Did you see the goodies I received this month to play with from Scrap Shotz? The amazing April Scrapbook Kit is full of the Cocoa Vanilla Studio, Happiness collection. Enabler alert .. I have an unboxing video. Check out Scrap Shotz Unboxing Video – April 2019 Scrapbook Kit. Amazing right?

I had the chance to start playing this weekend. While the collection is full of super bright and fun pinks, it also has these wonderful blue, teal and green tones  – my ultimate favourite. The kit also includes teal glitter cardstock that I was keen to play with. I loved how this monochromatic look turned out!

I recently watched a Crafty Jen Schow YouTube video where she created a banner of tags and ephemera and photos and I loved it. I wanted to build on that inspiration for my layout, using a Polaroid to anchor embellishments from the kit. Thank you Jen!

After poking through my cut files for a while, I found this fabulous hanging Polaroid cut file from beyond-talented Paige Taylor Evans. Hint: if you love cut files, Paige gives away a free cut file a week on her The Scrappy Happy Place Group on Facebook. She has a whole drop box full of them for her Facebook group members – every one is wonderful, everyone is free and the Group offers oodles of inspiration! Thank you Paige!

Once I had the background pattern selected, picked out all the blue and green embellishments from the Kit flair, die cuts, clear stickers, and phrases – then it was just a matter of moving all the bits about until it made me happy. I wanted a little more something-something behind the Polaroids so created a watercolor background  using the packaging technique with some Shimmerz Creameez Paints (Witches Blue and Boogie Boardin’ Blue).

 I found a few ways to incorporate little pops of the teal glitter cardstock. Its pretty loud and for me little pops are the way to go. I added another banner to the banner die cut from Cocoa Vanilla Studio above, I added a very thin border to the photo, and punched some hearts to compliment the hearts of the kit (one is tucked on the top right of the photo in the image below). I love how there is just a little something to draw the eye!

I finished it off with some dark blue and teal string from my stash, and then some acrylic paint white splatters and some Nuvo as enamel dots from the Kit this month. I have never played with Nuvo products before and was so excited to try it out. Verdict? Love it! Hint: if you use Nuvo to make enamal dots, drop a small amount on the page and then flick the paper from behind so they flatten out a little. This way they do not look like a soft ice cream cone on top.

My title is from the word phrases die cuts from Cocoa Vanilla Studio in the Kit. Me and my mom are crazy alike even though we have lived far apart for most of my adult life – I am so like her (which I love!) and thought “so you” was just perfect to describe this awesome weekend day we together during her last visit to Vancouver.

Brande