Bella Blvd Studio Blog: Saturday Sketches on Friday

What's this? Saturday Sketches ... on Friday? I know that I have been confused all week, as to what day is what. My girls are still on Christmas break from school, and my high schooler had to ask me what day it was yesterday. Take into account it's a shorter, holiday week, and add in the fact that we here at Bella are in full blown CHA mode, it came as no surprise that Stephanie didn't realize today was Friday either. She's super busy sorting new product and getting it out to our designers to create with for Winter CHA, and preparing the new catalog. So we figured we would just move up tomorrow's post, to fill up the blog for the day, in her absence.

Sooooooo. With that all explained, 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 first sketch of the month, and the first sketch of the year!

"My Three", by Kimberly Neddo.

One thing I love about sketches, is how they inspire me to think outside the box, but with a plan already in place. For this sketch, instead of using 4 photographs of the same size and grouping them together, I used an enlarged photograph with a smaller one to compliment it. Sometimes I want to do a layout showcasing my children right where they are in life. Not necessarily a story, but still fun. It doesn't require a lot of journaling of a certain occasion, just something real and to the point. I drew the viewers eye around this layout, using the rule of thirds with the color blue. Have fun with this sketch, and thanks for stopping by! :)

Supplies:
Sophisticates: Short Stories, Tall Tags, Sprinkles & Lace Oreo, Sprinkles & Lace Banana, Petite Pieces; Baby Blooms-A-Bella: Azzini; Simply Simona: Oyster

"Snow", by Becky Williams.

I stayed pretty true to the sketch this time, only I flipped it 90 degrees. This is a great sketch to use for lots of pictures; I opted to use two small pictures and one larger one to fill the space. One of my favorite Bella products is the stickers. I really like to add the little phrase stickers to my photos and elsewhere on my page and also used a couple of the border stickers.

Supplies:
Winter Wonder: Borders, Alpha+Bits, Just Write Journaling Stickers, Miniatures; Spring Flings and Easter Things: Alpha+Bits; Lovey Dovey: Bear Hugs; Sophisticates: Simply Simona Ciao Chip Brownie

"Beach Babes", by Julie Johnson.

I love this sketch. It was so easy to follow, yet it allowed me to add in plenty of extra details...but that's what a sketch is for, right? I love having a starting point where I don't have think, especially when my days are filled with other busy stuff and my brain is to cluttered to think. Sometimes I will stress over how to layout my photos so sketches allow me to "just do it" and I give myself permission to let it go and quickly add my photos to a layout. I find the fun part about scrapbooking is in the details of page. I love the little extras; flowers, buttons, twine, and for this page I love the Bits a Bella sheet with all the cute tiny cut out designs and word phrases. I cut them out, backed them with thin chipboard and then cut them out to add a bit of dimension to them. I hand punched out a flower and added a button with some twine. Using the phrases I was able to create my journaling for the page.

Supplies:
All Inclusive: Bookin' on the Beach, Bits a Bella, Billboards, Skippin Stones, Ocean View, Alpha+Bits

"Everday Is An Adventure", by Beth Gerlach.

Since I don't have sons of my own, I use my daycare "sons" for all my boy inspiration. Mr. Boy is my all-time favorite boy collection. I have seperate folders for each of my Bella Collections, and always keep my Mr. Boy folder well stocked.

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!