Bella Blvd Studio Blog

Pinterest Inspiration- Kisses a digital layout by Marla Thrall

I love Pinterest and it is especially fabulous when I'm looking for scrapbook inspiration. Recently, my baby boy has been obsessed with giving me big kisses. When I saw this layout by Juliana Michaels, I knew it would be perfect for a picture of Teddy and I and his sweet kisses. 

Today, I'm going to take you through the basic steps I take when I'm making a layout. First, I pick out and edit a picture for the layout. I'm one of those people that is inspired by pictures first! 

Next, I pick out papers and layer them together to make the backbone of my layout. Nothing is final and I usually change a few things as I go along. For this page, I wanted to keep the background paper relatively neutral and then add pops of color in the other papers. 

Then it was time to add the hearts that I was so inspired by in Juliana's original page. The Puffy Heart stickers gave me a TON of really great heart stickers and I just went through and added them to my pages. Next, I made them a little bit larger and added drop shadows. 

I like to shadow as I go along because it helps me to see how the entire page is looking. Plus, I don't want to forget a layer at the end!

Finally, I went back to the Make Your Mark Collection and added a bunch of different embellishments. I paid attention to layering rules, added my drop shadows and clustered my elements around my picture. 

I ended up using a ton of different kinds of embellishments including some paper pieces, a gift tag, and stickers. In the end, I decided that it didn't really need a title since I loved the word art in the gift tag so much! 

Here's my final page: 

Puffy Heart Stickers by Bella Blvd 

Make Your Mark Digital Collection Bundle by Bella Blvd 

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To see all of our Digital Products and to purchase, head over to our retail Digital Shop, located on the Bella Blvd website. To learn how to use the Digital Shop, check out our how-to video here.

Pinterest Inspired Video Tutorial with Missy

Happy Monday, friends!  Missy here again, and I'm kicking off this week's Pinterest Inspired projects here on the blog.  I have found so many fun inspirational images over the years, and I was really excited when I found this bright and festive diamond-shaped design.  As soon as I saw it I knew I wanted to recreate it on a layout.

 

emmajanenation.com

I used the Popsicles and Pandas collection for this.  It's full of fun summer colors and patterns.  What I love about this design is that it allows for a lot of different patterned papers to be used in small pieces.  I mixed and matched lots of the 6x8 Paper Pad papers combining patterns & solids.  I used a square punch to create all the squares and then punched out two photos of my daughter walking around our pool.  It was fun working with such small photos like this.  It gave me lots of room for embellishing.

I used a light pink cardstock as my background.  I added some white gesso before applying some watercolors using plastic packaging.  I used the Illustrated Faith Shanna's Favorite Watercolors, and the colors turned out so pretty.  I glued down all the squares and then machine stitched with white thread around the edges of each one.  I ruffled up the edges to create some dimension.  I added a bit of tissue paper and foam under the photos to give them some lift and then started embellishing.  I used a few cute flamingos from the Paper Pieces as well as some Fundamentals Stickers.

 

I kept most of the embellishments on an angle.  I used some Illustrated Faith Cardstock Stickers, some Puffy Heart Stickers, Enamel Dots and Ciao Chipboard to complete my title. I used a light blue gelato to add some color to the chipboard letters.  I smudged it on with my finger.

 

Here are some of the gorgeous puffy stickers in the collection.  I used that adorable flamingo.  These title stickers are the Wonky Alpha Puffy Stickers in Cotton Candy.  They matched the light pinks in the layout perfectly.

 

I created a cute little cloud cluster at the top right combining some of the Popsicles & Pandas Paper Pieces & Puffy Stickers as well as some of the Illustrated Faith Cardstock Stickers.  I layered them all together and added a bit of foam and thread. 

 

Here's one more close-up.  I really love how the texture and dimension looks here, and that super cute watermelon puffy sticker is my favorite!

 

I hope you are inspired by this project and the Pinterest image!  It was fun to put together.  You can check out my process video if you'd like to see how I created this page.

 

Popsicles & Pandas: 6x8 Paper Pad, Paper Pieces, Fundamentals Stickers, Puffy Stickers; Illustrated Faith: Cardstock Stickers--His Promise; Wonky Alpha Puffy Stickers--Cotton Candy; Ciao Chipboard--Today; Puffy Heart Stickers--Blueberry Mix; Enamel Dots--Ice

Gold Foil: From Inspiration to Layout With Gail

Hi everyone! When the Bella Creative Team were given the task of using gorgeous gold foil pieces on a project this week, I knew just what I wanted to do. In my internet travels, I had saved an image of a cake that had some gold detail and I knew it would give me great inspiration for this project. 

I'm excited to share the layout with you today as well as a look at just how I interpreted the inspiration piece and applied it to my layout!

Would you like to take a peek at the inspiration? Well here it is, along with some text I added to show you exactly what I was taking from the inspiration.

(image source: Pinterest) 

So I came into this project knowing that I wanted a flower cluster to the left of the layout, some sort of border (with gold detail) across the layout and a gold scripted title to the bottom right of the layout!

Of course when you want gold detail on a project, you have to use the gorgeous, AMAZING Make Your Mark collection! 

For the flower cluster, I arranged several of the flower die cuts from the Paper Pieces pack. These have beautiful gold detail and I just love the very organic design of them! They were fun to cluster and I added a couple more gold pieces from the pack such as the words and hearts for even more embellishment.

I used two strips from the Borders patterned paper below my large photo. The yellow also has some beautiful gold detail! 

For my title, I had to use one of the Acrylic Words but I wanted it GOLD of course! I remembered a technique that team member Leanne Allinson shared here where she used embossing powder to transform the words! So I grabbed some gold embossing powder and it worked! The perfect gold scripted title!

I used an enlarged photo of my daughter on stage at her dance concert last year. The photo is 6.5 x 11.5" and although my daughter is clear, in the centre of the stage, I wanted a way to draw the eye to her position on the photo.

I added a couple of tag stickers from the Fundamentals sheet along with a gold arrow. The arrow isn't pointing directly at her, but in her direction so the cluster certainly does draw your eye to that area of the photo so you can see her beaming face! (I've intentionally blurred out the other faces for public sharing). 

If there was ever an occasion to add gold foil detail, it's a young girls' dance recital right? The inspiration image translated to a layout using the stunning Make Your Mark collection perfectly and my intention was to show you how I take a seemingly unrelated image and turn it into a layout! 

Now go and find inspiration!

 

Make Your Mark: Real Deal, Borders, Fundamentals Stickers, Paper Pieces, Break Rules Washi; Acrylic Words: Gratitude & Grace; IF Date It Roller Stamp

 

Pinterest Inspired Layout with Video Tutorial

Hey there Bella Blvd friends and fans, Becki here. As you know, it's Pinterest week here on the Bella blog. Today not only do I have a layout to share with you but I also have a process video. I pulled together supplies from the You Are Loved collection to create this layout. Here's the layout I created:

If I had a second hobby (other than scrapbooking), it would be quilting. I like sewing, I just don't like measuring (which is why I don't like to quilt). I did however choose a quilt as my inspiration for this layout. I think you'll see how I was inspired by THIS Pinterest image.

I wanted to recreate these quilt blocks on my layout. I started by cutting 9 pieces of 3 1/2 x 3 1/2 squares of white cardstock. I added small strips of patterned paper (that I cut from the 6x8 paper pad from the You Are Loved collection.

You can see how this layout came together in the process video over on the Bella Blvd You Tube channel.

 

As I mention in the video, I kept the embellishment on this layout to a minimum because I want the quilt inspired background to shine.

I added flowers to the bottom right and the top left squares on my layout. One flower is a die cut and the other flower, I fussy cut from the clear cut 6x8 pad.

Are you inspired by this Pinterest image too? I'd love to see what your inspiration takes you, make sure to share your photo and tag me so I can see what you create! You can find me on Instagram @beckiadams

Thanks for stopping by the Bella Blvd blog today.

Supplies: You Are Loved: Eden, Paper Pad, Paper Pieces, Elements Stickers, Clear Cuts Pad; Illustrated Faith Basics: Olive You Homespun Alpha; Designer Tape: Piggy Pink Stripe

Pinterest Inspired Love Layout With Gail

(image source: Pinterest)

Hello again! It's Gail on the Bella blog today and it's certainly the perfect day to share a 'Love' themed layout! My inspiration photo is shown above and it's easy to see why this immediately stood out to me on Pinterest! My layout idea formed pretty quickly!

I used my Silhouette Cameo to cut out the large LOVE letters from white cardstock, stacked on top of each other just like in the inspiration photo. While I knew my photo would go in the space behind the 'O', the other letters were backed in patterned paper (from the Illustrated Faith 'You Are Loved' collection) that just happened to have an ombre style to them - just like in the original letters above! 

To further add to the ombre look, I hand stitched around each letter using 3 different colors of thread starting with white at the top of the layout, to light pink in the centre and finally dark pink at the bottom of the layout. It took a little while but I just love how it turned out!

I added a couple of clusters of embellishments to my layout which I built from layers of Paper Pieces, Washi Stickers, stickers and tiny enamel hearts. In these 'clusters' is also where I added a little bit of extra color - aqua and yellow.

I also added a couple of the sweet felt bows from the Cute Clips (I removed the bows from the clips) for a bit more dimension and interest. 

Drawing further from the inspiration photo, I created a small heart banner across the top of the layout. I made this using various heart stickers and die cuts from the collection and then adding a row of machine stitching linking them all. It's the perfect finishing touch don't you think?

I just love how much inspiration I can get from one photo of a cute craft project. Pinterest will always be my number one source of inspiration! 

Whatever you are doing this Valentine's Day, I hope I've given you some inspiration to scrapbook a photo you love!

 

Supplies:
IF You Are Loved - Fundamentals, 6x8 Paper Pad, Washi Stickers, Cardstock Stickers, Paper Pieces; Cute Clips - Baby Girl; Little Bits - Punch; IF Enamel Hearts - One In A Melon, Bananas For You

 

Halloween Pinterest Inspired With Gail

(image source: Pinterest)

Hello again! It's Gail here today with another dose of Pinterest Inspired - with a Halloween twist! While browsing Pinterest I kept being drawn to photos of gorgeous styled, decorated mantels and the one pictured above immediately sparked my creativity! Take a look at my layout below:

Of course I wanted to re-create the look of the banner across the mantel. Using the Spooktacular collection, I grabbed the 6x8 Paper Pad to create the triangle banner pieces. The smaller scale of the patterns in the paper pad were perfect! Instead of my banner stretching right across my page, I left room for my photo beside it.

But the inspiration didn't stop there! I added my title Wicked above the "shelf" and even stacked a couple of pumpkins from the Paper Pieces on either side of my title, just like in my inspiration photo. 

And gosh, I just couldn't stop from adding even more embellishments and little details to this layout from that cute spider die cut to lots of black mist splatters and background stamping!

On the left side of the layout, you can see I added a few layers of patterned paper behind my photo (check out my daughter's expression by the way!). And the Designer Clip that says Little Spooks couldn't have been more perfect right? 

I am so thrilled with how this layout came together so easily with help from a photo of decorated mantel and the wicked Spooktacular collection from Bella Blvd! Happy Halloween folks!

 

Supplies:
Spooktacular: Toil & Trouble, Borders, Fundamentals, 6x8 Paper Pad, Paper Pieces, Designer Clips, Washi Stickers; Ciao Chip Amorie Alpha: Amorie White; IF Clear Stamps: Elements

 

 

 

Pinterest Inspired with Leanne

(image credit: Strictly Weddings)

 Hey there Bella Friends!  It's Leanne here today to share with you a little inspiration found via Pinterest. I absolutely fell in love with the geometric shapes that house the flowers in this image, and I immediately knew I needed to translate it to paper. But the best part of the process was including all the glorious shades of pink. My daughter's least favourite colour! Her favourite shades lean toward yellow or orange. Personally I love all of the colours, so I took this opportunity to document her dislike while showcasing the beautiful range of pinks found in the Bella Blvd collections. 

A secondary bonus to creating a pink themed layout during October is to highlight Breast Cancer Awareness month here in Australia.

"Think Pink" by Leanne Allinson

To create this layout, I have hand stitched circle features onto the back ground cardstock to represent the geometric circles from the Pinterest image. Using light pencil marks, I have traced around a simple stencil diagonally across my cardstock base. Alternatively, if you don't have a stencil, use the outside of washi tape rolls as your guideline to drawing the circles.

Once the circles were added, I've pre-pierced holes in my cardstock to then add the stitching.

 

 The design looks more complex than it is. Two circles are stitched with pie shaped wedges added between each line. This creates the geometric pattern.

My next step was to layer patterned paper to support my photo, making sure I included the fun new Tabbies from the Addison collection and a few She Blooms Paper Pieces between the layers.

As for the flowers in the Pinterest image, I have substituted them with lots of enamel hearts and dots! To fill out the rest of the space, I have then added fussy cut feathers from the Addison mini paper pad using the different shades of pink only, going from deep punch to pale cotton candy toward the bottom of the page.

 I really love how Pinterest can often offer up solutions for inspiration in the least likely of places. When you see an images that jumps out at you, try to look at how you can translate the beautiful stylised photos directly into your next creative project. Thanks for visiting..x

Supplies:
Addison: Tabbies, 6x8 mini Paper Pad, Free Spirit; She Blooms: Tiny Floral, 3x4's, Take Root Pink, Paper Pieces; Enamel Dots: Cotton Candy, Punch; IF Enamel Hearts: Hey Sugar Sugar, Bless Her; Tiny Text: Wild Berries Tiny Text; Color Chaos Clear Cuts: Pickle Juice Confetti.

 

Pinterest Inspired With Missy

{Image credit: Alisa Burke}

Hey there! Missy back again, and I’m excited to be sharing another fun Pinterest-inspired layout today. Pinterest is such a great place to find ideas for your projects. As soon as I came across this fun DIY image, I was immediately drawn to the fun wonky oval shapes, the bright colors mixed with black & white, and the design created by the placement of the rocks. I knew this would make a really fun background design for a layout.

“Free Spirit”, by Missy Whidden.

So I pulled out lots of black & white papers from Just Add Color and Color Chaos and did some mix and matching with bright colored papers from Illustrated Faith Whatever is Lovely, She Blooms and Fresh Market. I even used some Clear Cuts & Invisibles. I drew the crooked ovals in Silhouette Studio and cut them on my Cameo on white cardstock. I traced, cut and adhered all the papers to the ovals and then arranged them like they were in the photo.

I did a bit of layering behind the photo since I wanted the focus to be on the ovals. The photo stands out since it’s black & white, and it also pops against the bright colors. I used a few stickers to overlap onto the photo and then added some tangled thread for added color and texture.

Making these ovals was a lot of fun! I tried to mimic the ovals in the photo as best as I could. I combined patterned papers with some of the black & white Clear Cuts and Invisibles. They look awesome on white cardstock. After the ovals were done and glued down, I machine stitched with black thread through some of them. On some of them I added word or phrase stickers and some punched hearts with tangled thread. I went small on the title and used some Tiny Text alphas.

My daughter isn’t super girly, but I felt like this layout just needed a little bow. I don’t tend to use them a lot, but I loved how this one looked on top of the photo. I did a little bit of watercoloring behind the photo in blues, yellows and pinks to match the papers and the Pinterest photo. I like to have it peeking out from behind the photo.

I know I’ve said this several times, but I love how so many of the Bella collections can be mixed and matched. So many different looks can be achieved this way, and I was able to pull so many pieces from so many lines. I also punched small circles from one of the Clear Cuts. They are so versatile; they can be punched, ran through a die cutting machine, hand cut…lots of possibilities.

Here’s one last close-up of the ovals. My favorite part of this layout is that I would never have thought to use messy ovals as a background design until I saw this on Pinterest. I love how it turned out, and I love that it’s an idea I’ve never tried. I love how the phrase stickers look and how the watercolor enhances all those fun colors.

I hope you give Pinterest a try if you haven’t already. I completely surprised myself with this design. It’s fun to try something fun and different! Thanks for stopping by today!

Supplies:
Color Chaos: Oreo Black Strandz, Daily Details, Words of Wisdom, Treasures & Text; Fresh Market: Freshly Squeezed, Whole Lotta Seeds, Treasures & Text; Just Add Color: Passcode; IF She Blooms: Take Root Pink, Bloom Script, Art Prints, Treasures & Text; IF Whatever is Lovely: 3x4s; Sweet Sweet Spring: To Dye For; Clear Cuts: Star Student Typewriter; Invisibles: Click Click, Amore; Tiny Text Alpha Stickers: Black, Bold & Beautiful; IF Enamel Hearts: Bananas For You, She Blooms Mix; Cute Clips: Rainy Day

Pinterest Inspired With Jamie

Hey hey, welcome to Thursday! I am so happy to be here and share with you a Pinterest inspired page layout.

{Image credit: Pinterest}

To be honest, I use to get stumped at using Pinterest for page inspiration. Sounds silly, no? But when I came across this Design Image from Nesha Designs, it all seemed to just burst open for me. I am sort of hooked now. That's a warning that you might see more of this inspiration in the near future.

Here's what came from that design image. Color Blocking. Complimentary patterns. And even a typographical icon. Let me show you what I did.

Here is a rendering of that design sketch. This was created in Photoshop Elements. I have made this template available for you as well, and you can download it HERE.

I found that I preferred to use the sketch on its side. So I turned it 90 degrees to the left. And then used the squares and rectangles as guides for trimming out pattern paper and photos.

Using the template like a pattern, I trimmed out pattern paper so that all the sketch would fit together.

And this is how it all turned out.

After I trimmed the pieces, I just adhered them in place on the bottom portion of a 12x12 piece of cardstock.

Even the photo was made to fit within the scheme of this design.

One of my favorite pieces to this page is the typographical icon that was lifted from the Pinterest design. I tried to emulate it by staying with the same number of letters, plus layering them together as shown on the design image.

See, a girl can learn to find inspiration from non-scrapbook sources. And I think you can too. I made this one easy for you by creating the sketch template for you. Just trim out the grey shapes, and create your own Pinterest-inspired paper project too.

Supplies:
Star Student: Daily Details, International Studies, Art Journal, Treasures & Text; Hello Autumn: Treasures & Text; Color Chaos: Ice Strandz

Pinterest Inspired With Stephanie

{Image credit: Behance}

Hello hello! Stephanie here today sharing this "Inspired By Pinterest" layout that I recently did. These are always one of my favorite types of assignments because it really allows me to go out and find some inspiration when I may be lacking in the "mojo" area. 

The pin I chose to work with was this picture of some pretty and simply designed stationary. I loved how it was full of color but still clean at the same time. 

“Hello There Love”, by Stephanie Buice.

The first thing that caught my attention in the picture were the hexagons, not only do I really like how they were laid out and arranged, but the way they were put together really inspired me as well and I knew right away that there was going to be lots of patterned papers involved.

I really tried to keep my hexagons in the same position as the inspiration pin because I really loved how symmetrical they are. I also really liked how the triangles are also aligned with the flow of the other shapes.

I am admittedly one of the slowest fussy cutters in the history of man. I did make a cut file to cut out my triangles to put my hexies together, but in the end I ended up using them as a stencil so I could have more control over which parts of the pattern papers ended up on my layout.

I decided to use some Chip Scripts mixed with Tiny Text for my title "Hello There Love", I just can't get enough of those things! I love how they look clean and white or dressed up, they are the perfect words for titles and I am really hoping that one day we have even more of them! 

After I got all my triangles cut up and pieced together, I arranged them on my paged and decided to run it through my sewing machine. I tried to keep my lines clean so they wouldn't distract from the lines of the main design.

In my inspiration picture, you can see that they used some larger triangles as the focal point of the design, so I tried to do the same. Even though most of mine ended up being covered by my picture and embellishments, I promise they're still there hiding under all the goodness. 

I added in a few of the new Tabbies and gift tags from the You Are Loved collection to layer it up a bit and finished it off with some stickers and a chipboard icon from She Blooms.

That's about it from me today, I hope you enjoyed my layout and thank you so much for stopping by!

Supplies:
IF She Blooms: She Blooms, Take Root Clear Cut, Chip Icons; Lucky Starz: Bell Pepper Starz; Oh My Stars: Punch Stars; IF Bright And Brave: Journaling, Artsy; IF CHRISTmas: 3x4’s; Molly: Borders; IF You Are Loved: Eden, Hearts & Kisses, Happy Heart, Borders, 6x8 Paper Pad, Fundamentals, Gift Tags, Tabbies, Washi Stickers; IF Whatever Is Lovely: Treasures & Text; Ciao Chip Scripts: Hello There, So In Love; Tiny Text Alpha Stickers: Bold & Beautiful; IF Enamel Hearts: Black Eye Pea