A Little Dirt Never Hurt / Cocoa Vanilla Studio

Happy Wednesday, friends!  I'm back to share my newest layout for Cocoa Vanilla Studio.  This is my first layout using the new You Rock collection, and I did my best to create a "boyish" layout.  I only have daughters, so I'm used to creating with pinks, aquas and yellows.  This collection is full of reds, yellows, blues and neutrals.  I decided to go grungy yet still keep some girl elements in it.

I started off with a distressed and messy printed patterned paper.  I covered a lot of it with white acrylic paint.  I used some bubble wrap with some brown texture paste to create some messy circles.  I just used the bubble wrap like a stamp and pressed it onto the paper after painting some of the paste onto it.  I sprayed some blue and yellow golden Shimmerz sprays on top of that and did a little bit of packaging technique.  I also added some splatters.  I love the grungy effect all this created.

My photos are of my youngest daughter digging in our flower bed.  She thrives on getting dirty and loves to play in the little sprinklers here.  She was getting all wet and playing in the mulch having herself a grand ol' time...haha :)

I used some of the Washi Tape strips to create a border around two of the photos.  There wasn't any red or yellow papers, so I used some scrap white cardstock and added the washi to it.  It totally looks like paper!  I also used a few of the Rubber Charms...they are amazing, by the way.  Behind my photos, I added several die cut frames from the Ephemera pack.

I got the idea for my title from one of the quotes on the Washi Tape strips. This was perfect for my photos!  I cut "dirt" on the wood grain paper using a handwritten font and then cut the rest of it in a block style font using white cardstock.  I think mixing and matching sizes and fonts for titles gives a really striking look.  To make my layout slightly girly, I used some flower cut files from Just Nick Studio.  They're kind of wonky and skinny, and they were perfect for this.  I cut them on white and used the same ink sprays to color them.  I love how the petals curl up at the ends!

Here you can see all the dimension and layering.  I added foam behind my photos as well as some tissue paper.  I machine stitched through all the frames using a dark brown thread.  I tucked in one of the wonky die cut flowers here and added some thread under it.  That cute camera circle is from the Ephemera pack, and so is the little yellow arrow on top of the bottom photo.

These flowers are so cool!  I layered these two at the bottom of the page.  I really like how they look against the yellow golden background.

I added in one of the stickers from the Accessory Sheet here...again, another perfect piece for this.  I really love how the dimension looks here.

I added in a big chipboard circle over to the left of the title...I just liked it, and it brought out some of the black & white from the photos.

Here's one more close-up of the right side.  I used a few more of those cute Rubber Charm arrows.  I love the mix of these colors together!

I hope this inspires you in some way!  It was challenging for me at first to break away from my usual girly ideas, but it was so rewarding to see the end result.  Plus the photos were just meant for this collection :)

Here's my process video:

Thanks so much for stopping by!  Have a great day!