Bella Blvd Studio Blog

Bella Blvd & Petaloo Team Up Week: Day Four

Welcome back to the fourth day of our week long team up with Petaloo! We have a group of our Bella designers that have mixed Petaloo fun flowers, ribbons, and brads into our projects. And the Petaloo designers have been busy mixing Bella's collections and embellishments into their projects. We have loads of projects to share with you and today we are featuring projects by designers Wendy Antenucci and Yohko Takiguchi.

Spring Wreath, by Wendy Antenucci.

I created the base for my wreath a few months ago. Wrapping yarn around the Styrofoam wreath can be very time consuming, but it makes a perfect project when you are riding in a vehicle for a long trip! I knew Bella had created feathers, so I set aside my wreath until all the gorgeous feathers arrived at my doorstep. With a little hot glue my wreath was perfect, but when I saw the flowers I decided to add a few touches to my wreath - wow, the combination of Petaloo flowers and Bella Blvd products really make something to be proud of!

Supplies:
Feathers: Cotton Candy, Carnation, Pickle Juice, Gulf; Ciao Chip Elements: Fun in the Sun

Flower Bouquet, by Wendy Antenucci.

I love hanging cones (mussy tussies) from my fireplace. I have one for Christmas, Valentine's and I decided to make one for Easter/Spring. As I began making my cone, I wasn't pleased with the basic design so instead I took a board which I painted green and laid my cone on it - I loved the effect! With a little hot glue, some grass from my craft store I had a wonderful spring/Easter decor piece. I couldn't help adding in a few of the little chicks, they make everything cuter!

 

Supplies:
Love and Marriage: Esther Fleming Floral

Jewelry Box, by Wendy Antenucci.

I had seen this box at my local craft store and thought it would be perfect for my little niece. I painted the box white and covered it with the Sophisticate paper (oyster) and then it didn't progress, so I let it sit. When I saw the beautiful colors of the flowers, trims and brads I was inspired to finally finish my box. The feathers are such a great product to work with as they are light and airy yet make a perfect base for projects of any sort.

 

Supplies:
Sophisticates: Oyster; We're Expecting: Bella Baby Bump; Feathers: White, Oyster

"Spring" card, by Yohko Takiguchi.

Many beautiful flowers bloom in spring. I decided to create a spring card by using Spring Flings & Easter Things collection and blue flowers from Petaloo.

Supplies: 
Spring Flings & Easter Things: Borders, Cute Cuts, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Miniatures, Freestyle Sophisticates: Cotton Candy

"First Day", by Yohko Takiguchi.

I have two sons and hadn't used many flowers on my projects. For this project, I chose photos of my son’s entrance ceremony because flowers match this theme. I cut out flowers from patterned paper and combined them with pink flowers from Petaloo to create a cluster.

Supplies: 
Love And Marriage: Smokeys in Love, May Eighteenth, Esther Fleming Floral, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Just Write Journaling Stickers, Wedding Day Miniatures; Engaged At Last: Miniatures, Engagement Chipboard Icons; High Five Alpha Stickers: Gulf; Sienna Chipboard Alphas: Frosting

"Fun Times", by Yohko Takiguchi.

I wanted to create a layout for photos of watching soccer. I decided to use Christmas Wishes collection though they were not photos of Christmas. For the accents, I added a red flower and two brads from Petaloo.

Supplies: 
Christmas Wishes: Candlelight, Christmas Love, Cute Cuts, Borders, Miniatures; Sophisticates: Oyster; Making the Team: Miniatures; Family Dynamix: Just Write Journaling Stickers; High Five Alpha Stickers: Pink-Red, Sienna Chipboard Alphas: Pickle Juice; Crochet Hearts: McIntosh

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Now, head on over to the Petaloo blog and check out what their Design Team has created using their embellishments and our fun Bella products! They will also be hosting giveaways that you won't want to miss out on. You can also follow them on the Petaloo Facebook page. Keep coming back to both blogs all week long, because we have a ton more projects to share with you.

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

Layouts On Wednesdays

Happy day-after-Christmas everyone! We hope you had a wonderful holiday with your families and friends. We're ready to get back into the swing of things here on the blog, starting with some layout shares from our designers.

"Baby's First Christmas", by Becky Williams.

I had fun mixing up lots of different collections for this page. Who'd have thought that you could mix a Christmas collection with a sporty one and a springy one! I love how the Bella collections work together so well. I cut the paper block the same size as my photo and rounded the corners on both to make it look uniform. I love the way the border stickers add so much to this page- I could use up a ton of these! I also really liked the "Dear Santa" sticker to go with the picture of my baby girl. 

Supplies: 
Family Dynamix: Quadrants; Christmas Wishes: Borders, Christmas Love, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Just Write Journaling Stickers; Making the Team: Wall of Fame; Sunshine & Happiness: Happy Clouds; Winter Wonder: Alpha+Bits Stickers; High Five Alphabets: Black-White, Blue; Designer Tape: Gulf Dot

“Cutest Bikini Baby”, by Jaclyn Rench.

Now that we're in the midst of the cold winter season, I have been craving some sunshine. Luckily, scrapbooking allows me to relieve the warmth and sunny days of the summer months anytime I choose. What's more summer-like than pool time photos? These sweet pictures of my baby girl's first 'official' dip in the backyard pool were perfectly complimented by the bright happy colors in the Birthday Girl collection. 

Supplies:
Birthday Girl: Party Dress, Celebrate, Borders, Alpha+Bits Stickers; Flirty: Heart Throb; All Inclusive: Ocean View; High Five Alphabet Stickers: Pink-Red; Designer Tape: Pink Stripe, Yellow Chevron, Piggy Pink Stripe; Ciao Chip Elements: Borders, Clouds; Button Market: Fruit Punch, Gulf Squares, Hot Pink Flowers

“10”, by Leanne Allinson.

I just adore the colors in the Birthday Boy collection and of course they are ideal to create a layout of my "birthday Boy". I was inspired by the green Ciao Chip birthday Boy Icon and set about creating smaller versions of it with the navy Toadilly Cool patterned paper. Using a flower punch, I trimmed the rounded petals to create the firecracker form. To continue the theme of celebrating, I added a curved line of hand stitching. This reminds me of fireworks and the trails in the sky. Perfect for New Years too don't you think?

Supplies:
Birthday Boy: Borders, All for You, Eat Cake, Toadilly Cool, About A Boy, Chipboard Icons; Simply Simona Chipboard Numbers: White; Flags: Birthday Boy 2; Designer Tape: Orange Stripe, Pickle Juice Chevron

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 December, courtesy of Becky Fleck.

“Each Ornament Tells a Story”, by Jennifer Chapin.

This sketch was the perfect opportunity to scrapbook some Instagram photos I had of our tree and various ornaments. Our tree is not fancy or magazine worthy; we have a hodge-podge of ornaments from over the years and I love it! Each one has a story behind it. I altered the sketch a tad to make it fit the 8.5 x 11 size because I had the smaller photos and didn't want them to get overwhelmed on a 12 x 12. I hope you'll take some time this Holiday season and document some of your favorite traditions too!

Supplies:
Winter Wonder: Blizzard, Toasty, Ski Slopes, Icy, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Miniatures Stickers; Hello Beautiful: Blurbs Journaling Stickers; Sienna Chipboard Alpha: Blueberry; High Five Alphabet Stickers: Blue; Designer Tape: Pickle Juice Chevron, Piggy Pink Stripe; Button Market: Merlot Flowers, Blues

“Gingerbread House Traditions”, by Gina Lideros.

I found this cute gingerbread house cut file in the Silhouette store and I thought that it would look great embellished with Bella Blvd. Neutral mix button and winter flag. I chose my pink and blue color scheme by pulling colors from my photos. I used a mix of papers from the Winter Wonder and Kiss Me collections to create this layout. I stayed pretty close to the original sketch by sticking with 4 photos, but I moved my title to the bottom right hand corner of the layout.

Supplies:
Winter Wonder: Ski Slopes; Kiss Me: Bouquet Kisses, True Love; Christmas Wishes: Cute Cuts, Just Write Journaling Stickers, Alpha+Bits Stickers; Sienna Chipboard Alphas: Pony; High Five Alpha Stickers: Piggy Punch; Button Market: Neutrals Mix, Wood Mix; Ciao Chip Elements: Borders, Stars & Hearts; Flags: Winter; Designer Tape: Piggy Pink Stripe

“Joy To The World”, by Allyson Meinholz.

This photo of Audriana was taken on Christmas of 2008. It was her first Christmas and she just finally turned a NEW leaf. Once she turned 6 months old she was no longer sick with acid reflux or colic. Her first 6 months of life was very challenging. so at Christmas time she was a TRUE "Joy to the World".

Supplies:
Christmas Wishes: Trees for Sale, Cute Cuts, Quadrants, Miniatures Stickers, Just Write Journaling Stickers, Alpha+Bits Stickers; Sophisticates: Sprinkles & Lace Mcintosh 

“Four”, by Kim Jeffress.

It was recently my son's 4th birthday and when I saw the photos on my computer after the party I knew they would be perfect to use with the Birthday Boy collection. I kept my design fairly similar to the sketch. I angled the photo block a little and switched the title to the opposite side. I love how it is easy to embellish a page by using elements from the Alpha+Bits and the Just Write Journaling Sticker sheets- a few quick stickers and you are done!

Supplies:
Birthday Boy: Toadilly Cool, Eat Cake, Cute Cuts, Alphas+Bits Stickers, Just Write Journaling Stickers; Birthday Girl: Miles of Smiles; Designer Tape: Red Dot; Flags: Birthday Boy 2

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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. 

Step-By-Step Monthly Project Sheet: Christmas Wishes

Looking for fresh ideas and new inspiration using Bella Blvd products? Want to learn how to mix and match Bella products and create cute layouts? Stuck on a project and need some help? Want to teach a Bella Blvd workshop at your LSS? Or, do you own a LSS and need a sample idea to hang next to our products? If you've said yes to ANY of the above--you're going to love this!

You can download our Christmas Wishes project sheet HERE. 

Bella Blvd has launched a new monthly feature to help you get inspired and keep you scrappin'. I have been designing a fresh never-featured-before project along with step-by-step directions for you to use, EVERY MONTH! Complete with a list of tools, supplies and Bella products needed, it couldn't get any easier! So dive into your stash today, or check out the online store links (on the sidebar) and pick up your supplies today! You'll get more pages completed with our help! Use us ... that's what we're here for!!!

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We recently added all of our project sheets into a gallery on the sidebar, for easy reference. There are now 16 step-by-step project sheets, all available for you to download, save, or print out. Just look for the image above on the right sidebar, and each project sheet image will have a link to the downloadable version. You can also find our previous project sheets by simply clicking on "Project Sheets" in the "Category" section on the left sidebar. That will bring up any post where we have shared project sheets.

Cards On Thursdays

“I Love Winter Card” card, by Carina Lindholm.

I cut out the trees and the sentiment from the Cute cuts sheet. To make the "snow" at the bottom of the card, I die cut two scallop borders in white cardstock. And to give this card a little more color I adhered tiny red jewels at the top and bottom of the card.

Supplies:
Winter Wonder: Toasty, Cute Cuts, Just Write Journaling Stickers

“Let It Snow Card” card, by Carina Lindholm.

I really like the look of stitching on cards, both hand and machine stitching. On this card I punched holes in a straight line from the chipboard clouds and down. And then I hand stitched using white thread. I then punched out a few tiny snowflakes that I adhered at the end of the stitched lines.

Supplies:
Sophisticates: Sprinkles & Lace Surf n Turf; Winter Wonder: Alpha+Bits Stickers; Kiss Me: Borders, Alpha+Bits Stickers; High Five Alpha Stickers: Black-White; Ciao Chip Elements: Clouds

"Baby It's Cold Outside” card, by Gretchen McElveen.

I pulled out some of my Winter Wonder stash to make a wintery card today...very appropriate considering the frigid temperatures lately! I've used this basic design for several cards in the past. Basic design + different products = entirely different card! Thanks for looking!

Supplies:
Winter Wonder: Borders, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Just Write Journaling Stickers; Christmas Wishes: Miniature Stickers

"Be Merry" card, by Gretchen McElveen.

It always seems like I need one more Christmas card to send out! :) I've made several mostly red cards this year so I decided to change it up and go green this time. I cut the Santa out of the Cute Cuts sheet and adhered it to the card with foam adhesive. I was all out of "b"s to use for my "be merry" sentiment so I had to get creative. I cut an "o" in half and used an "l" to make a "b"! Can you tell?? Thanks for looking!

Supplies:
Christmas Wishes: Borders, Cute Cuts, Quadrants, Alpha+Bits Stickers

“Perfect Day” card, by Shellye McDaniel.

I simply can't get enough of Christmas Wishes...this collection makes the happiest Christmas Cards!  For this particular card you could change up the theme completely by simply adding a different sticker to the top. I first started by embossing the actual card with a snowflake design.  I then grabbed up a set of banner dies and created a layering of fun and bright colors. In between each I added different thicknesses of foam dots to create a grand illusion. To finish I embellished Mr. Penguin with a ribbon bow, hand-tied button and a couple of stickers. Easy-as-pie!

Supplies:
Christmas Wishes: Cute Cuts, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Miniatures Stickers; Sophisticates: Sprinkles & Lace Punch; Sunny Happy Skies: Magic In The Sky Paper; Button Market: Punch

“Mine 2 Love” card, by Shellye McDaniel.

I took inspiration for this card from the Sophisticates Tall Tags. I wanted vertical lines and crisp detail to create a very modern and clean design. I started by cutting a sheet of 8.5x11" white cardstock to 6.5x11".  I then turned the cardstock and scored at 3" and 8" to create a gate-fold style.  Next I layered with a base of black cardstock followed by Sprinkles & Lace in Oyster.  After lining up the Tall Tags to the very right edge of the left flap and machine stitching in place, I then added splashes of hot pink with a couple of pieces from the Ciao Chip Borders. In finishing, I added a Glue Dot to the back of the chip heart and attached it to the left flap only...a little baby powder to the back keeps it from sticking to the other side!  I embellished with a simple hand-tied button and a slip of a sticker sentiment.

Supplies:
Kiss Me: Alpha+Bits Stickers; Sophisticates: Tall Tags, Sprinkles & Lace Oyster; Ciao Chip Elements: Borders, Stars & Hearts; Button Market: Hot Pink Flowers

Layouts On Wednesdays

It's time once again for another round of free-for-all layouts from our layout designers. I love that we're still seeing lots of Christmas and holiday themed layouts. I think what I love about them the most is how creative our designers get when making their product choices, pulling from such a wide variety of collections to put together a fun mix of papers and accents to make gorgeous pages.

“Gingerbread House”, by Diane Payne.

Purchasing a gingerbread house kit was the best $20 I have ever spent. The entire family, including grandparents, spent an entire evening putting it together. It was a fun memorable evening for everyone. I used a mix of collections to create the unique color combo. The wood buttons are beautiful natural, but did you know you can spray them with mist to coordinate with the colors of your layout? I sprayed the Snowflake button with a pink metallic mist to customize it to the colors of my layout.

Supplies:
Winter Wishes: Blizzard, Borders, Cute Cuts; Sunshine & Happiness: Popsicle Kisses; Spring Flings & Easter Things: Sunny Sunday; Baby Girl: Daddy's Girl; Simply Simona Chipboard Alphas: Peeps; Ciao Chip Everyday Elements: Trees; Button Market: Snowflakes, Fruit Punch

“Love 2 Trim The Tree”, by Sheri Reguly.

I love to mix and match papers and embellishments! When creating this holiday layout, I realized that I had very minimal Christmas themed product on hand, so I had to get creative. By adding stars, sequins and snowflakes, and incorporating a Christmas sticker within the large circles of the “True Love” patterned paper from the “Kiss Me” collection, I was able to make everyday papers appear to be more festive.

Supplies:
Kiss Me: True Love; Sophisticates: Sprinkles & Lace Ice; Winter Wonder: Borders; Christmas Wishes: Miniatures Stickers; High Five Alpha Stickers: Gulf; Designer Tape: Pickle Juice

“Our Little Reindog”, by Malika Kelly.

I had taken these silly pictures of our dog and wanted to make a layout about how patient she is with us and all that we do to her. I used a bunch of fun, bright papers to capture the playful feel of the pictures. Using my cameo, I cut out some reindeer and snowflakes to give it a Christmassy twist. I love how Bella Blvd's papers are so versatile. These papers came from a couple different collections, but not one of them was specifically Christmas themed. Have you ever made a Christmas project with non Christmas themed paper? I'd love to see your layouts!

Supplies:
Birthday Girl: Party Dress, Celebrate; Kiss Me: Mustache Love, Flutter; All Inclusive: Bookin' On the Beach; Sophisticates: Short Stories; Sienna Chipboard Alphas: Pony; High Five Alpha Stickers: Green; Ciao Chip Elements: Family Words, Borders; Designer Tape: Pickle Juice Chevron, Piggy Pink Stripe; Button Market: Masculine Mix

"Christmas", by Jenny Evans.

I love scrapping Christmas!! I went off of my photo and pulled out some navy, turquoise and pink (from the kids' pajamas). I then proceeded to grab every other color I could find! I think mixing in a small bit of the traditional red and green from the Christmas Wishes collection makes any color combination look fabulous for Christmas!

Supplies:
Christmas Wishes: Quadrants, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Miniatures Stickers, Chipboard Icons; Birthday Boy: Streamers; Kiss Me: Flutter; Sophisticates: Sprinkles & Lace Surf N Turf; High Five Alpha Stickers: Blue; Ciao Chip Elements: Stars & Hearts, Borders; Designer Tape: Orange Stripe

“Nana's Pumpkins”, by Allyson Meinholz.

These photos were taken in 2011 at the pumpkin farm of my mom and her 4 grand-daughters. Fall is my favorite time of year, so this collection is one of my favorites. I kept the layout pretty simple to let the photos stand out.

Supplies:
Thankful: Our Spot, Bountiful, Cute Cuts, Just Write Journaling Stickers, Alpha+Bit Stickers; Button Market: Wood Mix

Tuesday Inspiration

Inspiration is all around us, and can be interpreted in so many different ways. We have chosen one image, and asked a handful of our designers to create a layout based on the inspiration piece. It's always fun to see what part of a piece a designers finds inspiring, and how they translate that into their designs. 

{Photo Credit: Photo Card Boutique}

“Snow Day”, by Megan Klauer.

I loved the beautiful color combination of todays inspiration piece. I began with a grey card stock and used white mist over a snowflake punch. I then used the same snowflake punch with the bold blue & greens to add the pop of color. Sewing through the strips of Designer Tape compliments the thin font on the "weather forecast" sticker. 

Supplies:
Winter Wonder: Ski Slopes, Borders, Just Write Journaling Stickers, Miniatures, Alpha+Bits Stickers; Christmas Wishes: Quadrants; Designer Tapes: Red Dot, Gulf Dot, Pickle Juice; Sienna Chipboard Alpha: Pony

“Sledding”, by Becki Adams.

I was ecstatic when I saw the inspiration image and couldn't wait to get creating. I started by digging into my Bella goodies to find the color scheme. I then chose my photos and got to work. I cut several different snowflakes in several different designs, sizes, and colors. I used them as well as flags, stickers, and decorative tape to embellish my layout. I also cut my title using my Silhouette and Bella patterned paper. This layout has already become a family favorite because it captures such a great memory for my kids.

Supplies:
Birthday Boy: Eat Cake; Sophisticates: Sprinkles & Lace Oyster; Finally Fall: Bliss; Flags: Just Married; Button Market: Red Flowers; Winter Wonder: Borders, Miniatures Cardstock Stickers; Designer Tape: Red Dot, Pickle Juice Chevron

"Christmas Presents", by Yohko Takiguchi.

I love the snowflakes and the colors in the inspiration image. I started my layout by picking out red and green papers from Christmas Wishes collection, a gray paper from Sophisticates and used light blue stickers as accents. I punched out four snowflakes from cardstock and added rhinestones above and to the center of each snowflake.

Supplies:
Christmas Wishes: Christmas Love, North Pole, Gifts Galore, Cute Cuts, Borders, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Just Writing Journaling Stickers, Miniatures Stickers; Sophisticates: Sprinkles & Lace Oyster; Button Market: Stars

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We hope you will take some creative time for yourself, and try out our inspiration image! 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. 

 

On-Going Guest Designers: Brook Stewart, Juliana Michaels, and Ebony van der Starre

When we were choosing our 2012-2013 Design Team back in September, we had a few additional designers that we just weren't ready to pass up. So just like last year, we decided to invite these designers to join our team this year as On-Going Guest Designers. They will be sharing projects with us every other month, and we are excited to share their work with you. Today, we are the talents of Brook Stewart, Juliana Michaels, and Ebony van der Starre.

Brook Stewart

“A Letter From Santa”, by Brook Stewart.

Christmas is one of my favorite times of the year. There's so much magic in the air when you have little kids. One of our favorite traditions is of course our Elf on the Shelf. This is his second year in our home and the boys had done really good about not touching him until this year, Two year old = lots of trouble! On our elf's 3rd day, my little guy decided to knock him down off the curtain rod with his foam sword. I heard a blood curdling scream come from the living room and I just knew someone was hurt! I ran in as fast as I could. As I rounded the corner, little Miles had a hold of Kindle (our elf) saying "If you touch him, he'll lose his magic!" as big brother was in absolute tears because he was the one holding him. I had to take a breath and thank goodness that no one was actually hurt. Needless to say, Santa had a letter waiting with Kindle the next morning that gave the kids permission to touch him without losing his magic. Their faces were priceless and everyone was happy and Kindle is WELL loved! I wanted to get this story documented and of course, the Christmas Wishes line did the trick! Amazing colors, amazing prints. I just love it!

Supplies:
Christmas Wishes: North Pole, Candlelight, Quadrants, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Just Write Journaling Stickers, Miniatures Stickers, Chipboard Icons; Family Dynamics: Quadrants; Designer Tape: Pickle Juice Chevron; High Five Alphabets: Brown-Cream, Pink-Red; Simply Simona Chipboard Alphas: Saltwater

“Little Sister Love”, by Brook Stewart.

I love love LOVE this picture of my 3 kiddos. It's one I have in a feame on a shelf. These boys just adore their little sister! I am a bit obsessed with this new Kiss Me line, as the colors are so fresh and pretty and love-able! They complimented the mood of my photo just perfectly!

Supplies:
Kiss Me: Flutter, True Love, Borders & Cute Cuts, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Just Write Journaling Stickers; High Five Alphabets: Gulf, Brown-Cream; Sienna Chipboard Alphas: Punch; Designer Tape: Pony Dot

Juliana Michaels

“Let It Snow”, by Juliana Michaels.

For this layout, I was inspired to create my background by the snow that was falling when we took this photo. I used my Silhouette Cameo to cut out snowflakes from white cardstock. I then used the negative piece for the background. I backed each snowflake with various shades and patterns of blue paper. I added the orange to give it a punch of color. Orange thread is tied in French knots along the border sticker and then used to tie the Star buttons in place.

Supplies:
Sunny Happy Skies: Pandaland; Sophisticates: Sprinkles & Lace Surf N Turf, Sprinkles & Lace Ice; Thankful: Perfect Day, Borders; Tail Waggers & Cat Naps: Alpha+Bits Stickers; Birthday Boy: About A Boy; High Five Alpha Stickers: Blue; Button Market: Stars

“Love You More”, by Juliana Michaels.

I love this photo of my husband and the look he is giving me as I took this photo. When I saw the "I Love You" word bubble sticker I knew that I wanted to scrap the daily conversation we have about which one of us loves the other one more. Of course, I always win! I used stickers, chipboard and borders to help tell the story. To create the background piece behind the photo, I punched circles from the Kiss Me True Love patterned paper. This allowed me to place the patterned circles where I wanted them and to save the rest of the paper for future projects. To create the heart punched border strips, I adhered the Punched Chevron Designer Tape to white cardstock before punching the border.

Supplies:
Kiss Me: Borders & Cute Cuts, Mustache Love, Flutter, True Love, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Just Write Stickers; High Five Alpha Stickers: Blue; Ciao Chip Elements: Stars & Hearts; Designer Tapes: Punch Chevron

Ebony van der Starre

“Love”, by Ebony van der Starre.

It’s sad but true but I rarely scrap photos of myself or of my husband and I! So when I saw the Kiss Me collection, I just knew I wanted to scrap this photo I took on my phone!

Supplies: 
Kiss Me: Bouquet Kisses, Mustache Love, True Love, Borders & Cute Cuts, Alpha+Bits Stickers; Sophisticates: Calendars, Sprinkles & Lace Chlorine; Birthday Girl: Alpha+Bits Stickers; Estate Sale: Alpha+Bits Stickers; Lovey Dovey: Alpha+Bits Stickers; Simply Simona Chipboard Alphas: Saltwater; Ciao Chip Elements: Borders; Designer Tape: Yellow Chevron

“Side By Side”, by Ebony van der Starre.

In this layout I have chosen to leave a lot of white space and use a variety of elements from various ranges. I just love these photos of my children on a holiday recently and wanted to use bright and fun colors!

Supplies:  
Hello Beautiful: Borders N’ Blocks; Birthday Girl: Miles Of Smiles, Alpha+Bits; Kiss Me: Bouquet Kisses, Borders & Cute Cuts; Tail Waggers & Cat Naps: Alpha+Bits; High Five Alpha Stickers: Yellow, Piggy Punch, Blue; Ciao Chip Elements: Stars and Hearts

Christmas Mini Album

Today we have a creative Christmas mini album to share with you that is full of pull out pieces to add journaling and messages. The interactive features of this album make it very fun to look through.

"Sights & Sounds Of The Season" mini album, by Jennifer Edwardson.

I have to admit I was super excited when I was asked to create a Christmas mini album as I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I had these (2) great slide out chipboard albums in my stash but they were each only (3) pages and I loved the look of the (6) pages together. Perfect for what I had in mind. Our family LOVES music and listens to it all day long all year long, so when Christmas time rolls around the carols are being played morning until night. We all have our favorites and I wanted to capture this into my album so that as Emma & Alex get older and have their own families they can look back and remember how it was when they were kids.

For me, the cover is always the starting point to my mini albums. It kind of sets the tone for me to get going on the inside. I cut a large snowflake from a piece of Sophisticates using my Silhouette as my first layer. I added a journaling card, a precision cut tree, a chip tree, a flag and stickers too! I wanted lots of dimension, so when I was adding my title I used High Five Alphabet stickers for most of the title but added chip letters for 'season' and then raised stickers on a couple using 3D foam for even a bit more height to match the flag. Oh, and of course I had to have some chunky glitter on the tips of my snowflake too.

For the circle pages I got out my tracing paper to create the covers for both the pages and the pull out and then got to work covering ALL the pages in the album; front, back and inside too. I always use a strong quick dry liquid glue and then sand off the edges to create a finished look to each page.

I gave Scott, Emma and Alex each a piece of white paper to write down what their favorite Christmas song means to them and included these on some of the pull out pages. I added the title of the song, whose favorite it was and the lyrics too.

A few of these pages have journaling from me about the photo and why it's a tradition in our house and of course inside the first page is a little bit about how Christmas began for Scott & I. I thought the kids would get a kick out of reading all about our first holidays together before they were born.

I love everything Bella and had such a blast using so many of the different embellishments throughout each page. I can't wait to have this out as part of our Christmas décor each year, and one day show it to my kids' kids (waaayy down the road of course).

Supplies:
Christmas Wishes: Christmas Love, Trees For Sale, North Pole, Candlelight, Gifts Galore, Quadrants, Cute Cuts, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Just Write Journaling Stickers, Miniatures Stickers, Chipboard Icons; Sophisticates: Sprinkles & Lace Asparagus, Sprinkles & Lace Oyster, Petite Pieces, Tall Tags, Calendars; Simply Simona Chipboard Alphabets: McIntosh; High Five Alphabets: Pink-Red, Green, Black-White; Flags: Love; Ciao Chip Versatile Elements: Trees; Designer Tape: Red Dot, Brown Pony Dot, Pickle Juice Dot