Bella Blvd Studio Blog

National Scrapbook Day: All About Becki & Jennifer

Happy National Scrapbook Day everyone! We have so much to share with you today, so we hope you'll keep popping in throughout your day. I challenged 24 of our designers to create an "All About Me" layout, giving us a peek into a little part of their lives. Each of them also answered five quick scrapbooking related questions. We will be sharing these 24 layouts over the next 12 hours. So sit back, grab a snack, and get to know our designers just a little bit more, and hopefully their projects will inspire you the next time you go to create!

“My Typical Day”, by Becki Adams.

I used several different Bella collections, old and new to create this layout. I also went a little die cut crazy too! This combination resulted in a bright, fun, and happy layout that documents what my typical day looks like.

Supplies:
Love and Marriage: May Eighteenth; Sand & Surf: Flying High, Paradise, Alpha+Bits Stickers; Birthday Girl: Chipboard Icons; Freestyle Sophisticates: Freestyle Gulf, Freestyle Peep; High Five Alpha Stickers: Yellow, Pink-Red; Designer Tape: 12mm Combo, Piggy Pink Stripe; Button Market: Hot Pink Flowers

And now for some scrapping Q&A's:

1. What are your top 5 supplies/products that you cannot scrap without?
Patterned Paper (lots and lots of it), Letter Stickers, Decorative Tape, Brown stamping ink, and either enamel dots or wood veneer.

2. What do you listen to while you scrap? TV, music, or do you do your best working in silence?
Work in silence? I've never heard of such a thing ;) I do my best scrapping while the kids nap and I'm watching an old TV show on netflix

3. What snacks and/or drinks are beside you when you're scrapping?
Chocolate, chocolate, chocolate. Occasionally I have a strawberry smoothie at my desk but mostly it's always chocolate.

4. When do your do your best scrapping? Are you a morning scrapper, a late night scrapper, or do you find time during the day?
I scrap during the afternoon and sometimes in the evening. It depends on the kids schedule.

5. Be honest. Where do your layouts go once you're done with them? In albums, in piles, or shoved in random places?
For a while they get piled together. When the pile gets too big I force myself to separate them and put them into albums but honestly, I only do that every few months.

"This Is Me", by Jennifer Edwardson.

I was excited to create this layout all about me. It's been a while since I sat down and wrote out how I see myself. I realized just how important it is going to be to my family because as soon as my kids came to see what I was working on they started reading, and they loved it. I've included the full journaling on my blog. The pieces I chose to create the layout around my words and photos really represent me. The blue is my favorite color, black & white is what I wear the most. As you'll read in my journaling, I love pink on others, just not on me so a splash of it here was perfect. I think life is good so that flag fit perfectly. All in all I love where I am in my life right now so the hearts represent those feelings.

Supplies:  
Baby Girl: Daddy's Girl; Baby Boy: Just Write Journaling Stickers; Sand & Surf: Alpha+Bits Stickers; Love and Marriage: Alpha+Bits Stickers, Wedding Day Miniatures; Corchet Hearts: White; Feathers: Ice; Baby Blooms A Bella: Azzini; Flags: Summer; Ciao Chip Versatile Elements: Clouds, Borders; High Five Alphabets: Blue; Buttons: Blues, Wood Mix; Designer Tape: Blue Polka Dot

And now for some scrapping Q&A's:

1. What are your top 5 supplies/products that you cannot scrap without?  
3D foam, a sanding block, precision scissors, cardstock and patterned paper

2. What do you listen to while you scrap? TV, music, or do you do your best working in silence? 99% of the time I MUST have cheezy reality TV on while I work. But when I have to do a lot of typing/writing I press mute for a minute.

3. What snacks and/or drinks are beside you when you're scrapping?
Chewy gummy sour candies, licorice and chocolate – terrible I know !!

4. When do your do your best scrapping? Are you a morning scrapper, a late night scrapper, or do you find time during the day?  
I fit it in whenever I am not running children here and there but lately have been doing most of my creating during the day and computer work (photos, blogging, etc) at night.

5. Be honest. Where do your layouts go once you're done with them?
In albums, in piles, or shoved in random places? YES, all of the above ;)

Seeing Pink - Baby Girl Projects

Stephanie and the rest of the office staff are all super busy this week as they get all of the new collections and products shipped out to local scrapbook stores and online retailers. You should be seeing our new products show up any day now at your favorite shopping locations! Since she's so busy, Stephanie is taking the week off from her Friday post.

As I was looking for some projects to share with you today, I noticed that we had quite a few baby themed projects. There must be a lot of pink-ness going on with our designers, as they were all baby girl themed projects, with no blue in sight. Make sure and pay close attention to the first project, as it has a very fun little announcement by one of our designers! We could not be happier for you Wendy!

Baby Girl Photo Holder, by Wendy Antenucci.

I have a surprise! We are pregnant again and after 4 boys (we also have a daughter, our first born) I am dreaming in pink this time. I saw these cute little shoes available in the Silhouette store which I quickly purchased and put together, but they needed more. So I grabbed a few wooden blocks I had in my stash and made some girly ABC blocks. As I was playing around with my cute little girl items I began stacking them together and thought they looked even better so I put all my projects together. With the help of my hubby and a paper clip, we then turned my project into a photo holder so I could keep our ultrasound pictures out to view. I loved how this turned out, now if only we can get a girl this time!

Supplies:
Kiss Me: Love Notes, Alpha+Bits Stickers; Birthday Girl: Pretty as a Present, Celebrate, Sugar Rush, Borders; High Five Alpha Stickers: Piggy-Punch, Gulf; Designer Tape: Punch Chevron; Crochet Flowers: Dahlia

“Wishes For Fiona”, by Diane Payne.

For a recent baby shower I was hosting with friends we wanted to have guests write down their wishes for the baby and put them in a "wish jar" for the parents and their baby to read at a later time. I used the Baby Girl collection to decorate the jar, which coordinated perfectly with their jungle themed baby room. To decorate the jar, I wrapped two strips of the pink zebra paper around the jar and then decorated the center with the cute chipboard monkey. I personalized the jar, by adding "Wishes for Fiona" to a flag held by the monkey.

Supplies:
Baby Girl: Daddy's Girl, Baby Cakes, Chipboard Icons; Flags: Sunshine & Happiness

“Sweet Baby” card, by Diane Payne.

The Chipboard Icons have a lot of great images that make it easy to create a focal point for a card. I used the cute elephant as the focal point for my baby card. To tie into the theme of the shower and her baby room, I tied a bow around the trunk and inserted the monkey baby flag.

Supplies:
Baby Girl: Cute Cuts, Chipboard Icons; Spring Flings and Easter Things: Mom's Bouquet; Quattrofina Alpha Stickers: Peep and Saffron; Button Market: Pink Flowers, Hot Pink Flowers; Flags: Baby Girl

“Congrats” card, by Kathy Martin.

It’s always a lot of fun to pull out Bella Blvd’s Baby Girl collection and work with the colorful patterned papers and super cute chipboard accents! I introduced yellow to the mix by creating a border with a mix hand stitching and Designer tape.

Supplies:
Baby Girl: Cute Cuts, Chipboard Icons, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Miniatures Stickers; Button Market: Pink Flowers; Designer Tape: Yellow Chevron

“It’s A Girl” card, by Kathy Martin.

I love the look stitching on cards and do a lot of it, mostly along the edges of paper. For this card I wanted to try something a little different … to sew random zigzag lines down the length of my patterned paper rectangles.

Supplies:
Baby Girl: Cute Cuts, Pretty in Pink, Chipboard Icons; Button Market: Pink Flowers; High Five Alphabet Stickers: Piggy Punch

"Coming Soon" card, by Laura Vegas.

I love the touch of black on this "coming soon" ultrasound chipboard piece. By mixing it along with some black designer tape, and a zebra button, it helps give this baby card a fun, trendy look.

Supplies:
We're Expecting: Bella Baby Bump, Chipboard Icons; Baby Girl: Daddy's Girl; Designer Tape: Jailbird; Crochet Flowers: Dahlia; Button Market: Zebra

"Welcome Baby" card, by Laura Vegas.

This little chipboard monkey is so adorable. She is the perfect little embellishment to add to a baby card. I machine stiched around one of the Just Write Journaling stickers, and adhered it to the card using pop dots for extra dimension.

Supplies:
Baby Girl: Daddy's Girl, Pretty In Pink, Borders, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Just Write Journaling Stickers, Chipboard Icons

"Nothing Sweeter" card, by Sheri Feypel.

I started this card with a pattern base and added an embossed flag. I then layered (with foam pop dots of course!) on top of the flag, cutting out the baby bottle from Cute Cuts and adding a sticker. Sweet and Simple!

Supplies:
Baby Girl: Pretty In Pink,Snuggle, Safari, Borders, Cute Cuts, Alpha+Bits Stickers

"You Grew a Ton", by Jaclyn Rench.

There's nothing like lining up 12 monthly photos from a baby's first year, to make you realize just how much your little one will change and grow in one short year's time!  Throw in a clever title, pretty coordinating papers, loads of fun embellishments and the end result is a treasured keepsakes and awesome record for your little one's baby album.

Supplies:
Birthday Girl: Miles of Smiles, Sugar Rush; Baby Girl: Borders, Miniatures Stickers; Designer Tape: Piggy Pink Stripe; Ciao Chip: Sienna Punch Uppercase Chipboard Alphas, Stars & Hearts, Baby Girl Chipboard Icons; Button Market: Purple Flowers, Pink Flowers

Cards On Thurdays

“It's A Girl” card, by Laurie Schmidlin.

For my card, I combined a stamped image with a sweet bear from the Baby Girl Cute Cuts paper. I had lots of fun adding several embellishments: a crochet flower, a star button, a tag, a Ciao Chip, as well as a paper doily and ribbon. All of this is layered on the Bella Baby Bump paper and a strip of Sophisticates Sprinkles & Lace Punch paper.

Supplies:
Baby Girl: Bella Baby Bump, Cute Cuts, Ciao Chip Icons; Sophisticates: Sprinkles & Lace Punch, Miniatures Card Sentiments; Button Market: Stars; Crochet Flowers: Dahlia; Unity Stamp Set: So Happy For You

“Hold On To Each Other”, by Laurie Schmidlin.

I just love how so many of the different collections work so well together! Here, I combined the Sophisticates and Sunshine & Happiness collections. For the focal image, I layered two different Ciao Chip pieces combined with a heart sticker (from the Sophisticates Miniatures Card Sentiments).

Supplies:
Sophisticates: Short Stories, Sprinkles & Lace Oyster, Essentials Oyster & Oreo, Ciao Chip Stars & Hearts, Miniatures Card Sentiments; Sunshine & Happiness: Alpha+Bits Stickers; Button Market: Neutral Mix

“Birthday Girl” card, by Kathy Martin.

I love ice cream! Especially on my birthday and it’s been a tradition for years to have ice cream cake. I thought this ice cream border would be perfect for a birthday card, that and a whimsical pinwheel. Together they are fun, celebratory and yummy!

Supplies:
Kiss Me: Borders & Cute Cuts, Love Notes, Alpha+Bits Stickers; Button Market: Stars

“Love” card, by Kathy Martin.

After Christmas, my favorite cards to make are Valentine’s! I’m a hopeless romantic and I love to give and receive mushy love cards! Bella Blvd’s new Kiss Me collection is perfect for creating all kinds of love notes, and not just for Valentine’s Day. Anniversaries are my favorite, just because.

Supplies:
Kiss Me: Love Notes, True Love, Alpha+Bits Stickers; Sienna Chipboard Alphas: Punch, Blueberry, Pony

"Happy 2013" card, by Gretchen McElveen.

I hope y'all had a great Christmas! And I hope you have a happy new year! I dug through some classic Bella Blvd to make this card. Remember the super fun Socialite collection from a couple summers ago? Well, it is still the perfect line for all your New Year's layouts and cards! I finished this card off with some of the fun buttons from the Button Market-I thought they coordinated very well with this line! Thanks for looking and HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Supplies:
Socialite: Tango, Borders N Blocks, Alpha+Bits Stickers; Button Market: Zebra

"Stay Warm" card, by Gretchen McElveen.

And happy Winter while we are at it! It's cold outside and I thought I would make a card celebrating it! :) I cut the trees out of the Winter Wonder Cute Cuts sheet to use as big embellishments on this card. I used lots of foam adhesive when adhering the trees and stickers to help give this card lots of dimension. Thanks for looking! And stay warm out there!

Supplies:
Winter Wonder: Toasty, Borders, Cute Cuts, Alpha+Bits Stickers

“Happy Winter” card, by Wendy Wagner.

Something cute to remind someone that your thinking of them after the holidays with this cute winter card. Inking and stickles for everything, I tied a decent size bow on the card as well. Love the Bella flags, so it was fun to incorporate the snowflake flag on this card! Happy winter everyone!

Supplies:
Winter Wonder: Blizzard, Cute Cuts, Miniatures Stickers; Sophisticates: Sprinkles & Lace Banana; Flags: Winter

“Perfect Day” card, by Wendy Wagner.

Cute little 5 1/4 x 5 1/4 card for wishing someone a Merry Christmas. As always I ink away at everything, distressed one corner of the pickle juice paper and layered with foam pop dots. I love bling, so between stickles and some gems I think it pulled the card together nicely. 

Supplies:
Christmas Wishes: Christmas Love, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Chipboard Icons, Miniatures Stickers; Sophisticates: Sprinkles & Lace Pickle Juice

Bella Blvd & Unity Stamp Co. Inspiration Day

We are back with another Bella Blvd & Unity Stamps Inspiration Day! I asked a few of our Card Designers to use whatever stamps they were feeling inspired by, and to come up with some clever ways to use them. Let's see what they came up with!

“Great Pear” card, by Laurie Schmidlin.

I just love chevrons and polka dots together, and Bella has so many cute chevron and polka to choose from! For this card, I combined some patterned paper from the Making the Team and Birthday Girl collections. For the focal image, I stamped the pears (from the Itty Bitty by Unity Great Pear stamps), colored one of the pears in using my Copic markers, and then added a heart sticker.

Supplies:
Making The Team: Quadrants; Birthday Girl: Miles of Smiles; Sophisticates: Miniatures Card Sentiment, Short Stories; High Five Alphabet Stickers: Black-White; Button Market: Text, Stars

“So Happy For You” card, by Laurie Schmidlin.

I love to make shaped cards! When I sat down to create this baby card, I thought a baby onesie would be the perfect shape! After I cut the card base out using my Silhouette Cameo, I added the hearts patterned paper. I stamped the flowers (from the Celebrate in Style Itty Bitty by Unity), cut each of them out, and then popped them up for added dimension. The sentiment is stamped using the Itty Bitty by Unity So Happy For You stamps. To finish it off, I add a big white bow and a Crochet Flower.

Supplies:
Birthday Girl: Borders; Crochet Flowers: Daisies; Designer Tape: Yellow Chevron; Unity Stamps: So Happy For You, Celebrate in Style

"Baby" card, by Gretchen McElveen.

The sweet Kiss Me line can work for baby projects too! And those flags are the 'Just Married' pack but, hey, they work! The stamp on this card is the 'It's a Boy' Unity stamp. I stamped it on a piece of patterned paper and then cut it out. I wanted this to be a girly card, so I covered up the 'It's a boy' on the center with a flower button. Thanks for looking!

Supplies:
Kiss Me: Love Notes, Flutter, Just Write Journaling Stickers; Button Market: Hot Pink Flowers; Flags: Just Married; High Five Alphabets: Pink-Red; Unity Stamps: It's a Boy

"Thinking About You" card, by Gretchen McElveen.

I went a little tape crazy on this one! So many of the designer tapes match the Kiss Me line and I could not decide which 1 or 2 to use. So I just used them all! :) I stamped the sentiment from the 'Orange You Glad' stamp set onto a scrap of patterned paper, cut it out, and then rounded the corners to make it look like a tab. And once again I could not resist fussy cutting a few small flowers to embellish the card.

Supplies:
Kiss Me: Bouquet Kisses, Borders & Cute Cuts, Just Write Journaling Stickers; Designer Tapes: Pickle Juice Chevron, Punch Chevron, Gulf Dot, Piggy Pink Stripe; Button Market: Pink Flowers; Sienna Chipboard Alphas: Blueberry; Unity Stamps: Orange You Glad

“Happy Birthday” card, by Carina Lindholm.

I think this little toad is just too adorable! I stamped him on white cardstock and colored him using water color pencils. I added some glitter to the present and one of the balloons to give the card some sparkle.

Supplies:
Birthday Boy: Eat Cake, Just Write Journaling Stickers; Unity Stamp: Birthday Toad, Cake Wishes

“Home” card, by Carina Lindholm.

I stamped the cute little house on white cardstock and colored it using Copic markers. I cut off the corners on the left side to make the tag. I really love the color of the chevron paper that I covered my card base in. I think it gives a cozy feeling to my card.

Supplies:
Thankful: Cute Cuts, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Just Write Journaling Stickers, Chipboard Icons; Unity Stamps: Welcome Home

“Leaf Without You” card, by Kathy Martin.

One of my favorite things about autumn are the colorful falling leaves so this Unity/Bella Blvd. stamp was fun to color with warm hues. The brown burlap patterned paper is a favorite of mine and I thought it would pair perfectly with some jute.

Supplies:
Thankful: Burlap, Bountiful; Button Market: Merlot Flowers, Masculine Mix; Unity Stamps: Leaf Without You

“Cupcake Birthday” card, by Kathy Martin.

I love working with Bella Blvd’s Designer Tape and I thought it would be fun to use strips to stamp my sentiments on. Not only are the Baby Girl chipboard cupcakes perfect for baby themed projects, but I like to use them for yummy birthday cards too!

Supplies:
Designer Tape:  Yellow Chevron, Pickle Juice Chevron, Piggy Pink Stripe; Baby Girl: Chipboard Icons; Button Market: Pink Flowers; Unity Stamps: Cake Wishes, Hip Hip Hooray

World Card Making Day: Hour Eight + GIVEAWAY

Welcome to our World Card Making Day celebration! Today is all about card making, sharing, and inspiration. There's just something special about giving and receiving a handmade card, whether for a holiday, special occasion, or "just because". We hope you'll hang out with us all day long, as we share new cards every hour for fourteen hours straight. There might even be a few giveaways mixed into the day, so keep your eye out for them ... in fact, there might even be one at the end of this post ;)

"It's A Boy" card, by Jenny Evans.

I love the Cute Cut paper you get with the collections! I think they are so perfect for cards!! I cut out the onsie and popped it on the top half of the card. The crochet flower is a soft, sweet embellishment and is my base for the flags. I added part of the sentiment sticker to the front, and finished off the inside with the second half of it. A nice, sweet baby shower card to have on hand.

Supplies:
Baby Boy: Baby Blue, Momma's Boy, Cute Cuts, Alpha+Bits Stickers; We're Expecting: Coming Soon; Flags: Just Married, Girl; Crochet Flowers: Juniper

"Congrats" card, by Gretchen McElveen.

Happy World Card Making Day! It seems like I can never have enough birthday and baby cards on hand. I used the Baby Girl line to make this card to take to a baby shower in a couple of weeks. I've made the card ... now I can't forget to go get a gift card to go inside!

Supplies:
Baby Girl: Cute Cuts, Snuggly Safari, Borders, Daddy's Girl, Alpha+Bits Stickers; High Five Alpha Stickers: Pink-Red; Button Market: Fruit Punch

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IT'S GIVEAWAY TIME!!!

We're giving one lucky reader 10 rolls of our very popular Designer Tapes! Here's the catch. This is a be-here-to-win giveaway. Meaning we are only accepting comments for ONE HOUR on this post, at which time we will announce a randomly chosen winner from those comments!

So if you are here reading this post during it's featured hour, you're in luck. If you've scolled down a bit and are just coming up on this post, then sadly, you've missed your chance. Good luck ... and keep your eyes out throughout the day, because we do have one more giveaway coming ;)

ETA: Comments are still open. However, they will not count towards the giveaway, which is now closed.

We'll see you back here in an hour for more card shares. If you're making some cards of your own today, we'd love it if you shared them with us on our Facebook page!

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 September, courtesy of Becky Fleck.

"Life Is Good", by Melissa Stinson.

I've already scrapped one layout with Bella's Birthday Girl collection this month, but I couldn't resist making another while all the supplies were still out on my desk! I changed the sketch up just a bit by "squishing" everything toward the middle from the top and bottom so that the larger and smaller photos were more in line. I also shrunk the size of the larger photo while I was at it, since it's a lot bigger than any of the sizes I normally use.

Supplies:
Birthday Girl: Cute Cuts, Celebrate, Miles of Smiles, Sugar Rush, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Icons; Button Market: Purple Flowers, Hot Pink Flowers; Designer Tape: Piggy Pink Stripe; High Five Alpha Stickers: Red

“Sing”, by Vivian Masket.

I love all of the different blocks of paper in this sketch! Since I only had two really good photos of my daughter with her microphone (a singing 6-year-old doesn't stay still for very long!), I adapted the sketch to work with two, instead of three, photos. Given that my daughter was looking to the right in the smaller photo, I decided to flip the sketch horizontally to accommodate the orientation of the smaller photo. From there, the layout came together quickly with the fun Birthday Girl pink and purple papers and embellishments. I added musical notes - die cut from black cardstock - to add contrast. Strips of Designer Tape, placed both vertically and horizontally, help to create flow and move the viewer's eye through the page.

Supplies:
Birthday Girl: Dancing Queen, Sugar Rush, Celebrate, Alpha+Bits Stickers; Sienna Chipboard Alphas: Punch; Button Market: Hot Pink Flower Buttons; Designer Tape: Punch Chevron, Pink Flowers

“Reptile Party”, by Julie Johnson.

I love sketches because it takes the guesswork out of designing a layout for me. But, I also love to add to the basic design like I did with this sketch. For this layout I wanted to add more color and some more detail so I enlarged the background piece and then added a large scallop border over the top. To add even more detail I backed my photos so they would stand out more and added the scallop sticker to the edge of the photos. Since this was my son's reptile birthday party the frog cut out from the Cute Cuts paper was the perfect accent to finish off the layout. 

Supplies:
Birthday Boy: Toadilly Cool, Eat Cake, Streamers, Cute Cuts, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Just Write Journaling Stickers; Flags: Birthday Boy Flags 2; Designer Tapes: Pickle Juice Chevron

“I Got You Baby”, by Sue Mylde.

I love the cool colors of the most recent collections from Bella Blvd. Stephanie really has a great eye and I'm going to miss creating for the team next year! Having said that, this has been SUCH a blast! Thank you for the opportunity to create yet another layout for Bella Blvd! Here's "I Got You Baby". Combined the colors in Birthday Boy, Birthday Girl and Thankful to get a contrasting layout which - ta-da - matches the colors in my photos! Love the cool blues and greens, don't you? The buttons add dimension and the hearts are a lovely touch to a 'love' layout without saying it too loud. I wrapped the two photos on the right side with Designer Tape - love those - and the subtlety of them just makes this layout easy and fun to create, but bright and interesting to look at! Thanks for looking!

Supplies:
Birthday Boy: Borders, Cute Cuts, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Just Write Journaling Stickers; Birthday Girl: Party Dress; Thankful: Turkey Tracks; Designer Tape: Orange Stripe, Pickle Juice, Green Gulf Polka Dot; Buttons: Masculine Mix; High-Five Alpha Stickers: Green

"Bath", by Wendy Wagner.

This was a super fun layout to do of my little girl from when she was 5 months old. I combined the Baby Girl & Baby Boy fun zebra print paper to follow this sketch. I inked everything with chalk ink, and did some machine stitching in black. Journaling about how she loved her bath and water. I kept the title simple, but used the fun Ciao Chip alphas. Again, following sketches helps take half the work out of doing a layout! I love them! 

Supplies:
Baby Girl: Snuggly Safari, Baby Cakes, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Just Write Journaling Stickers, Miniatures Stickers;Baby Boy: Borders; Ciao Chip Elements: Starts & Hearts; Simply Simona Chipboard Alphas: Oreo

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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. 

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 August, courtesy of Becky Fleck.

"Sweet Baby Cakes", by Kim Arnold.

This was a delightful sketch to use with these photos of my sister in law and baby niece, and the gorgeous Baby Girl collection. I love how all the different patterned papers work together and I think the pink stands out even more by adding a dash of blue with the checked paper from the Baby Boy range. I used one of the border stickers from the Baby Girl collection to substitute for the stitching at the top and bottom of the photo block. The zig zag design printed on it works perfectly.

Supplies:                                                                                                                                             Baby Girl: Daddy’s Girl, Snuggly Safari, Cute Cuts, It’s a Girl, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Just Write Journaling Stickers; Baby Boy: Cute Cuts; Sunshine & Happiness: Borders; Sophisticates: Chip Essentials Pink; Blooms a Bella: Bianca; Baby Blooms a Bella: Champagne

“This Moment”, by Loredana Buccaria.

I adore the sketches, you can't imagine how! They are amazing to create a page very quickly. I have made this page as a gift for one of my friends that has got married last July. I think that these colors are perfect for the photos and for the event! With only some little details as stickers, letters, buttons or journaling stickers you can create amazing pages in few time! Bella Blvd products are so easy to use and so beautiful to see in your pages! They are perfect for any occasion! Try this fabulous sketch, you will create an amazing page, it has inspired me so much!

Supplies:
Lovey Dovey: Bear Hugs, Cute Cuts, Alpha+ Bits Stickers, Blurbs Journaling Stickers, Love is in the Air; Estate Sale: Coin Purse, Nana's Apron; Button Market: Checkers, Wood Mix

"Today 3”, by Vivian Masket.

I loved the simple blocked design at the center of the sketch and used that as a jumping-off point for my layout. I turned the sketch upside down and replaced the blocks of patterned paper with banner shapes that extend beyond the white inner canvas. I created flowers by pleating Designer Tape and finished each flower with a center created by rolling up a small piece of Designer Tape in a contrasting color. A cluster of buttons stands in for one of the flower embellishments in the sketch. 

Supplies:
Sunshine & Happiness: Petal Power, Happy Clouds, Borders, Miniatures Stickers; Button Market: Masculine Mix, Feminine Mix; Designer Tape: Teal Stripe, Yellow Chevron, Pickle Juice Dot; High Five Alphabets: Black-White

“Davis Girlies”, by Wendy Wagner.

I followed this sketch almost exactly. I ended up with 3 photos instead of 2. I wanted to use my nieces school photo's from last year. What a cute way to showcase the 'boring' school photo. I distressed the edges of my papers, and of course I inked just about everything like usual. And I had to jazz some of it up with a little bling & stickles. I love scrapbooking with sketches since it seems to simplify things for me.

Supplies:
Thankful: Perfect Day, Burlap, Bountiful, Our Spot, Borders, Cute Cuts, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Just Write Journaling Stickers; Crochet Flowers: Poppy, Juniper

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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. 

Designer Tutorials: Embossing On Chipboard Alphas & Creating Chevron Zig Zags

For the next few days, we are going to be sharing some simple tutorials from some of our design team members. I love when I see some of our designers re-creating a fun technique or design on several projects, yet each time it still looks fresh and new. So I asked a few designers to put together tutorials, to show us just how easy it is to get similiar looks for our own projects!

"Cookie Monster Voice", by Melissa Stinson.

Using a combination of border stamps and heat embossing has become one of my favorite ways to dress up my chipboard letters. Especially on this layout, where the title is such a huge part of the journaling and page design, I wanted the letters to have a little extra special something to help them stand out. And, not only did I embellish my chipboard alphas, but I also took extra photos to share my process with you!

Step 1: Punch out the letters for your title from their backing sheets. My letters popped out with the wax paper backig still attached, so I didn't have to worry about them sticking to the sheet of paper I placed underneath them to catch the extra embossing powder. Line up the letters as they'll be placed in the title so that the embossing will be in a continuous line across your title.

Step 2: Ink up a stamp (I like to use a border stamp since they're longer and can stamp more letters at one time) with Versamark or any sticky watermark type ink.

Step 3: Stamp on your letters, keeping them lined up as you go. If your title is longer than your stamp, just ink it up again and line up another impression next to it, just as if you were stamping on a long strip of paper.

Step 4: Sprinkle embossing powder (I find that it's best to use a contrasting color to give it the most "pop") over your letters, then tap off the excess and lay your letters out on a craft sheet (alternately you can hold each letter with a pair of tweezers as you heat it). 

Step 5: Use a heat tool to set the embossing powder on your letters, wait for them to cool, and then arrange on your page as desired!

Supplies:
Baby Girl: Daddy's Girl, Snuggly Safari, Pretty in Pink, Baby Cakes, Cute Cuts, Miniatures, Ciao Chip Icons; Baby Boy: Ciao Chip Icons; Ciao Chip Elements: Borders; Simply Simona Chipboard Alphabet: Brownie; Button Market: Fruit Punch, Feminine Mix

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"Lollipop Kid" by Becky Williams.

Hi! Becky Williams here with a quick tutorial for today. One of the biggest trends in scrapbooking right now is chevron stripes. You can find them everywhere and many people have created them in different ways. Today I will show you a very quick and easy way to make these cute zigzags like I've done on a few of my Bella Blvd assignments. 

Step 1: Gather some of your favorite Bella Blvd patterned papers and the pictures you would like to include on your page.

Step 2: Cut patterned paper to 1/4 inch x 12 inch strips and cut those strips into 4-inch long segments. You can vary the appearance of your chevron stripes by changing up the length and width of your strips. Experiment with different things to find a style that you like best. 

Step 3: Take two of the 4-inch strips of paper and join them squarely at the corner and adhere at the corner. Take another strip and add to the end going the opposite direction to make the peaks and valleys of the stripes. Once you've finished one stripe, adhere it to the base of your layout. 

Step 4: Add more stripes to your page by creating more strips as you did with the first one, lining the paper pieces up with your first stripe. You can keep each stripe one color or mix and match pieces as I did. 

Step 5: Once you've finished all of the stripes, add your pictures and embellish as desired. 

Supplies:
Family Dynamix: Quadrants; Birthday Boy: Eat Cake, Alpha+Bits Stickers; Birthday Girl: Borders, Celebrate, Miles of Smiles, Alpha+Bits Stickers; Thankful: Perfect Day, Borders; Designer Tape: Pickle Juice Chevron; Simply Simona Chipboard Alphas: Orange; Ciao Chip Elements: Stars and Hearts; High Five Alphabets: Black-White; Button Market: Hot Pink Flowers, Gulf Squares, Orange Stars

On-Going Guest Designers: Carina Lindholm, Diane Payne, Wendy Bretz

Last year, 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. Today, we are welcoming back Carina Lindholm, Diane Payne, and Wendy Bretz for their last round of projects.

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.

”You Are My Sunshine”, by Carina Lindholm.

I used the adorable baby girl collection to make this layout about my daughter. Using a heart die I die cut a few hearts on the paper with all the cute animals. I then matted it on the purple paper using foam tape so the hearts would really pop of the page. I decorated with a crochet flower a flag and a chipboard tree. And to finish it off I adhered a few strips of green designers tape.

Supplies:
Baby Girl: It’s a Girl, Borders; Sophisticates: Trees Ciao Chip, Miniatures Family; Spring Flings & Easter Things: Miniatures; Crochet Flower: Poppy; Flags: Love; Designers Tape: Pickle Juice Dot; Button Market: Neutrals Mix

“Till Havs”, by Carina Lindholm.

I love, love, love this collection, it’s just so playful and fun. So of course I had to make a playful layout about my son using it. I cut out a few images from the cute cuts paper and adhered them to my page using pop dots.

Supplies:
Sunshine & Happiness: Happy Clouds, Cute Cuts; High Five Alphabets: Blue; Flags: Floral; Designer Tape: Pickle Juice Dot

“You Are Wonderful”, by Carina Lindholm.

When I use cut outs on my cards I like to adhere them to the card using foam tape, to give the card more dimension. And that’s what I did with the giraffe, cloud, hearts and the sentiment.

Supplies:
Baby Boy: On The Go, Cute Cuts, Borders; Button: Fruit Punch

“Love You”, by Carina Lindholm.

On this card I used the baby girl collection to make a love card. I covered my card base in pink cloud paper, I personally love cloud papers and use them all the time, I think they are a perfect fit for any themed card. I decorated with an adorable turtle cut out, button, tags stickers and floral tape.

Supplies:
Baby girl: Sweet Dreams, Cute Cuts; We’re Expecting: Baby’s Firsts Miniatures; Sophisticates: Miniatures Card Sentiments; Designer Tape: Pink Flower; Button Market: Fruit Punch

“Baby”, by Carina Lindholm.

On this card I cut out a few strips from the Borders paper and adhered a scallop border at the bottom of each strip. I then adhered them all to the card. I matted the monkey sticker on patterned paper and cut a scallop border around it using decorative scissors.

Supplies:
Baby Boy: Baby Blue, Borders, Just Write Journaling Stickers; Buttons Market: Neutrals Mix

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Hello everyone! I’m Diane Payne, and I reside in the big state of Texas with my wonderful husband of 22 years and our two teenage children. Although I love recording the details of our life, I enjoy the creative process of scrapbooking as much as the memory keeping. I like to experiment with different techniques and incorporate photos into our home décor. I scrapbook with a variety of photo styles, including current, vintage, and Hipstamatic prints. My favorite tool for journaling is my vintage 1930's Underwood typewriter which is also used as decor in the entry way of my home.

“Most Improved Player”, by Diane Payne.

I was so proud of my daughter being awarded as the Most Improved Player at the softball team awards banquet last spring. To document the special moment, I drew inspiration from the dress that she wore to the awards ceremony. The Sophisticates paper complemented the colors perfectly and I used my Cameo to mimic the patterns in her dress.

Supplies:
Sophisticates: Sprinkles & Lace Apricot, Sprinkles & Lace McIntosh, Sprinkles & Lace Ice, Tall Tags; Hello Beautiful: Alpha+Bits Sticker; Winter Wonder: Miniatures; High Five Alphabets; Pink-Red, Black-White; Ciao Chip Elements: Stars & Hearts; Button Market: Red Flowers, Fruit Punch; Flags: Birthday, Fall

 

“Where Dreams Come True!”, by Diane Payne.

I love this old photo of my kids during their first visit to Disneyland. It brings back happy memories. We've been back several times and it is always as much fun as the very first visit. To convey the happy mood of the photo I used the Sunshine & Happiness collection paired with the Ciao Chip Clouds and a mix of colorful letter stickers.

Supplies:
Sunshine & Happiness: Borders, Sunny Side Up, Popsicle Kisses, Alpha+Bits Stickers; Ciao Chip Elements: Clouds; Quattrofina Alpha Stickers: Peep & Saffron, Salt Water & Pacific; High Five Alpha Stickers: Green; Button Market: Wood Mix; Designer Tape: Pink Stripe, Pink Flowers, Pickle Juice Dot, Teal Stripe; Crochet Flowers: Dahlia

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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. 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.

“Twelve Twenty Five”, Wendy Bretz.

Christmas is probably my most favorite theme to scrapbook! The excitement of the holiday season along with the fun scrapbooking products that come out just make creating these layouts an absolute joy. I love Bella Blvd's Christmas Wish Collection. Even though I'm a simple, hybrid scrapbooker who uses minimal product, I can always find something to create with. Here, I used a Border and made a little tree out of the Sophisticates Patterned Paper for my layout. I attached my title and then scanned it. I added a few digital touches and there you have it ... a fun and simple Christmas layout.

Supplies:  
Sophisticates: Sprinkles & Lace McIntosh; Christmas Wishes: Borders; Quatrofina Alpha Stickers: Milk & Oreo

“Just Us”, by Wendy Bretz.

The thing about Bella Blvd's products I like most is how versatile they are to every style scrapper out there. From the simplest of scrapbookers to the ones who use use lots of products on a page, Bella's paper and embellishments can be used in so many ways. For this layout I created another simple graphic layout. I used the letter stickers from the Camped Out collection and decided to turn them on the side. I then hand cut one of the little tiny houses from the Block Party Patterned Paper and added it to my layout on the opposite side. To finish this layout, I added a digital stitched circle, my photo and the words "happy girls" to balance out the layout.

Supplies:
Camped Out: Carla Mudpie Cardstock Stickers; Honey I'm Home: Block Party; Quatrofina: Milk & Oreo

Cards On Thursdays

It's time for more free-for-all cards from our design team today, and we have a wide variety of cards to share with you.

"Hi" card, by Deanna Misner.

One of my favorite new papers in the Birthday Girl collection is "Party Dresses". I love those flowers and could cut them out all. day. long. So that's exactly what I did for this card. Instead of making it a birthday card, I chose just to make a really girly card with the flowers. I added the really big flower from "Cute Cuts" and anchored the sentiment with some Designer Tape.

Supplies:
Birthday Girl: Party Dresses, Miles of Smiles, Cute Cuts; Sienna Chipboard Alphas: Punch; Designer Tape: Gulf Dot, Pickle Juice Dot

"Happy Birthday" card, by Deanna Misner.

Polka Dots and cupcakes make me happy, so for this card I used what makes me happy. I hand-cut the cupcake, topped the cupcake's cherry with a cute little button, and added a banner sentiment. All the things I love rolled in to one card!

Supplies:
Birthday Girl: Miles of Smiles, Celebrate, Cute Cuts, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Chipboard Icons; Button Market: Hot Pink Flower; Designer Tape: Punch Chevron

"Happy Birthday To You" card, by Deanna Misner.

When I first opened up my product package with my daughter, she squealed and fell in love with this hippo at first sight. So this one's for her - her favorite colors and her favorite hippo. And I love the fun, funky font that comes with each collection so I used it to continue the sentiment up the side of the card. Also, to bring in a little more color (other than the pink and the purple) I added the notched yellow journaling card to the top and the bottom.

Supplies:
Birthday Girl: Sugar Rush, Cute Cuts, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Just Write Journaling Stickers; Chipboard Icons; Button Market: Hot Pink Flowers

“Score, It’s  A Boy” card, by Alice Carman.

I wanted to do something different instead of a typical baby theme so I went with a sporty theme. What Father doesn’t buy a mini glove or ball for their newborn son? 

Supplies:
Making the Team: Fan Club; High Five Alphas: Pink-Red; Ciao Chip: Oyster; Button Market: Masculine Mix; Unity Stamps: You’re A Hit

“Lovely Smile” card, by Alice Carman.

I love bright and happy colors and Spring Flings and Easter Things is perfect for that. I smile every time I use this collection, how can you not? It’s so happy!

Supplies:
Spring Flings and Easter Things: A Tisket A Tasket, Borders, Sunny Sunday, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Miniatures Stickers; High Five Alphabets: Pink-Red

“Boo” card, by Alice Carman.

I’ve been so inspired by all the Halloween decorations I’ve seen in stores lately. Here’s my take using Bella Blvd’s Too Cute To Spook stamp, paper and embellishments. I ran out of O’s so I decided to use the head of my Frankenstein as the missing O.

Supplies:
Too Cute To Spook: Cute Cuts, Miniature Stickers; Ciao Chips: Orange  Chipboard Alphabet; Love Dovey: Borders N’ Blocks; Stamps: Too Cute Too Spook Kit

"Miss You" card, by Gail Hoecker.

I did a little hand stitching as a border on this card. Yes, I have a sewing machine and it could go a lot quicker, but I just love the look of the thicker floss sometimes. For the larger section of the card, I used a cute cut, no paper piecing necessary. As a good friend of mine says, "let the paper do the work for you!".

Supplies:
Spring Flings & Easter Things: Egg Hunt, Cute Cuts; Button Market: Wood Mix; Flags: Spring Things & Easter Things

"The Best Thing" card, by Gail Hoecker.

I love mixing and matching lots of papers, so this card design is perfect, four different papers on one card. I punched out circles and popped them up on one of the strips in the same paper as the background. To get even more paper designs on one card, you could punch your circles out of all different patterned papers. Fun card to play around with...try it!

Supplies:
Supplies: Sunshine & Happiness: Petal Power, Sunny Side Up, Juicy Good Time, Happy Clouds, Alpha+Bits stickers

"Congratulations" card, by Gail Hoecker.

I love using the Unity stamps made for Bella Blvd. They stamp nice clear images each time. Today I stamped in Versamark ink and used white embossing powder. When I stamp an image for a card or scrapbook page, as I did here in white, I will stamp a bunch of different images using the same ink and embossing powders. You might love the way it looks and would have never using that combination for another stamp.

Supplies:
Baby Girl: Pretty in Pink, Daddy's Girl, Sweet Dreams; Unity Stamps: New Set of Wheels