I paired with the pink strawberry side of Lush Blooms paper. I trimmed these both down and distressed the edges, then stuck them together offset slightly. I then positioned these onto a sheet of white card.
I mounted my photo onto a darker patterned paper and added that to my layout together with a gold fussy cut frame from the Specialty Foiled paper. I then arranged all the fussy cut words around the photo, cascading down from top to bottom. I raised them all on foam pads to give them some dimension.
I then added some of the Floral Ephemera to the bottom corner of my photo, and another cluster in the top right corner. I chose mostly pinks and purple flowers but also added a few yellow ones. Purple and yellow are opposite each other on the colour wheel, so are therefore ‘contrasting colours’. Contrasting colours work best when there is a lot of one colour with a small amount of the contrasting colours and this is exactly what I did with the yellow – just a couple of small pops of it in amongst all the beautiful purple.
I added another tiny cluster in the bottom right corner of the layout using some of the Die Cut Ephemera. I added some butterflies and handwrote my journaling under all the words. I also embellished the words with lots of Puffy Heart Stickers.
I finished off with a few splatters of white paint over the top of the embellishment clusters! I absolutely love how this turned out, I adore purple as a colour so love how this looks as a background! Here is the link to my process video for this layout if you would like to watch along: https://youtu.be/2ygAZcQKt0c
Thanks so much for joining me today and happy scrapping!
