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Choose Happy | Happiness collection | Tarrah McLean

Hi creative friends!

It’s Tarrah back with you today to share a new scrapbook layout featuring the gorgeous Happiness collection! I was given the Throwback Thursday theme for this week so I decided to revisit the gorgeous Happiness collection and got creating! I don’t know about you but the Happiness collection would have to be one of my all-time favourite collections by Cocoa Vanilla, I am in love with it!

I chose to document a photo of my honey and I on a date a couple of months ago, opting to print the photo in black and white so that it would stand out amongst all the colour in the Happiness collection. I began by choosing a title cut file from CUT to YOU, cutting it out on white cardstock, I then took one of the papers from the A5 paper stack and backed the open letters in the cut file. I added craft foam to the underside of the larger letters and adhered it down in the centre of another sheet of plain white cardstock. I did leave adhesive off the top part of the cut file so that I could tuck in my photo and some embellishments and the cut file would be able to overlap these. I trimmed this white cardstock down to measure roughly 11′ x 11′ and adhered it to the ‘B’ side of the Botanical Bliss paper, I machine-stitched a border around the outside to add some texture and some interest.

I layered another of the papers from the A5 paper stack underneath the photo and also one of the frames from the ephemera pack. I also tucked one of the journal spots from the Accessory sticker sheet into the top of the frame and photo. Next, I cut out the ‘You Are My Happy’ from the A5 paper pad and adhered it to the right-hand side of the photo. I also tucked in the tag from the Accessory sticker sheet into the top of the You Are My Happy piece. I took some more ephemera pieces like the florals and butterflies and layered them around the cut file, I also layered the phrase banner die-cuts on top of the cut file.

The clear stickers in this collection are gorgeous so I added them around my page and also some of the phrase stickers from the Accessory sticker sheet as well. As I don’t journal on my pages all that much, I love how these phrase stickers help to tell the story behind my photo.

I cut a strip of the ‘B’ side of the ‘Frame of Mind’ paper and punched out a scalloped border using my border punch. I then adhered this piece below the cut file and machine-stitched through the centre to add some extra texture. Lastly I stamped the date stamp to finish my layout. A love how it turned out and hope you are inspired to get creative!

Thanks so much for stopping by the Cocoa Vanilla blog today!

Happy creating!

Tarrah x

Road Trip | Great Escape collection | Tarrah McLean

Hi creative friends!

It’s Tarrah back with you and today I am sharing a new layout created using the awesome Great Escape collection! I can not get enough of this collection! I think this is my 6th layout using this awesome collection and I still have heaps of ideas flowing! Talk about value for money!  I pulled out a super cute photo of my youngest son from when he was about 3 going for a ride in the car, I just love the thumbs up gesture- so cute!

I chose to work with a darker background paper choosing the ‘Journey’ patterned paper for this layout. I knew I was going to be adding the white cut file title and I really wanted that to pop off the page. The cut file I chose is from CUT to YOU, I cut out the title in white and cut out the road in black and backed it with some white cardstock to make it resemble a road as close as possible! For the large open letters in the cut file I took the A5 paper stack and choose various papers to add in the open holes. Once the cut file was all backed, I adhered the road down first using regular adhesive and then for the title, I added craft foam and then adhered it down in the centre of the page, I love adding craft foam so that it creates some dimension on my layout, this also allows me to tuck in bits and pieces where I want to if I feel some places need extra detail.

I added my photo on the right side, tucking it in behind the ‘D’ in Road I would normally layer a paper or a die-cut underneath my photo but this time I left it free of these. Once I was happy with the photo placement and the title it was time for my favourite part and that is embellishing! Below the photo I added a chipboard piece and I also added the flag chipboard piece overlapping the road and coming out of the ‘A’ in Road. The So Much Fun chipboard piece I added on top of the cut file and also added some of the phrase stickers from the Accessory sticker sheet to help tell my story.

I took a few die-cuts from the ephemera pack and also added these around my page too, I love finding the perfect piece that is the perfect shape or perfect colour to fit in spots! One of the many things I love to do when I create! I like to balance my pages and describe my style is very clean but colourful too!

Some of the smaller embellishments like the puffy shapes were some of the last things I added to my page, along with stamping the date stamp which is one of my go to things on every page! Do you have something you like to include on every project? Kind of like a signature? Lastly I trimmed down the ‘Journey’ patterned paper to roughly 11′ x 11′ and matted the entire layout on white cardstock. I then machine-stitched a border using black thread around the entire edge of the layout.

Thanks so much for stopping by the Cocoa Vanilla blog today! I hope you are inspired to use your Great Escape collection and create some adventure layouts!

Happy creating!

Tarrah x

Our Best Adventure Yet | Great Escape collection | Tarrah McLean

Hi creative friends!

It’s Tarrah back with you and today I am here to share a new scrapbook layout featuring the awesome Great Escape collection! I don’t know about you but I love travelling and I love documenting those travels too! Recently my partner and I took a trip to gorgeous Tasmania, it was wonderful, these photos are from beautiful Cradle Mountain and this collection has been perfect to document our travels.

I started by cutting out a cut file from CUT to YOU from white cardstock and then backed the different words and frames with papers from the Great Escape A5 paper stack.

I added 2 photos in the frames of the cut file as well and I had to be strategic with what photo I added in the top frame due to the frame below covering up part of the photo. I chose the ‘Direction’ patterned paper as my background, I then cut the navy blue strip from the ‘Wild Life’ patterned paper and adhered it to the left hand side of the paper. Once the cut file was all backed, I adhered it to the same background paper. Usually I adhere my cut files using craft foam to pop them up, however for this layout I knew I wanted to pop up the mountains and other die-cut embellishments in the middle. I added the mountains, the Fun Times sign, the wood piece and the Adventure word all from the ephemera pack.

I also placed the compass die-cut to the middle of the ‘O’ of the word ‘Our’ in the cut file, I used craft foam for this piece also to pop it up off the page. Down next to the ‘Yet’ word, I placed the super cute camper die-cut and layered some phrase stickers from the Accessory Sticker sheet on top from the ephemera pack. Once the larger elements were added to my page, I then added a few smaller embellishments including puffy enamel shapes and some more stickers from the Accessory sticker sheet, including the arrow sticker and the journal spot above the word ‘Our’. I love how the puffy enamel shapes add a touch of colour and dimension and I love how the phrase stickers help to tell the story if you don’t feel like journaling!

Lastly I stamped the date stamp and journaled where the photos were taken. I love how this cut file helped to make the design and placement decisions on my layout and the Great Escape collection really does make it so easy to create great memories!

 

Thanks 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! Make sure you get your hands on the awesome Great Escape collection!

Happy crafting!

Tarrah x

December | Joyful collection | Tarrah McLean

Hi creative friends!

It’s Tarrah back with you and today I am sharing a new scrapbook layout featuring the gorgeous Joyful collection.

I know, I know its still November but who said we couldn’t document Christmas all year round right? I know some people would not agree lol! I don’t know about you, but Christmas is one of my favourite times of the year to document memories, this photo is of our big Christmas tree from last year. I love this photo as it reminds me of beautiful times spent with my family.

I started by choosing the ‘B’ side of the Feeling Festive patterned paper to use for my background, I trimmed this piece down and adhered it to a plain white sheet of white cardstock and machine stitched a border around the outside to add some texture. I then cut out a cut file from CUT to YOU also using plain white cardstock. The A5 paper stack was then used, choosing several of the papers from it to back each letter in the cut file. Once the cut file was all backed, I adhered it slightly to the left on the ‘B’ side of the Feeling Festive paper. I cut strips out of the Holly Days paper and the Very Merry paper and adhered these vertically to the left of the cut file. I like how this helps to ground the cut file. Usually I adhere my cut files using craft foam however this time I knew I wanted to use craft foam on lots of the elements on top of the cut file.

I adhered my photo on the right of the cut file using craft foam and layered some of the Journaling Cards underneath,  I then added some die-cut pieces from the Ephemera pack and some Accessory Stickers and Puffy Stickers here too. I like to add embellishments near my photo to help draw the eye to the photo. You can see in the image above the shadows that using the craft foam creates under the photo, I love how this looks! It also allows for lots of tucking of embellishments as well. Above my photo, I placed some of the word and phrase stickers from the Accessory Sticker sheet, I love how these help with journaling and telling the story.

To balance out the heavy right side where my photo is placed, I decided to add the gorgeous die-cut Christmas Tree from the ephemera pack to the left hand side using craft foam, I added one of the gold puffy stars to the top of the tree and also layered more of the word and phrase stickers from the Accessory Sticker sheet, on top of the tree. I added some more gifts under the tree using puffy shapes and die-cuts. In the centre, I placed the FaLaLaLa die-cut, a banner sticker and another phrase sticker. I also pulled out some of the chipboard and added some of the pretty gold stars and I also added the Santa Hat to the top of ‘D’ in the December cut file.

In the centre of the ‘D’ in the December cut file, I took one of the circle stickers from the Accessory Sticker sheet and added one of the gorgeous wood epoxy buttons to the centre of the circle. Once all the bigger elements were added to my page and I was happy with all of the placement, I took a look at my layout to see if I was happy with it and if I thought it was finished. I can very easily overdo it sometimes and never know when to stop but I added just a few smaller embellishments like more gold chipboard stars and some Accessory stickers to finish. I also stamped the date stamp which is what I do on all of my layouts, its one of my signatures that I always like to do!

Thank you so much for stopping by the Cocoa Vanilla blog today! I hope I have inspired you to pull out your Cocoa Vanilla Christmas collections and start creating some of your past Christmas memories!

Happy creating!

Tarrah x

Love This | Heart & Home collection | Tarrah McLean

Hi creative friends!

It’s Tarrah back with you today to share a new layout featuring the gorgeous Heart & Home collection.

The Heart & Home collection is perfect for documenting photos of family. I took this photo of my parents recently at the airport before my Mum was leaving for England. I just love this photo of the 2 of them.

I started with a plain white cardstock background and chose a free quilt design cut file by Paige Evans as one of the features for my layout. I cut the cut file out from the ‘B’ side of the Framed paper and love how the wood grain looks against the white. With the bigger frame piece, I adhered the white cardstock on top of this piece and then machine stitched a border around the outside to add some texture. I then took the A5 paper stack and backed some of the open spaces. I adhered my photo on the right hand side of the page using craft foam and added one of the cardstock frames from the ephemera pack over the photo. I also tucked in one of the florals underneath, I love how you can see the different dimension I created here.

My title is made up of the gorgeous gold foil cardstock titles and I placed the title on the left of the photo using craft foam for dimension too. I layered one of the small phrase pieces from the Gather paper over the top of the title. On the right of the photo, I added more die-cut pieces from the ephemera pack and also added a puffy heart here as well.  At the top of the frame I added one of the phrase stickers from Accessory sticker sheet and also placed one of the banner stickers also from the Accessory sticker sheet at the bottom of the photo and layered a puffy heart over top of the heart on the sticker.

Next up it was time to add some more embellishments. I decided to add some of the stickers from the Accessory sticker sheet, adding 2 of the square ones to the square shapes in the cut file. I also added some more of the smaller die-cut pieces from the ephemera pack to some of the open spaces in the cut file as well. Some of them I added craft foam to underneath and some I placed flat on the page. I love the different levels of dimension not to mention the shadows this creates on a project. Lastly I added some more of the super cute puffy hearts and stamped the date stamp of when the photo was taken to finish off the layout.

I love how Cocoa Vanilla collections co-ordinate! It is so easy to create pretty projects with their gorgeous collections, I highly recommend you get the Heart & Home collection for your family memory keeping, it has perfect elements to help capture those all important memories and to tell your stories.

Thanks so much for stopping by the Cocoa Vanilla blog today! I hope I have inspired you to pull out your Heart & Home goodies and create something pretty! You could even create a similar project using another gorgeous collection from Cocoa Vanilla Studio!

Happy creating!

Tarrah x

Together | Heart and Home collection | Tarrah McLean

Hi creative friends,

It’s Tarrah back with you and today I am excited to be sharing a layout with you featuring the new GORGEOUS Heart and Home collection! I love the handmade feel to this collection.

I started by choosing a cut file from CUT to YOU, I cut it out from the ‘B’ side of the gorgeous Fall Beauty paper. I was certain to place the cut file in the centre of the paper so I could use the outline as the background for my layout. I adhered the cut file to a plain sheet of white cardstock and trimmed down the cardstock to measure approximately 11′ x 11′ and adhered it the remainder of the Fall Beauty paper. I then machine stitched a border around the outside to add to that handmade feel.

I am documenting a photo of myself with my friends from one of their 50th birthdays a few years ago. Such a fun night celebrating! I placed the photo on the right hand side of the page and layered a piece of vellum and a frame from the die-cut pack underneath. I adhered the photo using craft foam to add a little dimension to my page. On top of the photo, I added a phrase banner from the die-cut pack and also placed a rectangle sticker from the accessory sticker sheet to the left of the photo.

At the bottom of the photo, I placed the paper strip with the cross hearts on it from the ‘Gather’ paper. I also tucked in some florals from the floral die-cut pack and placed a banner die-cut and a round die-cut both from the ephemera pack. To the right side of my photo, I tucked in some more florals here and also placed a word sticker from the Accessory Sticker sheet. My title is the ‘Together’ word from the gold title die-cut pack. I just love the gold foil on these! So pretty!

To balance out the heavy right side of the page that features my photo and title, I created a small cluster of embellishments that features mostly florals and a Love die-cut. I used different levels of adhesive here to show different levels of dimension. I also placed some more word and phrase stickers here from the Accessory sticker sheet. Lastly I placed some enamel puffy shapes and I stamped the date stamp to document the date of when the photo was taken.

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

Happy creating!

Tarrah x

Happy Easter | Happy Days collection | Tarrah McLean

Hi creative friends!

It’s Tarrah back with you today, I am very excited to be sharing my first layout featuring the gorgeous new Happy Days collection!

I was tasked with using the gorgeous April mood board as my inspiration for my project this week, the Happy Days collection has so many elements in it that match perfectly with the mood board!

I am documenting 2 photos of my nieces from Easter last year, I love their sweet faces so much!

As the mood board is mostly Easter themed, I chose an Easter title cut file from CUT to YOU and backed it with one of the large 12′ x 12′ papers. I love the yellow plaid patterned paper!

You can see from the mood board image below that I was inspired by many things from the mood board! The Happy Days ephemera pack has the gorgeous tassel banner included in it, I knew I was definitely going to add that to this layout! It is perfect!

I absolutely love this mood board! There are so many things you can inspired from this board!

I placed a large white paper doily down on the heart background patterned paper and then adhered the cut file down using craft foam, leaving some room for my photos above the title. I did trim down the heart patterned paper and adhered it to the pink/purple spotted paper. I then machine stitched a zig zag border down the edges where the papers meet. I love the texture that the machine stitching adds to a layout!

I layered one of the papers from the A5 paper stack underneath my photos to help lift them a little bit. I added craft foam underneath the photos as well and also added craft foam under the tassel banner and adhered this at the bottom of the title.  Now that I am happy with the placement of the largest elements on my layout, its time to embellish and tell some of the story!

Do you ever look at embellishments and think about how you can use them for something they aren’t originally intended for?

I do this a lot! When I saw the fabric puffy hearts in the Happy Days collection, I just knew I had to add them to this page to mimic bunny ears! Really hoping that you picked out the bunny ears before I pointed them out to you hehe! Aren’t they the cutest?! I added 4 of these in the end, tucking them in enough so that they peek out of the tops of what they are adhered behind.

By using craft foam underneath some of the larger elements on my page, it creates some shadows and dimension to my page which I love! You can see in the photo above the shadows created under the tassel banner. I didn’t add too many embellishments to this layout as sometimes less is more when it comes to embellishing. I did add a few die-cuts from the ephemera pack like the Yay banner, the small flower to the right of my photos and the round journal spot above the photos. I also added the phrase across the cut file, to help break up all that yellow! I also added the cute Love This tab to the left of my photos as well.

Lastly I helped tell the story of my layout by adding the small phrase and word stickers from the Accessory sticker sheet. One of my signature things I do on almost all of my layouts is to stamp the date stamp, the date is of when the photo was taken. Another thing I like to do is, and you don’t see this but I like to sign the back of my layouts and I write the date that I created it as well. I have doing this for years now! Do you have something you like to include on all of your projects? Please share with us!

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

Make sure you get your hands on the gorgeous NEW Happy Days collection from your local scrapbook store or favourite online store!

Happy creating!

Tarrah x

Christmas Morning Joy | Merry & Bright collection | Tarrah McLean

Hi creative friends and Happy New Year!

It’s Tarrah back today to share a new scrapbook layout featuring the gorgeous Merry and Bright collection!

I just love creating Christmas layouts, what about you? I still have lots of the Merry and Bright collection and I also love to stash bust so I really enjoyed creating this layout!

I started by choosing my background paper – opting for the Star Bright paper. I then cut out a cut file from white cardstock. The cut file is from CUT to YOU and is called Stars Squared. Once the cut file was cut out, I struggled with the placement and design of my page so I cut up the cut file into separate pieces so I could place pieces of it where I wanted to. Do you ever do this? I do this a lot if I am struggling to like how a cut file looks on my page. There are no rules to say you have to use a cut file the way it was intended!

I backed all the stars of the cut file with papers from the Merry and Bright A5 paper stack, once it was all backed, I then placed foam adhesive to the underside of the cut file and adhered the cut file to the ‘Star Bright’ paper.

The photo I am documenting today was taken just this last Christmas of my 2 sons and my 2 beautiful nieces! My nieces were able to be here from England for this Christmas! It was wonderful to have them and it was the first Christmas we have had together with them! A very special memory to document. I layered one of the pocket cards and a cardstock frame from the ephemera pack under the photo and adhered it overlapping the cut file, in the centre of my layout. I also stapled a banner sticker from the accessory sticker sheet to the top left corner of the photo. My title is made up of a phrase sticker from the accessory sticker sheet overlapping the word ‘Joy’ fussy cut out from the Season’s Greeting paper.  It certainly was Christmas Morning Joy in our household!

To the left of the photo I also placed the Ho Ho Ho die-cut from the ephemera pack, a gorgeous flair button, a phrase sticker and a gold puffy star. In the top left I also placed that super cute Santa face die-cut from the ephemera pack and to balance that with the bottom right corner, I placed the sleigh, also from the ephemera pack.

To finish my layout, I added a few smaller embellishments like small die-cuts, stickers, another gold puffy star and completely finished the page with stamping the date stamp and sprinkling some gold Heidi shine. Once I had finished my layout, I then auditioned some papers to go behind the Star Bright one to act as a ‘frame’. I decided on the ‘B’ side of the ‘Joy to the World’ paper. I trimmed down the ‘Star Bright’ paper and adhered it to the ‘Joy to the World’ paper.

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!

Tarrah x

Favourite Moments | Daydream collection | Tarrah McLean

Hi creative friends!

It’s Tarrah McLean back with you today to share a new layout created for the Throwback Thursday feature this week.

I chose to pull out the STUNNING Daydream collection as I had the perfect photo to document using this gorgeous collection! The photo is of myself with my crafty friends from a recent macrame workshop where we made rainbows. Just love how my rainbow turned out!

I chose a rainbow style background cut file from Paper Issues and cut it out from white cardstock, I then adhered the cut file to a sheet of the peachy coloured paper in the Daydream collection. I really love the effect of the cut file against the background paper. I backed my photo with one of the papers from the A5 paper stack and distressed the edges with my edge distresser tool. I like the texture this gives to the edges. I adhered the photo to the centre of my page and layered some papers and embellishments underneath.

My title is made up of a word from the awesome die-cut titles and an ephemera piece from the ephemera pack. I popped up both pieces with some pop dots and placed the title slightly on the left at the bottom of my photo. I tucked in one of the gorgeous fabric puffy hearts behind the Favourite ephemera piece and also chose some of the gorgeous rainbow die-cuts to adhere here as well. I used different size adhesive so that there were layers to my layout, I like how this creates shadows on my page.

On the right of my photo, I pulled out more rainbow pieces in both accessory stickers and ephemera pieces too and adhered them the same as the other side with different levels of adhesive for a layered effect and to create shadows. Another gorgeous puffy heart was also tucked in and I adhered some gorgeous, small floral ephemera pieces too. When I create my layouts, I will always place and adhere the larger things on my page first like the photo, a cut file and a title. From there my next step is to add the smaller embellishments like die-cuts, frames, chipboard etc and work down to even smaller embellishments again like enamel dots, sequins and small stickers.

I like to audition things before I completely commit to them staying on the layout so I will choose something I want to add and then I try it in a few different places before I am happy with how it looks, I take into consideration the colour, the size and if it balances with other things also on the page, I try to achieve the visual triangle on my pages so that my layouts are pleasing to the viewers eye. The last thing I did on this layout was added a few sequins and sprinkled some gold mist around my page.

Thank you so much for stopping by the Cocoa Vanilla blog today! I love how my layout turned out and I hope you enjoyed reading how I created it!

Happy creating!

Tarrah x

Bloom & Grow | Unforgettable collection | Tarrah McLean

Hi creative friends!

It’s Tarrah back with you and today I am sharing a sweet Spring themed layout featuring the gorgeous Unforgettable collection!

We are focusing on our current seasons this week on the Cocoa Vanilla blog with our projects! Currently we are enjoying some Spring weather here in Australia so my layout today is all about the florals and my title is pretty fitting as well! I am documenting a photo of my niece in front of a beautiful rose bush, the Unforgettable collection compliments my photo perfectly.

I chose the gorgeous teal coloured paper from the Unforgettable collection as my background. I did trim this piece down and adhered it to a sheet of plain white cardstock, I then bent the edges up to create some texture.

I chose a beautiful floral cut file from CUT to YOU that I cut up slightly and then backed it all with some of the gorgeous papers from the A5 paper stack from the Unforgettable collection.

Once the cut file was all backed, I added craft foam to the underneath and adhered it to the background paper. By using the craft foam, it creates shadows and dimension on my page which I love. Because I cut up the cut file, I was able to strategically place my photo between the 2x floral clusters, I added a small banner die-cut to the top right corner of the photo.

Next it was time to embellish and add the title. I decided to use a die-cut title from the Midnight collection – called Bloom & Grow. I added the word ‘Bloom’ to the left of the photo overlapping the small journal sticker that is tucked in to the side of the photo. I also added the ‘&’ and the ‘Grow’ at the bottom of the cut file. On the right of the photo, I added one of the super cute flair buttons from the Unforgettable collection and below the photo, I added a phrase die-cut and a word accessory sticker. I took out some of the larger florals from the ephemera pack and adhered some with craft foam and some with regular adhesive.

Some of the smaller flowers I adhered with craft foam to help them pop up and give the page some more dimension. Next I tucked in some of the pretty feathers from the ephemera pack and bent the edges up slightly on them to make them look more realistic. I just love the enamel dots in this collection and quite a few made it onto this page, I placed 2 in each cluster. I created 3 clusters of the enamel dots.

Lastly to finish my page, I stamped the date stamp and sprinkled some white mist around the page. Do you have any of the Unforgettable collection that you’re hoarding?!

Get it out and use it for some gorgeous projects!

Thank you so much for stopping by the Cocoa Vanilla blog today! I love how my layout turned out and I hope you enjoyed reading how I created it!

Happy creating!

Tarrah x

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