Bella Blvd Studio Blog

One more Card, saluting Memorial Day

How was your Memorial Day? Sheri Feypel brings us our last and final holiday card. We're loving the mixture of products here from Sophisticates to Mr. Boy. 

Also, featuring the Doilies Unity Stamp Set.

Happy Memorial Day

Remembering our veterans and service men & women today as we honor Memorial Day. Remember to tell those close to you how much you love them!

Card created by Therese Hennessy of PolkaDots Scrapbooking store in Mukwonago, Wisconsin. Products featured include Bella Blvd's Sophisticates Collection, Family Dynamix Alpha +Bits Stickers, and co-branded Unity Stamp Itty Bitty tree.

Service Men Layout: Preparing for Memorial Day

Wendy created this beautiful layout using an old-time photograph, documenting a member of her family's commitment to the United States while he was in the service in 1944.

Check it how cool this is! The layout even has his original dog tags secured to it! What a great piece of memorabilia. Love how Wendy spritzed the Baby Blooms a Bella to make them a bit rustic and more manly.

What a wonderful reminder of all the men and women that give their lives for our country. Wherever you are this Memorial Day weekend we wish you happiness.

Memorial Day Weekend

"BBQ Face"

By: Sheri Feypel

What are you doing this weekend for Memorial Day? So many people head out of town, get together with their families and just enjoy the kick-off to summer. This weekend we've got some fun inspiration for you from backyard BBQ's to honoring the men in service. Be sure to stop by each day this weekend for special posts celebrating the holiday!Bella Materials Used:

Patterned Paper: From the Family Dynamix Collection: Roots, The Littlest Things. From the Mr. Boy Collection: Heroes, Hyper Stripe, Connect the Dots, Quadrants.

Cardstock Stickers: Mr. Boy's Alpha+Bits, Sophisticates Milk & Oreo Quattrofina alphabets.

Also, we have some exciting news coming soon about a new design team and employees that will be added to our team! There's a lot of fun stuff going on in the studio including new product designing, organizing some fabulous guest bloggers in June and preparing for CHA with yet another booth make-over! We can't wait to tell you more......we will next week, we promise!

Handmade Wednesday: Midterm

"We are in the..." Hanging Sign

By: Michelle Lanning

I made this sign to hang outside my classroom door.  In case there is anyone looking for my class, or a late student, they can see 2 of the places we most likely will be (the library or the computer lab).  I can't wait to use it!  And it is so easy to make!  For the little pocket, I simply cut the corners of a ziploc bag and glued them to the board.  You could also use a name tag badge, or velcro, but I used what I had on hand, and I think it will work just fine!

Bella Materials Used:

Patterned Paper: From the Midterm Collection: Steve's Keys, Pep Rally

Cardstock Stickers: Quattrofina Milk & Oreo alphabet stickers (Sophisticates Collection)

Ciao Chip: Simply Simona McIntosh alphabets (Sophisticates Collection), Icons shapes (Tail Waggers & Cat Naps collection)

More Midterm

So yesterday we told you how great Midterm is for your teenagers & high schoolers. Today Allyson is showing how versatile it is for the little peeps too!

The Midterm collection's colors are bright & happy for grade schoolers too!

 

Featuring Midterm

Well it's graduation season! Have you been invited to some grad parties, or planning one of your own? As school comes to an end it's a great time to document accomplishments from the year. 

The Midterm collection has some great patterned papers and cardstock stickers for your teen/high schooler. Check out today's layout share created by Laura Vegas.

"Freshman Yr"Love the title wrapping on the circle element (and all the stitching too!)

The alarm clock element is from the embellishment paper, Cute Cuts. It's been a popular piece because so many moms can relate to waking up kiddos every morning for school! Here's a look at the full sheet with all the other elements!

Laura also used several borders from the Borders N' Blocks embellishment paper! I just love how to use the post-it notes to add dimension to her layout.Here's the full sheet of Borders N' Blocks and all the pieces it has to offer!

Hope this helps get you in the graduation/finsihing school-season spirit! Have a great Monday!

Make Your Own Gift Card Holder

A standard gift card measures 3.5 inches wide x 2 inches tall. Your gift card holder needs to be bigger than that obviously!

Start by cutting a sheet of patterned paper to roughly 4.5 inches wide x 8 inches tall.
{don’t sweat it though! none of the measurements here need to be exact!}
(I used a sheet of Ice Sprinkles & Lace 12X12 Sophisticates Paper to make my gift card holder.)Use a corner rounder to round the top 2 corners. This is really an optional step. You don’t have to do this. I just think it looks prettier!Then fold! Fold the bottom up ~1.5 to 2 inches from the top of the card.Then fold the top part down so that it overlaps.Unfolded, your card will look like this:

See how easy this is?! The card part is done & now you just need to make a little sleeve-thingy to go around the card to hold it together.

Cut a strip of paper 1.5 to 2 inches wide and ~10 inches long. (I used the flowery strip from the Borders N' Blocks 12X12 Family Dynamix Collection Paper)

I wanted to add some pink so I used the back of the Borders N' Blocks 12X12 Family Dynamix Collection Paper and cut a strip slightly wider than the flowery strip.Then I adhered the flowery strip onto the pink strip.

Okay, now fold the strip around the card holder.Adhere it together with strong adhesive and then trim off the excess. Now you have a little sleeve-thingy that you can slide on & off the gift card holder.

But you still need to embellish this thing a little better to make it cuter! Add stickers, die cuts, flowers, punches, bling as desired to get the look you want. This is a good place to add a sentiment too! (I used chipboard from Icons Family Dynamix Chipboard Stickers  and Ice & Chlorine Ciao Chip Essentials Chipboard Stickers to embellish my sleeve.)

And voila! Adhere a gift card inside and you have your own hand made a gift card holder!

Here is another example using just patterned paper from Family Dynamix!

It's easy peasy, inexpensive, and a fun way to jazz up a boring gift card!

Be sure to visit Gretchen's Blog for more fun ideas and inspiration!

Family Dynamix Inspiration?

Has summer rolled around yet in your neighborhood? Gosh, here in Wisconsin I don't think it's ever going to arrive. To help cheer us up and get thinking about those warm days we've got some great summer-themed inspiration for you today featuring the Family Dynamix products.

"State Fair Food"

By: Katherine McElvain

That's what I love about the Family Dynamix collection, it's so versatile for lazy days outside, summer fun, picnics and everyday stuff! Check out this adorable tin created by Terese Hennessy!Inside are individual page-cards that you can add to year-after-year with summer memories, or turn them into a mini album by binding them with key rings!

(Love all those flowers cut out, popped-up and layered!)

 

Kit Alert! (Keep reading)

2 Katie Designs has just released their newest kits for May and guess what? It featured our Tail Waggers & Cat Naps products! Here's a peek at the new Furry Friends Layout Kit!

This kit offers an options for animals lovers to complete a layout for EITHER a cat or day-or a combination of both. The 2 Page Layout Kit comes with full set of alphabets to personalize the page with your pet name too! And it's only $14! Get yours today!

Oh, and I'm giving away all 6 Simply Simona Chipboard alphabets over at my personal blog today! Stop by and enter to win, it's easy!

Altering Your Sticker Letters

Do you use the same sticker letters often, but want to change them up a bit once in a while? This is a great technique to do just that! Bella's new variety of sticker letters are fantastic and I always have them handy in my go-to stash. For this recent layout I decided to alter the stickers by adding some shine & sparkle with the help of a little embossing powder! Here's what you'll need...

Sticker letters (I used Bella's Quattrofina Alphabets Peep & Saffron), a versamark stamp pad, an embossing heat gun and embossing powder. Start by placing the sticker letters you plan to use your layout onto parchment paper. Then use a versamark stamp pad and sponge it on top of the stickers generously. Sprinkle embossing powder over the letters and shake off the excess.

Next, use a heat gun for a few seconds to emboss. This will create a shiny, sparkly look on your letters. (On the final layout you can see I used this same technique on the paper flowers)

Here's the altered letters close up!

Don't forget about yesterday's giveaway! You still have time to join the fun, or send your friends over for more chances to win the darling Sunny Happy Skies Unity Stamp set! Check out the details here!

Giveaway, or two....

Clouds are all over the scrapbooking industry right now! Even Bella Blvd has a couple cloud prints that have been best sellers! That's why we've turned some of our darling cloud designs into Unity Stamps!

Sheri Feypel played with this Sunny Happy Skies stamp set to create a dimension layout to inspire you today! The stamp set is part of our co-brand with Unity Stamp Co. and is currently for sale on the Unity site for $19.00

Sheri stamped the clouds on some of the Family Dynamix patterns and then trimmed them out and popped them up! See stamps can be used on layouts too ;)

Here's the final result! Don't you just love the little pennant flags sticking out the clouds? I just love those handmade embellishments!

Get in on the giveaway today by sending a friend to check out today's post:

1. First, leave a comment below.

2. Next tell a friend to check today's post out and be sure she leaves a comment below saying, "Stephanie (your name) sent me!"

The TWO of you can win some Bella goodies just for playing along! The more friends you tell, the more chances you have to win!

"You're You" by Laura Vegas

For my tutorial today, I want to show how to recycle and repurpose the packaging from one of my new favorite Bella Blvd products: The Ciao Chiptm Simply Simona alphabets are amazing! i just love the colors, the printed text, and the fonts!   One way to get the most bang for your buck, is to not only use the actual product, but to use the packaging as well. And the Ciao Chips are a perfect example of some great packaging!   Step 1 - I had used quite a few letters from this red set of Ciao Chips. Even though I had a good amount left, I was already thinking of what I could do with the packaging after the letters were all punched out. It's a good sized sheet (approx. 6x12"), and would look great on a layout. It would sort of give the look of pattern paper, but with a lot more dimension and interest. You could also cut this into pieces, to use in smaller areas or on cards.   Step 2 - There's no need to wait until you've emptied the entire package. Punch out any remaining letters from the packaging, and put them off to the side. I like to store my loose alphas in small, clear baggies, that I simply toss them in with the rest of my Ciao Chip alphas.   Step 3 - Now you will have a full sheet of the chipboard, with all the letters taken out. Normally, this might be something I would throw away. But the printed text on the red chipboard is way too cool to throw away! Step 4 - To get this piece ready to add to my layout, I trimmed off the top and bottom with some heavy duty scissors. Originally, I left a little bit of the pink scallop showing on the top part of the sheet. But in sizing up my layout, I ended up trimming that part off, so that the entire piece was just red. Step 5 - Since the Ciao Chips are adhesive backed, this means that the entire sheet of chipboard has adhesive on it. This makes it super simple to adhere to our project. You just peel off that entire backing piece and you're ready to adhere it. Step 6 - My intention was to stick this directly onto my background cardstock. But after making some other design decisions, I realized this would be going onto green cardstock. I still wanted the empty spots from the letters to be white. So I simply cut a piece of white cardstock, just slightly smaller than my chipboard piece, and adhered them together.   Step 7 - You can see here where I have added my chipboard piece to my layout, along with some cardstock and patterned paper.    Step 8 - To add a little interest to your layout, you can add embellishments to some of the empty areas of the chipboard. I took some coordinating buttons, and added them to the larger spots created from the b, d, g, p, and o. And here is my finished layout. Another fun idea that comes to mind, when i see these Ciao Chips, is using the large chipboard piece as a mask. After removing all the letters, place the piece on some cardstock, and spritz right over it with misting sprays. You would end up with a really fun misted alphabet block. Try looking at your packaging in a new way. Think of ways you can incorporate them onto your layouts and cards.

Tail Waggers & Cat Naps

"Daily Routine"

By: Stephanie Hunt

`

"...& Puppy Dog Tails"

By Tanisha Long

Announcing the Winner

Congratulations to Angie Gutshall of James Creek, Pennsylvania you are the First Place Winner! Our team just loved your splashes of color, layout design, journaling and handmade embellishments! 

We also couldn't help but choose two runners-up that will receive a package of goodies too! Congratulations to:

Bri Johnson who created this darling home decor piece after the poem, "Excuse This House".

and Jennifer Chapin for this darling layout that mixes and matches Family Dynamix, Sophisticates and Midterm all in one! We loved the hidden journaling pocket too!

 

Ladies, be sure to check your email and watch your mailbox for your fun prizes to arrive soon!

Dwindling down the submissions was quite the task, but was a ton of fun! Thank you for all the beautiful layouts and submissions from all the creative moms! It's pretty amazing how much each and every one of you gets accomplished in one day, and that you still find the time and creative energy to scrapbook; thank you for sharing your stories with us!