Created by Gwen Blog - Page 43 of 109 - CUT to YOU (Created By Gwen)

DREAM BIG | BOHEMIAN DREAMS | GWEN WRUCK

Hi Creative friends!

Back on the blog today with another project using the DIVINE new Bohemian Dream collection for Cocoa Vanilla Studios. I cannot tell you how much I love using this collection, the colours are just so fresh and beautiful! It is fast becoming my favourite collection yet!

The design for this page began with my photos, I had a sweet little series of shots I wanted to use and I knew that the purple-blue dress up would be the perfect match for this collection. I decided to print them quite small with the idea that I could then have them running across my page. I wanted the colours in the photos to really pop so went with a white background. Rather than using white cardstock, I went with the divine Kaleidoscope paper with the wood grain running width ways to draw the eye along the row of photos.

Once I had a plan for my photos I began work on my photo mat. I am a huge fan of the Beautiful Mess pattern paper with the variety of rectangles in different prints. I’ve used several of these for the page, including the green triangle design in my paper layers and the pink and purple designs to matt my photos. I have used the large ombre purple piece as the main part of my paper layers. All I have done is cut them all up and then shuffle the layers until I was happy. A few staples in the centre secures them in place. The green triangle design was too small so I simply cut it in half and attached to each side, to give the appearance of a larger piece.

To soften the layers, I added a doily from my stash, always the perfect little touch, and then went about locking in the position of my photos. Next, it was time to embellish. I went through the Die cut Ephemera Pack and pulled the elements I thought would go by colour. I love the watercolour feel to the rectangle die cut and whilst “Shine Bright” is a fun sentiment, I felt “you are amazing” was a better fit for my page so I just mounted that with foam and added directly on top. I love how you can still see the pretty water-colour underneath.

Next, it was time to think about the title of the page, I didn’t have anything specific in mind, these were just sweet little pictures of my miss on a regular day. I decided that I loved the colours in the “dream” and “BIG” words on the Chipboard Accent Stickers and they went so well with that ombre paper I used for my paper layers so they were the perfect fit. I love the cute little hearts too in this sheet so couldn’t help but add those too.

I’ve also added the sweet little bird Flair button, elements from the Die cut Ephemera Pack including a die cut butterfly, the tabs used on the far left photo and the shine bright banner, Accessory Stickers, and the Enamel Shapes – how cute are those hearts!!

To finish the page off, I have added some stitching either side of the row of photos and around the edge of the layout in a contrasting thread.

Thanks for popping by today, I hope I’ve inspired you to get into your craft space and create! Oh and be sure to add your layouts to the Cocoa Vanilla Studio Facebook group, we love featuring pages you create!

Until next time

"Beautiful YOU" for Colour Blast

Hi Creative Friends,

Is it me or are paint brush strokes on trend? Maybe they never stopped being trendy and I just never noticed??? After seeing a few of late, I’ve been wanting to be a bit brave and give one a go. Nothing too out of my comfort zone, just a little step 🙂

Starting with a plain piece of cardstock, I’ve taken a wide paint brush and the divine Lipstick Colour Shimmer Cube and added a few strokes to my page. I’ve tried to vary where they start and finish and have even layered a few over each other for interest. While these were still wet, I went about flicking extra colour over the top. Some of this blended in with what was already there and I love how that looks, other splatters sit on top and that’s really nice too.

Once fully dried, I’ve then added more brushstrokes this time with Lovely Lilac Colour Shimmer Cube. I’ve also splatted a little with this same brush. If using multiple colours of the Colour Shimmer Cubes, it’s really important to let them dry fully if you don’t want your colours to mix. I was also very careful not to work the colours too much if they were touching as they would have mixed together. I was wanting a layered look here, a separation between the two colours used.

Next, I’ve taken a smaller paintbrush and splatted in Lipstick, Lovely Lilac and Bling still using the Colour Shimmer cubes, this time I did try and make the consistency thicker which would result in a more saturated colour. I’ve kept the colours in the background isolated to sections of the background… I didn’t want to fill the whole page up with splattered colour, just adding a patch here and a patch there to keep some white space. Then I let it all dry and I was ready to add my papers and embellishments.

Above you can see the 2 colours of paint strokes, the larger splatters and the smaller ones. I love how simply by changing a brush you can get a different look. Of course, these are so much more shimmery in real life. I wish the camera did them justice!

I’ve decided to go with the Wild At Heart collection by Cocoa Vanilla Studios for my page, the purple and pink tones are a perfect match! I simply mounted my photo with some pattern paper and then fussy cut out some butterflies. I really used the paint strokes to contain and dictate my design.

Once the photo was locked into place, it was time to add a tile… I went with the ‘beautiful’ die cut. I love how it had a watercolour feature in it, the perfect fit for my background.

I then continued on adding lots of elements here and there and some paper flowers and stitched on sticker word sentiments to finish. I really love how the paint strokes peak out from under the embellishments.

and one more sneak, here you can see the pretty painted background poking out from under my photo mat.

I give this project a “mess level” of Medium

( Sure, not much mess to clean up with just 2 paintbrushes being used, BUT, I had to be a little reckless and let the paint be a little messy for this background to work). If you are too careful with it, it won’t look as soft and watercolour like. You also do need to keep it contained, you can always add more if you need to, so go slowly. I would definitely also suggest trying this with softer colours and quite diluted if you’re not feeling very brave (hence my colour choices).

Thanks for popping by

Gwen

xox

THIS HAPPY LIFE | BOHEMIAN DREAMS | GWEN WRUCK

Hi Creative friends!

Back on the blog today with another project using the DIVINE new Bohemian Dream collection for Cocoa Vanilla Studios. I’m sticking with my theme this month of documenting the first 10 years of my daughter’s life, this time creating a page for her album.

I had already spent a long time sorting photos and getting them into a consistent format for my mini tag album so I thought why not use that effort and also create a 12 x 12 layout. I knew the layout would be a bit of a challenge because I had eleven photos I wanted to add and I knew they were all in different formats, but I’m super glad I gave it a whirl and love the end result. The best way I find to include lots of photos on a page is to print them small. I began by creating a Photo collage using this feature at my local print shop, there are lots of formats to choose from so I went about creating a couple. I mixed and matched the photos on each so that I would have a few choices of the sizes each of the photos would be printed in.

I then went about working on the position of the photos, I just shuffled them until I was happy. For my background, I’ve used the “Wild and Free” paper. I was also restricted by the fact that I wanted to keep them in timeline order, so their order and position really did dictate the design of the page. Once I had them looking good I went about matting each one twice. I used a combination of papers from the 6×6 paper pad. I love using the paper pads for small photo mounts like this, as the designs are printed smaller than the 12×12 so you see more of them. Proportionally the designs are a better fit with the photos.

At this point, all of my photos were locked into position, it was now time to add the title. I really love the colours in the chipboard word “HAPPY” from the Chipboard Stickers sheet so I teamed that with the words from the Chipboard Titles sheet to make my title “This Happy Life”. Of course, you can leave these plain, but I really wanted the pop of colour so I’ve added some shimmery watercolors from my stash, just using a paintbrush. These Chipboard pieces are so versatile, you could add mists and inks or embossing powders etc, so many ways to make them uniquely fit your layout. I was going for a ‘not so perfect’ look here, I didn’t want to cover the entire piece of chipboard, I wanted variation in the colouring.

Next, I just could not help but use some of the vellum accents, the florals in this pack are my favourite!! I positioned one of the larger vellum pieces over a similar style die cut from the Die Cut Ephemera pack for a layered flower effect. I placed two others around my page, simply securing with a small amount of liquid glue in the center.

I also added leaves from the Die Cut Ephemera pack to my main floral element under the title and some vellum butterflies… oh so pretty! I also added foam to one of the sentiments in this pack and added that. I really just kept the design simple so it wasn’t competing with all those photos!

Lastly, I’ve added a couple of words from the Accessory Stickers sheet and some Enamel Shapes and that was the layout finished. How cute are those hearts? Aren’t they the perfect finishing touch. Thanks for popping by today and keep sharing those beautiful creations of yours on the Cocoa Vanilla Studios Facebook group, we love seeing them!

Until next time,

Gwen

"Shine Bright" for Colour Blast

Hi, Creative friends!!

I hope you are all well! I have a layout to share with you today featuring more beautiful Colour Blast products in my “clean mixed media” style. I got a bit “painty” with this one!

For this project, I started with this black and white photo of Miss 10 proudly showing off an award she received at school that day for “Outstanding Work Ethic”. It inspired me to document a reminder that she should always “Shine Bright” and that she could become anything she really wanted to be if she worked hard enough. I then had the idea to use a butterfly motif to represent the “growing into something beautiful” theme of the page. So I went about cutting out a large butterfly design on my Silhouette in white cardstock.

Next, I went to my stash of Cocoa Vanilla products and pulled out some of the butterflies from the Wild At Heat collection, I knew they would pull the page together nicely. I then also knew what colours I wanted to use in my mixed media background. I went with Rose Petal and Lovely Lilac in Shimmer sprays and Colour Shimmer cubes as they were the perfect match.

Having an idea of the design for the page I wanted to build, I went about working on my background. (I did apply a thin layer of clear gesso) I began by “smooching” the cardstock using the plastic packaging technique with both of the mists. I found the Lovely Lilac is very soft and Rose Petal is considerably darker which is a really nice contrast.

I then dried this off fully before adding more layers in the same technique. I find this is the best way for me to build colour, slowly, layer by layer. I’ve also added some splatters, using the sprayer from the Colour Shimmer Spray bottle. I simply keep layering and adding (always drying in between each step) until I am happy.

At this point, I really wanted to lock in the position of my cut file butterfly, so once it was in a position I was happy with, I traced around it with a pencil. This then gave me really clear guidelines as to what parts of my background were going to show and which bits wouldn’t.

Using a paintbrush and the Colour Shimmer Sprays, I went about painting in between the gaps of the cut file, that is, the sections I knew would show through once the cut file was in place. I used a watercolour style, focusing on keeping the edge outlines soft. While I had my paintbrush out, I also coloured my title word “Bright” at this point I had already decided that there would be too much black and white on the page and painting the letters would brighten things up and balance the page out a little.

That was all of the mixed media components completed, it was now time to build the page. I started by mounting my photo with a couple of pattern papers also from the Wild At Heart collection by Cocoa Vanilla Studios. I then attached the large die cut butterfly and hand stitched around the edge. Next, came fussy cutting. The black and white flowers are all from the same pattern paper. I just kept shuffling them around the page until I was happy with their position. I kept the space between the bottom of the butterfly and my photo for the title. Lastly came the remaining smaller die cut butterflies and pretty sparkle enamel dots.

You can see below the pretty effect water colouring with both the Colour Shimmer Cubes and Shimmer sprays achieved.

I give this project a “mess level” of Low

( I’ve just used plastic packaging, a paint brush and the nozzle from the Shimmer sprays to apply my mixed media, no overspray and no muddy colours so this clean scrapper is very happy)

Thanks for popping by

Gwen

xox

10 YEARS | BOHEMIAN DREAM | GWEN WRUCK

Hi Creative friends!

Back on the blog today with a very special share… Special for a couple of reasons, firstly, it is my very first project using the DIVINE new Bohemian Dream collection for Cocoa Vanilla Studios, and more importantly, it’s special because it’s a project 10 years in the making!

I am a huge fan of tag mini albums and I have always wanted to do one featuring my little Miss and all of her birthday celebrations. I wanted to create one project that would show just how much she has grown up over the years and of course, birthday photos are a great way to see that! It took a little bit of work to sort through 10 years of photos but so worth it! As you can imagine, there was quite a bit of inconsistency in the photos due to them being taken over such a long period of time over many different cameras. I thought the best way to work with that would be to print them all in black and white and edit with the same filter. I’m really happy with the consistent feel they now have.

I then went about putting the photos in order from birth to 10, this gave me a really good starting point for the design of the album and dictated the layout for all of the pages. Some of the photos were not that great quality wise so they had to be printed smaller, others were the square format and some were 6×4. I really love the mix of sizes and I think it really adds an eclectic feel to the album.

Now that the photos were sorted, it was time for the fun stuff! I ADORE this new collection especially the mix of pink and purple and the floral in the “Abundant” paper is to die for! I thought it best to stick with a small selection of papers, “Abundant”, “Dreamer”, “Wild and Free” and “Bo Ho Bits” and teamed these with a piece of bright green cardstock from my stash. I was going for bright and fun just like my Miss 10!

I have used a set of pocket page plastic sheets as pockets for my photos and went about inserting these and adding my pattern papers to the back. I created tabs for the photos to attach to the ring at the top out of rectangles cut from the “Bo Ho Bits” pattern paper. I simply fussy cut them out, folded in half and punched a hole in them. I have also used quite a few of the elements from this cut apart sheet for my embellishments. The number of each birthday came from my stash, it was good to finally get a use for those!

The bones of the project were coming together at this point so now was the time to go page by page adding lots of elements. I started with the tag from the Sticker sheet that says “You Brighten my World” and added that to a scrap of pattern paper, next came a tag that was die cut and then I’ve added the word “lovely” from the chipboard accessories sheet. For the next sheet, I’ve added a sticker tab to the right of my photo and a flair button. I really wanted to use lots of bits from all of the parts of the collection, they go so well together and I just love the dimension they all bring.

This part of the creation process was so fun, I simply went page by page adding bits until I was happy. Above you can see chipboard, fussy cut pieces of pattern paper and die cuts to create this cluster, finishing it off with some enamel shapes. It was so nice to be able to just pick pieces and add them, there are just so many choices and with everything being so new and so well co-ordinated it really was hard not to add everything… I did use quite a bit though and I love that!

Here you can see a side view of the album. I’ve added quite a few words and tabs down the side for interest and you can also see that I have added A LOT of sewing details to keep the album together. I have also included a few shaker pockets with sequins which are really fun. Sewing them really helps them stay together as they are handled so much more than pages in an album. I think this is one of the reasons I love making them so much, I seriously could make these all day every day!

I do hope you love what I have created with this new collection, it was so fun to make! If you haven’t had a chance to see it all, be sure to pop over to the Cocoa Vanilla Facebook page, it really is such a stunning collection. If you’d like your very own album just like this, be sure to check out the details of my upcoming class at The Stamper Hut Ashmore later on in the month. Details on Facebook 🙂

Until next time,

Gwen