SWEET MEMORIES | WILD AT HEART | GWEN WRUCK

Hey Creatives! I hope you are all well. I’m up on the blog today sharing for Cocoa Vanilla Studio and I’ve dug deep into my stash for this share, using the ‘Wild at Heart’ collection. I paired it with this happy snap of Miss C and myself which was taken a while back while we were just hanging out. I love these pics, so fun and so ‘us’ and they work so well with this sweet collection.

For this page, I was really inspired to use up some of the ‘Chipboard Frames’ from the collection. I had an unopened pack in my stash so pulled them out and set out a plan to layer them onto my page. I just mixed and matched them with my photo until I was happy. At this point nothing is stuck down, I just needed to get an idea of where everything was going to go.

Next, I went about backing my photo. For this, I’ve used the ‘Memento‘ paper and ‘Luscious’ paper, I’ve also added my signature stitching here. I’ve then gone ahead and recreated my design with the photo and the chipboard. Once I was happy with the position of everything, I’ve glued the frames to the photo (not the background) so that everything is in one piece and easy for me to move around.

Now it was time to work on my mixed media background. I’m going for a subtle look here and used some mixed media shimmery spray and the packaging technique, not fussing with it too much, just letting the spray drip a little and move around the page, then set it aside to dry. Once dry, I’ve added my photo and frame pieces on top.

Before sticking everything down, I’ve added in a large die cut doily from the ‘Ephemera Pack’ to the right of my photo as well as a tag from this same pack, sticking out the top edge of my photo. My page is a central design so everything is working from the centre of the page outwards.

It was now time to embellish! I’ve started by fussy cutting out some of the elements from the ‘Fussy Cuts’ paper and pulling pieces from the ‘Ephemera Pack‘ and ‘Accessory Sticker Sheet’. Adding bits and pieces to the main structure of my page. I’ve also used a bow die in my Sizzix machine to create some fun paper bows and added these for dimension and interest. This is a great way to use up paper scraps if you have them.

Next, I’ve added in a flair button from the ‘Flair pack‘, some typed sentiments from the ‘Accessory Sticker Sheet’ and some ‘Enamel Dots’ in gold to add a pop of sparkle. These smaller elements help round out the page and finish it off so nicely.

I hope this page has inspired you to pull out your collection of ‘Wild at Heart‘ and get creating! It’s always great to stash bust a little before a brand new collection arrives! As always, be sure to share in the Cocoa Vanilla Studio community, we love seeing what you make 🙂

Until next time,

SUPERSTAR | LEGENDARY | GWEN WRUCK

Hey Creatives! I hope you are all well. I’m up on the blog today sharing for Cocoa Vanilla Studio and for this week we are having fun and being inspired by a Stars and Stripes theme. I’ve decided to work with stars and was inspired to scrapbook this photo of Miss C from a few years back. I was also inspired by this months challenge mood board which I will also share below.

Here is the challenge board that helped inspire the page:

My page started by pulling out the ‘Legendary‘ collection. I really wanted to use it as I knew it had the blue tones, touches of green and that warm copper type colour all in the mood board and all that would match my photo. I also knew it would work really well with the star theme we have happening and included the die-cut star pieces in the ‘Ephemera Pack‘.

Next up, I grabbed this star cut file called ‘Stars N Stripes’ by CUT to YOU and backed each of the stars alternating the ‘Wild One‘, ‘Outdoors Type‘ and ‘Off Beat’ pattern papers. I’ve also used the dark woodgrain in the ‘Outdoors Type’ pattern paper as my border, adding stitching around the edge for extra detail.

To mat my photo, I’ve used the ‘All Star‘ pattern paper and more of the ‘Off Beat‘ pattern paper for my layers.

I’ve then positioned my cut file onto some foam adhesive and placed onto more of the ‘Off Beat’ pattern paper, this time using the A-side. I just love the look of this mixed media background without any of that messy mixed media work.

With my large cut file and background sorted, it was then time to position the photo and larger title pieces. I am on a kick right now to use all of these titles up and have added another three to this page. I don’ have too many now!! I had to fuss with the position a bit to get them to a place where I felt like they worked. I just kept changing things up until I was happy.

I’ve also added in at this point the two large die-cut stars into my layers and love how they look. It was time to get to the embellishments, I’ve gone with the Flair buttons, some stickers from the ‘Accessory Sticker‘ sheet and a few ‘Enamel Dots‘ to finish off the page.

Thanks for popping by the blog today, I hope my page has inspired you and you are enjoying the ‘Stars and Stripes’ theme this week. I also wanted to mention that I have made a YouTube video of my process for this page which you can watch below. If you are enjoying my scrapping style and would like to see more process videos of the pages I share, then please subscribe to my channel.

HELLO | UNFORGETTABLE | GWEN WRUCK

Hey Creatives! I hope you are all well. I’m up on the blog today sharing for Cocoa Vanilla Studio. This week we are having a bunch of fun sharing Scraplifts from challenge entries in the recent International Scrapbooking Day celebrations. There were so so many wonderful entries, so it was super hard for me to choose one to Scraplift; so so much inspiration. In the end, I decided on this one by Kim Arnold.

What drew me to her page was the landscape design with room for multiple photos (which I sometimes struggle with) and her sweet floral clusters. I also loved how she added that frame and I have a stack of these in my stash so thought this was a nice opportunity to use one up. I also love that pop of black in her title, the butterfly and in her photo mats so I’ve drawn inspiration from that as well. Here is my page….

Even though I had her ‘scrap-lift’ to work with, I wanted to make the page my own, so to start, I pulled out a delicate cut file from my stash. This one is called ‘Wedding Bouquet‘ from CUT to YOU. I will admit, I totally cheated here and used it as the base for my page design, instead of adding the mixed media that Kim used. Whist I love it on her page, I’m not super confident with getting messy so I stuck to what I know and love.

I went with the ‘Garland‘ pattern paper for my background for my page as I wanted something that my white cut file could be layered over and still stand out. Next up, I went about backing my photos, for this, I’ve used the ‘Unscripted‘ pattern paper, I’ve also used this to back just the centre flowers of my cut file.

Working with her design, I’ve pulled out a frame from the ‘Bohemian Dream’ collection. I’ve positioned my cut file base, photos and the chipboard frame in keeping with her layout composition.

It was now time to work on the embellishment clusters. For this, I’ve simply pulled out a stack of elements from the collection including this round element from the ‘Ephemera Pack‘ as well as fussy cutting some butterflies from the ‘Lacewing‘ paper.

I’ve also included florals from the ‘Ephemera Pack‘, stickers from the ‘Accessory Sticker Sheet‘, a bow, AND a flair button from the ‘Flair Pack‘. For my title, I’ve gone with the ‘Hello’ sentiment from the ‘Foam Title Stickers Pack‘. This part of the page was the easiest and most fun. I simply kept her main design elements in mind and positioned similar things in similar positions.

To finish the page, I felt like it needed a hint more of that pop of black, so I’ve gone with the ‘Natural Beauty‘ pattern paper to frame my page. To finish everything off, I pulled some of the gold ‘Sparkle Enamel dots‘ from the ‘Wild At Heart‘ collection. I just love these ones, so pretty and sparkly!

Thanks for popping by today and a special thank you to Kim Arnold for the inspiration for this page and everyone who played along with the challenges over the INSD weekend. It really was so fun to see everyone’s creations!

LOVE THIS | GWEN WRUCK

Hey Creatives! Gwen here today with a new share, something bright and fun for this one. The idea for this page actually began with the cut file design; I really wanted to create a page with a white-on-white look and use a design as a background feature for my layout. I’ve seen some gorgeous pages like this and wanted to give one a go in my own style. I’ve teamed it with some brighter elements to document this sweet photo of Miss 13 taken on her birthday earlier this year.

I decided on using the ‘Garden Background‘ cutfile for this project because of its size, but also because of the more intricate nature of the design. I was also keen to use the ‘Bloom Street’ collection by Paige Evans and knew there were a lot of floral elements in it that would work really well with this one.

I started the page by creating my layout base, as I mentioned, I was really keen to try the white-on-white look, so I’ve simply layered my cut file design over a white piece of cardstock, running it slightly over one edge. I then added a frame to my page and stitching in my usual style, I just love how this frames the page. Side note, this technique is so so fast to do, no backing required for a super pretty result, so if you are not a fan of fussy cutting or you want a striking look in a short time, this is a great technique.

Next up, I backed my photo using a soft pattern from the collection, added some stitching and then raised it up on foam. I’ve placed it towards the centre of the page with the idea to add my embellishments around it.

I didn’t want to add too many things as I didn’t want to cover up all the details in the cut file, so I’ve just gone through and auditioned several die cuts from the collection. As always, I’ve started with the larger pieces first and then worked towards the smaller elements.

I’ve scrapped a bunch of photos from her birthday, so I didn’t feel the need to document it as a birthday layout as such and just wanted to enjoy the creative process with this one and have some fun. I’ve gone with the sentiment ‘You are my Sunshine’ and ‘Love This’ for my title.

I’ve also made some cute flower clusters around the photo, raising some on foam and leaving others flat for interest. I’ve also included the sweet birds and a bright yellow sunshine die-cut to pull the theme of the page together.

I hope you enjoyed seeing how I’ve put this page together and that it inspires you in some way. Be sure to tag @cuttoyou if you make anything using the design, I really love to see your projects.

Until next time,

BEAUTIFUL | BOHEMIAN DREAM | GWEN WRUCK

Hey Creatives! I hope you are all keeping well. I’m back on the Cocoa Vanilla Studio blog today with a new share. For this page, I’ve dug deep into my stash to my all-time favourite collection ‘Bohemian Dream‘. I just love the blue tones in this collection and the moment I took this series of photos of Miss 12, I just knew it would be the perfect collection to work with to scrapbook it!

First things first, I stitched around the edge of my photo and added two photo mats. The first mat is purple card stock from my stash and the second mat is the ‘Wild and Free‘ paper. I’ve added foam between the layers for dimension.

Next up, I went about choosing my background paper. I used the same purple cardstock for the outside border of my layout and then ‘Gypsy Heart‘ pattern for the background. It’s bold, but I just love it! I then pulled out the “Intersecting Heart Row‘ cut file from CUT to YOU, cut it three times and colour blocked the backing of each row. It looks like I’ve used different pattern papers here but I’ve simply chosen different sections of the ‘Dreamer‘ paper from the deep purple through to the light pink.  *TIP – Choose ombre pattern papers in collections; you get multiple colour options for the price of one 🙂

Once the files were backed, I centred them onto my layout. Next, I wanted to lock in the position of my title and photo. For this, I’ve used the Chipboard Titles from the collection and the word ‘Beautiful’. As this is quite long, I’ve positioned it toward the left of the layout and the photo positioned towards the right. I think this balances the page out really nicely.

With my three main elements locked in, it was time to embellish. In my usual style, I’ve started with the bigger elements first. I had these Charm Creations fabric X and O and have added them to the left of my photo. I found this sweet sentiment ‘Fine and Dandy’ from the ‘Ephemera Pack‘ and have added that on top of these elements.

I’ve also used two of the flower elements from the ‘Ephemera Pack’ one below my title and the other above my photo which creates three main cluster features around my page. The Ephemera pack in this collection has so many pretty watercolour flowers and lovely sentiments, it really is a must-have and still available in the Cocoa Vanilla shop.

Lastly, I pulled out the ‘Accessory Stickers’ from the collection including two fun tabs, one that says ‘Captured’ the other ‘Happy Snaps’ and added these around my photo. I’ve also added two die-cut butterflies, a flair button and some enamel dots to finish off the page.

This page is a little different for me, especially with that bolder background colour, but I just love it! I think the white in the cut file and the chipboard title really pop and it just sets the page off. Do you have some Bohemian Dream in your stash? If you do, I hope this page inspires you to revisit this stunning collection.

Until next time,