Bella Blvd Studio Blog

Saturday Sketches

It's time for another round of Saturday Sketches. Twice 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 the month of December. Nothing like getting it in on the last day of the year ;)

"New Years Eve Twenty Ten", by Megan Klauer.

I love how the Making the Team collections works perfectly for my bowling themed layout! I also mixed in a few of my favorites from the Sophisticates collection. The Calendars sheet may be my all time favorite. I have used it so many times for layouts, cards, & in my Smash book. Rather than using the exact sized photos that were shown in the sketch, I chose to use the ever so popular "instagram" photos. However, mine are created in photoshop as I am way too lame for something as cool as an iphone or ipod!

Supplies:
Making the Team: Wall of Fame, Alpha+Bits stickers, Miniatures Stickers, Chipboard Icons; Sophisticates: Short Stories, Tall Tags, Calendars, Miniatures Stickers, & Simply Simona Letters

"Weather Forecast", by Katherine McElvain.

This is the time of year when we are all busy, and if I am going to scrapbook I gotta ta gett'r done quick!! This was the perfect, simple sketch to crank out a layout in no time at all. I really wanted to scrapbook this picture of my son, but I didn't have 4 photos to use to match the sketch, so I shrank the original sketch idea down to be an insert in the center of my layout. I substituted the two photos on the right with a the red journaling sticker and made the title the main attraction. I also didn't want to make a big mess so I didn't even get out the paper trimmer. I simply reached for a few Bella Blvd sticker sheets and some alphas, added a couople extra embellishments, some doodles and called it finished!

Supplies:
Winter Wonder: Miniatures, Just Write Journaling Stickers, Alpha+Bits; Spring Flings and Easter Things: Miniatures; Simply Simona Chipboard Alphas: Brownie; Quattrofina Alpha Stickers: Milk & Oreo

"2011 Holiday", by Jamie Harper.

I love working with sketches, since it makes scrapbooking so fast and easy! I chose to follow it pretty close to the actual sketch. It allows your brain to take a creative rest but still get your scrapbooking done at the same time. I love these color combinations in the Winter Wonderland collection. It went perfect with my photos.

Supplies:
Winter Wonder: Icy, Alpha+Bits stickers

"Christmas", by Nancy Damiano.

The minute I saw these cute little penguins in the Christmas Wishes line, I knew I had to do this page. The penguin sweater outfit was one of my favorites when my son was a baby. It even made it on to our Christmas cards that year. Couple the penguin cuteness with this great sketch and voila - one quick, colorful Christmas layout!

Supplies: 
Christmas Wishes: Borders Paper, Quadrants Paper, North Pole Paper, Alpha+Bits, Journaling Stickers and Icons Ciao Chip

"Snow Day" card, by Kathy Martin.

I love this page sketch and found it to be perfect for a square greeting card! Since we’re just beginning winter, I thought it would be fun to use the Bella Blvd. Winter Wonder collection and create something with these adorable snowmen!

Supplies:
Winter Wonder: Snow Day, Blizzard, Icy, Borders, Toasty, Alpha+Bits stickers

"Celebrate Together" card, by Gretchen McElveen.

What a great sketch to work with and once again I am loving the Cute Cuts! I mean, how cute are these little penguins (pun intended!)! Cut them out of the patterned paper, attach them using foam adhesive, and you have a simple embellishment that adds some nice dimension to your project!

Supplies:
Christmas Wishes: Borders, Cute Cuts, Alpha + Bits Stickers, Just Write Journaling Stickers

We hope you will take some creative time for yourself, and try out our sketch! Whether it's a card, or a layout, we would love to see what you come up with. You can link them here in the comment section, or share them on our Facebook page!

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I also want to announce our randomly choosen winner from Stephanie's giveaway from last week.

Congrats Lisa! Email me at lauravegas.bellablvd@yahoo.com, with "STEPHANIE'S BLOG CHRISTMAS GIVEAWAY WINNER" in the subject line, and we'll get your goodies on their way to you!

Everyone here at Bella would like to wish you a very Happy New Year's!!!
We will see you next year, right back here on the blog ;)

Fridays With Stephanie

Holy cow! The weeks are flying by even faster than I can keep track. CHA preparation is in absolute full swing around the studio (and in California too as Laura is workin’ around the clock to help me get everything organized for our booth display at CHA). How much do you know about CHA?

Well, this is what we are preparing for! When we release brand new products we take them to the Craft & Hobby Trade Show, and then display them for our retail customers, distributors, international customers, partners and more. There’s a ton of inspiration ideas and layouts that are brand new and have been created just for the show. In my opinion it’s the epitome of inspiration!

Well, hours upon hours upon hours go into preparing for this weeklong show. The photo above is a snapshot of the Bella Blvd booth at our last show in July, CHA Summer in Chicago. The nuts and bolts will remain the same for our upcoming show … but the product is SURE TO BLOW YOU AWAY!

I promise!

We are releasing our biggest product program to date and introducing a bunch of new embellishments this time around. I can’t wait to share with you what’s in the works. In just a couple of weeks our sneak peeks will begin and our DT will be sharing peeks of their projects too! I can hardly wait. So here’s the first official sneak peek. It’s trendy right now, and hot in several different industries! Can you get what it is?

You’ll just have to wait for the full reveal! In the meantime you can enjoy my fun little posts to our Facebook page for hints of my excitement as samples begin arriving from our vendors in the states and internationally. It’s like Christmas joy all over again ;)

Until then, I have a layout I’d love to share with you today that I made with the Spring Flings & Easter Things Collection.

My sweet cousin, Josie turned 15 last year and is becoming quite the beautiful young woman.  I was able to capture some portraits of her last fall, and with the neutral outfit she was wearing it gave me the opportunity to play with any colors and patterns I wanted!

Creating a paper ruffle is a fun technique that I’ve been using a lot lately.

By just creating a long strip of patterned paper and folding/pleating over and over again creates this fun-textured embellishments. The best part about paper ruffles is that they don’t completely flatten when put in an album. That is, if you keep your albums stored vertically! ;)

I’ve been super inspired to scrapbook lately, and I’m pretty sure because all my most recent designs are finally coming to life! I’m hoping this holiday weekend that I’ll get away from “work” for a few hours and enjoy a bit of creating.

Chat soon! Hugs!

Cards on Thursday

Today is all about the cards. It's a free-for-all day for our Card Designers, and I love that we have a mix of Christmas cards, winter cards, and Valentines/Love cards. Let's see what they came up with for us!

"Celebrate The Holiday Together", by Alice Carman.

I know that Christmas is over, but I know some of us are still getting our cards out to family and friends. Or maybe you get together to celebrate after the actual holiday, so you still have time to make some cards. If so, here are a few ideas. I used Bella Blvd’s Christmas Wishes collection to design this card and a few stickers to tie it all together using the Christmas Wishes Alpha+Bits. 

Supplies:
Christmas Wishes: Trees for Sale, Quadrants, Alpha+Bits stickers, Chipboard Icons

"Merry Christmas" card, by Alice Carman.

Here’s another way to bring some Christmas joy to someone. Using Bella Blvd’s Christmas Wishes and December Details collection I created this card. I mixed the lines again and because the color tones are so close I was able to tie everything together.

Supplies:
Christmas Wishes: Candlelight, Star Stripe, North Pole, Christmas Love, Borders; December Details: Label Additions

"Stay Warm" card, by Deanna Misner.

One thing I love about the Winter Wonder collection is just how versatile the color schemes can be. I LOVE that it includes my fave color combo of blues and reds, but it also can go warm and cozy with the pinks and browns. Both of these cards are from the same collection, but it's almost as if you'd never know it. And I love that!

Supplies:
Winter Wonder: Alpha+Bits, Cute Cuts, Just Write

"Baby It's Cold Outside" card, by Deanna Misner.

Supplies:
Winter Wonder: Toasty, Blizzard, Borders, Just Write

"Us Forever" card, by Wendy Wagner.

I thought I would embrace the next upcoming holiday, since it is my favorite! And we all know how much I love PINK! Here are two cards you can use just for a loved one or for Valentine's Day! I used Sophisticates and the cheveron paper from the new Spring Flings & Easter Things line, chipboard letters, and words. Tied it off with a little twine and there you have it, a simple card.

Don't forget to add something fun to the inside of the card.

"Love You More" card, by Wendy Wagner.

Can you believe there are only two more days left in 2011? That means we only have two posts left for the year. Stephanie will be here tomorrow, for her "Fridays With Stephanie" post. And then on Saturday, New Year's Eve, we will have our second Saturday Sketches share for December.

Layouts On Wednesday

It's time for another free-for-all layout day, here on the blog. This is where our designers can choose to scrap about anything they want, using any collection they want. I know that a lot of us still have Christmas on our minds, since three of our four layouts are about Christmas. It's a great time to get some inspiration for all those photos you took over the holiday weekend! Design Team member Brook mentions in her write-up, that she's not great about scrapping events, like holiday and birthdays. And I have to completely agree with her, since I'm the same way. Fun to see that we both took the challenge, and dived into those event photos.

"Sheldon The Elf", by Lynn Ghahary.

I love the idea of mixing up the size of my layouts every once in awhile. For this layout I chose to use an 8.5 x 11 landscape orientation. The grid design was the perfect way to display several pictures of our newest addition to the family - Sheldon the Elf - as well as allowing me to add lots of patterned papers to my layout without overwhelming my photos. The Miniatures and Chipboard stickers added fun details to my already colorful page.

Supplies:
Christmas Wishes: Icons Chipboard Stickers, Miniatures Stickers, Borders, Cute Cuts, Candlelight, Christmas Love, Quadrants, North Pole; Family Dynamix: Alpha+Bits Stickers

"Christmas", by Laura Vegas.

If I was being totally honest, I really don't scrap a lot of Christmas layouts. But I have been feeling inspired lately, as I see all the amazing Christmas layouts from the other design team girls. Add in the adorable Christmas Wishes collection, and I just had to create a layout with photos from one of our family get togethers from last year. I started by creating a photo collage, with 16 favorite photos, and then I built my layout around it. While the Christmas Wishes has a great brown striped tone-on-tone pattern paper in it, the brown woodgrain paper from the Tail Waggers and Cat Naps collection is still my go-to brown pattern paper. I just love that one! I love that the chipboard pieces and stickers allowed me to add little touches of accent colors, without overwhelming my page. 

Supplies:
Christmas Wishes: Quadrants, Alpha+Bits stickers, Chipboard Icons; Family Dynamix: Quadrants; Tail Waggers & Cat Naps: Borders N' Blocks

"Turning 7", by Brook Stewart.

I am so terrible about scrapping events. I know I have lots of birthday and holiday photos that I havn't even looked at for years! But my oldest just had a birthday earlier this month. Everything was football themed and the Making the Team collection just paired so well with these photos that I was actually excited about scrapping them!

Supplies:
Making the Team: Wall of Fame, Quadrants, Cute Cuts, Alpha + Bits, Just Write Journaling Stickers, Ciao Chip Icons, Miniatures; Sophisticates: Quatrofina Alpha Stickers Milk & Oreo

"Christmas Memories", by Loredana Bucaria.

Hello everyone! Christmas has just passed, but I feel in the air a very fresh air and I think that everything is possible and can happen in this period! This is a page to celebrate my Christmas Eve 2011. It's incredible to already have a page with the most wonderful Christmas products collection! Christmas wishes! I love it, every single kind of product! Christmas Eve is the most wonderful day of the year I think! I love the surprises, the wait for midnight, and the magic that you can feel in the air! And you? How did you spent your Xmas eve? I love to be with family in the warmth of the home!

Supplies:
Winter Wonder: Toasty; Christmas Wishes: Cute Cuts, Borders, Alpha+Bits stickers, Ciao Chip; Sophisticates: Family; December Details: Label Additions 

Tuesday Inspiration

Welcome to another Tuesday Inspiration day, here on the Bella blog. Inspiration is all around us, and it's so interesting to see how a group of designers can all start with the same image, and be inspired by it in so many different ways.

{Image Credit: Photo Card Boutique}

"Our Not-So Merry Temperamental Elf", by Becky Williams.

I got so excited when I saw this month's color inspiration challenge. I love the blue and pink together and had fun searching through the current and older Bella collections to find papers to go along with this color scheme. I was able to incorporate the circles from the mug into my page through the use of the base of my layout and punched circles. I just love the Lovey Dovey grid paper so I punched out a circle including the " I ♥ U" and did some doodling around that circle to bring emphasis to it. I think that the pink and blue are such fun colors and brought out the blue of my baby girl's mood and the pink in her jammies. 

Supplies: 
Family Dynamix: Quadrants; Finally Fall: Apple Holler; Midterm: Text Me; Christmas Wishes: Trees for Sale, Alpha+Bits; Sweet Celebration: Stardust; Estate Sale: Nana's Apron; Winter Wonderland: Ski Slopes, Blizzard, Miniatures; Spring Flings and Easter Things: Egg Hunt, Cute Cuts, Alpha+Bits, Miniatures; Lovey Dovey: Bear Hugs, Sweetheart; All Inclusive: Ocean View; Sophisticates: Miniatures Card Sentiments, Quattrofina Saltwater and Pacific; Tail Waggers & Cat Naps: Alpha + Bits

"A Bond Stronger Than Glue", by Kimberly Neddo.

I'm really having fun with my IPhone and different apps. Lately I've been playing around with photographs I take on my phone in photoshop, and then printing them out. I LOVE this picture my daughter took of her and her brother and sister ... I can see using it over and over! :) For this layout I decided to choose a collection that went with the color pallet for this inspiration. The Platino line worked perfectly with this photograph. Can you see how it pulls out each of my children's eye colors? I like to add dimension to my layouts, so I simply added some pop dots and curled up the scalloped edge to draw interest around the page and keep it simple.

Supplies:
Plastino: Gardinia, Forget-Me-Nots, Label Additions; Sunny Happy Skies: Alpha+Bits

"Pure Beauty", by Julie Johnson.

When I first looked at inspiration photo, I immediately thought of a cold winter day. Here is California where I live we don't get too many chilly days, but I have spent many chilly hours in the ice skating rink watching my daughter practice. I can remember plenty of cups of hot cocoa or hot apple cider, so I decided to use a photo of my daughter on the ice. I also liked the simplicity of the photo so I wanted to keep my layout simple as well. My eye was drawn to the polka dots which I love, but to keep with the "chilly" feel, I decided to use snowflakes. I wouldn't have thought of this color scheme on my own, but I think it's beautiful, don't you? The photo I chose would not have matched in color so I decided to develop it in black and white and add to the overall beauty of the page. 

Supplies:
Sophisticates: Sprinkles & Lace Oyster and Ice, Quattrofina Salt Water & Pacific, Tall Tags; Winter Wonder: Miniatures, Alpha+Bits, Blizzard

"Loads Of Love" card, by Alice Carman.

From the Inspiration Image I used the colors to create a card. Don’t you just love this color combo? I used the blues, pink and the browns to create my card. I know my blues are a bit deeper in tone, but it still works. To create my card I used Bella Blvd’s Estate Sale and Lovey Dovey collection to tie it all together. Have you tried mixing two Bella Blvd collections together? That’s the great part about Bella Blvd’s product, you can mix and match across all the collections. I just love it!

Supplies:
Estate Sale: Hat Box, Linens; Lovey Dovey: Alpha+Bits, Bear Hugs, Circle of Love, Love is in the Air, Sweetheart, Boarders N Blocks

"Keeping Warm & Cozy" card, by Deanna Misner.

One trend I've noticed lately is incorporating negative space or shapes into projects, so I used my Cricut Expression to cut out the shape of a snowflake. Then, instead of using the actual snowflake, I used its negative shape as the focal point of my card. It's popped up with foam adhesive and outlined with clear Stickles. Then I hand-cut the pink snowflake from the Cute Cuts paper and added it to the center so that it would looked framed. Since my card still looked a little plain, I added brown velvet trim and the 2 stickers as a sentiment.

Supplies:
Winter Wonder: Blizzard, Borders, Cute Cuts, Alpha+Bits, Miniatures

We hope you can find some inspiration by this image as well, or even by one of the projects that our designers have shared today. We would also love it, if you shared your inspired-by projects with us. It's always fun for us to see what you're creating! Feel free to leave a comment here, with a link to your project. Or share it with everyone over on our Facebook Page.

December Daily Mini Album Update

We hope that everyone had a wonder Christmas weekend! Here we are, in the last week of December. How many of you worked hard all month on a December Daily album? Were you able to keep up with it, and give a good representation of your holiday month? Today, we have our Mini Album Designer, Wendy Morris, here to share an updated look at her December Daily album. It's really cool to see how it's all come together, over the last month.

"2011 December Daily" mini album, by Wendy Morris.

Hello all! Wendy here with you today, to share my completed December Daily album with you.  Earlier last month, I shared "behind-the-scenes" to the making of my December Daily Album found HERE. Now, that December is here (and almost gone) I enjoyed capturing & documenting the memories of the month.  I still have a bit of journaling to the daily pics, but all in all you can now see how it all came together.

Be sure to check out my blog, to catch all the days through 25th. I hope you all had a very Merry Xmas and here's a peek into my Daily.

Supplies:
Winter Wonder: Cute Cuts, Ski Slopes, Blizzard, Toasty;  Sophisticates: Tall Tags, Short Stories, Petite Pieces, Sprinkles & Lace McIntosh, Calendars; Socialite: Countdown; Hello Beautiful: Borders N' Blocks; Sweet Celebration: Stardust; Christmas Wishes: Christmas Love, North Pole, Borders; Tail Waggers & Cat Naps: Puppy Park; Man of the House: Distinguished; Finally Fall: At the Patch, Apple Holler, Cute Cuts; Simply Simona Chipboard Alphas, Simply SImona Chipboard Numbers 

Christmas Eve With Stephanie

It’s almost Christmas! Aren’t you excited to give the gifts you’ve purchased (or handmade) for the people that you love? Giving gifts is one of my favorite things ... that’s why I have a fun Christmas Giveaway for you (keep reading!)!

This pretty red stack of goodness has been shipped off to the Bella Blvd Design Team girls….just a small Christmas sentiment from me to each of them for all their hard work, enthusiasm and creativity! I saw on Pintrest how cute gifts look by just adding a paper doily to the wrapping, and I had to give it a try!

Now I’m hooked! Almost all my Christmas gifts this year have doilies attached! So cute, right?!

I’ve also baked plenty dozen cookies and delivered them to our neighboring business friends by Bella. Can’t go wrong with chocolate chip!

I can’t wait to show you what’s in store for 2012! Speaking of which, I just signed off on all Bella’s new paper proofs yesterday morning! It’s going to be heavenly when all our samples start rolling in. I’ve been keeping everything a secret (well, as much as possible) form the Design Team, the local Design Team, and even Laura has only seen a couple exclusive sneak peaks!

I’m so excited I can hardly wait. I’m like a little kid that just made something at school for my mom and wants to spoil the surprise by showing her ... I can’t wait to SHOW YOU THE NEW STUFF!

But, you’ll just have to wait until next year. Hehe ;)

In the meantime, I have a fun Christmas Giveaway for you today:

A $50 Bella Blvd product basket filled with papers, stickers, blooms, chipboard, a fun Bella Blvd water bottle and more! Just leave a comment below and a winner will be announced next week!

From all of us at Bella Blvd ... we wish you a very merry Christmas!

Surprise Birthday Blog Hop *GIVEAWAY WINNERS*

We just wanted to say a huge "Thank You" to all of you that made our Surprise Birthday Blog Hop for Stehanie such a huge success! We hope you enjoyed the hop, and we truely do appreciate all the birthday wishes that you left for Stephanie, throughout all of our blogs. If you havn't seen it yet, check out Stephanie's blog for a recap of her surprise!

Bella Blog Winner

Morgan Bandkowski Blog Winner

Becky Williams Blog Winner

Alice Carman Blog Winner

Diane Payne Blog Winner

Gretchen McElveen Blog Winner

Katherine McElvain Blog Winner

Kryssi Ng Blog Winner

Kimberly Neddo Blog Winner

Melissa Stinson Blog Winner

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Congrats to all our winners! Please email me at lauravegas.bellablvd@yahoo.com, with "SURPRISE BIRTHDAY BLOG HOP WINNER" in the subject line, and include whose blog you were chosen as the winner in your email, along with your mailing address.

A Christmas Mini Album

Stephanie was having some technical difficulties last night, so she will be posting her "Fridays With Stephanie" post tomorrow. On Saturday. Christmas Eve. I honestly cannot even believe that tomorrow is Christmas Eve! Until then, we have a Christmas mini album to share with you, from one of our Altered Project Designers!

"Christmas" mini album, by Jennifer Edwardson.

I absolutely LOVE Chip/Acrylic Albums from Clear Scraps and had the most fun putting this one together. It is their holiday themed album and the shapes are so cute. It is a really fun size at 6 1/2 x 12" so I was able to really use the whole Christmas Wishes collection!

I added a couple more chipboard pages to include a few more photos from Christmas last year.  I am a huge fan of 3D foam and used LOTS to really embellish this and make it full.

One of my favorite things about Bella product is all the fabulous cardstock stickers and shapes that I can precision cut to add to my projects. The Santa and reindeer may possibly be some all time faves.

I love how I can capture all the best moments of an event in an altered mini album and it can take me back to that time in an instant. Christmas 2010 was so much fun and creating this album was so much fun!

Supplies:
Christmas Wishes patterned papers and stickers; Simply Simona Chipboard Alphas   

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Keep your eyes out later this afternoon, when we will be announcing our randomly choosen winners from our Surprise Birthday Blog Hop.

Cards On Thursday

Today we have LOTS of Christmas cards for you. I love seeing all the photo cards that arrive in the mail from family and friends. But I have to admit, there is something really cool about receiving a handmade card. When you receive a handmade card, you know that the person giving it to you put time and care into piecing it together and making it special. Maybe you can't create cards for everyone on your list, but I bet your family and closest friends would love to get a card just like one of these this Christmas season!

"The Most Famous Reindeer Of All" card, by Alice Carman.

Here’s a fun card using Bella Blvd’s Christmas Wishes collection. Making Christmas cards is so fun with all the great colors in the Christmas Wishes collection. It’s hard not to make something cute. This line is so sweet and adorable and I had so much fun using it and making my greetings this year. 

Supplies:
Christmas Wishes: Trees for Sale, Quadrants, Miniatures, Borders, Just Write Journaling stickers

"Joy" card, by Alice Carman.

Christmas is coming and what better way to celebrate than to make some fun holiday greetings. I love layers on my cards and this card sure has them. Using Bella Blvd’s Christmas Wishes collection I cut out some shapes for my background. Layered more shapes using the journaling stickers and finished it off with Christmas Wishes stickers and Ciao Chips.

Supplies:
Christmas Wishes: Candlelight, Journaling stickers, Ciao Chip, Alpha+Bits, North Pole, Star Stripe, Quadrants; Family Dynamix: Alpha+Bits

"Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas" card, by Deanna Misner.

This card has so much depth and is so front-heavy that I actually had a hard time getting it to stand up! LOL! For this one I wanted to play with layering, so I piled on the elements--an accordion flower thingy, a chipboard tree, and then a wavy banner with the sentiment to top it off. I also accented the tree's details with a little sparkle because I love cards that have a little shimmer to them. 

Supplies:
Christmas Wishes: Star Stripe, Candlelight, Quadrants, Chipboard Icons, Alpha+Bits stickers

"Merry Christmas" card, by Deanna Misner.

I played with one of my punches and the idea of repetition, which ended up creating a quilt-like effect that I really like. Since the background was a little busy, I kept the rest simple by adding the blooms, a die-cut, and a quick sentiment.

Supplies:
Christmas Wishes: Quadrants, Borders; Blooms a Bella

"He's Making A List" card, by Gretchen McElveen.

I just love Bella Blvd's Cute Cuts patterned papers! I have yet to meet a sheet that I do not love! So I used the Cute Cuts sheet from Christmas Wishes to knock out 2 more Christmas cards!

Supplies:
Christmas Wishes: North Pole, Gifts Galore, Cute Cuts, Borders, Miniature Stickers

"Be Merry" card, by Gretchen McElveen.

Supplies:
Christmas Wishes: Candlelight, Borders, Christmas Love, Cute Cuts, Just Write Journaling Stickers, Chipboard Icons; Sophisticates: Quattrofina Cardstock Stickers (Brown & Cream)

"Hit The Slopes" card, by Kathy Martin.

I must be dreaming of a white Christmas because I choose to use the Winter Wonder collection and adorable snowmen images for both my cards! Merry Christmas to all!

Supplies:
Winter Wonder: Ski Slopes, Alpha+Bits

"You Melt My Heart" card, by Kathy Martin.

Supplies:
Winter Wonder: Toasty, Icy, Borders, Miniatures

Layouts On Wednesdays

Today is a free-for-all day for some of our layout designers, where they were free to scrap about anything they wanted too. We're going to give you a little Winter Wonder, a little Spring Flings & Easter Things, a little Lovey Dovey, and a little Christmas Wishes, all in one post! Let's see what our designers have for us.

"You Melt My Heart", by Vivian Masket.

I had fun creating embellishments for this page by handcutting elements (the snowmen from the Borders paper and the snowflake from the Cute Cuts paper) and combining elements (the punched circle behind my journaling combined with the Miniatures stickers). I turned my photo black and white, save for the carrot nose on the snowman. This allowed me to use the fun orange-y yellow color in the Winter Wonder line, and coordinating cardstock, as a prominent color in my design.

Supplies:
Winter Wonder: Borders, Icy, Blizzard, Cute Cuts, Miniatures Stickers

"First Fun Run", by Kim Arnold.

Who would have thought that a Spring/Easter collection would be the perfect collection to scrap about a fun run? Well, the fact that this fun run is held on Mother’s Day meant that it was just perfect! This collection is just so lovely and bright and was a pleasure to use.

Supplies:
Spring Flings and Easter Things: Egg Hunt, A Tisket A Tasket, Cute Cuts, Borders, Alpha & Bits, Miniatures; Sophisticates Simply Simona Alpha: Saltwater; Blooms a Bella: Bianca

"Absolute", by Sue Mylde.

The Lovey Dovey collection has always struck me as beautiful and I couldn't resist on using these beautiful papers on my daughter's recent photo close-ups. I love the ability of these papers to be layered and matched with one another. These papers offer a fun opportunity to fussy-cut flower pieces and I love creating clusters of embellishments to draw the viewer's eye to different focal points of the layout.To get a little contrast, I cut out the 'I Love You' arrow sentiment from the journaling stickers and also giving the layout a different perspective. I added some misting and paint to spice up the layout too. Getting messy is fun, isn't it?

Supplies:
Lovey Dovey: Love is in the Air, Circle of Love, Sweetheart, Bear Hugs, Lovey Dovey, Cute Cuts, Borders N Blocks, Alpha+Bits, Blurbs Journaling Stickers; Simply Simona Alphas: Saltwater

"Operation Photo Shoot", by Ebony van der Starre.
(a Summer CHA project)

On-Going Guest Designers: Carina Lindholm & Wendy Bretz

Back in September, when we were choosing our new Design Team, we had a group of talented designers that we just couldn't pass up. So we added a special team of On-going Guest Designers, that will joining us here on the blog throughout the year, along with the rest of our Design Team. Each month, we will feature two of these designers, which means they'll each be joining us three times over the next year. I'm excited to introduce you to our second set of fabulous designers, Carina Lindholm and Wendy Bretz.

Hello everyone! I’m Carina Lindholm. I live in a small town in the middle of Sweden with my husband Per and our three children Marcus (8), Filip (6) & Alva (5). I’m a stay at home mom, but I sometimes work extra in a scrapbook store. I consider myself both a scrapbooker and a card maker and my style is playful and I like to use lots of color on my projects. When I’m not paper crafting I love to sew, read and spend time with my family.

{To learn more about Carina, and see her work, check out her blog HERE}

“How To Build A Snowman”, by Carina Lindholm.

When I first saw the cute snowman stickers I knew I wanted to create a layout using this photo of my youngest son. He looks so happy hugging the snowman he just helped to built.

I love all the fun stickers that go with this collection, they really gives your projects that extra something. I adhered the circle stickers using foam tape so that they would pop of the page. And these tiny word stickers are just the best. I used quite a few to really give my layout a winter feeling.

Supplies:
Winter wonder: Ski slopes, Toasty, Alpha+Bits stickers, Just write journaling stickers

“Frosty Friends” card, by Carina Lindholm.

I really love the colors on this card yellow, red & teal. These colors and the cute snowmen can bright up anyone’s day. I added some glitter to give the snowmen some extra sparkle.

Supplies:
Winter wonder: Icy, borders, Miniatures stickers

“Winter Wonder” card, by Carina Lindholm.

I cut out three trees from the Cute Cuts sheet of patterned paper. I also painted two pieces of white cardstock using snow paint. I adhered the snow cardstock pieces and the trees to the card using foam tape, to create a winter wonderland.

Supplies:
Winter wonder: Cute cuts, Toasty, Alpha+Bits stickers

“Winter” card, Carina Lindholm.

I cut out the skates from the Cute Cuts sheet of patterned paper and hung them over the green paper. I love to give my projects some dimension so I adhered the skates and the sticker photo corner to the card using foam tape.

Supplies:
Winter wonder: Ski slopes, Blizzard, Borders, Cute cuts, Alpha+Bits stickers.

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My name is Wendy Bretz and I currently live in a small town located in Western New York, along Lake Erie. I am a full-time working mother to an adorable, energetic little girl named Hannah. I started scrapbooking about 8 years ago when Hannah was born. She was a true gift from God and she has changed my life in so many ways that I can't even begin to describe. My style of scrapbooking is very clean, simple and graphic. Since I began scrapbooking I have met some incredible people who have guided, encouraged and taught me a lot throughout the past eight years. I look forward everyday to talking with friends I have met and creating new designs for layouts my daughter can one day admire.

{To learn more about Wendy, and see her work, check out her blog HERE}

"Our Tree", by Wendy Bretz.

Christmas is my absolute favorite Holiday to scrap and Bella's Winter Wonder line couldn't be any more perfect for my layouts for this time of year. Along with this line, I was able to incorporate two of their other lines in my layout to create the perfect page about our Christmas Tree for Hannah's album.  

As always, I started by printing my journaling out on a piece of white cardstock. I kept it simple and created triangle trees using patterned paper. I aligned them along each side of my journaling, added my title, a chipboard elements and photos to finish.

Supplies:
Winter Wonder: Toasty; Finally Fall: Bliss; Making The Team: Alpha+Bits

"Always", by Wendy Bretz.

Simple, graphic, tiny photo and circles … four things that represent my scrapping style! For this layout I decided to stay true to my scrapping style and create a layout that draws your eyes not only into the title/message of my layout but also towards my photo.  

Using the words in the Tall Tag as my message, I added my title above and below, splitting the word in half. The red letter stickers stand out and draw you into the words in the Tall Tag. I created four small, white, open circles using a punch and adhered them across my layout. I then added a strip of words from the patterned paper across the circles and placed my photo to finish. Once again, the circles and word strip draws your eyes to my photo.

Supples:
Sophisticates: Quattrofina Peep & Saffron, Tall Tags; Family Dinamix: Words of Wisdom

Surprise Happy Birthday Blog Hop For Stephanie

Guess who's having a birthday today? Bella's very own Stephanie!!!

To Our Stephanie -
Happy, happy birthday Stephanie! The Design Team girls and I thought that there was no better way to celebrate your birthday, than to work together and organize a birthday blog hop in your honor! We've been secretly planning this for almost a month now, and we are so excited to finally be able to surprise you with it. So sit back and relax, and get ready to be showered with birthday cards and greeting from around the web!

The Bella blog is the first stop on the Surprise "Happy Birthday" Blog Hop. We have three designers that will be sharing their birthday cards for Stephanie here, since they weren't able to be around for blogging. Then, we have TWENTY SIX more designers participating in this blog hop, and you won't want to miss a single one. Along the way, each designer will direct you to the next blog on the list. Just in case any of you get lost, or on the off chance of a broken link, here is the master list:

1. Kim Arnold
2. Morgan Bandkowski
3. Loredana Bucaria  
4. Alice Carman
5. Jennifer Edwardson
6. Sheri Feypel  
7. Lynn Ghahary 
8. Julie Johnson 
9. Megan Klauer 
10. Kryssy Ng
11. Carina Lindholm
12. Kathy Martin 
13. Stacey Michaud 
14. Deanna Misner
15. Katherine McElvain
16. Gretchen McElveen 
17. Wendy Morris 
18. Sue Mylde 
19. Kimberly Neddo
20. Diane Payne 
21. Suzanne Sergi 
22. Brook Stewart 
23. Melissa Stinson 
24. Laura Vegas
25. Wendy Wagner 
26. Becky Williams 

To get us started, we have our first three birthday cards. Are you ready Stephanie :)

Birthday Wishes ... from Nancy Damiano.

For A Super Great Friend! Girly, You Rock! ... from Gail Hoecker.

Birthday Wishes ... from Vivian Masket.

Next up, you will head over to Kim Arnold's blog!

Even though it's Stephanie's birthday, we have some gifts for a few of you lucky readers as well! We all know how generous and giving Stephanie is, and we know she would never have a fun blog hop, without a few giveaways up for grabs too. So we got permission from Robin, who works alongside Stephanie in the office, to pick TEN lucky winners, who will each receive a Bella Blvd collection.

All you need to do, to be entered in the random drawings, is to leave Stephanie your birthday wishes in the comment section. You have lots of opportunities to improve your chances, since you can leave a comment on each blog you visit, as you go through the blog hop. There are 26 blogs, plus the Bella Blvd blog, for a total of 27 chances to get your name in the pot. We will randomly choose winners, from 10 randomly choosen blogs, and announce them on Friday!  

Altered Calendar Projects

It's so hard to believe that there are only two weeks left in 2011. Two of our designers were already thinking ahead to the new year, and created two very different calendars for 2012. Either of these would also make great Christmas gifts for family and friends.

2012 Wall Calendar, by Marie-Josée Hamel.

I created last week this calendar for my husband as a Christmas gift. First, I used a word-processing software to create my own calendar. I printed the pages on 8½ x 11, non-textured white cardstock and used my Cinch binding tool to bind it. I also used my Crop-a-Dile to punch a hole in every page, since this kind of calendar is designed to be hung on the wall. That being said, you can also use a calendar that you bought off-the-shelf and alter it using Bella Blvd products. If you create your own calendar, do not forget to add a cover page, since you'll use the back for the month of January. Essentially, all you have to do is create an 8½ x 11 layout for each month.

Supplies:
January to September: miscellaneous Bella Blvd collections, old and new

October: Too Cute to Spook: Jacks-a-Glow; Cob Webs; Quadrants; Cute Cuts; Itsy Bitsy Spider

November: Winter Wonder: Blizzard; Just Write Journaling Stickers; Alpha + Bits

December: Christmas Wishes: North Pole; Cute Cuts; Quadrants; Gifts Galore; Just Write Journaling Stickers

Altered Wooden Perpetual Calendar, by Beth Gerlach.

I sometimes find treasures at thrift stores, because I like to shop there and see what I can find and alter. I found this wooden calendar at the thrift store next to my scrapbook store, took it home, cleaned it up, and covered it with several different Bella Blvd collections. For the different seasons, I used Winter Wonder for winter, Spring Flings for spring, Sunny Happy Skies for summer and Finally Fall for fall. It's so much fun to see what you can create out of a 75 cent item at a thrift store.

I used various green patterned papers for the base of the calendar and cubes and the months.

 For the different seasons, I used Winter Wonder for winter, Spring Flings for spring, Sunny Happy Skies for summer and Finally Fall for fall. It's so much fun to see what you can create out of a 75 cent item at a thrift store.

Supplies:
Winter Wonder collection, Finally Fall collection, Spring Flings and Easter Things collection, and Sunny Happy Skies collection.

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Christmas Altered Projects

I know what you're thinking. It's Friday, and there should be a "Fridays with Stephanie" post here today. Well, I know that she would have loved to be here, sharing something fun and cool with you today. But she's crazy busy putting the finishing touches on new collections and products for us, for the upcoming Winter CHA show! I don't know about you, but I can't wait to see more new Bella goodies! So I figured she deserved a day off from blogging, to focus on design goodness ;)

We have some more fantastic projects from our Altered Project Designers to share with you. Tomorrow we will be sharing two different calendar projects, that would make fabulous Christmas gifts. But first, we have two fun ideas to share today. A set of adorable Christmas trees, that I would love to see decorating my tables. And a set of gifttags, perfect for using on your own gifts, or to give to a friend to use on their own gifts. 

Altered Christmas Trees, by Jennifer Edwardson.

For the last few years I have wanted to do something with these styrofoam tree shapes, but never felt inspired enough to sit down with them. That was, until I got the Christmas Wishes collection! I literally used something from every single patterned paper and sticker sheet in the collection to create these fun decorations for the holidays.

I punched several circles from both sides of the patterned papers with plain and scalloped edges and adhered them using tacky glue. I then added brads for visual interest and a bit of extra security to keep the circle in place. Once the base of the trees were complete, I went to work on "decorating". This was the super fun part!

I adhered ribbon and a border sticker for garland, then added stickers and a few stars to tuck in on the green tree too. The stars on the tops of the trees were cut from patterned paper and scored from each point into the center and adhere with a craft stick in behind pushed down into the foam tree. The last step was adding chipboard shapes and precision cut shapes for the gifts under the tree. Love it! 

Supplies:
Christmas Wishes papers, Alphas+Bits stickers, Just Write Journaling stickers.

Christmas Bag of Tags, by Suzanne Sergi.

I love creating homemade tags at Christmas time. For the last three years, I have been making all the gift tags for my children's presents, and I love creating them as the perfect hostess gift. Many of us do not have time to create our own tags, so I know this gift will be appreciated.

Christmas Wishes has patterns that are whimsical, and the cute cuts are full of images that anyone would love to see on top of their gift.

I used the cute cuts journaling spots for the base of my tags. Yes, they are meant for journaling, but perfect for adding merry layers on top. My last detail was creating a sweet bag to tuck my gift tags.

Supplies:
Christmas Wishes: Borders, Cute Cuts, Quadrants, North Pole, Christmas Love, Just Write Journaling stickers, Alpha+Bits stickers, Icon Chipboard; Winter Wonder: Icy