Be a pot of gold at the end of someone's rainbow! Happy St Patrick's Day!

Hey everyone, I'm back again sharing a new project for the upcoming St Patrick's Day on the 17th of March for Sizzix Lifestyle.

Do you have a friend who is a pot of gold at the end of your rainbow? What better way let them know than with a little goodie box full of chocolate treats!?!

To create this bright and fun project I have used a variety of dies from my Sizzix stash, including the Heartfelt Bigz die (658823) which was perfect for creating that four leaf clover. You can see the full list of dies I used on my Sizzix Post over here 
St Patrick's Day Treat Bag

May you have all the happiness and luck that life can hold, and at the end of all your rainbows may you find a pot of gold.

Thanks for stopping by, Raquel x

My little heartbreaker - featuring Cocoa Vanilla

Hey everyone, I am sharing one of my fave layouts I have created so far with you on my blog today. This one features the You Rock collection by Cocoa Vanilla and my little man. 

Here is the layout that I created:
This photo of my boy just captures his little cheeky personality to a tee! I wanted to document on this layout how I think he is just the cutest little man and what a heart breaker he will be when he is older. His little smile and cheeky ways has everyone around his little finger, no joke!

I decided to focus on a layout base of whited card stock (like always, I know) teamed with blue and a contrast of black. I loved the boldness of the black in this layout design, it really compliments the black and white photo well.

The photo itself as I mentioned is printed in black and white with a white border. I also added a small mat of black card stock to help the photo pop and a layer of patterned paper in the design ‘Random’. I added a binding edge punch to the edge of the right side for further texture. The photo mat itself was also adhered to the page with foam adhesive. I love to add tabs of some kind to the top or side of my photos, I didn’t have one from this collection to use that worked with the colours and design I had in mind for this page so I decided to use the ‘the original’ sticker from the accessory sticker sheet instead. I just made sure that all you can see is the text of the sticker rather than the journaling space too, and it worked and looks like a tab.

The hello from the title is cut from a metal die by Sizzix and I cut and adapted the tiny word stickers to read ‘my little heart breaker’. I used a journaling label from the cut apart sheet to help ground and rest the tiny word stickers on otherwise they were going to blend too much into the background. The ‘splats’ and also the stars that feature on this layout are also a Sizzix die and was cut out with the ‘Experimental’ patterned paper or just plain textured black card stock.

The journaling was typed on my typewriter and cut and adhered in strip form. It is not lengthy journaling but I was able to express what I wanted to in that space on the page. I added black spatters using an India ink to the background of the page in a diagonal direction. I went a little crazy with how much I added and ended up covering g up quite a bit of it with my photo, I think it adds a grunge look to the page – perfect for documenting boys, and especially this photo of my man.

To help balance the top heaviness of my layout I added a small cluster to the bottom right corner of the page. This includes a label sticker with the date and more die cut splatters and stars.

The entire page was bordered with the star design paper in the collection. Again the black pattern really adds a boldness to the page that I was wanting to add and also the stars tie in with the embellishments used on the page. I also machine stitched around the edges for that added detail.

Thanks so very much for stopping by the blog today. I hope that you liked this layout too!

Raquel x

Another CVS 'More than Words' layout - Perfect Moment

Hey everyone, I'm sharing another CVS layout with you today. 

For todays layouts I chose to focus on more of the blue tones within the collection and still add those softening touches I like to add like layers, white die cuts, etc.

Here is the layout that I created:


The moment and photo I am documenting is one of my kiddies when they had just met their baby cousin. We were all so excited for his arrival and the on this day when he was asleep in his bassinet I managed to snap the kids when they went in to check on him and watch him sleeping. How precious is it!?! I printed the photo black and white as the quality of the original photo was not the best. I had to do quite a bit of editing and lightening to get the photo useable on the page, but I do love the result.

I backed the photo onto a blue paper from the 6×6″ paper pad. The paper was a darker tone of blue and helped the photo to really stand out on the page. I love to add tabs to the tops or sides of my photos, the favourites tab was from the Ephemera pack.

As soon as I saw the chipboard packs when creating this page I knew that the ‘perfect’ from the black chipboard words and the ‘moment’ from the chipboard stickers would make a great title and express what I thought about this photo. To add some extra texture I machine stitched ‘moment’ through the centre. My journaling was typewritten and added to the page in strip form. I love being able to tell a small part of what the photo is about so that in the future when people are looking through my albums (if they are still around) they will know exactly what this page is documenting.

The layout has a somewhat vertical design in terms of embellishments and your eyes will flow from the top left of the page across to the bottom right of the page. To finish the bottom right corner I added a die cut leaf, which is a cut file available in the CVS store, a tab cut from the cut apart patterned paper, and a few ephemera pieces and stickers. I couldn’t resist adding a floral on this page, but since it is a baby page I think I can get away with it! The final touches to the cluster was a chipboard heart from the black chipboard sheet and some enamel shapes.

The top cluster includes another one of the cut files, but this time it was a whole flower. I also added some stickers, a chipboard heart and more enamel dots. I framed the whole page in a soft blue and white striped patterned paper and added machine stitching around my white background. It added a nice finishing touch.

I hope I was able to inspire you today.

Raquel x

A layout using the new 'More than Words' collection by Cocoa Vanilla

Hey everyone, I'm here today playing a bit of catch up sharing a CVS layout with you.

The subject of this layout is my Mum, I wanted to create a layout to document how grateful we are for all the love and support she gives us. This photo was taken recently on her 6oth birthday and features my kiddies in it too.

Here is the layout I created:
Here is a process video for how this layout came together:


More than Words was the perfect collection to document this subject and photo of my Mum and kiddies. I printed the photo in black and white as there was a lot of colours in the background. The photo was printed approx 4×4″ in size and then cut with my Sizzix framelits circle dies to get the circular shape. I also cut multiple circles from the 6×6″ paper pad in various sizes using the circle dies too.
As usual I typed and printed my journaling on my typewriter and cut it into strip form. Below the photo and title ‘So very Thankful for You’ was the perfect place to add the journaling. The title was taken from the 6×12″ accessory sticker sheet, it was just what I was looking for.


The design of this page is mainly a vertical design of circles which flows from the top of the page to the bottom. I added a small cluster of embellishments to the bottom to continue to help your eyes flow down the page. This cluster is made up of a Chipboard heart, a small journal spot, a floral die cut piece and some enamel dots. I also added some details about the photo to the cluster too.

To finish the page and balance the vertical design I added a few small embellishments to the right side of the page. The placement of the embellishments helps even out the heaviness of the left side.

I hope you have enjoyed this post today.

Just incase you missed it, or want to see More than Words in more detail, I shared the collection on my YouTube channel recently. You can watch it below:

Take care, Raquel xx