Bella Blvd Studio Blog

On-Going Guest Designers: Stacey Michaud, Diane Payne, and Charity Hassel

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 Stacey Michaud, who is joining us for her first time on the Bella blog. And we're welcoming back Diane Payne and Charity Hassel for their second round of projects.

Hi all! My name is Stacey Michaud. I am a teacher during the day and an avid scrapbooker by night! I use the creative process to keep my sanity and record my stories. Paper serves as my muse and I love gaining inspiration from the products around me. I like to call my style clean and linear with a twist. Journaling is a must for me. I have been blessed enough to be published in Scrapbook Trends, Creating Keepsakes and Memory Makers magazine as well as several idea books!

"Winter Home", by Stacey Michaud.

I love Bella's chipboard embellishments and how they can make an impact on a project. I kept the paper usage to a minimum, focusing on some of my favorite patterns. Then I simply created a clustered grid of different chipboard and embellishments along with my photos. I am a theme-based scrapper and Bella has the perfect goodies to help me create. I hand-drew the heart to make my title standout and compliment the other hearts on the page.

Supplies: 
Spring Fling & Easter Things: Mom’s Bouquet, Sunny Sunday, Alpha & Bits Stickers; Winter Wonder: Icy, Cute Cuts, Alpha & Bits Stickers, Miniatures; Family Dynamix: Ciao Chip; Baby Blooms-A-Bella: Champagne; Simply Simona Chipboard Alphas: Orange

"Jammies Equal Joy", by Stacey Michaud.

I must admit that the adorable penguins in the Christmas Wishes collection stole my heart. I also have a love affair with banners so I figured I would pair the two to create a part of my title work. I like to scrap the every day, smaller moments such as wearing hand me down pajamas. Adding tidbits, like the calendar heading, helps me communicate my ideas. The bold colors in the collection really pop.

Supplies: 
Christmas Wishes: Trees for Sale, Borders, Star Stripe, Candlelight, Just Write Journaling Stickers, Cute Cuts, Alpha & Bits Stickers, Miniature Stickers; Sophisticates: Oyster and Oreo Chipboard, Calendars; Winter Wonder: Alpha & Bits Stickers; One Fall Day: Alpha & Bits Stickers

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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.

"Play Ball!", by Diane Payne.

Stars are a shape I use frequently on my layouts and I wanted to use them to highlight the recent "family fun day" with our daughter's softball team. The Mr. Boy line had just the papers I was looking for with the star paper and color palette. To create a couple focal points, I cut a star shape out of a block of patterned paper and layered a coordinating pattern behind the cut out. I used various Quattrofina alphabet fonts and colors to make a fun title down the side of the layout!  To complete the layout I added a couple of the new Patriotic Flags behind one of the stars. I really love the bold colors and whimsical feeling of the layout ... it was just the look I was trying to achieve.

Supplies:
Mr. Boy: Connect the Dots, Hyper Stripe, Heroes, Quadrants, Alpha + Bits; Sophisticates: Quattrofina Mustard & Apricot, Quattrofina Salt Water & Pacific, Quattrofina Peep & Saffron, Miniatures Family, Miniatures Card Sentiments; Spring Flings and Easter Things: Miniatures; Button Markets: Bursts; Flags: Patriotic

"On Your Mark, Get Set, Go!", by Diane Payne.

This Easter photo of my daughter trying to hold back our son at the beginning of the Easter Egg hunt makes me laugh every time I see it. It perfectly captures her competitive nature. I used the eggs on the Cute Cuts sheet from the Spring Flings and Easter Things collection to highlight the theme of the layout. I couldn't resist sneaking in some of the new designer tapes too. I love how they are both functional and decorative. They were a great finishing touch for my small photo and journaling card.

Supplies:
Spring Flings and Easter Things: Sunny Sunday, Mom's Bouquet, Cute Cuts, Just Write Journaling Stickers, Miniatures; Sophisticates: Simply Simona Peep, Quattrofina Mustard & Apricot, Miniatures Family; Blooms-a-Bella: Rossini; Designer Tapes: Pickle Juice Dot, Yellow Chevron, Teal Stripe, Pink Flowers

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Hi everyone! My name is Charity. I am 36 years old, married to Brian for 8 years. I am the stay at home mommy of Alexander (7) and Audrey (5). I am also an RN, and work one shift a week at a local hospital. I love paper crafting and creating. It's been so fun to work on design teams, teach at my local scrapbook store and sharing this hobby with friends. I love old musicals, chocolate covered popcorn and spending time with family.

"Silly Siblings", by Charity Hassel.

A quick and easy layout. Simply layer patterned paper, border stickers and cut out the fun trees from Bella patterned paper. 

Supplies:
Spring Flings & Easter Things: A Tisket A Tasket, Alpha+Bits Stickers; Winter Wonder: Toasty; Family Dynamix: Cute Cuts, Roots, Alpha+Bits Stickers; Sophisticates: Family Miniatures Stickers

"Easter Blessings" card, by Charity Hassel.

I love how you can mix Bella's stickers, chipboard, and even different lines together to create a title for a project. Here, I used a chipboard with blessings and a sticker with Easter on it to create my own greeting.

Supplies:
Spring Flings & Easter Things: Sunny Sunday, A Tisket A Tasket, Egg Hunt, Alpha+Bits Stickers; Sophisticates: Sprinkles & Lace Brownie, Ciao Chip Essentials Apricot & Banana

Carrot Goody Box, by Charity Hassel.

I used my cricut to cut the box. Then, I cut pieces of chipboard up to decorate the front top of my carrot with scallops. I used yellow patterned paper to create stripes around the carrot box. Bella chipboard, tags and stickers were layered for flowers on the top. The green of the carrot is green raffia from a craft store.

Supplies:
Spring Flings & Easter Things: Sunny Sunday, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Just Write Journaling Stickers, Miniatures; Sophisticates: Sprinkles & Lace Apricot, Ciao Chip Essentials Apricot & Banana

Easter Basket, by Charity Hassel.

I used a circle punch to cut out a blue circle from Bella patterned paper to cover the inner part of the Bella chipboard circle- it had a greeting that didn't go with my project. Layer leaves cut from paper, chipboard, buttons and Bella tags for a fun flower.

Supplies:
Spring Flings & Easter Things: Miniatures Stickers, Just Write Journaling Stickers; Sophisticates: Sprinkles & Lace Chlorine, Ciao Chip Essentials Apricot & Banana; Winter Wonder: Ski Slopes

Layouts On Wednesday

We're here with another round of free-for-all layouts from our designers. We have an Easter layout, a winter layout, a Christmas layout, and an everyday layout. Something for everyone!

"There Is Something Magical About Easter", by Kim Arnold.

I love the Spring Flings and Easter Things collection, but it does have a lot of pink in it! I really wanted to use the range, without a lot of the pink, to scrap an Easter layout for my son. I also wanted to incorporate a bit more blue, since he was wearing blue pjs, so I used touches from the Winter Wonder range. I am really happy with the end result – what is even better, I used a part of a quote from the Winter Wonder Alpha & Bits stickers for my title – cutting of “brand new snow” and substituting “Easter” with the large letter stickers!

Supplies:
Spring Flings and Easter Things: Sunny Sunday, Borders, Cute Cuts, A Tisket A Tasket, Egg Hunt, Alpha & Bits; Winter Wonder: Alpha+Bits, Miniatures

"Nativity", by Melissa Stinson.

I wanted to scrap a layout about our cute little nativity set that I bought last year on Etsy. The colors in the set are more pastel than normal Christmas colors, and the Winter Wonder collection was actually a much better fit for them than the Christmas Wishes line I had originally planned to use, so I ran with it! I used my Silhouette Cameo to cut the star background out of Ice Sophisticates paper, and the title is cut from a sheet of Winter Wonder paper.

Supplies:
Winter Wonder: Borders, Icy, Blizzard; Sophisticates: Sprinkles and Lace - Ice

"Favorite Toy", by Megan Klauer.

The rainbow from the Cute Cuts sheet may just possibly be my favorite from the Spring Fling collection! Rainbows always make me think of my favorite toy when I was little; my Rainbow Brite doll. So when I came across this photo of Ella on her favorite toy, I knew the little rainbow would be the perfect touch. Before now, I hadn't had a chance to play with the Blooms-a-Bella flowers but they just fell into place so perfectly for me. Love when that happens; don't you?

Supplies:
Spring Fling & Easter Things: Cute Cuts, Sunny Sunday, Egg Hunt, Alpha+Bits, Just Write Journaling stickers, Mom's Bouquet, Miniatures stickers; Blooms A Bella: Rossini Pink

"Santa's Helper", by Sheri Feypel.

I was going for a playful look when I created this layout. Lots of layers, bright colors and journaling (gasp!! I know, I need to do that more!!). Everything about Christmas Wishes is playful, so it was the perfect fit for my pictures! I wanted to mix several different patterns, so I chose the Borders paper. I also cut a few strips from the Star Stripe and Cute Cuts to add into the mix as well. This layout came together rather quickly, it only appears to be lots of cutting, but really very minimal cutting here. I used the Chipboard Icons to add lots of dimension to my layout. Some of the chipboard has double stacked foam pop dots behind them, mostly because I am a pop dot junkie! Seriously I need to start buying them in bulk. I am not big on Journaling, I'm trying though. I added my journaling last, where ever there was some open space. I promise you will see more journaling on my layouts in 2012!

Supplies:
Christmas Wishes: Star Stripe, Cute Cuts, Borders, Chipboard Icons, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Miniature

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 

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)

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

Step-By-Step 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!

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!!!

You can download our third project sheet, featuring Bella's Christmas Wishes collection, by clicking HERE.

To find our previous project sheets, from other collections, you simply need to click on "Project Sheets" in the "Category" section on the left sidebar. That will bring up any post, where we have shared project sheets. Or, to make it easy for you today, just click on THIS and you'll be able to download our previous three project sheets!

Cards On Thursdays

Let's talk cards for a minute. Do you create your own handmade Christmas cards, to send out to family and friends each year? Do you send out photo cards, with a favorite family photo (my personal favorite way to do it)? How many of you are totally on top of things, and have all your Christmas cards mailed out? Or are you like me, and haven't really given it much thought yet? Hopefully, I'm not alone in getting a late start ;)

Well, today is card day here on the blog. Our designers for the day were given free reign, to create any type of card they wanted to make. It just sort of worked out, that four of our six cards are Christmas cards. They must all have Christmas on the brain. So, if you haven't started on your cards yet, you might be able to pick up an idea or two here.

"Thanks" card, by Gretchen McElveen.

What kind of cards do you need most in December?? Well Christmas cards of course! And I always need thank you cards too! So I am getting a jump on both kinds! P.S. the striped patterned paper on the "Thanks" card is the "Cute Cuts" sheet from the Christmas Wishes line. And I am pretty sure it is the most versatile piece of patterned paper on the market. I promise you it coordinates well with every line that Bella Blvd has ever made!

Supplies:
Spring Flings and Easter Things: Egg Hunt; Winter Wonder: Borders; Christmas Wishes: Cute Cuts; Family Dynamix: Mother's Day; Sophisticates: Miniatures Card Sentiments

"Looks A Lot Like Christmas" card, by Gretchen McElveen.

Supplies:
Christmas Wishes: Candlelight, Gifts Galore, Alpha Bits + Stickers, Just Write Journaling Stickers

"The Perfect Day" card, by Kathy Martin.

There was no question which Bella Blvd. collection to use for my cards today! Since we’re in the midst of Christmas crafting and activity I couldn’t see using any other line than Christmas Wishes! These vibrant colors and whimsical patterns and accents made these cards a breeze to create and will bring my friends and family good cheer!

Supplies:
Christmas Wishes: Star Stripe, Alpha+Bits, Miniatures

"I Love Christmas" card, by Kathy Martin.

Supplies:
Christmas Wishes: Star Stripe, Gifts Galore, Borders, Miniatures, Ciao Chip

"Peace, Love, Christmas" card, by Gail Hoecker.

My first card is for Christmas, of course, that's all I can think of right now. I combined Bella's newest Christmas and Winter lines for this card. The "peace love Christmas" sticker is from the Just Write Journaling Stickers from Christmas Wishes. I just snipped off the piece that makes it a "talk bubble" and made it into an oval sticker.

Supplies:
Winter Wonder: Icy, Borders; Stickers: Alpha+Bits, Miniatures; Christmas Wishes: Star Stripe, Just Write Journaling Stickers

"Welcome To The Neighborhood" card, by Gail Hoecker.

Bella Blvd papers are always my "go to" papers. However, the Finally Fall collection is one that I just love. I also love the Bella stamps by Unity, as they are easy to use and stamp so clear!

Supplies:
Finally Fall; Leaf Pile, Borders, Cute Cuts; Stamp: Finally Fall

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I also wanted to remind you that our Bella Buzz December Newsletter is coming out, exactly one week from today. Are you all signed up, so that it gets delivered straight to your inbox? If not, head on over HERE, and sign up in the little yellow box, with the cupcake ;)

Layouts On Wednesdays

Happy Wednesday everyone! We hope you all enjoyed all the Christmas project ideas from yesterday's post. Today is a free-for-all day for some of our layout designers, where they were free to scrap about anything they wanted too. Let's see what they have for us, shall we!

"Getting Fancy With Daddy", by Becky Williams.

One thing that my girls enjoy is dressing up their Daddy to look "pretty." He's the only man in the house- we have four daughters and even the dog is a girl! Here my 4 year old was making her daddy all fancy by putting headbands and hairclips in his hair. The colors in the pictures work so well with the brightly-colored patterned papers from Bella Blvd. I played off of the stripes on my daughter's shirt to pick papers both new and old.  I really like the word strips and stickers that add so much to my projects. I also enjoy using the different sizes of alpha stickers in the Bella collections. 

Supplies:
Socialite: Tango; Sophisticates: Short Stories; Flirty: Bits A Bella; Finally Fall: Apple Holler; Spring Flings and Easter Things: Egg Hunt, Alpha+Bits; Hello Beautiful: Alpha+Bits, Blurbs; Winter Wonder: Alpha+Bits; Making the Team: Alpha+Bits; Simply Simona: Peep

"Meeting Santa Claus", by Megan Klauer.

One thing I love about the Bella products is that each collection consists of a ton of product. You can create multiple pages and projects with just one collection as I have done here with my "Meeting S.C." page. The yellow pieces in the line add a unique twist to your otherwise typical Christmas pages. And while I had my scraps out, I decided to make a quick tag while I was at it.

Supplies:
Christmas Wishes: Candlelight, Borders, Cute Cuts, Alpha+Bits, Journaling Stickers, Miniatures, Icons

Christmas Tag, by Megan Klauer.

Supplies:
Christmas Wishes: Candlelight, Christmas Love, Cute Cuts, Star Stripe, Alpha+Bits, Journaling Stickers, Miniatures, Icons; Stamps: December Details 2

"We Are Family", by Janis Medina.

I have these pictures of my family, taken in a photobooth during a friend's wedding. The pictures were small and so I decided to scrap them with lots of negative space, less paper and lots of stickers and chipboards. I misted a bit on the base cardstock and doodled the border for added interest.

Supplies:
Sophisticates: Short Stories, Essentials Ice & Chlorine, Essentials Apricot & Banana; Finally Fall: You're a Hoot, Apple Holler, Leaf Pile, Cute Cuts, Bliss, Alpha+Bits, Ciao Chip Icons

Handmade Christmas Gifts

I think that most of us, as crafters, love to create handmade gifts at Christmas time. This could be anything from creating gifts for our children, family members, teachers and co-workers, or even simple stocking stuffers. We asked our Altered Project Designers to create some quick and easy handmade gifts, using our Christmas Wishes collection. They have come up with a great bunch of projects to share with you today.

Glassine Cookie Treat Bags, by Suzanne Sergi.

One of my favorite little gifts to make for the holidays, is to package sweet treats for my children. The cookie is fabulous on its own, but with a few supplies you can make the packaging extra special. Here I used food safe glassine bags.

One of my favorite go to techniques is to use my embossing folders. They add instant texture, and are so simple to use. I chose a snowflake embossing folder, and decided to top my treat bags with a bold snowflake. I almost went with a white snowflake, but decided to step outside my comfort zone. I used the Christmas Wishes quadrant paper to cut my snowflake. On this size of embellishment, it was a better pairing with a paper that had a smaller image. I love the red on the snowflake, and the faint pattern of the mini hearts. Perfect for a child's treat.

I then used my Cricut to cut a label to fit around the bag. This was the layer to hold my snowflake embellishment. I used the circle stickers from the Journaling Sticker sheet for the center, layered on top of a white doily. On top, a sweet sentiment tied together with a mini clothespin, and twine.

Supplies:
Christmas Wishes: North Pole, Just Write Journaling Stickers, Quadrants

Christmas Altered Acrylic Ornaments, by Suzanne Sergi.

Last year, for my children's class I altered these acrylic ornaments I found at my local craft store. I filled them with bright blue gumballs, but this time I decided to fill them with more traditional Christmas colors. Children love skittles, and I was glad to find them in colors that went perfectly with the Christmas Wishes collection. These skittle ornaments are perfect for surprising children on Christmas morning. 

I used the Santa Claus image from the Cute Cuts as the main embellishment. I used various papers from Christmas Wishes to add a few paper piecing details to him, such as the star, and the heart. The holly is cut from the toasty paper from Bella Winter. I added a touch of glitter to the beard, and a red brad for the nose. I also added a green heart border around the middle of the ornament for an extra layer. I tied the Santa Claus at the top using twine, tulle, and white pom pom ribbon as the finishing details.

I inked my sentiment on top of the Christmas morning journaling card from the cute cuts paper. I trimmed this card apart so I could create three banners for each of the ornaments. My children will be surprised to find these at their door. I will also be making more of them for teachers, too. I think everyone enjoys treats at this festive time of year! 

Supplies:
Christmas Wishes: Borders, Cute Cuts, Alpha+Bits stickers, Candlelight; Winter Wonder: Toasty

Christmas Candy Bag, by Marie-Josée Hamel.

This candy bag can be created very quickly. All you have to do is put some candies in a plastic bag, measure the length of said bag, and cut a piece of paper of that length, that you will fold in half and staple to the bag. Then, decorate the piece of paper as you see fit. You can add stickers, text, or even a tag, as I did.

 

Christmas Gift Card Holders, by Marie-Josée Hamel.

As you can see, you can create many different gift card holders. You can create a card and include a pocket inside for a gift card. Or you can create smaller gift card holder using a small piece a folded cardboard. One has a sleeve to ensure that it doesn't open, and the other one is open at the top. Just insert the gift card in it.

Christmas Altered Notepads, by Marie-Josée Hamel.

I used my Cinch binding tool to create two of those little notepads, but if you don't have a binding machine, you can just buy regular note pads and alter them using Bella Blvd products. The longer one was made by folding a piece of paper in half. I recycled some sheets I had at home and cut them to fit the cover. I then adhered a ribbon to the cover and put another piece of paper on top to secure it. I will carry this notepad in my purse for Christmas shopping, so that I will have all the wish lists handy! 

Supplies:
Christmas Wishes: North Pole, Star Stripe, Quadrants, Borders, Cute Cuts, Alpha+Bits, Journaling Stickers, Icons; Baby Blooms-a-Bella: Saffron

Santa Treat Bag, by Jennifer Edwardson.

I love Big Dies for my Big Shot and this bag is one of my favorites. It is the perfect size for small gifts such as jewellery, gift cards or candies too! The Santa was perfect and I wrapped a couple of patterned paper strips around the bottom, then added some glitter tissue and a ribbon bow and it's ready to go!

Supplies:
Christmas Wishes: Borders, Cute Cuts.

Christmas Treat Box, by Jennifer Edwardson.

This box is another die that I love to use for all occasions. It is so fun to pretty up with paper and ribbon and holds bite size treats such as homemade chocolates and little holiday cookies too! After wrapping a patterned paper strip around the box I added a border sticker and cut up a word sticker strip to add a sweet sentiment to the front of the box. The small circle alphas were the perfect size for the little gift tag.

Supplies:  
Christmas Wishes: Borders, Alphas+Bits; Quattrofina Alpha Stickers.

Christmas Altered Tree Ornaments, by Jennifer Edwardson.

Each year I like to create a few new handmade ornaments and I love how these ones came together. When I saw these plain white shapes at Ikea I knew I could change them up and make them the perfect addition to our tree.   

After choosing the paper for the bird, I traced the shape for both sides, cut them out, adhered them to the chipboard base using quick dry glue and sanded the edges. Because the patterned paper is a heavier weight than what was used in the original piece, I reduced the length and width of the wings to be able to 'spread' the wings and have them stay open.  

I then punched a hole in the bottom and used mini jump rings to add stickers from the bottom. I really had fun making these and hope to find a minute before Christmas to make a few more as gifts :)

Supplies:  
Christmas Wishes: Christmas Love, Gifts Galore, North Pole, Miniatures stickers

December Guest Designer: Erin Terrell Clarkson

Today, I'm excited to introduce you to our December Guest Designer!

Erin Terrell Clarkson has been scrapbooking for 14 years now and works as a contributing editor for Scrapbooks etc. magazine. She has contributed to numerous idea books through Scrapbooks etc., Making Memories, and Provo Craft. She lives in San Antonio, TX, with her daughter (and subject of most of her layouts), Daisy.

Hi all! I’m Erin, and I’m excited my pal Laura asked me to participate as a guest blogger on the Bella Blvd blog today! Bella Blvd has always been one of my favorite scrapbook companies because the coordinating collections make my job as a designer soooo much easier. The designs are super-cute, too. The Christmas Wishes collection is one of my favorites, so I’m going to share a few Christmas projects here today.

"Time To Open Presents", by Erin Terrell Clarkson.

I’m a fan of lots of color on my layouts, so this one is just that – very colorful. I selected a basic turquoise cardstock background, printed my photos in B&W, and then matted them in white so they’d stand out. I added strips of colorful patterned paper along the top and bottom of the page to liven things up.

I added stickers for the title, embellishments, and for a bit of journaling. The main portion of my journaling was printed on white cardstock and cut into strips.

I used a large circle punch on the patterned paper with the polka dots, then lightly sanded the edges.

I added a pop dot behind one sticker for dimension and a button to the polka dot paper for extra texture.

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"Dear Santa", by Erin Terrell Clarkson.

For this layout, I combined color photos with a B&W shot. I didn’t have too many photos from this event, but that’s ok because it left more room for embellishments and fun. 

The bottom right-hand side of the layout is very colorful (again – I love color!), but is basically just lots of patterned paper and stickers layered together. I punched the cute reindeer from patterned paper with a large circle punch and I added the dot from a lowercase red letter “i” (foam sticker) to create a 3d nose for him.

I had to add polka dots again, because they are my favorite and I seem to use them on every page I create. I trimmed them to create a whimsical frame to help ground the stickers and patterned papers.

This layout came together very quickly because I stuck to a very simple color scheme.

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"I Love Santa", by Erin Terrell Clarkson.

Anyone who knows me knows I don’t do complicated cards. I like easy ones that can be mass duplicated, and this one fits the bill. I trimmed patterned paper for the main message on the card, used a large circle punch again to trim Santa as the main graphic for the card front, then added a simple border with stickers. Easy! Which is good, because I’m always short on time during the holidays…but I still like to give a card that is handmade.

Thanks Laura, for inviting me to participate, and thanks to Stephanie and the rest of the gang at Bella Blvd for creating such adorable scrapbook papers and embellishments! Merry Christmas!!

More Christmas Altered Projects

We have some more altered Christmas projects to share with you today. These were all booth projects that our CHA Designers created for Summer CHA, last July. We've been holding on to them, and patiently waiting for the holiday season to roll around, so that we could pass these ideas on to you.

Altered Christmas Wreath, by Michelle Clement (CHA Designer)

I created this altered styrofoam wreath, with the lovely Christmas Wishes collection, for the Bella booth at Summer CHA. I added some of my favorite, super-bright Debbie Stoller yarn to this all paper creation.

I got the styrofoam base from Michaels and covered it using my trusty hot glue-gun with strips of patterned paper (some sewn and even scrumpled, for texture). I finished it off with a medallion-inspired bow in the top right corner, which was made from folded strips of paper stapled in the middle, and wound the bright pink yarn around the whole thing. I quite love how it turned out!

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Altered Advent Calendar, by Allyson Meinholz.

I was at a local craft store and came across a blank advent calendar. I knew I wanted to alter it using the Christmas Wishes collection. I knew it would be perfect, especially with the new chipboard numbers that were being released.

I simply picked out various patterns to cover the calendar. Then I embellished each box using stickers, and chipboard pieces.

I finished the calendar with a dimensional paper bow using strips of paper. I glued each piece together to make a loop and then folded one side to make the point and adherred the points together to make the fan effect.

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Altered Gift Boxes, by Beth Gerlach.

I think I'm addicted to paper mache. I love these boxes. They were so easy to decorate. My intent was to make a bunch of them to put Christmas gifts in. That way, it's like getting two gifts because you can re-use the box. So I made a few like these to give away, and I'm keeping a few to decorate with during the holidays. I love how they turned out. I used Bella's Christmas Wishes for all my boxes. You can find a huge variety of boxes at your local craft store.

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2011 Christmas Planner, by Gail Hoecker.

An oldie but goodie ... planners ... l.o.v.e. them! I normally will use one of those black and white covered composition books that they sell in August and September for the "back to school" sales. I like them because they have a nice sturdy front and back cover to alter and the black spine which goes with just about anything. I just have fun with them and start decorating. 

I divide the book into sections and usually cover the beginning page of that section with a piece of patterned paper or cardstock. When you use the planners as often as I do, it makes the section tabs a little stronger. I have made them without the paper though, and have never had a tab fall off yet!

I have these for Christmas, Winter, Spring and Fall. My first Christmas planner actually lasted five years. The reason I mention this little fact is because I can keep track of which recipes I used, if I needed to double it for the amount of people that were at that particular dinner, etc. It is also a great place to record clothing sizes, likes and dislikes.

Then, the real time saver for me is that if a particular arrangement, the fireplace mantel, for instance, looks really nice that year, I take a picture of it and put it right in the book so I have a visual for the next year. Try one. You know you already have those adorable Bella Blvd seasonal papers!

Christmas Altered Projects

We hope that everyone had a great Thanksgiving last week! How many of you were out shopping on Black Friday? Or Thursday evening, as so many stores were open early this year. Not me! I wanted nothing to do with that madness ;) I did, however, pull out some of our Christmas decorations and I have started sprinkling some holiday cheer around the house.

Since I think most of us are getting into the Christmas spirit, it's the perfect time for some Christmas project ideas. And our fabulous designers have come up with LOTS of projects to share this week. They have all taken the Christmas Wishes and Winter Wonder collections, and used them for inspiration to come up with some fun and unique holiday projects.

Christmas Tree Altered Frame, by Suzanne Sergi.

One of my favorite items to make during the holiday season are home decor projects. I love creating quick and easy projects to add holiday cheer to the home. I love the color palette of Christmas Wishes, and it is perfect for dressing a children's bedroom, or simply for the children's dinner table. I have  quite a few of inexpensive frames around the house, so I decided to dress up this white frame with a layered Christmas tree.

This tree was built with layers from the papers, borders that I cut from the Borders 12x12 paper, and borders from the sticker sheet. So easy to layer, and for extra dimension I adhered the tree with pop dots. For the top I glittered a star cut from paper, and finished the center with a wood star that I covered with the hearts pattern from the quadrants paper. Around the tree, I decided to hang a tag that I embellished with an accent from the chipboard sheet, and finished with a silver bell tied with string. On the bottom of the frame, are a few spools that I covered with strips of paper, and embellished with a little Christmas bling. This frame is full of happy colors, and layers that are sure to put a smile on my children's faces as we await Christmas.

Supplies:
Christmas Wishes: Quadrants, Borders, Love, Alpha+Bits, Icons Chipboard Stickers, Just Write Stickers, Trees

Christmas Mailbox and Tags, by by Marie-Josée Hamel.

A few weeks ago, I bought this cute tin mailbox at a dollar store. I knew it would be perfect for my next Bella project! My daughter and I will use the mailbox to exchange notes that we will write everyday on a different tag. Every morning, I will put a tag in the mailbox for her, with a message written on the back, and every night, she will reply to me on the same tag. This will go on until Dec. 24. I will then put all the tags together using a ring so that it becomes a mini-album, and will put it back in the mailbox and keep it with the Christmas stuff. This way, every year, we will have a little something to remind us of December 2011!

To adhere the paper to the mailbox, use Terrifically Tacky Tape (or a similar tape). Once it's done, add stickers, chipboard, ribbon and other embellishments.

To decorate the tags, cut pieces of papers, adhere them to the tags and add stickers and chipboard. Do not hesitate to cut the stickers and the borders: small pieces look very good on the tags.

Supplies:
Christmas Wishes: North Pole; Star Stripe; Quadrants; Borders; Cute Cuts; Alpha+Bits; Just Write Journaling Stickers; Icons; Blooms-a-Bella: Azzini

Christmas Count-Down Tree, by Kimberly Neddo.

I've been wanting to alter this Count-down tree for some time now, and I loved Bella Blvd's Winter Wonder collection for this project. First, I started by painting the edges with some paint I had on hand that coordinated with the line. Then I used Mod podge to adhere the papers to the wood.

After the papers were dry on all the wood, I began to decorate it with hand cut snowflakes and stickers. I used pop dots to give some dimension to the cut out snowflakes and stickers, this gave a kind of ornamental effect for the over all design that is what I was looking for. Thanks so much for stopping by, I hope this piece inspires you all to have fun with these papers for some fun projects as well.

Supplies:
Winter Wonder: Toasty, Blizzard, Icy, Borders, Alpha+Bits; Simply Simona Chipboard Numhers: White

Christmas Wish List Clipboards, by Jennifer Edwardson.

I have always been a list maker and a few years ago I decided that pretty clipboards were the perfect place for my lists. I have a shopping list clipboard at home and at my shop we have them for schedules, orders, time sheets and more. I am just finishing up a "Scott could you please…." clipboard too, as EVERY time I ask him to do something he asks me to write it on a list. Now he won't have any excuse 'casue he'll have his very own clipboard!

Last year for Christmas I took a pretty clipboard shopping for the kids gifts and it saved me and kept me soooooo organized. When I saw Bella's Christmas Wishes collection, I knew I had to make them for the kids wish lists too, and of course a new one for me to match :))

Emma and Alex LOVED filling out their cards and it was PERFECT for me, so I knew exactly what they really wanted to see under the tree on Christmas morning.

I added envelopes to mine to keep my shopping list for each of them inside AND … I can also tuck the reciepts in the envelopes "just in case". December is such a crazy busy month and now I can head out and get the shopping done with LOTS of time leftover to wrap!

For a quick tutorial, on how I covered the clipboards with the patterned paper ... cutting out the notches for the clips ... head over to HERE, where I have posted step-by-step instructions on my blog.

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Just a little head's up, on what we have planned for the week on the blog. Don't forget to leave a comment on THIS POST, to be entered in our Big Picture Classes giveaways. We will announce those winners tomorrow. We will have our second "Inspiration Tuesday" feature tomorrow, followed by lots of "Layouts On Wednesdays". And Thursday, we have even more Christmas altered projects to share with you. You won't want to miss any of it!

Saturday Sketches

It's time for another round of Saturday Sketch's. 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 the second sketch for the month of November!

"Fall Fun", by Lynn Ghahary.

Fall is such a fun time of year here in New Jersey.  e always make a point to visit some of the local farms and pumpkin patches. This year we went to Sun High Orchard and you boys just could not resist posing for a picture in the wooden farm animal cut outs. What a pair of goofballs!

Supplies:
Finally Fall: Alpha & Bits 12x12 Stickers, Just Write 12x12 Stickers, Icons Chipboard Stickers, Miniatures Stickers, Borders, Leaf Pile, At the Patch, Cute Cuts

"Me And Rogue", by Janis Medina.

This is my first time to make a layout after a loooong time and I did it on the floor as my scraproom is an unusable mess!!! Using minimum tools, I based my layout on the sketch and added my layers and textures. I also used different sizes of the same photo for added interest.

Supplies:
Finally Fall Collection:  Autumn Splendor, Apple Holler, Cute Cuts, Bliss, Leaf Pile, Ciao Chip Icons, Alpha+Bits stickers, Just Write Journaling stickers; Simply Simona chipboard alphas: Oreo

"A Wonderful Day", by Vivian Masket.

When I work with a sketch, I find that the final product rarely looks exactly like the original sketch, as I tend to use sketches more as starting places than as blueprints. I started this layout by turning the sketch ninety degrees to the left, which placed the circular elements at the top right and the bottom left. After rotating the sketch, I decided I wanted more circles, so I altered the design to add those in, combining woodgrain patterned papers from three different product lines. I kept the idea of four photos, but put them in one horizontal strip rather than in a grid. After that, it was simply a matter of adding embellishments (a chipboard border and leaves punched from the same paper used for the circles), journaling strips, and a sticker for a title. While my final layout doesn't look exactly like the sketch, I would never have done a layout with large circles like this without the sketch as a starting place!

Supplies:
Finally Fall: Quadrants, Autumn Splendor, Miniatures Stickers; Christmas Wishes: Ciao Chip Icons; Mr. Boy: Quadrants; Family Dynamix: Quadrants

"Christmas", by Julie Johnson.

I love circles so I had fun working with this sketch. If your not familiar with working with sketches this would be a great one to try because it was easy to follow and made a very fast page. The best part of a sketch is that you have a foundation to work with but you can add your own touch. I added a few extra borders to the top of the page and instead of using four wallet photos I decided to use two 4 x 6 photos. I added some Icon chipboard embellishments and title, and some miniature stickers and alpha + bits stickers to make the details and finishing touches on the page. 

Supplies:
Christmas Wishes: Christmas Love, North Pole, Gifts Galore, Star Stripe, Quadrants, Cute Cuts, Icons, Miniatures, and Alpha + Bits. 

"The Apple Doesn't Fall Far From The Tree" card, by Kathy Martin.

This sketch was challenging since I needed to create a card using a scrapbook page sketch! And you know what, it was fun! I opted to use the Finally Fall collection for this project because I adore this collection, and because we’ll be knee deep in Christmas and snow projects soon enough!

Supplies:
Finally Fall: At the Patch, Leaf Pile, Borders, Alpha + Bits, Ciao Chip; One Fall Day: Just Leafy

"Thanks A Lot" card, by Deanna Misner.

When I saw this sketch I instantly thought of the circles as Mickey Mouse ears. I don't know, call me crazy, but it could be that I still had Disney on the brain since we just went in October. And since my parents went with us and helped us so much while we were there, I thought I'd use this sketch to make them a card.  I used my die-cut machine to make the Mickey cut-outs and used a hodge podge of Bella products to create my card the way I envisioned it.

Supplies:
Sophisticates: Sprinkles and Lace  MacIntosh, Miniatures stickers; Socialite: Cute Cuts, Alpha+Bits; Making the Team: Chipboard Icons

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!