Bella Blvd Studio Blog

Friday Sketch: Cards

Who doesn't love a good sketch? It helps to take the guesswork out of the page and/or card design, but still allows you to put your own spin on things just be turning the sketch or altering it here and there. A few times a month, we'll be bringing you a new sketch, and showing you a few takes on the sketch by our designers. Today, we have our second sketch for February, courtesy of Becky Fleck.

“Never Stop Learning” card, by Laurie Schmidlin.

One of my favorite things to do is to include a card in my elementary aged boys' lunches for a little surprise encouragement! I just love that the Star Student collection is so gender neutral, making it easy to customize the cards to have a masculine feel if I want to. For my card, I followed the sketch pretty literally only adding a couple of coordinating Star Student Ciao Chip pieces above the sentiment.

Supplies:
Star Student: International Studies, Art Journal, Chemistry, Brainiac, Treasures & Text, Trinkets, Chipboard Icons, Typewriter Clear Cut; Enamel Dots: McIntosh

“Springtime” card, by Laurie Schmidlin.

I am so smitten with the soft and pretty colors in the new Simply Spring collection! I especially love to pair them with white! I started by flipping the sketch. For the base, I used a white cardstock and adhered a piece of the new Spring Scramble Invisibles paper on top. I just love the white on white airy look of it! I embellished the sentiment with some Chipboard Icon pieces and a heart sticker.

Supplies:
Simply Spring: Eggstravaganza, Daily Details, Spring Patchwork, Borders, Treasures & Text, Trinkets, Chipboard Icons, Spring Scramble Invisibles; Enamel Dots: Cotton Candy

“Adventure Is Waiting” card, by Shellye McDaniel.

By turning the sketch I was able to incorporate all of those fun vertical flag stickers on my card. After placing the flag stickers, I went back and clustered other pieces such as chipboard stickers, enamel embellishments and twine.

Supplies:
Campout: Treasures & Text, Trinkets, Let's Go Camping, Gone Fishing, Under the Stars, Chipboard Icons; Enamel Doodads: Bell Pepper; Enamel Dots: Bell Pepper

“Spring Fun” card, by Shellye McDaniel.

In keeping with the original orientation of the sketch, I used the journal card's sentiment as the main focus and then added a couple of the horizontal banner stickers and scalloped border sticker to complete the design. The three enamel dots to the right were used in place of the sentiment placement on the sketch. Using the journal cards makes for a quick, quick card!

Supplies:
Simply Spring: Trinkets, Treasures & Text, Gingham, Daily Details; Enamel Dots: Cotton Candy

“Great Job” card, by Diana Fisher.

Sometimes a pat on the back just won't do! Surprise your little champ with a card in their lunch box or book bag for a job well done. I flipped the sketch on its side for this card.

Supplies:
Star Student: Borders, Geek Chic, Treasures & Text

“Hi” card, by Diana Fisher.

This card is more like the sketch than the first one, but I swapped out the pennant for the little picture squares. Little enamel dots help finish off the border.

Supplies:
Simply Spring: Spring Patchwork, Daily Details, Treasures & Text; Enamel Dots: Milk White

"Easter” card, by Kathy Martin.

Is this an awesome sketch or what?!?! My favorite part are the pennants! I can’t get enough of them so I made two rows instead of one! Pennants are perfect for mixing and matching different sizes and colors and layering which is what I did for this Easter card. Since I have spring fever right now I choose to work with the adorable and Simply Spring line. I also thought all of the pretty pastel colors and cute little stickers in the collection would work well for a pennant design. And they did!

Supplies:
Simply Spring: Borders, Dancing in the Rain, Chipboard Icons, Treasures & Text, Trinkets; Color Chaos: Pickle Juice Strandz; Enamel Dots: Cotton Candy; Button Market: Pickle Juice Squares, Purple Flowers; Sunshine & Happiness: Miniatures

“Crazy About You” card, by Kathy Martin.

For my second card I thought I’d follow the sketch this time and use Bella Blvd’s bright colorful Strandz pattern papers from the Color Chaos line. When I have a shorter amount of time to craft I find that following a sketch saves me time since the design work has already been done for me. In addition to the pennants I added a couple small stickers and an Enamel DooDads arrow to give the card lots of layers and dimension! 

Supplies:
Color Chaos: Peep Strandz, Pepper Strandz, Pickle Juice Strandz, Ice Strandz, Oreo Black Strandz, Treasures & Text, Trinkets; Scattered Sprinkles: Treasures & Text; Enamel Dots: Bell Pepper, Cotton Candy; Enamel DooDads: Oreo Black

Mixed Media: Thinking Beyond The Scrapbook Page

With the addition of our new specialty papers, Clear Cuts and Invisibles, we've challenged our designers to think beyond the scrapbook page and create projects of all kinds using different mediums.

Dry Erase Calendar, by Kelly Holbrook.

The first thing that I noticed about the Invisibles was their super smooth surface...perfect for a dry erase marker. Then, when I saw the calendar, I knew that I wanted to hang it right on the refrigerator. I trimmed down the month cards, and mounted them along with some embellishments onto magnets. The magnets are the only thing holding it together. This makes it easy to switch out embellishments and backgrounds as the months change.

Supplies:
Color Chaos: Peep Strandz, Gulf Strandz, Guacamole Strandz, Scallop Strandz, Months, Treasures & Text, Trinkets; Invisibles: Calendar; Classic Calenders: Ice Calendar & Borders, Treasures & Text; Scattered Sprinkles: Ice Sprinkles, Treasures & Text; Freestyle Sophisticates: Freestyle Banana; Lucky Starz: Treasures & Text, Trinkets

Receipt Holder, by Jennifer Edwardson.

I am forever just stuffing receipts and little pieces of paper in my purse so I decided to try and fix that by making this cute little accordion folder to keep them tidy! Here is how I did it:

• I cut this Invisible to 7" wide by cutting in from each side
• Then score at 3 1/2" from top point and same at bottom.  
• Gently fold to create the folds 
• I cut (4) pieces of white card stock to 6 3/4" horizontal by 6" vertical and folded each in half to create each mini 'file'
• Adhere them back to back so you have 3 pockets as shown
• Cut (8) strips of a Confetti Clear Cut to 1 x 3" and fold each in half
• Adhere this in between each piece of cardstock as shown; Be sure to adhere using a strong adhesive (I used Sook Wang)
• Add a brad to the front and add some twine to wrap around to secure closed
• Embellish inside if desired and enjoy!

Supplies:
Color Chaos: Gulf Strandz; Invisibles: First Love; Clear Cuts: Orange Confetti; Enamel Dots: Ice

"Love" mini book, by Jennifer Edwardson.

I absolutely LOVE the new Invisibles! There are so many fun things you can use them for. Not just layouts. I created this fun little mini book and I’ve included my instructions on how I created this so you can buy all the new Invisibles and create these on your own!

• For his project, I cut the edges off of 2 sides 1 1/2" in from each point 
• Score in half and fold and gently using the bone folder or ruler to tighten the crease
• Fold (5) 8.5 x 11" pieces of cardstock in half and round the right corners on all
• Using a Crop A Dile or other strong hole punch, punch (2) holes in 'spine' of 'book' 1" up from top & bottom
• Cut (2) Clear Cut Transparency sheets to 8.5 x 11" and do the same to create more pages; Mix in throughout the book as desired
• Thread twine or ribbon and through twice and tie off on the outside as shown
• Re-fold tightly to have it lay like a book and embellish as desired

Supplies:
Invisibles: Chit Chat; Clear Cut: Gulf Confetti, Guacamole Confetti; Color Chaos: Treasures & Text, Months, Words of Wisdom, Scallop Strandz, Gulf Strandz; Amorie Chipboard Alphas: Peep, White; Ciao Chipboard: Hearts and Stars; Campout: Chipboard Icons; Enamel Dots: Oreo Black, Ice; Enamel DooDads: Guacamole; Start Student: Trinkets; Simply Spring: Treasures & Text; Molly: Treasures & Text

"Fun At GB's House" mini album, by Stephanie Buice. 

My son recently took a trip to his grandparent’s house for almost an entire week, he had a blast spending the day with his cousins and other family. White he was away my sister in law sent me pictures almost every day of all the different adventures they went on, I loved getting to see it all and it made the sting of missing him a little less. I decided that I wanted to take all the pictures she sent and make them into a mini album of some sort, I wanted it to be colorful and simple, just something that Brady could have to look at and remember all the fun he had. The new Clear Cuts made the perfect little pages and mixed with some of the invisibles made such a sturdy little album that I knew he would love.

Supplies:
Clear Cuts: Blueberry Confetti, Gulf Confetti, Bell Pepper Confetti, Orange Confetti, Punch Confetti, Pickle Juice Confetti; Invisibles: Brilliant, Referee; Family Forever: Paper Pieces; Max: Treasures & Text, Paper Pieces; Star Student: Chipboard Icons; Halloween Magic: Paper Pieces; Tiny Tots: Treasures & Text; Play Date: Treasures & Text; Classic Calendars: Journaling Stickers; Color Chaos: Orange Strandz, Punch Strandz, Guacamole Strandz, Gulf Strandz, Bell Pepper Strandz, Blueberry Strandz, Trinkets, Treasures & Text; Ciao Chipboard: Symbols, Hearts & Stars; Enamel Dots: Bell Pepper, Punch, Cotton Candy, Guacamole; Enamel Doodads: Bell Pepper, Guacamole, Ice, Cotton Candy

What's New Wednesday

Welcome to "What's New Wednesday"! Every Wednesday, our designers will be sharing projects using the latest and greatest products from Bella Blvd. Especially our newest collections, which our designers are having so much fun creating with!

“Back To School”, by Kelly Holbrook.

I am loving the new Invisibles collection. I really enjoy the specialty shaped papers, and it's always a fun challenge for me to incorporate them onto an 8.5x11 page. Sometimes, I can find a good spot to trim them down to use for a background, but I usually cut shapes or borders from them. For this page, I just trimmed of one of the edges of a bracket shaped overlay, and used it as an arrow to draw the eye to my photo.

Supplies:
Star Student: International Studies, Art Journal, Daily Details, Star Student Invisibles, Treasures & Text, Trinkets; High Five Alpha Stickers: Brown-Cream, Color Wheel; Enamel DooDads: Ice; Enamel Dots: Milk White

“Dream Big”, by Jennifer Edwardson.

This past fall we made a huge move to another province, kind of on a whim and one of the biggest reasons was for this amazing school that Em and Alex were accepted into. I was excited to get this photo of them both on their first day in our family album and the Star Student collection is so great for all ages of school pics. I normally shy away from patterns that have maps, but I really was drawn to the tone on tone of this paper and the coordinating 4 x 6" journal card. The text on all these pieces were so right. I have always told them both to dream big!

Supplies:
Star Student: International Studies, Chemistry, Borders, Daily Details; Amorie Chipboard Alphas: White; Color Chaos: Treasures & Text; Enamel Dots: Ice 

“Nerd Alert”, by Allyson Meinholz.

The very first time I saw the NEW Star Student Collection and the eyeglass icon, I knew I had the perfect photos. I wanted to highlight the photo of my godson being a NERD for Halloween. I also included the photo of him with my daughter as a bumblebee (her nickname is "B"). They have been buddies since day one. I thought there was a great play on words with the Words of Wisdom paper from the Color Chaos collection – “Be Silly, Be Honest, Be Kind, and Be the best version of you”.

Supplies:
Star Student: Geek Chic, Art Journal, Daily Details, Treasures & Text, Star Student Invisibles, Chipboard Icons; Color Chaos: Words Of Wisdom, Blueberry Strandz; Tiny Tots: Chipboard Icons; We’re Expecting: Chipboard Icons; Enamel Dots: Oreo Black

“The World Is Yours”, by Sheri Feypel.

I had a pile of product that I wanted to use when creating this layout. I wanted to mix the Clear Cuts with the Invisibles and the Star Student paper line. I love all of the sentiments on the Daily Details page and had to add them in. Some great advice for my High School Senior! I picked my favorite ones and built the layout around them. For the final touches I added enamel dots, stickers and buttons. 

Supplies:
Star Student: Art Journal, Brainiac, International Studies, Chemistry, Borders, Daily Details, Treasures & Text, Trinkets, Typewriter Clear Cut; Invisibles: Referee; Enamel Dots: Guacamole

“Keep Calm” card, by Diana Fisher.

The Star Student collection makes it so easy to send off trendy cards for the student in your life. For graduation, a reward for a grade well-earned, or to celebrate a milestone, this collection will make it easy to whip up a fun card.

Supplies:
Star Student: Geek Chic, Daily Details, Trinkets

“Congrats” card, by Kathy Martin.

Ah Clear Cuts how I love thee let me count the ways! One of the ways I thought I could show off just how cool these new transparencies are was to create a see-through card front. How cool does this look?!?! Easy to accent as you don’t want to cover up too much of the Clear Cut. The little owl from the Daily Details sheet was the perfect size focal point accented with a Trinket tag and Enamel DooDads star.

Supplies:
Star Student: Brainiac, Daily Details, Treasures & Text, Trinkets, Artistic Clear Cuts; Enamel DooDads: Oreo Black

“You're A Star” card, by Ashley Marcu.

Star Student is one of my favorite collections in this release. I know I'm going to use it a lot! I started this card with the Borders paper and then added a cluster of embellishments around the sentiment found in Daily Details.   

Supplies:
Star Student: Borders, Daily Details, Art Journal, Chipboard Icons, Treasures & Texts; Enamel DooDads: Blueberry

“Thanks Teacher” card, by Ashley Marcu.

Star Student lends itself to so many great teacher cards. I started this card by die cutting the word thanks and layering over a journaling card cut from Daily Details. I wanted "thanks" to stand out so I placed a piece of designer tape behind it to add interest and mute the background in just that spot.

Supplies:
Star Student: Borders, Daily Details, Treasures & Texts; Campout: Treasures & Texts

Fabric Style

Today we are switching things up, and instead of featuring projects using our paper collections, we are sharing projects created with our fabric collections!

Backseat Organizer, by Jen Chesnick.

When you have kids you need to be organized am I right? Or at least TRY to be. I've had several different ways of in the car organization and I have not found that just right item. Enter the car seat organizer.

I knew we needed a little bit of a check list. Can it be washed? Does it have multiple size compartment? Can my kiddo reach it and get things out easily? Is it cute? LOL. I found this seat caddy on pinterest and I decided it would work great (tutorial found HERE).

I didn't follow the breakdown of pocket sizes, I made my own. I also used Kam Snaps and fabric for the headrest ties. I omitted the rings as I didn't need them.

Be sure to use extra firm interfacing to keep the pockets holding up. You could even add elastic to the bias binding instead of pleats. 

Supplies:
Bella Blvd Puppy Park fabric for Riley Blake Designs, Thermoweb Interfacing Extra Firm & Fusiable Fleece, Kam Snaps & Pliers, sewing machine, notions  

Organized and Ready Bag, by Kathy Frye.

This little accessory is just the right bag for going anywhere, filled with whatever you need! It features a fun and colorful variety of Bella Blvd cotton fabrics (from several different lines, but they all blend together perfect). 

Love the multi-color stripe fabric, I used it in both directions for a subtle detail. Added a little more detail with an applique heart, some buttons and ribbons on the zippers. 

There are 3 clear zipper pockets to keep jewelry, makeup, hair accessories, or sewing items organized and clearly visible. I put an extra pocket on the back for notes, patterns or photos, so it is great for travel or workshops! 

Supplies:
Bella Blvd Snapshots fabrics for Riley Blake Designs, Bella Blvd Sunny Happy Skies fabrics for Riley Blake Designs, Bella Blvd Summer Breeze fabric for Riley Blake Designs, thread, clear vinyl, zippers, fusible fleece, ribbons, velcro  

Clear Tote Bag, by Kathy Frye.

Even though this is a clear bag, it has plenty of color! I used the large floral (look at the fun details in those flowers!) and striped fabrics from Bella Blvd's Snapshots fabric line. The front of the bag has a wide band of the pink floral and a clear pocket with a little stripe heart. The bag back has an aqua floral band with a little rick rack detail and another stripe heart applique. Because the bag is see through, the hearts are visible from the front and back, so I fused smaller hearts to the wrong side of each heart. Zipper top to keep those treasure safe!

Supplies: 
Bella Blvd Snapshots fabric for Riley Blake Designs, clear vinyl, thread, rick rack, zipper, fusible web product, strapping for handles, bias tape

Izzy Top, by Jen Chesnick.

Spring is just around the corner (thank goodness!) that means I am ready to start working on projects that can transition from spring to summer and so on. I found this free pattern (found HERE) and thought it was a great looking pattern. The Izzy is easy to sew and can be layered with turtlenecks and cardies. It took me roughly an hour to complete and the fit was perfect. Clearly someone loved it! 

Supplies:
Bella Blvd Summer Breeze fabric for Riley Blake Designs; sewing notions

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Riley Blake Designs markets our fabrics under Stephanie Hunt as the designer. When purchasing or searching the Riley Blake website it's actually easier & more efficient to find the Bella Blvd fabrics under "Stephanie Hunt" as the artist.

Monday Morning Challenge: Patterned Paper & Clear Cuts

REMINDER: Submissions for our 2015 Creative Team Call are due Tuesday, February 24th. Just two days left to get your submissions in!

Welcome to Monday Morning Challenge, where we offer up a challenge, and share with you our designers take on that challenge. Today we asked our designers to create projects that incorporate patterned paper and our new Clear Cuts layered together.

"The Graduate", by Leanne Allinson.

I've used today's challenge to create a full layout sized, shaker card by layering the gold Confetti Clear Cuts and Lucky Starz Scallop patterned paper. Between the two, I've sandwiched gold and black sequins and then stitched the confetti clear cuts and patterned paper together to the background cardstock. What makes this layout even more celebratory is the documentation of my son's school graduation speech. The touches of Star Student are easily adhered to the clear cuts surface with double sided tape and a little clear glue on the chipboard alphas.

Supplies:
Color Chaos: Scallop Strandz; Star Student: Borders, Chipboard Icons, Trinkets; Lucky Starz: Scallop Starz; Clear Cuts: Gold Confetti; Amorie Chipboard Alphas: White

“Hello Beautiful”, by Jamie Harder.

I love to use transparencies on my projects and I really enjoyed this challenge to layer transparency paper with patterned paper! I decided to make a border around my page and I love the look of the dots and stripes mixed together!

Supplies:
Color Chaos: Treasures & Text, Just Write Journaling, Oreo Blank Strandz; Star Student: Daily Details; Clear Cuts: Punch Confetti; Enamel Dots: Punch; Ciao Chipboard: Hearts & Stars; Amorie Chipboard Alphas: Peep

“Congrats” card, by Ashley Marcu.

Layering in Clear Cuts adds such a fun element to cards. I cut a banner shape and layered it between patterned paper and my embellishments. It's so simple to cut and use and I love the look! 

Supplies:
Star Student: International Studies, Chemistry, Art Journal, Daily Details, Treasure & Texts, Artistic Clear Cut; Designer Tape: Red Chevron; Enamel DooDads: Blueberry

“Love You to the Moon” card, by Ashley Marcu.

On this card I added the Woodgrain Clear Cut right over the top of the basic grey stripe from Color Chaos. This turns the basic in to the woodsy theme and fits my card perfectly. 

Supplies:
Color Chaos: Scallop Strandz; Campout: In The Woods, Borders, Daily Details, Treasures & Texts; Star Student: Chipboard Icons; Designer Tape: Grey Chevron; Simply Spring: White Woodgrain Clear Cut

Free-4-All Projects

Today we are sharing some free-for-all projects from our designers, where they have free reign to use whatever collections they like as they create. 

“Waiting on Sunshine”, by Nicole Nowosad.

The new Clear Cuts and Invisibles are perfect for adding a layer without the appearance of added bulk. I was able to punch through the Clear Cuts and Invisibles easily with my circle punch to layer on my page.

Supplies:
Simply Spring: Eggstravaganza, Sunshine, Dancing in the Rain, Treasures & Text, Trinkets, Chipboard Icons, Clouds Clear Cuts, Scramble Invisible; Campout: Let’s Go Camping; Color Chaos: Ice Strandz, Orange Strandz; Ciao Chipboard: Hearts & Stars; High Five Alpha Stickers: Color Wheel; Bella Bows: Bell Pepper; Enamel Dots: Blueberry, Guacamole

“Shine Bright”, by Wendy Antenucci.

I had so many pictures that I wanted to include on my layout of Easter 2014 and I didn't want my layout to feel too strict or cluttered so I chose to use a split design. I used the Cloud Clear Cut on one side of my page which mostly held my photos, some journal stickers, and my title. While my left side of my page held the color and designs. I chose to unite my page using yellow pops of color. I also added some touches of green to give the feel of the grass and give my pictures somewhere to rest. The chipboard icons and Bella Bows were the perfect finishing touches to add some depth and texture to an otherwise streamlined layout. I actually didn't create these pages to go together. I had an extra photo after creating the one side so I decided to start off with similar materials to scrap the photo. By using the same color scheme and patterns, the two separate pages easily become a 2-pager without any stress!

Supplies:
Simply Spring: Clouds Clear Cut, Borders, Gingham, Daily Details, Trinkets, Chipboard Icons, Treasures & Text; Clear Cuts: Bell Pepper Confetti; High Five Alpha Stickers: Brown-Cream; Ciao Chipboard: Borders, Flowers & Clouds; Bella Bows: Blueberry

“My Sunshine” card, by Ashley Marcu.

I combined the adorable hedgehog with the supper sweet colors from the Simply Spring collection. I kept the alphas the same tone was the background so the other embellishments would shine!

Supplies:
Simply Spring: Dancing in the Rain, Hippity Hop, Spring Patchwork, Treasures & Texts, Chipboard Icons; Enamel DooDads: White

“My Sunshine” card, by Laurie Schmidlin.

This card features many of my favorite Bella items! I started with a piece of patterned paper from the new Simply Spring collection and then layered on a piece of Clouds Clear Cut paper. So that the overlay of the Clear Cut would be more noticeable, I added dimensional tape behind all of the solid items (the border at the top and the flowers). I decorated the front with some coordinating stickers and Ciao Chip Icons. For embellishment, I added a Saltwater Bella Bow and a Pink Flower Bella Button.

Supplies:
Simply Spring: Daily Details, Treasures & Text, Clouds Clear Cut, Chipboard Icons; Bella Bows: Saltwater; Button Market: Pink Flowers

“You Make Me Happy” card, by Shellye McDaniel.

Clear Cuts can easily be die cut into just about any shape! Layer a piece that has been die-cut onto a contrasting patterned paper and then try machine stitching the two together. They sew so easily!

Supplies:
Simply Spring: Dancing In The Rain, Trinkets, Chipboard Icons, Clouds Clear Cut; Ciao Chipboard: Flowers & Clouds; Color Chaos: Ice Strandz

“Keep Calm & Hop On” card, by Kathy Martin.

Spring is my favorite season and the adorable new Simply Spring collection is perfect for capturing all the things I enjoy about the season! One of my favorite spring things is to create Easter decorations for the house and greeting cards for my friends and family. This greeting began with a phrase cut from the Daily Details sheet that I layered on a couple coordinating papers and topped with Ciao Chip and the all new and awesome Enamel Dots.

Supplies:
Simply Spring: Dancing in the Rain, Gingham, Treasures & Text, Daily Details, Chipboard Icons; Enamel Dots: Milk White, Bell Pepper, Cotton Candy

“Beautiful Sunshine” card, by Morgan Bandkowski.

I used the spring patchwork paper and cut the pieces apart and then reconfigured them inside the card. I left the white border on the pieces to help them to pop of the green gingham background. I used pop dots on three of the pieces. 

Supplies: 
Simply Spring: Spring Patchwork, Gingham