sketch

InterNational Scrapbook Day – Challenges 1 & 2!

Happy InterNational Scrapbook Day everyone! We love this special day each year when people from all over the world come together to celebrate their shared love of this craft. Today we are hosting a celebration in our Facebook Cocoa Vanilla Studio Community group and (of course) we have some challenges for you! We have a mix of challenges that include a variety of styles, so there is sure to be something that suits you.

Challenge Rules

  1. Entries must be loaded into the correct challenge album in the Cocoa Vanilla Studio Facebook Community group prior to midnight (AEST) Sunday 9th May to be eligible for the prize. (If you aren’t already a member, make sure you click the link to join.)
  2. Some Cocoa Vanilla Studio products must be used. Yes, you can include other supplies as well, but there must be some CVS products clearly used. (If you don’t have any CVS products, you can always download and print some of our digital products HERE.)
  3. Entries must be created solely for each challenge and not combined with other challenges or design team work.
  4. You may enter each challenge as many times as you wish and entry is open to participants worldwide.
  5. One randomly selected winner from each challenge will receive a $25 store voucher to spend in the Cocoa Vanilla Studio online store.
  6. By entering the challenge you automatically give permission for your work to be shared by Cocoa Vanilla Studio via any of our social media channels.

So without further ado, here are our first two challenges…

Challenge 1 – Sketch Challenge with Laura Alberts

For this challenge you are required to use Laura’s sketch as inspiration for your own project.

Laura created a beautiful sample layout and used one of our older collections, ‘Bohemian Dream’. (Unfortunately this collection is now sold out and no longer available.)

Challenge 2 – Cut File Challenge with Tarrah McLean

For this challenge you are required to include at least one cut file from either of the two sets shown above in your project.

Tarrah chose two cut files from our ‘Summer’ set and paired them with our most recent release collection, ‘Sunkissed’ for her layout. This cut file set, along with our ‘Legendary’ cut file set designed by Cut to You, are both available to download via our community group for this challenge.

We hope these challenges have given your mojo a kickstart and you will come over and join us to play along. We’ll be back with more challenges to share later. Time to get scrapping!

Fun in the Sun | Sunkissed Collection | Laura Alberts

Hey y’all! Laura back again with a bright and happy layout featuring the new Sunkissed collection! The rainbow strip on the Good Vibrations patterned paper just called to me for these photos! By framing both sides with this brilliant mix of colors, I could keep the color scheme of the layout open ended and fun! I added a strip of Sunny Days to highlight the green tone in my daughter’s shirt.

I love to fussy cut, so the floral perfection of the Growing Wild paper just called to me! These clusters are stunning and make creating a long floral border super easy! I also added a small cluster from the A5 paper pad version at the beginning and end of the title. The wood buttons are so cute, I had to add one in the center of my photos for a different texture on the page.

I used clear stickers behind a few of the floral clusters and as accents around the title. These glitter foam words are amazing! Love pre-made titles and this one was perfect for my sassy girl’s car trip through the sunny backyard. To fill in some of the white space, I added some gold ink splatter and Nuvo drops.

I also created a sketch based on this layout to show how all of the layers fit together and make it easier for your to recreate the design if you’d like to!

I hope this layout inspires you to have some fun with the bold colors and patterns in the Sunkissed collection! To see how the “Fun in the Sun” layout came together, check out the process video below!

Shine On | Laura Alberts | Daydream Collection

Hey y’all! Laura Alberts here today to share a darling 9×12 layout with you as well as a 12×12 sketch version of the same design! I sometimes create a sketch to plan out layouts that I want to get “just right” before taping everything down to the page. With this layout, I wanted to illustrate how to get a vertical and horizontal photo on the same page without trying to collage them together (which is generally my go-to method!). By creating two separate photo clusters backed with similar elements (i.e. a doily, florals, and banner), that are still connected by the title, I could tie them together despite the different orientations.

I used fussy cut florals behind each of the photos and included other design elements, such as flair badges and rainbows to coordinate the two sections. Now, because I was working on a smaller layout size than the 12×12 I’d sketched out, I did have to compromise on space for the title. So, by keeping it short and to the point, that helped it to fit in the limited space between the photo clusters.

The butterflies, along with the Nuvo drop trails behind them, create a bit of movement on the page and guide your eye from one cluster to the other. Butterflies are my favorite icon and love that they are a consistent part of the Cocoa Vanilla Studio collections! I also love these tiny flowers that can be fussy cut from the floral patterned paper and used for sprinkling around my clusters. Those tiny details make such a big difference in the end!

By layering my photo clusters onto a beautiful mixed media style patterned paper, rather than white card stock, it gives my overall layout a very soft feel to it. The borders on either side narrow the space for my clusters while giving me a linear element to contrast all of the whimsical, soft touches.

I hope the sketch for this layout inspires you to look at your photo placement a little differently! It’s fun to see how you can change things up. If you’d like to see the Shine On layout come together, I have the entire process in the video below!

INSD Challenge Inspiration | Anna K, Raquel, Melissa, Tarrah, Laura and Sue

Hi everyone! Today we are once more turning the spotlight on some of the layouts our design team created during our International Scrapbook Day celebration a few weeks ago.

The first layout we are sharing belongs to Anna, who created a fabulous sketch challenge for us, and this stunning sample layout using our ‘Happiness’ collection to go along with it…

If you would like to see how Anna put this beauty together, she has a process video available on our YouTube channel. You can watch it here:

Anna’s sketch challenge proved to be very popular, with many gorgeous layouts being shared as a result, including from our own team members. Raquel decided to play along using Anna’s sketch to create this layout of her and her son using our ‘Unforgettable’ collection which we absolutely love!

Raquel also created a process video for this layout, and you can watch it on our YouTube channel here:

The final layout we have to share using Anna’s sketch was from Melissa, who created this one LIVE in our INSD group from her home in New Zealand. She used our ‘Legendary’ collection and we are crushing on that big yellow heart and those die cut patterned paper leaves.

The next challenge we had on offer was Tarrah’s multi photo and mixed font challenge. Tarrah used our ‘Wild at Heart’ collection and was inspired by the work of fellow DT member Raquel to create an 8.5×11″ layout.

The next layout we have to share was also created for Tarrah’s challenge, but this time from Laura using our ‘More Than Words’ collection. She went all-out on the multi photo criteria, and managed to add FIVE photos on her page whilst still maintaining a clean, uncluttered look.

The final layout we have to share today comes from Sue, who created this mixed media layout during her LIVE scrap stream in the INSD group. She used our ‘Legendary’ collection which was a perfect match for the fun photos of her kids.

That’s all for today, but stay tuned because we have another serve of inspirational layouts from our team to come tomorrow. Until then, happy scrapping!

Sweet Moments | Midnight Collection | Michelle Stokes

Hello Crafty friends, its Michelle back today. I have a new layout to share with you all that’s based on the super cute Page Maps sketch shared by my fellow team members this past week. I had so much fun using the sketch as a kick starter for this layout, and that Midnight collection worked perfectly with the floral design elements

Love that these photos document a sweet moment shared between both Leila and my nephew from a few years back. They both love to read

TO begin the layout I cut down a piece of white cardstock to roughly 11.5inch square and adhered to a 12×12 piece of the stunningly beautiful INKY DEPTHS paper. Love the tiny floral design of that pattern paper. Once the 2 papers were secure I roughly drew then sewed multiple circle shapes similar to the large version on the sketch.

I gathered a couple of photos, printed black and white so as not to clash with the colours of the sweet Midnight collection. There were layered to the right of the large sewn circles and adhered using foam tape for slight dimension. I’ve tucked some ephemera pieces and fussy cut florals from the BLOOM AND GROW paper above the top photo

Between the photos I’ve layered a strip of roughly torn pink paper from the ombre SHINE BRIGHT design and a piece of the  blue and white diagonal stripe frame found in the ephemera pack to replicate the scalloped piece on the sketch. I’ve also added a second piece of the torn pink paper to the top of the layout

TO the left of the photos I created the large title cluster using more elements from the ephemera pack and die cut titles that looked similar to those on the sketch. Especially those mason jars and florals. Perfect pieces! To give them all different dimensional heights I’ve used multiple adhesives – raised and flat glue dots, foam tape and good ol tacky glue.

Lastly I added some handwritten journalling and a few splatters of gold ink and called it done.

Well thats all from me today, thanks so much for stopping by! I really enjoyed playing around with this sketch as it helped get my creative juices flowing when I was stuck in a rut. I hope it inspires you all too!

Until Next time, Happy Scrapping (or sketch scrapping)

Michelle x

You Rock | Page Maps Sketch | Boys Rule & You Rock Collections | Sue Plumb

Hi everyone!

Sue Plumb here today, and it’s my turn to share my layout for the PageMaps sketch theme that our team have been challenged with this week. It has been amazing to see how all my fellow designers have interpreted the sketch so far, and the range of pages that a single sketch can inspire.

Here is the sketch we have all been working with…

This sketch is one from the PageMaps archives from October 2018; and if you would like more sketch inspiration (including card sketches) you can find them on the PageMaps website.

Despite the floral theme of the sketch, I decided to twist it up and create a boy page instead. I used a combination of elements from two different CVS boy collections – ‘Boys Rule’ and ‘You Rock’.

I began with the ‘Boys Rule’ collection – using the Star Fall paper as my page base to form a border, which I layered with a smaller square of the Entitled paper over the top.

To represent the circular element of the sketch, I cut several different sized wreaths from the free ‘Happiness’ cut files using a combination of white cardstock and the Happy Go Lucky paper for my feature circle. I then arranged them so they were overlapping each other.

Just like the sketch, I used two photos for my page (although I did use a different size and orientation). These photos of my son were taken the day after his birthday while he was testing out his new punchbag and boxing gloves.

I added the die cut what the? speech bubble from the Die Cut Ephemera pack onto my main photo.

Due to the busy pattern on the paper, and the fact that I already had the overlapping wreaths on my background, I wanted to keep the embellishments fairly simple. I dug through my stash and chose the wood veneer pack from the ‘You Rock’ collection. I liked the fact that this was an easy way to add dimension and some natural texture to the page.

I added the large You Rock title piece just to the left of the photos – just like the title was positioned in the sketch. I then adhered a selection of wood veneer stars around the page, placing them at points where the wreaths intersected and forming a “visual triangle” around my photos. I also added a small wood veneer lightning bolt directly onto my second photo.

To finish off, I added the that’s my boy rubber charm along the bottom edge of my photo; then added a small label from the Miscellany die cut pack to the bottom corner of my page and wrote my journalling with a felt pen.

Thanks for stopping by today, I hope you are enjoying our sketch feature this week. Pop in tomorrow to see another layout from our team inspired by the same PageMaps sketch. Until next time, happy scrapping!

You and Me | Page Maps | Free Spirit Collection | Tarrah McLean

Hi Cocoa Vanilla friends!

It’s Tarrah back with you and today I am sharing a new layout using the gorgeous Free Spirit collection. Today my inspiration comes from the awesome sketch from Page Maps some of the design team were given to work with for this week.

Here is the awesome Page Maps sketch we were given for inspiration. It can be found under the October 2018 archives here

I still have a few bits from some of the older CVS collections so I decided to pull out the pretty Free Spirit collection and work with that. I stuck to the sketch design pretty closely, even adding the same elements the sketch suggested. I changed it slightly to balance the page and also replaced a suggested photo for paper instead.  I started off by trimming some white cardstock down and then machine stitching 2 circles. I then adhered the white cardstock to one of the gorgeous floral papers. I matted my photo with one of the papers from the Free Spirit collection and also layered another one above to replace the 2nd photo as I mentioned earlier. I also added some of the journal spots as a layering piece. I added one of the scalloped border stickers above the photo of my sister and I also added a few embellishments to this area also. I fussy cut the ‘You and Me’ title from one of the journal cards included on one of the papers from the Free Spirit collection and positioned it where the sketch suggested. I cut out the pink phrase ‘Hello Happiness’ and added that tucked in under my photo and also layered the ‘Wonderful’ die-cut phrases over the photo also. One of the cute flair buttons and a die-cut heart were added to the left of the photo. On the sketch, the suggestion is to place a large embellishment like a jar of flowers, I added one of the floral stickers from the accessory sticker sheet here instead and I really like how it looks.    Lastly I added the die cut banner popped up using pop dots to the top left corner touching the machine stitching, I also sprinkled some white sequins around and some navy Heidi shine mist. The date stamp was the very last thing added and that completes my layout.

Be sure to check out Page Maps for inspiration, there are so many designs over there to kick start your creativity.

Check them out and get creating with your favourite Cocoa Vanilla collection!

Happy creating!

Tarrah x

Wonderful Sweet Days | Page Maps Sketch | Midnight Collection | Rachel Lowe

Hi everyone Rachel here and today I have a sketch inspired layout using the beautiful Midnight collection.

I love sketches, they really help get your mojo going! This sketch is from Page Maps.

I had not used the beautiful large die cut from the collection but this sketch totally inspired me to use it. Instead of leaving it as a circle, I altered it by cutting it into a flower shape, including the paper background.

I cut down the gorgeous pink and white striped paper, leaving my white cardstock as my border. I machine stitched to add definition around the pink and white striped paper.

I next added my two photos which are 5×4 inches with foam tape so I could embellishments later. I created two floral clusters next to each photo.

I clustered one floral bunch over and on my photo, but on the other photo I layered my flowers under my photo. This creates more visual interest and although you are repeating the same concept it will look different.

I then created my title using the accessory stickers and the die cut titles.

I added my titles with foam tape so they stood out.

Then it was adding little finishing touches! I added a banner embellishment at the top of my page, adding some machine stitching a butterfly which I added with foam tape.

I added some more sticker butterflies from the accessory sticker sheet and also added a tab behind the top photo. I added some extra leaves and sprigs in my floral bunches from the die cut ephemera pack

I love how this turned out and the sketch really pushed me, like using two larger photos for me was a challenge lol!  I also love how many layers there are to this layout.

Well that’s it from me today, make sure if you try this sketch post on the CVS FB page so we can all see your take! See you again soon.

Rachel X

 

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