Bella Blvd Studio Blog

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 March, courtesy of Becky Fleck.

“Lil' Surfers”, by Malika Kelly.

Usually I am a 1-3 photo per layout scrapper, so this sketch challenged me to get a little out of my comfort zone. I stuck close to the sketch just to be safe, changing up the background by adding an extra mat and border. I treated each patterned paper block as a place to group some embellishments. I really like how the layout turned out and will try using more multiple photo layouts in the future, especially when I have a bunch of pictures and can't just pick one or two to tell the story. 

Supplies:
Sand & Surf: Under the Coconuts, Flying High, GPS, Paradise, Surfs Up, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Just Write Journaling Stickers, Miniatures, Chipboard Icons; High Five Alpha Stickers: Yellow; Designer Tape: Blue Chevron, Pony Dot; Button Market: Aqua Flowers; Flags: Sand & Surf

"Little Gentleman", by Yohko Takiguchi.

I reduced this sketch and placed it on the lower right of my layout. I replaced the space for two photos with the blocks of patterned paper. I love color combination of pastel color and black in Love and Marriage collection.

Supplies: 
Engaged At Last: Bachelor Extracts, Miniatures, Alpha+Bits; Love and Marriage: Vows, Cake Tasting, May Eighteenth, Turner Hall Ballroom, Borders, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Just Write Journaling Stickers, The Wedding Party Miniatures, Wedding Chipboard Icons; Feathers: Cream; High Five Alpha Stickers: Black-White, Brown-Cream

“How He Proposed”, by Kim Jeffress.

When I received this gorgeous collection of Engaged At Last papers and embellishments, I knew I wanted to get started on my wedding photos from 8 years ago. I began with my husband's proposal, which sadly for him didn't go too well with the ring not ready from the jeweler, but I didnt care at all! I was just sooooo excited to be getting married! I love the blocked design  of this sketch it allowed me to add snippets of pattern paper to complement my photos. The soft colors really add an ambient feel to my layout, and I love that I can layer the stickers and chipboard stickers so easily to create texture without it being too busy.

Supplies: 
Engaged At Last: Bridal Shower, He Proposed, Just Write Journaling Stickers, Miniatures, Engagment Chipboard Icons; FreeStyle Sophisticates: Freestyle Cotton Candy; Flags: Engagement; Designer Tape: Cotton Candy Chevron

"How Many Photos?", by Jenny Evans.

I have been wanting to scrap these photos since we took them on New Year's Eve, and this was the perfect sketch! The grid design is very popular right now because of Project Life, and I love being able to use it in layout form! I embellished our fun photos with a variety of Bella products, from Mr. Boy all the way to the new Engaged At Last collection.

Supplies:
Engaged At Last: Bachelor Party, Bachelor Extras, Alpha+Bits Stickers; Mr. Boy: Just Write Journal Stickers, Chipboard Icons; High Five Alpha Stickers: Blue, Green, Yellow; Ciao Chip Everyday Elements: Stars & Hearts; Designer Tape: Ice Stripe, Pickle Juice Stripe, Blue Chevron; Button Market: Orange Stars, Text, Masculine Mix

“Bunny Love”, by Allyson Meinholz.

I love, love, love doing sketches. This one took me a bit to get going, since there were so many boxes to fill. I ended up finding pictures from our trip to Florida and the colors went perfect with the Love & Marriage Collection. As for the sketch, I turned it upside down and around again! Once I laid out the photos and added the journaling sticker, I ended up filling up the other spots with embellishments. My favorite part was adding all the crochet hearts, as I thought they were perfect for all the Bunny Love! 

Supplies:
Love & Marriage: Esther Fleming Floral, Cake Tasting, Smokeys in Love, Borders, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Just Write Journaling Stickers, Wedding Day Miniatures, Wedding Party Miniatures; Engaged at Last: Alpha+Bits Stickers, Chipboard Icons; Crochet Hearts: Punch, Cotton Candy, Bell Pepper, Pickle Juice, Saltwater, White; Simply Simona Chipboard Alphas: Pickle Juice; High Five Alpha Stickers: Yellow

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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. 

Layouts On Wednesdays

It's Wednesday and we are back with a great selection of layouts from our Layout Designers.

"I {Heart} Winter”, by Sheri Reguly.

When creating a layout about my daughter’s love for winter, it seemed only natural to combine the fun loving Kiss Me collection, along with a touch of Winter Wonder. I love how these two collections complement one another so perfectly!

Supplies:  
Kiss Me: Flutter; Winter Wonder: Icy, Cute Cuts; Thankful: Alpha+Bits Stickers; Sunshine & Happiness: Borders, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Miniatures Stickers; Making The Team: Alpha+Bits Stickers; Button Market: Checkers

"Christmas Card 2012", by Becky Williams.

For this layout I pulled all of the colors (pink, red, blue, green) from my family's Christmas card for 2012. This allowed me to use a mix of collections while still allowing the colors to mesh together. I added the brown arrow paper from the Sand & Surf collection for a neutral and accented with bits and pieces of stickers, a calendar cut-out and Cute Cuts. 

Supplies: 
Kiss Me: Flutter, Love Notes; Sand & Surf: GPS, Paradise, Cute Cuts, Miniatures, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Just Write Journaling Stickers; Sophisticates: Calendars; Birthday Boy: Just Write Journaling Stickers; Designer Tapes: Red Dot, Pickle Juice Stripe, Gulf Stripe; High Five Alphas: Pink-Red

"I {Heart} Winter", by Yohko Takiguchi.

It was snowing outside when I took these photos. I love combination of snowflakes and rhinestones. I punched three snowflakes from white cardstock and added blue rhinestones on them. I layered many pieces of papers from the Winter Wonder collection around the large photos.

Supplies:
Winter Wonder: Blizzard, Borders, Cute Cuts, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Just Write Journaling Stickers, Miniatures; Sophisticates: Surf N Turf, Brownie, Oyster

“Let's Party”, by Diane Payne.

To add to the festive theme of my layout, I added glitter to some of the chipboard pieces and placed a star banner along the top of the layout. I carried the star theme through the layout and used the chipboard candle with star turned upside down as my exclamation point. I love how festive this layout feels!

Supplies: 
Birthday Boy: About A Boy, Toadilly Cool, Just A Note, Eat Cake, Streamers, Borders, Cute Cuts, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Chipboard Icons; Winter Wonder: Alpha+Bits Stickers; Sunshine & Happiness: Alpha+Bits Stickers; High Five Alpha Stickers: Blue; Button Market: Orange Stars

"Every Book”, by Leanne Allinson.

My three year old loves nothing more than to use his imagination when it comes to sitting down with a book! I wanted this layout to be playful and have an energetic, boyish charm to it. The layers of patterned papers and the Alpha+Bits stickers coordinate beautifully to create a hap-hazard mess that can easily be associated with any three year old! The patterned paper layers also create a textured background for the photos to rest on, while the white space above and below, still allow the eyes to rest.

Supplies:
Mr Boy: Borders N' Blocks, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Ciao Chips - Chit Chat; Birthday Boy: Eat Cake, Toadilly Cool, Borders; Sophisticates: Short Stories; High Five Alpha Stickers: Black-White, Yellow; Making The Team: Alpha+Bits Stickers; Designer Tapes: Pickle Juice Chevron

“Paper Mustache Madness”, by Sheri Feypel.

This layout features four wallet size photos of my son playing with a paper mustache from a happy meal. I wanted to keep it simple and paired my photos with the new Freestyle Sophisticates line. I wanted a bold, large title and the Chipboard Alphabets from Bella Blvd are perfect, I mixed and matched four different colors for added interest. I also added a few mustache elements from the Kiss Me line.

Supplies:
Freestyle Sophisticates:  Freestyle Peep, Freestyle Cotton Candy, Freestyle Scallop; Sienna Chipboard Alphabets: Punch, Frosting, Pony, Blueberry; Kiss Me: Alpha+Bits Stickers, Just Write Journaling Stickers; Button Market: Hot Pink Flowers

Today's Product Spotlight: Designer Tapes

It's time for another Product Spotlight feature, and this month, we are putting the focus on Bella's Designer Tapes!

 

Washi tapes have been a huge trend in scrapbooking for quite a while now. We released our first batch of Bella Blvd Designer Tapes at Winter CHA 2012, and we just keep adding to the collection. At Winter CHA 2013 we revealed 9 new individual rolls of Designer Tapes, along with 3 new combo packs, for a total of 19 new designs! These pretty little rolls of tape come in fun, bright colors and patterns that go with all of Bella's collections. There are so many uses for tape on layouts, cards, and even altered projects. I challenged some of our Design Team members to use our Designer Tapes in new and creative ways.

“Super Cool”, by Diane Payne.

For this layout I wanted to create a grid so I covered 2 inch squares in a variety of Designer Tapes and laid them out side by side. To create more variety with the tape, I alternated how I lined up the patterns on the tapes which gave it different looks. I left a few squares empty and added stitching for some texture and dimension.

Supplies:
Birthday Boy: Eat Cake; Mr. Boy: Heroes, Just Write Journaling Stickers, Icons Chipboard, Chit Chat Chipboard; Ciao Chip Everyday Elements: Stars & Hearts; Designer Tape: Gray Chevron, Polka Dot Combo, Chevron Combo, Pickle Juice Dot; Button Market: Stars, Orange Stars; Flags: Text Me

“Second Grade Friends”, by Malika Kelly.

I wanted to scrapbook this casual school picture of my son's second grade class. I love how colorful the picture is with the different clothing on the twenty-some-odd kids in his class! To tie in so many different colors I decided to make a chevron pattern out of different Designer Tapes. First, I took a piece of plain card stock and ran strips of Designer Tapes from top to bottom, covering the entire 12x12 piece. Then I found a large zig zag or chevron pattern on my cameo and ran the Designer Taped card stock through. It came out perfectly! To make sure the Designer Tapes stayed down (and to add some texture) I machined stitched along the edges of my cut out pieces. This layout was really fun to make! I challenge you to try running some Bella Blvd Designer tapes through your die cut machine. I'd love to see what you come up with!

Supplies:
Kiss Me: Bouquet Kisses, True Love; Engaged At Last: Bachelor Party; Sand & Surf: Alpha+Bits Stickers; Birthday Boy: Chipboard Icons; Sienna Chipboard Alphas: Pony; Ciao Chip Everyday Elements: Clouds, Trees; Chip Essentials: Pickle Juice; Designer Tapes:  Blue Chevron, Piggy Pink Stripe, Pony Dot, Pickle Juice Chevron, Hot Pink Dot, Teal Stripe, Yellow Chevron, Gulf dot, Punch Chevron

“Daddy's Clever Little Fox”, by Megan Klauer.

I pulled a few of the designer tapes together to create a Sorbet color scheme. I wanted it to highlight the colors in her shirt. I created the squares by first covering an entire 12x12 sheet of white card stock with strips of the Designer Tapes and then cut them into 2x2 squares and rotated them as I added them to my design. 

Supplies: 
Engaged at Last: Bachelorette Party; Kiss Me: Flutter, True Love, Borders & Cute Cuts, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Just Write Journaling Stickers; High Five Alphabet Stickers: Yellow; Sienna Chipboard Alphabets: Blueberry; Designer Tapes: Orange Stripe, Piggy Pink Stripe, Punch Chevron, Yellow Chevron, Cotton Candy Chevron, Hot Pink Dot

“Ella Mae”, by Megan Klauer.

I love to cluster bits & pieces on my layouts. It creates a fun little space of visual yumminess. The strips of Designer Tapes were created by covering an entire sheet of card stock and then cutting that down further into strips.  

Supplies: 
Engaged at Last: Bachelor Party, Alpha+Bits Stickers; Flags: Bachelorette; Kiss Me: Borders & Cute Cuts, Just Write Journaling Stickers, Alpha+Bits Stickers; Love & Marriage: Just Write Journaling Stickers, May Eighteenth; High Five Alphabet Stickers: Pink-Red, Piggy-Punch; Designer Tapes: Cotton Candy Chevron, Hot Pink Dot, Piggy Pink Stripe, Punch Chevron, Orange Stripe

“Happy Little Boy”, by Jennifer Chapin.

I started this layout by covering a sheet of white cardstock with designer tape. After using my die cut machine to cut a heart pattern out of some kraft cardstock, I layered the tape covered piece behind it. This creates a great pattern in the negative space. I decided to keep the rest of the layout simple by just adding a title and a few embellishments, as I didn't want any other patterns competing with the designer tape.

Supplies:
Sophisticates: Sprinkles & Lace Ice; Mr. Boy: Alpha+Bits Stickers; Simply Simona Chipboard Alphabet: Saltwater; Ciao Chip Versatile Elements: Clouds; High Five Alphabet Stickers: Yellow; Button Market: Neutrals Mix, Stars; Designer Tape: Gray Dot, Cotton Candy Chevron, 12mm Combo 

Saturday Sketches

Twice a month, we'll be bringing you a new sketch, and showing you a few takes on the sketch by our designers. Today, we have our first sketch for February, courtesy of Becky Fleck.

"Yum", by Yohko Takiguchi.

The Kiss Me collection is absolutely perfect for Valentine’s Day photos. I also used stickers from the Baby Girl and Baby Boy and Making the Team. I love the simple blocked design, so I followed this sketch almost exactly. I replaced one photo with the patterned paper. 

Supplies:
Kiss Me: True Love, Bouquet Kisses, Mustache Love, Love Notes, Flutter, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Just Write Journaling Stickers; Sophisticates: Sprinkles & Lace Punch, Sprinkles & Lace Ice; Baby Boy: Just Write Journaling Stickers; Baby Girl: Miniatures; Making the Team: Miniatures; Sienna Chipboard Alphas: Pony

“Be Mine”, by Diane Payne.

I love the design of the sketch but replaced the square pieces of patterned paper with with a variety of hearts shapes to coordinate with the theme of my layout. I also switched out the four photos for one and replaced the bottom paper with the coordinating tree from the Kiss Me collection. Sketches are great starting points and definitely spur inspiration, but don't be afraid to switch it up to fit the photo and theme.

Supplies:
Kiss Me: Flutter, True Love, Borders & Cute Cuts, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Just Write Stickers; High Five Alpha Stickers: Gulf; Button Market: Hot Pink Flowers, Aqua Flowers

“Get In The Game”, by Leanne Allinson.

I absolutely love the Making The Team and Mr Boy collections. Having three sons, these collections take all the hard work out of documenting "boy-ish" stories! My eldest son and his best friend are in constant sync with each other. And their chatter of all things "ninja" and "super hero" can sometimes rub a raw nerve. Especially if you are trapped in a car with them on long weekend drives! LOL! However, I wanted to tell this story using sporting analogies, as the boys seem to be in competition with each other, when creating such outlandish scenarios. The random cluster of embellishments at the bottom of the photo emphasise their craziness and the pull down tab at the below the photo hold hidden journaling.

Supplies:
Mr Boy: Borders N' Blocks, Cute Cuts, Quadrants, Wall of Fame; Making The Team: Ciao Chip Icons, Miniatures; Birthday Boy: About A Boy; Birthday Girl: Miles of Smiles; Sophisticates: Sprinkles & Lace Surf N Turf; Kiss Me: Mustache Love; Flag: Home Sweet Home

“Jammies”, by Becki Adams.

My little guy would spend all day every day in his Jammies...if I would let him. I snapped these photos of him the other day and they just made me smile. When I started creating this layout I dove into my stash of Bella goodies and pulled out a bunch of bold bright colors to compliment my bright happy photos. Most of my supplies came from the Birthday boy collection. Even though that's a birthday collection I used a lot of the "b" sides for my everyday boy photos.

Supplies:
Birthday Boy: About A Boy, Toadilly Cool, Eat Cake, Streamers, Cute Cuts, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Chipboard Icons; Sienna Chipboard Alphas: Pony; Button Market: Masculine Mix, Orange Star; Designer Tape: Red Dot, Orange Stripe; Ciao Chip Elements: Stars & Hearts, Borders; Too Cute To Spook: Itsy Bitsy Spider

"Priceless", by Allyson Meinholtz.

For my layout I turned the sketch completely upside down. I do like to scrapbook upside down for some reason, I do this often with my layouts. The sketch showed 4 individual photos and I decided to use one photo as my main focus. I did use a small photo of the hotel as one of the background squares in place of patterned paper. These pictures were taken one year ago, when Stephanie & I were in Naples, Italy to teach classes. It truly was a trip I will never forget, 5 months pregnant and all.

Supplies:
Kiss Me: Love Notes, Mustache Love, True Love, Borders & Cute Cuts, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Just Write Journaling Stickers; Freestyle Sophisticates: Freestyle Peep, Sprinkles & Lace Punch; High Five Alpha Stickers: Gulf; Sienna Chipboard Alphas: Pony  

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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. 

 

Layouts On Wednesdays: Christmas Style

This week we are keeping with many of our usual daily features, but putting the focus on Christmas projects! Today is Layouts On Wednesdays, and we have several layouts for you centered around Christmas. From a fun "Ugly Sweater" get-together, to a little girl seaching catalogs for toys to add to her Christmas wish list, to Christmas day spend with a sick family member in the hospital, to two teenage girls taking their photos in the reflection of an ornament hanging on the tree. All of those moments deserve a special layout to remember them by.

“Ugly Sweaters”, by Megan Klauer.

Each year my 4 sisters & I, along with our Mom get together for a Christmas Brunch. We choose a fun them; one year it was wearing Santa hats & I set up a photo booth. Last year it was "ugly sweaters" and we all went shopping. We laughed the whole day as people keep giving us weird looks. The bright & fun colors from the Winter Wonder & Christmas Wishes collections were perfect for recording our day. I can't wait to capture this years events: a day of watching movies in our pajamas!

Supplies:
Winter Wonder: Blizzard, Ski Slopes, Borders, Cute Cuts, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Just Write Journaling Stickers, Miniatures; Christmas Wishes: Alpha+Bits Stickers, Chipboard Icons; Button Market: Snowflakes, Fruit Punch; Simply Simona Chipboard Alpha: McIntosh; High Five Alpha: Gulf

“Dear Santa”, by Jennifer Chapin.

This year my daughter is 3 1/2 years old, just that age where Christmas starts getting magical and they start believing in Santa. She wants just about every toy under the sun so I thought it would be fun to do a page about her Christmas list. I snapped some photos as she was circling things in the toy catalog and asked me to tell her what she wanted the most. I kept the color pallette light and fun and used lots of pink and yellow.

Supplies:
Kiss Me: Flutter, Borders & Cute Cuts, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Just Write Stickers; Winter Wonder: Blizzard, Toasty, Icy, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Miniatures Stickers; Spring Flings & Easter Things: Alpha+Bits Stickers; High Five Alphabet Stickers: Brown-Cream; Ciao Chip Versatile Elements: Trees, Borders; Designer Tape: Piggy Pink Stripe, Pickle Juice Chevron, Gulf Dot

"Joy", by Katherine McElvain.

When it comes to scrapbooking sometimes i don't want to think too hard about the design of my layout. When that is the case I go to one of my old layouts and scraplift myself. If the design of this layout looks vaguely familiar, that is because it is scraplifted from one of my recently Bella Blvd projects. In fact, if you want to learn how to make the fun circles using designer tape you can find the post HERE. And yes this is a Christmas layout. Nontraditional for sure, so I used nontraditional Christmas products from some old Bella lines like Making the Team and Mr Boy. The photo was taken in 2009 on Christmas day, in the hospital while my mother-in-law was recovering from a terrible virus that almost took her life 3 months earlier. It was a very unusual Christmas that year. We had pizza for dinner, with the hotel beds as our table, and spent the day going back and forth to visit grandma. But it was one of our best holidays, truly filled with blessings from God, lucky to still have one of our favorite people in our lives! Making this layout was a good reminder to me to stop and be thankful for all the special people who are able to share this holiday season with me this year. I hope that your holidays are full of blessings too, and that you enjoy wonderful moments with all the ones you love! 

Supplies:
Designer Tape: Yellow Chevron, Pickle Juice Chevron, Pickle Juice Dot, Jail Bird, Red dot, Teal Stripe, Gulf Dot; Button Market: Red Flowers, Aqua Flowers; Simply Simona Chipboard Alphas: Pickle Juice; Ciao Chip Elements: Stars and Hearts; Making the Team: Wall of Fame

“Believe In The Magic Of Christmas”, by Gina Lideros.

I started off my layout by pulling papers from the Christmas Wishes collection. I loved the pink/red combo on the Candlelight paper, so I decided to bring in an additional pink (Love Notes Paper) from the Kiss Me collection. I love the mix of these two collections together. And the non-traditional Christmas colors brings in a feminine touch to the layout. I added a swirled Christmas tree that I cut with my Silhouette as an accent mixed with Ciao Chip trees and Hearts for embellishments. For my title I used a mix of a Silhouette title with High Five Alphas and Chipboard alphas.

Supplies:
Christmas Wishes: North Pole, Candlelight, Alpha+Bits, Miniatures Stickers; Kiss Me: Love Notes; Sienna Chipboard Alphabets: Punch; High Five Alpha Stickers: Piggy Punch; Ciao Chip Everyday Elements: Trees, Stars & Hearts; Designer Tape: Piggy Pink Stripe; Button Market: Stars

Patriotic Week Challenge: Layouts and Cards

Welcome back to one more day of patriotic projects from our design team! Hopefully you didn't get your fill of red, white, and blue yesterday, because we have a few more layouts and cards to share with you. We DO, however, hope you had an awesome 4th of July and enjoyed your day with family and friends!

"Miss Independence", by Suzanne Sergi.

I really pulled in a lot of my favorite collections for this page of my daughter. I used Midterm, Mr. Boy, and Family Dynamics to create a patriotic page that completely matches the bold personality of my daughter. One of my favorite papers is the Petite pieces with all the great text. A simple, and easy way to dress up the edges of my page. I also cut up the playing cards on the back side of Game night. I thought this was a fun way to add movement across the middle of the page, and create a fun border embellished with stars, Finally, the Patriotic stick pins were the perfect accent to my page.

Supplies:
Mr. Boy: Quadrants; Midterm: Physics; Family Dynamics: The Littlest Things, Game Night, Just Write Journaling Stickers; Sophisticates: Petite Pieces; Tail Waggers & Cat Naps: Ciao Chip; Sunshine & Happiness: Miniatures; Simply Simona Chipboard Alphas: McIntosh; High Five Alpha Stickers: Black-White; Flags: Patriotic

“All American Boy”, by Julie Johnson.

I always say how versatile Bella's paper collections are and I think this layout might be a good example of this. I used papers and embellishments from four different collections to complete this layout. I was excited to find all the little extras from the Chit Chat and Icons chipboard that were a perfect match for my layout. Who knew Bella had a patriotic collection, right? So start looking through your Bella stash, because I'm sure you can come up with a great patriotic layout too!

Supplies:
Making the Team: Cute Cuts; Family Dynamix: Just Write Journaling Stickers, Icons Chipboard; Mr. Boy: Icons chipboard, Chit Chat chipboard; Christmas Wishes: Borders; Button Market: Stars; Flags: Patriotic; High Five Alphabet Stickers: Pink-Red; Simply Simona Chipboard Alphas: Oyster

"Freedom” card, by Alice Carman.

How can you go wrong with Red, White and Blue? It’s so easy to use these colors when making a card. I love the fun bright colors and what a perfect way to start a month then to celebrate our Nation’s Independence day. Wishing you all a safe and happy holiday!

Supplies:
Sophisticates: Sprinkles & Lace Surf N Turf; Mr. Boy: Dinomite, Quadrants; Winter Wonder: Borders, Alpha+Bits; Family Dynamix: Quadrants; Simply Simona: McIntosh Chipboard Alphas; Flags: Patriotic; Button Market: Stars

“July 4^” card, by Alice Carman.

Supplies:
Sophisticates: Sprinkles & Lace Surf N Turf; Mr. Boy: Dinomite, Quadrants; Winter Wonder: Borders, Alpha+Bits; Family Dynamix: Quadrants; Simply Simona: McIntosh Chipboard Alphas; Flags: Patriotic; Button Market: Stars

Patriotic Week Feature: Red/White/Blue Challenge

Welcome back to day two of our Patriotic Week feature. Today we are putting out a red, white, and blue challenge! While Bella doesn't have an actual "Patriotic" collection, I think you will find that there are more red, white, and blue products within all of our collections that you even realize. I challenged a few of our designers to dig around in their Bella stash, and pull out products that would work for their patriotic projects.

"100% Aussie", by Kim Arnold.

Once I started looking for red, white and blue products, I was blown away by how much choice there was in the Bella Blvd collections. Who could go past the gorgeous star buttons and flags as the perfect finishing touches. I love this Australia Day layout – it is just so fun, bright and funky.

Supplies:
Midterm: Physics; Winter Wonder: Alpha+Bits Stickers, Just Write Journaling Stickers; Mr Boy: Icons Chipboard; Sophisticates: Calendars; Simply Simona Chipboard Numbers: White; Flags: Patriotic; Button market: Stars  

"Patriotic", by Nancy Damiano.

I love how versatile Bella's patterned paper lines are. In this page I combined the Mr. Boy and Make the Team lines to create this Fourth of July page. I used the traditional red, white and blue color palette with just a tiny bit of yellow for a pop of color. The 3D stars were cut with the Silhouette and add to the theme of the page. Bits of chipboard and washi finish off this bold design.

Supplies:
Making the Team: Cute Cuts, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Just Write Journaling Sticker; Mr. Boy: Dinomite, Cute Cuts, Alpha+Bits Stickers; Tail Waggers & Cat Naps: Icons Chipboard; Family Dynamix: Quadrants; Simply Simona Chipboard Alphas: McIntosh; Flag: Patriotic; Ciao Chip Elements: Stars & Hearts; Buttons: Stars; Designer Tape: Yellow Chevron, Red Dot

“Happy 4th of July” card, by Gail Hoecker.

If you look closely, you'll see the base of the card is a tone-on-tone embossed paper which I made. I used the Mr. Boy Stars stamp and embossed them with Versamark and white embossing powder on white cardstock. A fun, easy technique to use with your stamps.

Supplies:
Family Dynamix: The Littlest Things; Sophisticates: Surf & Turf, Quattrofina Peep & Saffron; Sunshine & Happiness: Miniatures; Flags: Patriotic; Stamps: Mr. Boy.

“Happy Independence Day” card, by Gail Hoecker.

I keep threatening (myself) to get out my floss and stitch, and I finally did it! I outlined the stars with the stitching and popped the smaller of the two up on the card. I used the Sophisticates Petite Pieces for the "Independence." I love those pieces, they can be used for journaling, embellishments or just cut the word out and use it in a title, so versatile!

Supplies:
Sophisticates: Essentials Peep & McIntosh, Surf & Turf, Petite Pieces, Pink-Red High Five Alphabets, Family Miniatures; Mr. Boy: Dinomite; Button Market: Stars

Bella Blvd & Unity Stamp Co. Inspiration Day

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

“Hello My Friend” card, by Gail Hoecker.

I stamped and embossed two of the flowers and leaves from the Bella Fiori stamp set. I cut them out and added some stitching for the stems. Added a few pops of color with the Baby Girl Snuggly Safari and Pink High Five Alphabets. It was fun to get my embossing powders out and play around. I hadn’t done that in long time.

Supplies:
Sunshine & Happiness: Petal Power, Sunny Side Up; Baby Girl: Snuggly Safari; High Five Alpha Stickers: Green, Pink; Too Cute to Spook: Miniatures; Unity Stamp: Bella Fiori

“Dream Big Birthday Boy” card, by Gail Hoecker.

Yep, I glittered again! Not only did I glitter but I glittered on a “boy” card! I love the Mr. Boy stamp set, especially the dinosaur. I use that one a lot since my grandson is obsessed with dinosaurs right now. He’s five so I’m guessing I can use these stamps for another 10 years before he tells me to stop!

Supplies:
Mr Boy: Quadrants, Cute Cuts; Quattrofina Alpha Stickers: Peep and Saffron; Unity Stamps: Mr Boy

"How's it Hangin'?" card, by Deanna Misner.

I adore this little monkey stamp, and I have just the person who's going to love this card. One of our little friends LOVES monkeys, so I plan to send this card to her while she's away at summer camp. To make him hang in the tree, I used the tree from the Cute Cuts paper, and embellished it with hand-cut leaves from the Borders paper. It's a fun and whimsical card that I hope she'll love!

Supplies:
Sunshine & Happiness: Petal Power, Cute Cuts, Borders; Baby Girl: Daddy's Girl; Quattrofina Alpha Stickers: Yellow; High Five Alpha Stickers: Yellow; Unity Stamp: Let the Spoiling Begin

"A little Birdie Told Me" card, by Deanna Misner.

For this card I tried a little something different. I don't have stamping ink that is white, so I applied my favorite white mist to the small flower stamp with a paint brush. Although the images aren't perfect like they would be with stamping ink, I still really like the way they look--kind of washed out. I repeated the pattern in each circle, and then stamped the sentiment across the top.

Supplies:
Baby Boy: It's A Boy; Baby Girl: Pretty in Pink; Unity Stamps: Let the Spoiling Begin, Birdie Told Me

“Great Pear” card, by Kathy Martin.

For this card I used one of my favorite prints from the Sunshine & Happiness collection, the back side of the Sunnyside Up paper. I really like all those circles! I repeated the colors when choosing stamp ink, patterned papers and Designer Tape. I also double stamped my pear image to lighten the color. You can do that by stamping it first on a piece of scratch paper and then onto your card. Double stamping and using textured card stock creates this distressed look.

Supplies:
Sunshine & Happiness: Sunnyside Up, Borders, Great Pair Stamp; Button Market: Neutrals Mix; Designer Tape: Pickle Juice Dot

“It’s a Girl” card, by Kathy Martin.

When you have a great collection of coordinating patterned papers like in the Bella Blvd. Baby Girl line, it’s easy to create fun backgrounds like I did with this card. Just a few strips will do. It’s a great way to get a lot of mileage out of your supplies and use up those scraps. The little dress stamp is the cutest and it’s super fun to color! Wouldn’t it look sweet on a birthday card too?

Supplies:
Baby Girl: Snuggly Safari, Borders, Cute Cuts, It’s a Girl Stamp 

Bella Blvd & Core'dinations Team-Up: Day Two

Welcome back to day two of our team-up up with Core'dinations. We are back to share more inspirational projects, mixing Core'dinations wonderful cardstocks with our Bella products. Did you check out what the Core'dinations designers shared yesterday? I can't wait to see what they have to share with us all today. 

“Besties & Sisters”, by Megan Klauer.

One of my favorite embellishments that come with the Bella Blvd lines are the Alpha+Bits Stickers sheet. Each line has one and each sheet includes photo corner stickers. I wanted to come up with a way to use these differently so I cut a strip of the Core’dinations paper about 12x3 and adhered the photo corners to it with spacing between them. I then cut that strip vertically into 3 pieces. Once I had adhered the 3 strips to my design I ran them through the sewing machine to insure all the little pieces would stay in place. Such an easy way to extend a few stickers!

Supplies: 
Family Dynamix: Quadrants, Alpha+Bits Stickers; Sunshine & Happiness: Happy Clouds; High Five Alphabet Stickers: Pink-Red, Yellow; Ciao Chip Elements: Stars & Hearts

“In The Sand”, by Sheri Feypel.

I created this layout using Core'dinations Tillie Dot Spotted Cardstock and scraps from my stash. I can't speak for anyone else, but I do accumulate the scraps/leftovers. So I dug in and tried to stick with teal-ish and yellow pattern scraps, I pulled colors from the shirt my son is wearing in the picture I was using for this layout. I also added in a bit of Designer tapes, because they are fun to play with. Then the layering begins, I added alpha's, stickers and flags to finish it off. I love the way all of the Bella Blvd products "pop" off the Core'dinations cardstock.

Supplies:
My Boy: Connect The Dots, Alpha+Bits Stickers; Finally Fall: Miniatures; Designer Tape: Yellow Chevron, Teal Stripe; Flags: Fall; High Five Alpha Stickers: Yellow, Black/White, Blue; Button Market: Tie Dye

“Love”, by Kimberly Neddo.

I love this photograph of my daughter and son. The effects I applied with the picture, was fun to bounce off with the dots in the Core'dinations paper and Bella Blvd paper. I love that we have the circular alphabets too, another way to accent on the circular theme going on with this design.

Supplies:
Winter Wonder: Icy; Too Cute To Spook: Bitsy Spider; Spring Flings and Easter Things: Mom's Bouquet; High Five Alphabet Stickers: Green; Designer Tape: Yellow Chevron, Pickle Juice Dot; Button Market: Masculine Mix

“Oh Baby”, by Megan Klauer.

The Core’dinations dots card stock was the perfect compliment to the Chipboard Icons & the “Oh Baby” banner stickers from the Alpha+Bits Stickers made the design process quick & easy. 

Supplies: 
Baby Boy: Heaven Sent, Chipboard Icons, Alpha+Bits Stickers

“Sweet Friend” card, by Alice Carman.

I really enjoyed using Core’dinations color cardstock in my card making. It’s a sturdy card and the colors work really well with Bella Blvd lines. I used the Tillie Dot set and sanded it to achieve the dotted look.

Supplies:
Flirty: Party Girl, Bits A Bella, Label Additions

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Now, head on over to Core'dinations, and check out what their Design Team has created using their awesome cardstock, and our fun Bella products! Also, make sure to leave a comment on the Core'dinations post today (NOT this post, but on THEIR post), to be entered in their giveaway. They will be giving away an awesome prize package, containing their Glitter Silk cardstock, Sand It Set, Button, and Hard Core Crafter TShirt. Check out their blog for all the details.

And we'll see you back here tomorrow, for day three, with lots more project shares from our Design Team. We will also have our FIRST of two giveaways up for grabs!

 

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 June, courtesy of Becky Fleck. We are thrilled that Becky has agreed to design exclusive sketches, just for Bella!

"Clowning Around", by Becky Williams.

This was a great sketch! I ended up rotating it 90 degrees and used one large picture instead of two small ones. I also added stripes using the each of the Designer Tapes behind the picture in place of the paper and wrapped my title around two sides of the picture instead of just one. 

Supplies:
Baby Boy: On the Go, Miniatures; Sunshine & Happiness: Popsicle Kisses, Alpha+Bits; We're Expecting: Miniatures; Designer Tapes: Teal Stripes, Yellow Chevron, Red Dot, Pink Flowers, Blue Gingham, Jailbird, Pickle Juice Dot, Pink Stripe; High Five Alphabets: Pink/Red, Green

"My Boys”, by Brook Stewart.

For this layout, I pretty much stuck to the general placement of the papers in the sketch, but I tweaked it a bit by re-arranging the title and embellishments. My embellishments for this layout were mostly pulled from the border paper and the sticker sheets. It's simple, but I love that it shows off 2 of my favorite guys!

Supplies:
Mr. Boy: Dinomite, Connect the Dots, Traffic Jam, Borders N' Blocks, Cute Cuts, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Just Write Journaling Stickers

"Watermelon", by Nancy Damiano.

I love all of the layers in this sketch. It was the perfect blueprint for using many different patterned papers. I added some chipboard and words horizontally to separate the photos, but kept the nice long journaling strip. I like how the pink sticker adds color and divides the layout. The empty space all around the edges, let's the red shine through without overpowering the page. A mix of Sunshine & Happiness paper, chipboard and flags complete this summertime page.

Supplies:
Sunshine & Happiness: Petal Power, Borders, Cute Cuts, Chipboard Icons; Baby Girl: Just Write Journaling Stickers; Finally Fall: Bliss; Mr. Boy: Icons Chipboard; Flags: Love; Ciao Chip Elements: Borders; Simply Simona Chipboard Alphas: Peep & Oyster; Buttons: Red Flowers

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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.