Bella Blvd Studio Blog

Fridays With Stephanie

Hey everyone! It's Laura here, taking over Stephanie's Friday post. Things are starting to get really busy at the Bella offices, with Summer CHA fast approaching. With all of the designing and planning going on, Stephanie just hasn't had much time to put into her Friday posts lately. This is where YOU come in!

This is your chance to ask Stephanie any questions that you're dying to know the answers too. Or if there's any fun topics that you would love to see her blog about, feel free to put those ideas out there as well. I know Q&A's always make it easy for me to blog, so I'm sure it will get Stephanie doing a bit more blogging on those weeks when things get too crazy to stop and come up with ideas on her own. 

Let us know what you want to read about, and then keep your eye's out for future Fridays With Stephanie posts ... you just might see your question answered!

Fridays With Stephanie

Hello scrappy friends and happy Friday! Have you already begun your extended holiday weekend? Our local weather is supposed to be beautiful, so I’m excited to spend some time in the sun with family & friends! We’ve done some “not-so-spring-cleaning” (meaning that it’s already summer for most people), rearranging and straightening of things at the studio. It’s pretty amazing how cluttered things get and how much “stuff” is accumulated over time.

Doesn’t my desk look pretty clean? I’m so excited … because it’s usually full of piles and piles and post-its galore.

Lucky for you our cleaning adventure has left us with a couple drawers full of scraps!

These two drawers have old product and new product, snippets of papers, stickers that have been partially used and lots of opened-up randomness like chipboard & flags.

Instead of throwing it away I’d like to select 2 lucky winners to receive these goodies. I’m giving away one here today with Bella Blvd readers, and one over at my blog Designing my Life, to my readers as well! (Be sure to visit both!)

I will split the drawers into two prize packages and ship them out. Here’s how to win:

Leave a comment below telling us how you’re spending Memorial Day Weekend.

Be sure to visit my blog for a second chance to win. The Bella winner will be announced here, and the second winner will be announced on my blog, both on Tuesday.

And, on a side note I thought I’d share a recent Bella Blvd layout I created with my Making The Team Products. Here’s a sneak peek, but you’ll have to visit my blog to see the rest! I mixed some Mr. Boy with plenty of Making the Team. Happy with how it turned out.

Happy Friday!

Fridays With Stephanie

Happy Friday to all you Bella Blvd fans out there! Around the studio we’ve had a very busy-filled couple of weeks. A big thank-you to everyone that ordered our from our Warehouse Box Sale. We sold hundreds of boxes and are completed SOLD OUT! Boxes will be shipped out on or before May 11^th so mark your calendars … it’s going to be a great Mother’s Day ;)

In other news, samples will be arriving soon of our CHA Summer products. I can’t wait for the big reveal and to celebrate Bella Blvd’s fourth birthday with you. Thank you for all your comments and suggestions (last Friday) for new product collections and embellishments. I have them all stored away in a list for brainstorming and consideration for CHA Winter 2013.

I’m off to a scrapbooking retreat this weekend to spend some time with my girlfriends during the National Scrapbook Day holiday! Be sure to stop by Bella for lots of fun stuff including a peek into the Design Teams’ scrapbooking rooms, a big giveaway and more!

That said, I hope your National Scrapbook Day weekend is full of creativity, color and of course, Bella Blvd too!

Ciao ciao for now!

Fridays With Stephanie - Warehouse Box Sale UPDATES

Special Announcement post - Scroll down for more current posts!

Today's Friday Post is for everyone interested in the Warehouse Box Sale! Thank you for the outpouring of support and excitement about our very first Warehouse Box Sale. I have some additional information for everyone including more Questions & Answers and a couple updates. Please help us spread the word: that is, if you know a friend that's placed an order be sure they hear all this info! 

For those of you that haven't heard of this 70% savings yet, be sure to check out all the details on the Flyer HERE.  

I've Emailed Bella Blvd About my Order, But Haven't Been Contacted for Payment Yet???
If you've emailed us your order and received a confirmation reply you're all set to go. We will be contacting you for payment within 7 business days. Don't worry if we haven't contacted you yet, your box is on-hold! Please DO NOT re-send your order. This may cause duplicate shipments to go out.

Can I Call to Give you Payment or are you Going to Call Me?
We will contact you. However, if you do call that's okay too. Just be sure to ask for Carii and refer to the Warehouse Box Sale.

Are there Still Boxes Left?
Yes! There's plenty of time to reserve a box. Don't feel left out (yet)!

How Many Pounds will the Box Weigh?
Each Warehouse Sale Box is approximately three and a half pounds.

Can I Pay for My Box with Paypal?
Simple answer: no. 
Complicated Answer: If you absolutely prefer Paypal we can make an exception for you ;)

If I Order More than One Box How Much Will Shipping Cost?
All shipping prices listed are PER box.

Will the Warehouse Box Contain packs (of 25 identical sheets) of Paper?
No. The box contents are open-stock, sheets or pieces of products. You may receive 2-4 identical sheets but not more than that.

If I Own a Retail Store Can I Purchase A Box?
Yes, of course. Anyone and everyone can purchase these Warehouse Sale Boxes. This is a great opportunity for stores owners to stock up on products for events, giveaways, prizes, make-n-takes, etc. The more the merrier!

How to Order a Box:
Send an email to: sales@bellablvd.net, using the subject link: BOX SALE + (YOUR FIRST & LAST NAME). Include how many boxes you would like to order and the shipping address. For payment information please fax credit card details to 414-259-1801 or provide a phone number and our customer service team will contact you within 7 business days. (Please double check your address to make sure it is correct: Bella Blvd is not responsible for addresses which are submitted incorrectly).

And an FYI for everyone ... that actual retail value of the box contents is $142 worth of happiness! ;)

Happy Friday!

Fridays With Stephanie

Today is craziness. That’s all I have to say! There’s plenty going on around here to keep everyone busy. But I must say … I’m having so much fun working on the new product collections for CHA. And, because it’s way to early to show you sneak peeks (so sorry), I can give you one hint:

Can you believe that we are going to be four years old? It’s pretty amazing how quickly the time goes by and where Bella Blvd has come from! So that’s your very first hint.

Speaking of CHA Summer -- we are trying to clean out the warehouse (Spring Cleaning) and make some room for our brand new goodies. This is great news for you because … for the very first time ever … Bella Blvd will soon be announcing a:

WAREHOUSE BOX SALE!!!

For a super great, low price you’ll receive tons of Bella Blvd products for your stash! Please continue to watch here and on our facebook page for the special discounted pre-order price so that you can get a box before they’re gone—as we will only be making a specific number!

Now that I have you all excited about both our new CHA Summer products AND the upcoming Warehouse Box Sale, how about a FREE giveaway! Leave a comment below to win several Designer Tapes, Crochet Flowers and chipboard alphabets too!

We’ll announce a winner on Tuesday!

Fridays With Stephanie

April fifth. Two days before Easter. Wow. I have a lot to accomplish before Sunday (Easter baskets, garden work, decorating, Bella work, etc.) that’s for sure … but I am excited to be here today for my Friday post. I’ve been absent for a few weeks and I thought you might be missing me ;)

Fist of all, I want to say THANK YOU to the Design Team girls & my Bella Blvd staff for contributing to such a wonderful surprise & engagement gift for Steven and I. I was, and still am, overwhelmed by the surprise earlier this week. Check out the details of the awesome (& cleverly appropriate) photo-booth-reception-gift over here on my blog. 

Now, onto Bella news and updates: I returned to the Bella studio just this week after a long trip in Puerto Rico where Jenna and I taught several Bella Blvd workshops at The Scrapbook Gallery. This was my second visit to Nilmarie’s store after a very successful event in 2011.

It was great seeing so many familiar faces, as students returned from last year. We bound mini books including this Home-themed 6x7":

And finished more that 26 pages in this 10x7” Spring From A-Z album workshop.

We mixed and matched Bella from so many different collections, plus acrylic, chipboard, twine and more!

And how perfect was it that Nilmy and her staff dressed all the workshop tables in PINK cloths!!! Swoon---boy does she know me or what?!

After hours and hours of crafting, we all know it’s no surprise when you get silly, right?! Nilmarie has become like family to me. She’s a great friend a fabulous customer. Thank you to her and her talented staff and customers for being a part of our event this year. I only hope I have the honor to visit again some day.

Jenna was an amazing assistant. She cut and cut and cut (maybe she’ll sue me soon for carpel tunnel---yikes!) more than 300 kits for this event. I couldn’t have done it without her! Thank you for working so hard!

Loved this face!

After several days of teaching guess who flew out to join me for a wonderful “engagement” vaca? This handsomeness (my fiancé!)!

I’ll be sharing more vacation pictures & highlights from PR on my personal blog soon so stay tuned!

And now that I’m well-rested, guest what?! I’m working on new Bella Blvd products for everyone! Yippeeeee!!! Happy Easter weekend, hope you make it bright & sunny!

Ciao ciao,

Fridays With Stephanie

Hi peeps! How are ya? Gosh, I’m so darn excited for today’s post I might just PIMP (pee-in-my-pants!) hehe ;) I’m so excited because all of our new products are officially, “in the house” … the warehouse that is!

So, here’s the deal … from the owner herself! We had anticipated the truck (new product delivery) to arrive earlier this week and therefore would begin shipping early. Woot woot, right?! Well … not so much!

When updating us, Dispatch said, “The load is out on the truck for delivery”. However, they left-out 2 important words when updating us: IN DENVER!

After hours of anticipation, and several calls later we realize that the truck was in Denver! So that threw a cramp in our style, BUT the great news we are still going to be shipping ON TIME to all of our customers as promised. (It was just a bummer that we didn’t get to ship early.)

I’m happy to inform you that ALL THE NEW PRODUCTS ARE HERE!!!

Even the new Unity Stamps are now stocked at Bella Blvd so we will ship everything together to our customers! So much more efficient … just the way I like it!

What does all of this mean for you?

The new Bella Blvd will begin shipping to stores on MONDAY. By the end of next week you should begin seeing it pop-up in your favorite stores. Speaking of which, be sure to let them know to put in their order! In the meantime, it’s important to stay focused, hydrated and organized during the “shipping storm” so to speak. Here’s a real-life peek at my desk:

Happy Friday! Hope you get your scrap-on this weekend … and be sure to stop by my blog for a chance to win some of the new Bella Blvd chipboard. Giveaway is open through the weekend! See you over there! Ciao Ciao for now.

Fridays With Stephanie

I feel like I’m always saying this, but it’s 100% totally true: I cannot believe it’s Friday already. I feel like I finally get settled into all the things on my to-do list when it’s time to close-up shop! It’s the exact same way when I’m scrapbooking. Right when I get in a groove, it’s time to pack up my things and go! Bummer.

Speaking of scrapbooking and croppin’ last weekend I hosted a successful Bella Blvd event at a local scrapbooking shop, The Scrapbook Store, in Greenfield, Wisconsin. On Friday night 40+ women and I cropped the night away!

Thanks in part to our wonderful Design Team, we created a beautiful display of Bella Blvd ideas and samples, and released the paper and stickers at this store only for the night!

We had a great time, sold a ton of Bella Blvd products and enjoyed some great snacks and workshops all day on Saturday too!

Thank you to everyone that attended and supported this fabulous independent store! I can’t wait to coordinate our next event together! So, during the crop I was able to get a few layouts done! I wanted to play along with Guest Designer, Shannon Tidwell’s Challenge week (last week).

I chose the play along with Challenge from Day Four: Use Border Strip Papers. 

I used a swatch from the entire Borders paper, nearly 7” of it. Because my photograph featured mostly neutral colors (black and white and brown) I thought the bright variety of colors worked well and didn’t compete with the design.

The new Designer Tapes are seriously one of my new favorite things. I love ripping and layering it together like this!

The new Flags make for super easy embellishing too. Here I mixed together Cute Cuts elements with chipboard and flags. It was fun to add the Dog Flags with the Winter Flags!

And, seriously, what’s a layout without some chipboard alphabets? Swoon. I’m in love with these ;) I kept the title monochromatic and added it to the top of the Borders paper element. Again, in efforts to not compete with the design or the photograph!

It’s been so much fun checking out all the Design Challenge submissions from the past week! We’ll be announcing a winner soon! You still have the rest of today to play along if you’d like!

Have a wonderful weekend! And don’t forget to tell your LSS and favorite online stores about our new products! They’re going to begin shipping next week!!! Wha-hoo!!!!

Ciao ciao for now! Hugs!

Fridays With Stephanie

Hello all! Gosh, it sure has been a world-win couple of weeks. I’ve been from Milwaukee to California (for CHA) and then straight from CHA to Italy to teach at the Paper and Company Show in Napoli, Italy.

Yes, it was freezing in Italy! I bought that new coat, new scarf, new gloves all while abroad. I think I brought the cold Midwest weather with me. Yikes!

Meet Lory. (silly and cute, right?!) She and the girls of Scrapbookiando organize this international event year after year! We had a great time, making the best of a crazy situation … and by that, I mean teaching with no class kits! Eek! All of the class kits that were shipped weeks ahead of time were held up in customs and never released. The combination of the customs and the postal service delays due to the bad weather put a little damper on workshops. But we made the best of it, cutting and prepping as many things as possible in between workshops up in the hotel room!

As expected, the food was delicious plus we had a great view of the volcano, Mount Vesuvious from the room!

And it was wonderful getting to know Donna Downey and Celine Navarro a bit more as well! New friends are always wonderful to have! Wishing you a happy Friday and a great weekend! Ciao ciao for now!

Fridays With Stephanie: CHA Winter 2012 Recap

I never would have thought I'd be here today ready with a post for you! I'm "live from the Phoenix airport" as I prepare this blog post. I'm on my way home from Anaheim (California) and am plugged into the wall and sitting next to a very large, unstable sign on the floor! ha.

Enough of that....onto more fun things! I know many of you have been patiently waiting for CHA updates! It's hard to believe the show is over. It always comes and goes so quickly. As a team, we went from this:

to this in only 48 hours:

The booth was beautiful. (So we were told!) Okay, but yes, it truly was. The bright white walls reflected the lighting very well this go-around and the projects and products lit-up beautifully. This is Bella's first CHA with our new 2011-12 Design Team and the girls participating did a fabulous job!

There were so many beautiful cards, altered projects, mini books and layouts. Our customers were lovin' every square inch of inspiration! I thought I'd share some eye candy from the booth today for ya'll.

I think it's safe to say that the Brand new Baby Boy & Baby Girl collections were a hit!

And the mini series, We're Expecting was very popular as well. Because of all the beautiful pregnancy photo shoots people are taking these days, this line is beautiful and feminine for those favorite belly shots!

 

And I can't tell you how excited everyone was about our embellishment release!

For three years, Bella Blvd has really been known for our patterned papers and stickers. I've already expressed how thrilled I am to be releasing a bunch of new embellishments including these darling Crochet Flowers, the stick pin Flags, The Button Market and Designer Tapes too!

I can proudly say you these new embellies will not be hard to find! Once we start shipping in the middle of March your favorite local and online scrapbooking stores will have them! They were hot hot hot!

I know this is getting long, but hopefully you had enough eye candy here to keep reading until now! A huge thank you from my team and I for making this a very successful CHA show and product release. For those of you that came by the booth, thank you for all of your excitement and for your business. 

My girls are my faves. They all worked so hard, they always do. We make a great team! 

I'm posting a couple more pictures from CHA over on my blog....be sure to stop by for more happiness ;)

Ciao Ciao for now....I'm headed to Italy this afternoon where I'll be teaching at the PACS Show!

Ciao Ciao for now! Have a great weekend....I know I will ;)

Fridays With Me ;) (Stephanie)

Ciao Ciao peeps! It's a wonderful day around here as our crates are officially on their way to California! We leave in less than a week and we still have so much to show you and reveal on the blog! Have you loved what you've seen so far??? Did you tell your favorite LSS about the new Bella goodies?

Well, today I wanted to share with you my favorite (I think) embellishment that we are releasing at CHA. I peeked it here on the blog a couple weeks ago.....

You've seen them popping up everwhere! Washi and patterend tapes are all the rage in scrapbooking and paper crafting! Now you can match your favorite colors & products with these trendy Designer Tapes by Bella Blvd! Availale in 8 different styles and 2 different widths, these Designer Tapes include versatile designs like sweet polkadots, hip chevron and more!

So I'm not going to lie when I say, "OMG they are so cute, packaged these petite little clear boxes and the cores are printed with 'Bella Blvd' on the inside!" They just make me so super duper happy I can't stand it!

Here's the eight different patterns, all matching Bella's signature bright & happy color palette! So these four styles are .25" in width. Each roll has 30 feet of tape!!

Teal Stripe:

Red Dot:

Pink Stripe:

Jail Bird:

And these four styles are .5" in width!

Blue Gingham:

Pink Flowers:

Yellow Chevron:

Pickle Juice Dot:

I must say that Laura Vegas and Becky Williams sure have blown me away with their scrapbooking work that has been published in our newest 2012 Catalog! Check out these adorable layouts focusing on the new Designer Tapes!

"Beautiful Girl"

By Becky Williams

Check out all the tape layers, mixed with the Spring Flings & Easter Things, the new Baby Girl chipboard and some new alpha stickers too!

 

Love this tape ruffle too! Becky folded and pleated the Blue Gingham tape to add texture......

And check out this super cute tape framework created by Laura Vegas

"Spring Time Friends"

I'm always so excited and impressed when I receive the projects created by the DT shortly after the samples arrive. This is a perfect example because Laura mixed and matched so much new stuff all together....flags, Spring chipboard, Designer Tapes, new Sophisticates elements ..... I just love it!
Take a closer look...

Love the ripping and layering of the taples here.....and also how Laura used the Blue Gingham tape as a "background" strip for her title block. Do you see it under the title "S-P-R-I-N-G"?

So what do you think?! Do you want to win some tapes!? Leave a comment below and tell us how happy they make you....speaking of happy....I have some more happiness revealed on my blog today....be sure to stop by and check it out! Happy Friday!

Friday's With Stephanie

As the snow is falling here for the very first time (believe it or not) … I’m so excited to pop in and chat with you today! We’re supposed to get 8 inches of snow!

Who is ready for some sneaky peekies!?

Oh gosh, this is like one of the most exciting part of my job! Seriously!

I’m not going to show you much today … but it sure will make you happy.

Like the front cover of the catalog.

Those clouds are a peek of one my newest paper collections. We named them “Happy Clouds” ... Don’t they just make you happy?

Note to all of you attending CHA be sure to visit us:  

BELLA BLVD BOOTH #1287

Remember these Quattrofina^TM Cardstock stickers from our last release product release?

“Quattro” is how you pronounce the number four in the Italian language. Because there were four different alphabets on the sticker sheet we named them Quattrofina. I don’t think I can tell you how popular they were … the fact that we are sold out of every single color should tell you something, right?!

Because you loved them so much, we have new and improved alphabet stickers, named High Five Alphabets! Here’s a peek:

I’ll give you one guess as to how many alphabets are on these sheets! ;)

In addition to THREE NEW paper COLLECTIONS, Bella Blvd will be releasing a plethora of new embellishments … here’s a peek:

To date Bella Blvd has manufactured patterned papers, cardstock stickers, clear stamps and cotton Blooms A Bella flowers. For years I’ve wanted to develop more products, but I had to wait until the time was right. Well, guess what my friends? I’m thrilled to finally introduce bunches of new embellishments at very low retail prices. My Design Team reactions have been overwhelming! Soon we’ll be showcasing all their beautiful work!

So … are you a little bit happy?? I hope so!

We will begin our reveals very, very soon … so you’ll want to keep stopping by!

Happy Friday everyone! Ciao ciao for now!

Fridays With Stephanie

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

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

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

I promise!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Chat soon! Hugs!

Fridays With Stephanie

Happy Friday everyone! Quick question for you … is it wrong to go back to November when it’s already December 9^th?

By that I mean I recently created a Finally Fall pumpkin farm layout that I really want to share with you today, but, Laura and the DT girls have been doing such an awesome, awesome job transitioning to Christmas, gift ideas & holiday photos that I’m worried to take a couple steps backwards!

I’m hoping you won’t mind! I figure - heck, if you’re like me, you’re scrapbooking events from April, May or June even though it’s Christmas time now. Right?! (Please say yes to make me feel better!) So … just in case you’re still playing with Finally Fall, I have a fun multi-photo two-page layout share for you today!

I had a ton of photos from last year’s trip to the pumpkin farm. It was hard to narrow them down so I had to start overlapping in order to use all the photos that I wanted.

I love layering the Miniatures stickers in the chipboard alphabets like this!

The coordinating right-side layers several elements including stickers from the Just Write Journaling sheet, the Baby Blooms A Bella^tm flowers, chipboard and Cute Cuts^tm paper elements.

It’s crazy to think that here in Wisconsin fall quickly passed by and it’s near freezing and we waiting for our first official snow fall anyday.

I guess that means more Winter Wonder layouts will be coming your way soon! ;) Thanks for bearing with me today as I “took you back” (only about a month in time!) and brought you to some crisp fall page ideas.

The newest product collections are just about finished and samples will be on their way soon----it’s like early Christmas time around here when packages begin arriving. This is going to be the best product release ever from Bella Blvd. It will NOT disappoint! More to come on that soon! The anticipation builds. 

Have yourself a merry little weekend! Hugs!

From Stephanie's Desk, Literally....

Ciao Ciao Bella fans! December already, hey? It’s hard to believe Christmas in twenty-some days away! As CHA and our next product release is quickly approaching, this is the time of year I like to call “lock down.” My desk currently likes like a tornado---even though it is an organized mess, I promise!

Lock Down means I don’t eat, sleep or even sometimes use the bathroom until all my deadlines are met! I’m working around the clock, and am SOOOO excited to share with you what I’ve got up my sleeve……it’s going to be our biggest product release yet! Omigosh I get so giddy just typing about it ;) My poor puppy is leaving and sleeping here at the studio too….this is his,

“Are we ever going home mommy” look.

In addition to new products we’ve got some super awesome 12 days of Christmas giveaways coming up right here on the blog! Giveaways will include lots of free Bella products and even some tools from some of our favorite peeps! Some donations have begun arriving …..

It’s definitely going to be merry and bright this December! We’ll also have a new issue of The Bella Buzz E-newsletter free for you! Don’t forget to sign up by submitting your email address over at our homepage.

On a creative note I have a super quick and simple idea for you today….it could make a fun little stocking stuffer for someone you love! I bought this cute polka dot frame at Target recently and wanted to jazz it up a bit. 

Seriously, it doesn’t get much easier than this. With a dab of hot glue, the Baby Blooms A Bella add so much charm to this sweet frame!

It's fun & super quick to add a personal touch like this to your home decor. Can you find something to jazz up in your scrapbooking studio? I challenge you to go for it!!!

Happy Friday! Have a wonderful weekend!