I was browsing through the Cocoa Vanilla Studio blog and came across projects by Mandy Melville and instantly became her newest biggest fan! I am excited to introduce her to you today and share a brand new project and a few of her favorite creations!
Name: Mandy Melville
Location: Sydney, Australia
Blog: mandymelville.blogspot.com
Instagram: @mandy1980
Pinterest: @mandymelville
Facebook: Mandy Melville
Tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got started crafting: I live just north of Sydney on the beautiful Central Coast of New South Wales in Australia. I’ve been married to Andrew for almost 15 years and together we have three kids… Abigail, who is nearly 13 years old (eek, a teenager, how did that happen!), Isaac who is nearly 10 years old, and Eleanor who is 2 ½ years old. We also have a kitten named Sasha. As well as looking after my family, I work one day a week at my local scrapbooking store, which is so much fun! I’ve been scrapbooking for about 12 ½ years, since my oldest was a baby, and my love for the craft has just grown stronger over the years! I was introduced to scrapbooking by Mum, who had been to a few Creative Memories parties, and I was instantly hooked! We still enjoy crafting together, and now my eldest daughter joins us as well! I love that I get to share this hobby with both my Mum and my daughter! Over the past couple of years I’ve been super lucky to be on some amazing design teams and I’m so thankful for these opportunities!
Favorite thing to create: I love creating 12×12 layouts, as well as traveler’s notebook spreads!
What do you love about this hobby? What I love most about this hobby is that I’m preserving my family’s precious memories! I know that if I didn’t record all of the little details, they would be forgotten. I love seeing my kids flip through the scrapbook albums that I’ve created. They love looking at the photos, but possibly even more so, they love reading the stories that I’ve recorded through the journaling. What I also love about scrapbooking is the creative outlet that it provides. As a Mum, it can be very easy to fill the hours in the day taking care of everybody else, so I really appreciate the little pockets of time in the day when I can slip away to my desk and get creative. It’s so therapeutic and relaxing! And lastly, I love that this hobby has brought so many new friends into my life – both online and in real life. I love how supportive and encouraging the scrapbooking community is and the way that we are all inspired by one another.
5 fun facts about yourself:
1. I married my high school sweetheart. We started dating when we were 17, got married when we were 21, and this year we are celebrating our 15th wedding anniversary!
2. I love Paris! I was lucky enough to visit Paris in 2009 and would LOVE to be able to go back there again one day.
3. I have a Bachelor of Commerce and 15 years experience as a trained accountant (but at the moment I’m enjoying a change of pace working one day a week at my local scrapbooking store). I think some people find it funny that I’m an accountant that loves to scrapbook, but I guess I’m not your typical accountant!
4. I really don’t enjoy cooking AT ALL and would happily hire a personal chef if I could afford to do so!
5. Two things I couldn’t live without are coffee and chocolate! Thankfully my husband is pretty good on a coffee machine!
DREAM BIG LITTLE ONE by Mandy Melville
I adore this photo of my youngest daughter sleeping and because I really wanted to do the photo justice, I’ve been waiting for just the right time to scrapbook it (does anybody else do that?). When Paige asked me if I’d like to be featured on the Scrapbook Expo blog, of course I said yes, and I knew that this would be the perfect opportunity to document this special photo. I’ve combined a few different collections on this page, including the American Crafts ‘Little by Little’ collection by Shimelle, the Cocoa Vanilla ‘Wild at Heart’ collection, and the Felicity Jane ‘Sophie’ kit. I love that these collections came together so beautifully and that they created such a soft and dreamy colour palette! I’ve also used a cut file from the Silhouette Design Store to create my title. One of my favourite techniques for creating an eye catching layout is to cut out a large feature title using my Silhouette Cameo.
HAPPY by Mandy Melville
This layout was based on a sketch designed by Laura Whitaker for Stuck?! Sketches. I love using a sketch as a jumping off point for a layout, particularly when I’m stuck for design ideas. And a grid design is always a winner in my books! This page features photos of my youngest daughter and my nephew. They are the best of friends and I love documenting the special relationship that they share. I used the Shimelle ‘Little by Little’ collection to create this page. With lots of cute embellishments, and lovely colours, it was the perfect collection for documenting these photos! I also included a handmade star embellishment from Charms Creations, as well as a rubber charm and a flair button from Felicity Jane. I had a lot of fun creating this cute and whimsical page!
CARNIVAL FUN by Mandy Melville
This layout features photos from when we took our kids to a local carnival earlier this year. My parents joined us too, and we had so much fun going on some rides and eating ice cream cones! I really wanted this page to have a carefree and fun feel to it to match the photos, and the Paige Evans ‘Take Me Away’ collection was just what I was looking for! The colours in this collection are divine and the gold foam Thickers really add that extra pop! I decided to print my photos in black and white so that I could include lots of those beautiful colours in the collection on my page. Once again I created a large title, this time using a cut file from The Cut Shoppe. I decided to tilt all of the elements on the page, which I think adds some extra fun to the layout!
HAPPY EASTER by Mandy Melville
To create this layout, I dug into my stash of Cocoa Vanilla goodies, and used six different collections on this one page. I documented a couple of cute photos of my youngest daughter enjoying her very first Easter egg. I decided on using soft, pastel colours, as these really remind me of Easter. I love to create lots of dimension on my pages, so I added foam tape underneath some of the elements on the page to give them added height. I love all of the beautiful Cocoa Vanilla papers and embellishments on this page and how well they all work together to create a soft and pretty layout.
LET’S GO by Mandy Melville
Towards the end of last year I discovered traveler’s notebooks, and now I’m completely hooked! I love scrapbooking in my notebooks and the smaller size makes it quick and easy to put a layout together. I’m using this particular notebook to document photos from a cruise that we went on last year. This photo of my eldest daughter was taken just before we set sail from Sydney. The view of the Sydney Harbour Bridge was amazing! I used a combination of the Bella Blvd ‘Secrets of the Sea’ (Girl) collection along with the Cocoa Vanilla ‘Hello Sunshine’ collection on this spread. I also used a cut file from The Cut Shoppe to cut the phrase ‘Let’s Go’, which was the perfect title for this page. I love the fresh and vibrant colour palette on this spread and those florals from the Cocoa Vanilla ‘Hello Sunshine’ collection are totally swoon-worthy!
I hope you enjoyed getting to know Mandy Melville today! Be sure to check out more of her amazing creations on her blog and instagram and such (all listed at the top of this post!) See you again soon!
