puffy gold stars

Merry Christmas | Merry & Bright collection | Tarrah McLean

Hi creative friends!

It’s Tarrah McLean back with you and today I am sharing a Christmas themed scrapbook layout with you featuring the gorgeous Merry and Bright collection from Cocoa Vanilla Studio. Do you like scrapbooking Christmas? I absolutely love it and would scrapbook using Christmas collections all year if I could!

I started my layout with a white cardstock base and decided to document a Snapchat photo of myself taken last Christmas Day, it goes perfectly with the Merry & Bright collection. I pulled out one of the frames from the ephemera pack and adhered it to my photo, I then added craft foam to the underneath of the photo. Before I adhered the photo to the white cardstock, I trimmed a piece of the woodgrain paper from the A5 paper stack and layered and adhered it underneath the photo, adhering the photo down on top.

I built my entire layout around the photo in the centre, choosing to leave lots of white space on this page. I tucked in some florals from the ephemera pack on either side of the photo, bending the edges of the leaves and flowers to create some shadows on my page. On top of the floral cluster on the right, I adhered a gorgeous flair button on top and also added a heart from the ephemera pack also. Above the photo, I adhered the ‘Merry’ tab and from the accessory stickers, I placed the banner with the star in the top right of my photo.

At the bottom of my photo, I placed the ‘Merry Christmas’ sticker from the accessory sticker sheet and this became my title for the page also. I also placed the rectangle journal spot sticker under the title sticker. Once I was happy with the centre cluster that is the main focus of my layout, I started to add some details to the top and bottom of the page. I cut out a strip of the pink, red and white stripe paper for both the top and bottom, I also scalloped the edge of a piece of the green check paper and adhered that piece at the top. I added some ephemera pieces, a banner sticker and one of the gorgeous gold stars also.

On the bottom edge, I added some more ephemera pieces and another gorgeous gold star also. Some of the smaller and last details I added were the small phrase stickers, the date stamp and splattered some gold Heidi Shine around my page also. I love how the gold Heidi shine looks against the white and also how some of it has landed on the holly leaves as well.  Once I was happy with my final layout on the white cardstock, I then trimmed down the white cardstock and adhered it to the coral 12′ x 12′ patterned paper from the collection.

Thank you so much for stopping by the Cocoa Vanilla blog today! I hope you enjoyed reading about how I created my layout as much as I enjoyed creating it.

Do you have the Merry & Bright collection? I encourage you to pull it out and create some pretty things with it!

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a safe, happy and healthy new year.

Tarrah x

 

Christmas Advent | Joyful Collection | Michelle Stokes

Hey Everyone! It’s Michelle here today and a Happy Festive season to you all. I hope you’re having an enjoyable month and aren’t as stressed out an unprepared as I am. Our Elf only made her appearance for these photos, and has since disappeared again lol. As you can see I’ve created something a little different, a fun little Christmas Advent ‘Calendar’ (aka completely forgot to buy one from the shops) using the sweet Joyful Collection. We’ve set it up in Leila’s smaller Christmas as the pastel colours suited a white tree background.

As soon as I saw the Advent Paper in this collection I just knew I needed to create something using it, and what a perfect way to do so by creating a hanging “Advent calendar”. Each pocket was made using all the different pattern papers from the A5 paper stack and decorated using ephemera pieces, accessory stickers and fussy cut florals from the ‘Tis the Season‘ Paper in both 12×12 & A5 sizes. Oh and of course, numbered using the ‘Advent’ paper which only comes in the 12×12 size.

Here’ how the pockets look hanging from the tree…

You’ll see in these close ups I’ve cut the tops of each pocket in different ways, attached the string randomly and also added some white cardstock stars and the cute gold puffy stars. The paper chain was made a couple years back using the bohemian Dream collection

As the tree has so much decoration we left all other decorations off and only added the Santa llama and angel on top.

All the empty pockets are left either at the bottom of the tree, or in a little basket I’ve sat next to the elf house to the left of the tree.

Heres a closer look at all of the different pockets, they’re all so cute I cant pick which ones are my favourite.

I kept all pockets roughly 4 inch tall and 2.5 wide to ensure we could fit full size Freddo Frogs, Caramello Koalas and theres even a mini Chomp bar here and there. Love us come Cadbury Favourites here YUM!

Each pocket is folded over at the back and adhered along the bottom edge using a stapler as the tape adhesive wouldn’t stay shut once the chocolates were inside. You could also sew along the bottom edge for a little extra detail on the pocket.

Embellishments are layered using different forms of adhesive, from regular double sided roller tape to foam for a little extra dimension. Although once the chocolate is inside the entire pocket pops with dimension/.

The cute hand-drawn animals in this collection are just so sweet, and easy to use on these little pockets of chocolatey goodness.

And thats the lot. I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing something a little different from me this time around? Let me know in the comments below if you enjoy seeing different crafty ideas other than layouts, or are you purely a layout crafter like I usually am?

Thanks so much for stopping by, I’ll be back in a couple weeks to share my last creation for 2021, although I’m still unsure what it might be.

Until then, have a safe and HAPPY Festive season, which ever way you celebrate. Stay safe, enjoy and Happy Scrapping!
Michelle x

 

 

Joyful Day | Joyful Collection | Danni Visser

Hi Cocoa Vanilla Studio fans! Danni here with my first layout using the gorgeous new Joyful collection. I have a sweet collage photo of my daughter playing in the rain to document today. It is not necessarily a Christmas themed photo, but it was early in December and she has a bright red dress on so I thought it was a perfect lead in to my Christmas layouts for that year’s album.

I started by taking the Very Merry 12×12 patterned paper as my background paper because the subtle spotted pattern reminded me of falling snow or rain, which was perfect for my rainy day theme. To highlight my photo I matted it using the mustard script paper from the A5 paper stack and lightly distressing the edges for texture. I added further softness and texture by including a couple of layers of pink tissue paper as a second photo border.

For my title I couldn’t go past the incredible puffy gold title stickers – they are the perfect shade of bright Christmassy gold and the metallic shine on them is just amazing. I spelt out ‘Joyful Day’, which describes this moment perfectly, and layered it across the bottom of my photo.

Next I took a pile of stars that I fussy cut from the Making Spirits Bright 12×12 patterned paper, as well as stars from the corresponding paper in the A5 paper stack to create a variety of sizes. I created layered stars with some of these by adding a larger star underneath with patterned paper and adding dimensional foam in between the layers. Other stars I added foam behind or just left as is for a variety of heights and added dimension.

I wanted to create the feel of hanging Christmas ornaments so I glued a variety of different threads and twine in between my star layers and positioned my stars at various heights across the page, with the twine hanging from the top of the layout. I love this effect!

To fill in any gaps left between the larger stars, I added some of the smaller fussy-cut stars and three of the puffy gold glitter stars in the empty spaces. Those gold puffy glitter stars are just so incredibly gorgeous, I had to use them immediately!

To finish off the layout I added a sprinkling of the stars from the puffy gold title stickers in amongst the star clusters, then layered the ‘Fa la la la la’ chipboard banner piece from the chipboard stickers across the top of my photo. I hope you like this layout! There is a process video on the Cocoa Vanilla Studio YouTube channel linked below if you would like to watch the full process. Happy scrapping!

Danni x

Naughty or Nice | Merry & Bright collection | Sue Plumb

Hi everyone, it’s Sue Plumb here today to share some Throwback Thursday inspiration with you. Throwback Thursday is the feature where our design team members take an older collection and create something new with it. For my project I decided to pull out a collection that wasn’t too far back, but it was one that I didn’t get the chance to create a lot of projects with – ‘Merry and Bright’. Now for those who know me, you might be falling over in shock, because I am not known as a big fan of scrapping Christmas layouts, but I had this hilarious photo of my boys with Santa from 2019 that I just had to document.

For this layout, I decided to create a mixed media page, so I started with white cardstock, acrylic paint and some Distress Oxides. I first used a wide paint brush to brush the diluted green Distress Oxide across the page, then used a rubber brayer to apply pink paint to the lower half of the page. Next, I added some stencilling using a star stencil, sponge dauber and a coral coloured oxide; then topped my background off with some stamping using a star background stamp and grey ink.

After the background was complete I mounted it onto the wood grain print of the Season’s Greetings paper, then started building the papery layers on my page. I cut and tore pieces of the Star Bright and Countdown papers, as well as the diagonal pink/red stripe paper from the A5 Paper Stack. I used my fingernail to ruffle up the torn edges to add extra texture.

I layered my paper pieces together, adding a grey doily from my stash and some frayed gauze for even more texture, and then secured the stack together with staples before adding my photo on top.

To embellish my page I focused on creating 3 main clusters. The first was in the top left hand corner of my photo, where I had a spot on the photo that had to be covered up anyway. I did this by using a couple of stickers from the Accessory Sticker sheet and just sticking them directly onto the photo. This cluster also featured a pair of sweet little houses and flower from the Die Cut Ephemera pack and one of the Puffy Gold Stars.

The second cluster was along the bottom edge of my photo and I again used die cuts and a gold star, plus some phrase stickers from the Accessory Sticker sheet.

The third cluster to the right of my photo was where I included my journalling, which I typed onto one of the coordinating Pocket Cards. I also added a small die cut sprig of holly; another gold star and a handmade arrow embellishment.

I finished my layout off with some gold adhesive pearls and some splatters of gold mist.

If you would like to see how this page came together, you can watch my process video here:

Thanks so much for stopping by today so I could share this with you. I hope I have inspired you to get creative too.

Until next time, happy scrapping!

Just one more Christmas Layout | Merry and Bright | Rachel Lowe

Hey CVS friends, I just had to create one more Christmas layout with the Merry and Bright collection before I finish up with Christmas projects!

I firstly cut a Christmas tree, cut file from the Silhouette design store, I used the off set function to create two different sizes and then layered them. I used the Christmas Tree paper to create my tree. I used Oh What Fun paper as my base paper and splattered gold paint over it.

I found another cute cut file I had to use, reindeer frame which I cut in Seasons Greetings paper and added to my tree with foam tape to add height. I added some holly die cuts and tucked them under the reindeer frames. I added gold thread so the appear to be hanging off the tree like baubles.

I next set about decorating my tree. I tucked some flower die cuts under my tree which I also added with foam tape. I added a flair instead of a Christmas star but added a puffy gold star on the actual tree. I chose two sentiment die cuts and added to the bottom of my tree.

I lastly added another light splatter of gold paint over my whole layout to give it that Christmas sparkle feel!  This collection is so beautiful to work with and the colour combinations just gorgeous, it is refreshing to work with a Christmas collection with a twist.

Thank you for stopping by today and see you again soon!

Rachel X

 

Christmas Memories 2019 – Part 2 | Merry & Bright Collection | Michelle Stokes

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.

Until next time, Stay Safe and Happy Scrapping!

Michelle xx

PS. Heres the list of products used from the Merry & Bright Collection

A5 Paper Stack
Countdown 12×12 Paper
Oh What Fun 12×12 Paper
Pocket Page Cards
Ephemera Pack
Puffy Gold Stars
Accessory Stickers – Not available

Christmas Memories | Merry and Bright | Rachel Lowe

Hi all Rachel here! I still can’t believe it is only a few days until Christmas. I have to say I am always disappointed by my Christmas Day photos and never end up with any good enough to scrap and hence why I came up with this layout, a creative way to include lots of photos and journalling all nicely put in envelopes on a layout. I have loved working with the new Merry and Bright collection, it is so easy to create with!

Firstly I cut two envelopes, this scallop envelope from the Silhouette Design store.I used Joy To The World and Jingle All The Way papers for my envelopes. I used Countdown paper as my background paper. I placed the envelopes on a slight angle and over lapping one over the other.

I worked on one envelope at a time, with the left one I added a die cut tree and florals from the Die Cut Ephemera pack from the collection. I tucked under the envelope and added on the actual envelope. Of course I had to add a Gold Puffy Star to the top of my tree! I added a phrase sentiment from the Accessory Sticker Sheet.

On the opposite envelope I added more die cuts, phrase sentiment and one of the gorgeous Flairs. Tucking elements under and over in an embellishment cluster adds visual impact and adds layers to your layout.

The 3×4 inch pocket cards can be used various ways, some of the patterned cards I included as photo mats and others for journalling. You can embellish these of course like tiny layouts.

I added 3 of the die cut baubles hanging from the top of my page, adding machine stitching in the place of ribbon, I added them with foam tape to create dimension, finished off with a gold gem stone on the centres (from my stash).

Here I have added some older Christmas photos, in various sizes in each of the envelopes as an example.

I will use this layout to add some of my Christmas 2020 photos and some memory journalling and all before 2021!

Thank you for stopping by and I wish you all a safe and happy Christmas. See you again in 2021.

Rachel X

Joy | Merry and Bright collection | Tarrah McLean

Hi friends!

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!

Happy Christmas creating!!

Tarrah x

Merry & Bright Mini Album | Rachel Lowe

Hi CVS friends, with Christmas almost upon us and recently receiving the new Merry & Bright collection I just had to make a mini album in preparation of those Christmas photos.

I only made a 6 pages in this album because to be honest most of my Christmas photos are usually less than average, but I can add the best or highlights!

I used a cut file from the Silhouette Design Store. To protect my album cover I cut one in acetate and used an embossing file (stars) to add texture. I added a pop-pom tassel for that little something extra. I love the coloured O rings you can now get, I chose some teal ones to blend in with the colour schemes of Merry & Bright.

I used the 6×8 inch paper pad for this album, another reason I love 6×8 inch paper pads, the smaller prints are perfect for mini albums and mini albums. I used Season Greetings paper wood grain side to create a thin border and Oh Christmas Tree paper over top. I embellished with florals from the die cut ephemera, a phrase sticker from the Accessory Stickers and finished off adding a flair and puffy gold star.

Here I created a pocket and made a tag. I have used Jingle All the Way paper for the tree page and tag. I added the Santa card from the Oh What Fun paper.

So I could add multiple 2×2 inch photos I added a accordion flap to the page adding another paper element from the Oh What Fun paper.

I added two die cut baubles, a puffy star and  finished off with a sprinkle gold paint across the page. I used the Oh Christmas Tree Paper as my base paper.

For my last page which I used Star Bright paper, added a frame die cut and created an embellishment cluster. You will notice I added a machine stitched border around each tree page to add texture and definition.

You could obviously add lots more pages or create double sided pages depending on how many photos you want to add, the good thing about mini albums like this you can make them bulky and they still look great.

Well thats it from me for today! Happy creating!

Rachel X

Joy to the World | Merry & Bright collection | Rachel Lowe

Hi CVS friends today I am sharing my first layout using the gorgeous new Christmas collection Merry & Bright.

As most of you know I LOVE cut files and what’s better when one is already cut for you with a beautiful water colour mixed  media effect! (large die cut and backing kit)  All I did before starting my layout is splattering the page with gold paint.

I love the Christmas Krispy Kreme doughnuts and so I have used this photo to Create a fun layout. My photo size is 4×4 inches. Using the 6×8 inch paper pack I used Star Bright and Oh Christmas Tree papers and cut at 4.2 inches. I angled each mat behind the photo but attached the photo straight with foam tape over the right of the tree.

I tucked under my photo the double heart flair buttons and finished off using two die cut tabs from the ephemera pack.

I created a floral cluster on the left side of the tree, using foam tape of some of the florals to add dimension. I tucked a die cut ticket slightly under the larger flower.

Of course I had to add the happy Father Christmas die cut and created a small embellishment cluster in the lower left corner of my layout, again using foam tape on some of the die cut ephemera.

Lastly I added one of the gold puffy hearts to the top of the tree. I had considered adding some machine stitching but to be honest this cut file kit is just perfect the way it is.

Super quick and super easy layout that still looks fabulous!

Thank you for stopping by today and I will see you again soon with an off the page creation all about Christmas.

Rachel X

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