I Love Us / Cocoa Vanilla Studio

Happy Weekend, friends!  I'm excited to share my very first layout for the Cocoa Vanilla Studio Design Team today :)  I used the gorgeous Make A Wish collection for this.  If a collection was ever made to suit me, this is it.  All the bright colors and gorgeous patterns...be still my heart!  And even though it has a lot of birthday themed things in it, it is very versatile and can be used in so many different ways.  I just received my DT box of the new Wild At Heart collection, and it is simply stunning!  I'm still over the moon excited that I received a box all the way from Australia!!

Okay, so for this layout, I used one of the Cocoa Vanilla cut files.  I repeated the XO a few times and created a design and then welded it together in sort of a vertical / diagonal design.  I knew I wanted to place my photo in the upper right corner, so this created a space for it.  I used papers from the collection to back all those lines in the XOs.  I love how it turned out!  I did a little bit of watercoloring on the background to soften up all the white and keep it light and airy looking.  My photo has a lot of white in it, so I wanted to keep it in color.

Backing cut files like this does take some time, but it's always worth the end result.  I think using white as a base like this for the cut files allows all those other colors to really pop.  I machine stitched through each row once I was finished backing.  I added in several die cuts and stickers as embellishments, and my journaling fit nicely over on the lower right.

I love tucking in die cuts, and the florals in this collection are just gorgeous.  They have a watercolor look to them, and the colors are just beautiful.  I also used one of the flair buttons here, which I layered right on top of the photo with some tangled thread.  I also used one of the chipboard pieces...that pretty pink and white frame.  I also used some label-type stickers as layers.

I went simple and subtle with the title since the page is filled with big XOs.  I used the alpha sticker sheet for this and it fit perfectly right in this space.  There is another cluster under that consisting of die cuts and stickers and even a little vellum heart.

Speaking of vellum...check out these gorgeous flowers!  There is a whole pack of vellum die cuts, and these flowers...oh my gosh!  They are amazing.  I had to layer a few here under my photo.

Here's my process video showing how I made this from start to finish if you're interested to watch.  I hope you enjoy!

Thank you so much for watching and for stopping by!  Have a great day!