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 April, courtesy of Becky Fleck.

"Happy Times", by Becky Williams.

For this sketch I decided to give it a flip and used one photo instead of two. I like that there aren't a lot of extra details in the sketch so that the picture can be the main focus. I have kept things pretty simple. I've used lots of Designer Tapes (love them!) and bits and pieces from the Love & Marriage line. I used a date sticker from that collection and simply cut the "wedding" part off. Kudos to Stephanie for designing a marriage line that can also be used for everyday pages.

Supplies: 
Freestyle Sophisticates: Freestyle Cotton Candy; Love & Marriage: Esther Fleming Floral, Turner Hall Ballroom, Wedding Day, Cute Cuts, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Chipboard Icons, Miniatures; Sand & Surf: Alpha+Bits Stickers; Designer Tapes: 12mm Combo, Hot Pink Dot, Pony Dot, Navy Dot, Orange Stripe, Gray Chevron

“Egg Hunt”, Malika Kelly.

Lately I have really enjoyed having a sketch to work with when I am making my layouts. It is a great starting point and from there I can stick as close to it as I want, or just use it for some inspiration. I followed this sketch pretty closely, though I changed up the size of one of my pictures, giving the larger one of the two more emphasis. I also used feathers to mat my main photo to help it stand out. I added another layer of scalloped border under my patterned paper because I love the look of many layers. Finally I made a cluster of word stickers, borders and buttons to finish it off.

Supplies:
Love and Marriage: Smokeys in Love, May Eighteenth, Vows, Alpha+Bits Stickers; Sand & Surf: Alpha+Bits Stickers, Miniatures Stickers; Engaged At Last: Engagement Chipboard Icons; Sophisticates: Pickle Juice Chip Essentials; Sienna Chipboard Alphas: Punch; Designer Tape: Hot Pink Dot; Button Market: Pink Flowers; Feathers: Bell Pepper, Cotton Candy; Crochet Hearts: Punch, Gulf

“Chickens”, by Jennifer Chapin.

I had some photos from last year of mine and Megan's daughter gathering eggs from the chickens at their house. I knew that I had been saving these photos for a reason - Bella's new feathers were the perfect embellishment! I stacked two of the feathers together, then tied with a bit of twine. I used wet quick dry adhesive to attach them to the layout.

Supplies:
Engaged at Last: Bachelor Party, Chipboard Icons; Love and Marriage: Smokeys in Love, Esther Fleming Floral; Sand & Surf: Borders, Cute Cuts, Alpha+Bits Stickers; Freestyle Sophisticates: Freestyle Saltwater; Sienna Chipboard Alphas: Pickle Juice, Frosting; Crochet Hearts: Punch, White; Feathers: Pony, Cream; Designer Tape: Polka Dot Combo

“The Cake”, by Kim Jeffress.

One of my favorite memories from my wedding 8 years ago was my cake. I've been waiting for the right time and right papers to scrap the photos and the Love and Marriage collection was perfect. I stuck fairly close to the sketch. I wanted a fun feel to my layout to reflect the fun feel of my cake, so I placed one of the photos on an angle and created that fun little cluster to the right of the photo.

Supplies:
Love and Marriage: Cute Cuts, May Eighteenth, Esther Fleming Floral, Cake Tasting, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Just Write Journaling Stickers, Miniatures, Chipboard Icons; Flags: Engaged at Last; Designer Tapes: Piggy Pink Stripe 

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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. 

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 April, courtesy of Becky Fleck.

“Rub A Dub Dub”, by Jaclyn Rench.

Working from a sketch is often a great creativity starter for me. I loved that this particular sketch allowed for three photos, a title and journaling but still plenty of room to play and embellish. Yellow and teal blue were the starting color palette for my page and from there it was easy to mix in lots of colorful pieces from the Sophisticate collection. I think the end result is bright and happy with a splash of fun!

Supplies:
Sophisticates: Short Stories; Freestyle Sophisticates: Freestyle Banana; Birthday Girl: Miles of Smiles; Baby Boy: Miniatures Stickers, Alpha+Bits Stickers; Ciao Chip Elements: Borders; Designer Tape: Ice Stripe, Polka Dot Combo; High Five Alphabet Stickers: Gulf, Brown-Cream, Blue, Green, Piggy-Punch, Pink-Red, Yellow; Button Market: Tie Dye; Crochet Hearts: Bell Pepper

"Plaits", by Leanne Allinson.

This sketch was such a delight to work with, but to down size it for the 8.5in x 11in layout, I needed to shrink a few elements. Firstly, I reduced the size of the patterned paper base for the photos to create white space on my page. I chose to layer these papers and replace one of the photos with the feather. My strip journaling is sewn straight onto the layout which also secures the feather to my page. This allows me to add texture without overwhelming the white space I've already created.

Supplies:
Love and Marriage: Alphas+Bits Stickers;  Engaged At Last: Bridal Shower, Bachelorette Party; Birthday Girl: Miles of Smiles; Sienna Chipboard Alphas: Punch; Designer Tape: Yellow Chevron, Ice Stripe; Feathers: White; Button Market: Stars

"Rose Garden", by Yohko Takiguchi.

The Spring Flings & Easter Things collection is perfect for spring layouts. I cut the rainbow and flowers in a vase with one handle out of the Cute Cuts papers. I then added a rose chipboard from the Love and Marriage collection.

Supplies:
Spring Flings & Easter Things: A Tisket A Tasket, Sunny Sunday, Borders, Cute Cuts, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Miniatures; Love and Marriage: Wedding Chipboard Icons; Button Market: Pink 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. 

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. 

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 March, courtesy of Becky Fleck.

"Love This", by Becky Williams.

I stayed pretty true to the sketch but flipped it 180 degrees so that the border was on the left instead of right side. I used bits of Designer Tapes and stickers in place of the paper pieces and kept the overall design simple to draw focus to the pictures on my layout. I used the reverse side of the "Love and Marriage" collection Cute Cuts sheet for my background and colored in a few random hearts. My youngest is growing up so quickly that I wanted to scrap about how peaceful she looks while sleeping. Time goes by way too quickly! 

Supplies: 
Love and Marriage: Cute Cuts, Just Write Journaling Stickers, Flags; Engaged at Last: Bridal Shower, He Proposed; Designer Tape: Punch Chevron, Piggy Pink Stripe, 12mm Combo, Gray Chevron, Orange Stripe; High Five Alpha Stickers: Black-White, Piggy Punch

"District Honor Band", by Laura Vegas.

As I was looking at this sketch and trying to figure out how I was going to use it, I was drawn to how the photo and all the little squares of paper arranged around the photo were arranged in a nice, long row across the page. It reminded me of a recent photo from a honor band concert that my oldest daugher, Alyssa, played in. Once I cropped the photo to include just the band, I ended up with a LONG photo that was 10.5" wide and only 4" tall that was perfect for this sketch.

Supplies:
Birthday Boy: Just A Note; Love And Marriage: Borders; Hello Beautiful: Just A Note; Too Cute To Spook: Chipboard Icons; Sophisticates: Short Stories, Tall Tags; Simply Simona Chipboard Alphas: Oreo; Sienna Chipboard Alphas: Pony; Quatrofina Alpha Stickers: Black-White; Ciao Chip Elements: Clouds; Button Market: Stars

“Beach Party”, by Leanne Allinson.

When I first saw this sketch, I wanted to creating more of a patchwork back drop for my photo to rest on. I wanted the sketch to be exaggerated, but still have some white space  I also knew I wanted to create with the bright and fresh, Sand & Surf collection. This photo of my daughter preparing for her school swimming carnival brought the two together! I chose some colors in the lei she is wearing and transferred them to the patchwork squares of the sketch. The layers of the patterned papers, Alpha+Bits stickers and Ciao Chip Icons, result in a fun, summery layout.

Supplies:
Sand & Surf: Borders, Surfs Up, Paradise, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Miniatures, Just Write Journaling Stickers, Ciao Chip Icons; Freestyle Sophisticates: Freestyle Saltwater; Sophisticates: Sprinkles & Lace Oyster; High Five Alpha Stickers: Gulf; Designer Tape: 12mm combo

"First Communion Day", by Katherine McElvain.

I love neutral colors for scrapbooking, so I am drawn to the Love and Marriage collection. It is filled with beige, and white... yummy! One problem, I am not in that wedding age. I'm too old, married 20 years ago when there was not digital cameras, and my kids are too young. So I have found alternate ways to use the great products. This sketch challenge gave me the perfect opportunity to put together a layout about my daughter on her first communion day using the Love and Marriage products. When interpreting the sketch I turned it on its side and used only the front and back side of the Cute Cuts paper to create the layered paper pieces behind the photo. I had to get creative to cover up words and images pertaining to marriage that were on the paper, cutting out the center of one journaling card and layering the photo and a cloud on top of another did the trick. The church and "congrats" sticker intended for a wedding page served well for a first communion page too. When I was almost finished with the layout I stamped the date at the bottom, and low and behold the year came out "2021" instead of "2012". OH NO! So I stamped a couple more correct dates and covered the mistake with a little flower. That's how it usually goes with me...but we will keep it our little secret, okay?

Supplies:
Love and Marriage: May Eighteenth, Cute Cuts, Wedding Icons, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Just Write Journaling Stickers, Wedding Day Miniatures; Engaged At Last: Engagement Icons; Button Market: Checkers; High Five Alpha Stickers: Brown-Cream

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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. 

 

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 February, courtesy of Becky Fleck.

“Our 5th Anniversary Date Night”, by Jenny Evans.

Such a fun sketch! I switched the flowers for hearts, which were inspired by the Flutter patterned paper that I used as my background/border. I used the hearts, and the heart negatives, from the circles I punched from the True Love paper. I love the look of the negatives! I finished off with a nice, long title, which is something I am really liking right now.

Supplies:
Kiss Me: Flutter, True Love, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Just Write Journaling Stickers; High Five Alpha Stickers: Blue; Ciao Chip Everyday Elements: Stars & Hearts; Designer Tape: Piggy Pink Stripe, Polka Dot Combo 

“Happiness”, by Sheri Reguly.

This was such a fun sketch to work with. I loved the trio of overlapping photos, as well as the large, dramatic floral embellishments. I incorporated the flowers into my own design by using a Tall Tag from the Sophisticates collection in place of the vase, and randomly adhering my flowers on top of it, using adhesive foam to add dimension. For a finishing touch, I placed a large threaded button in the center of each. (I used the Tie Dye buttons for the centers of my flowers, but opted to use the plain, reverse side for a more subtle effect.)

Supplies:
Sophisticates: Sprinkles & Lace Ice, Sprinkles & Lace Punch, Petite Pieces, Tall Tags; Baby Boy: Momma’s Boy; Kiss Me: Just Write Cardstock Stickers, Alpha+Bits Stickers; Designer Tape: Pony Dot; Button Market: Tie Dye

“I Love You To The Moon And Back”, by Gina Lideros.

This was such a fun sketch to get my creative juices flowing. I stuck to the basics of the sketch by placing the three flowers on the left side and one flower on the right side. I also kept the title in the same place but moved the subtitle over to the right side of my journaling. Another change that I made was using two photos (instead of 3) and putting a Just Write flower sticker in place of where the third photo should be. I used a combination of Just Write journaling stickers and High Five alpha's to create my title. Bella's designer tape, Checkers buttons, and flag were the perfect embellishments to complete my page.

Supplies:
Kiss Me: Flutter, Just Write Journaling Stickers, Alpha+Bits Stickers; Sophisticates: Sprinkles & Lace Punch, Sprinkles & Lace Surf N Turf; High Five Alpha Stickers: Pink-Red, Blue; Ciao Chip Elements: Stars & Hearts; Button Market: Checkers; Flags: Girl; Crochet Flowers: Dahlia, Juniper; Designer Tape: Punch Chevron, Piggy Pink Stripe, Pony Dot

“You”, by Kim Jeffress.

I have had this photo of my youngest sitting in my iPhone camera roll for two years now. Every time I go looking through my phone this one catches my eye and makes me smile it's my favorite! I thought it was about time I scrapped it! I pulled out my favorite pattern paper from Bella Blvd: the b side of Miles of Smiles from the Birthday Girl collection. Yellow and chevron are my go-to-colors and patterns whenever I am designing my layouts. I followed the sketch fairly closely (I used 2 photos instead of 3). I loved Shellye McDaniel's fussy cutting of the glasses from the Cute Cuts paper from the Kiss Me collection in this card, but I wanted to put my own spin on it. So I fussy cut the glasses and attached it to a bamboo skewer, added some rhinestones and some twine to create a bit of a mascarade mask! I love this fun look and it works even on my boy page because it is about my feelings towards him!

Supplies:
Kiss Me: Mustache Love, Borders & Cute Cuts, Alphas+Bits Stickers, Just Write Journaling Stickers; Sophisticates: Sprinkles & Lace Surf n Turf; Birthday Girl: Miles of Smiles; Birthday Boy: Alpha+Bits Stickers; Sienna Chipboard Alphas: Blueberry; Designer Tape: Yellow Chevron 

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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.

 

 

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. 

 

Saturday Sketches

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

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

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

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

“Gingerbread House Traditions”, by Gina Lideros.

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

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

“Joy To The World”, by Allyson Meinholz.

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

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

“Four”, by Kim Jeffress.

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

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

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We hope you will take some creative time for yourself, and try out our sketch! Whether it's a card, or a layout, we would love to see what you come up with. You can link them here in the comment section, or share them on our Facebook page. 

Saturday Sketches

Today is Friday, which means that Stephanie would normally have a post to share with you here. However, she is hard at work with CHA plans right now (it's a little over a month away!), so we thought we would give her the day off. Which means we've moved up the Saturday Sketches by a day.

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 December, courtesy of Becky Fleck.

“Elf Magic”, by Diane Payne.

I wanted to document the arrival of our elves and tell the story of how they watch the kids and report back to Santa with their behavior each night. The elements at the bottom of the sketch reminded me of ornaments and inspired a large part of my design. To make the sketch work for my design idea I flipped the bottom to the top. For the ornaments I layered a variety of colors and patterns then layered hearts, snowflakes and buttons for dimension and variety. My elves are special to me because they were handed down from my Mom and I enjoy coming up with fun and creative things for them to do at night that will surprise even my older kids.

Supplies:
Christmas Wishes: Christmas Love, Candlelight, Cute Cuts; Winter Wishes: Borders; Birthday Girl: Party Dress, Miles of Smiles; Sienna Chipboard Alphas: Blueberry; High Five Alpha Stickers: Pink-Red, Blue; Ciao Chip Everyday Elements: Trees; Designer Tape: Pickle Juice Dot; Button Market: Tie Dye, Pickle Squares, Fruit Punch, Snowflakes

"Stocking fun", by Jenny Evans.

I decided to turn the sketch upside down and use the flowers on the sketch as dangling stars. The gorgeous and fun colors and designs from the Christmas Wishes collection went perfect with my photos. We cherish our stocking opening, as it is our only time that we get to celebrate and do presents as our little family. So, I always go a little overboard on the stockings, and the boys love it! Seeing their smiling faces is well worth it! :)

Supplies:
Christmas Wishes: Christmas Love, Candlelight, Quadrants, Borders, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Just Write Journaling Stickers, Miniatures Stickers, Chipboard Icons; High Five Alpha Stickers: Blue, Pink-Red; Designer Tape: Pickle Juice Chevron, Red Dot; Button Market: Stars

"Little Fast Talker", by Becky Williams.

I followed the sketch pretty closely this time but moved the title block and switched up the pictures to accommodate the photos I wanted to use for the page. I liked that I could mix the gray chevron from the "Baby Boy" collection with the brights from the new "Kiss Me" line. I used a mix of buttons to top of my snowflake flowers. 

Supplies: 
Baby Boy: Momma's Boy; Kiss Me: Flutter, Love Notes, Just Write Journaling Stickers; Designer Tapes: Gulf Dot, Piggy Pink Stripe; Button Market: Blues, Hot Pink Flowers, Fruit Punch, Text, Stars; Sophisticates High Five Alphabets: Blue, Black-White

“Splash”, by Leanne Allinson.

I wanted to create a layout that was a little bit different but still maintain the overall feel of the sketch. So I flipped it on its side and then basically followed the new layout plan. Since my photos were already in a portrait orientation it was easy to keep three photos on my layout, even though it is a smaller size at 8.5in x 11in. The Kiss Me collection is all about fun so I have teamed it up with the designer tapes in bright and beautiful colors. Before the tapes were adhered to my layout however, they were applied to some white cardstock, to keep their colors vivid.

Supplies:
Kiss Me: Flutter, Borders & Cute Cuts, True Love, Alpha+Bits Stickers; Designer Tapes: Orange Stripe, Punch Chevron, Pickle Juice Chevron

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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. 

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 November, courtesy of Becky Fleck.

"Your Smile", by Becky Williams.

I find myself simplifying my scrapbook pages a bit these days. For this layout I followed the sketch pretty closely and just added some bits of tape and strips of patterned paper as accents. The little "I love you" piece is one of my favorites from the borders paper in the "Kiss Me" collection. 

Supplies: 
Kiss Me: Flutter, Borders & Cute Cuts, Love Notes, Just Write Journaling Stickers, Alpha+Bits Stickers; Family Dynamix: Quadrants; High Five Alphabet Stickers: Black-White, Gulf; Button Market: Stars, Hot Pink Flowers; Designer Tapes: Jailbird, Red Dot, Gulf Dot, Piggy Pink Stripe, Teal Stripe

"Key West”, by Sheri Reguly.

I absolutely loved working with the layout of this sketch! The skinny vertical guides were perfect for a couple of scenic shots from our Florida vacation, while the larger guide was perfect for my focal image. I opted for a subtle background paper, as I didn’t want it to compete with the vibrant colors within my photos. The navy floral strip helps ground my page, while a few simple embellishments add balance and provide the perfect finishing touch.

Supplies:
Kiss Me: Flutter, Borders & Cute Cuts, Alpha+Bits Stickers; High Five Alpha Stickers: Piggy Punch; Designer Tape: Pickle Juice Chevron; Button Market: Checkers

"Youlai Fes", by Yohko Takiguchi.

I love the cute monsters, spiders, and bats from the Too Cute To Spook collection and wanted to use them on a layout. But Halloween is not very popular in Japan. It is starting to become more popular year after year though. So I decided to use photos of Yokai Festival. Yokai are a class of supernatural monsters in Japanese folklore.

Supplies:
Too Cute To Spoke: The Boo Crew, Full Moon, Borders, Cute Cuts, Itsy Bitsy Spider, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Miniatures Stickers

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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. 

Saturday Sketches

I know it's not quite Saturday. I think I'm just in a really big rush to get the weekend started! I thought that maybe if I moved up the Saturday Sketches feature, Saturday itself would come a bit quicker. Worth a try, right ;) 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 November, courtesy of Becky Fleck.

“Wisc Dells”, by Megan Klauer.

This sketch was perfect for our trip to Wisc Dells last weekend. The Cute Cuts journaling card from the Thankful line worked great with the 1-10 list as the sketch had 10 image spaces. I also kept one of our wrist bands and incorporated that into the design. I love incorporating personal items to my pages whenever I get the chance. 

Supplies: 
Kiss Me: Mustache Love; Thankful: Borders, Turkey Tracks, Burlap, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Cute Cuts; Birthday Boy: Borders; Sophisticates: Petite Pieces, Calendars; Ciao Chip Elements: Stars & Hearts; High Five Alphabet Stickers: Gulf; Button Market: Orange Stars; Designer Tapes: Gulf Dot

“Girls Weekend”, by Malika Kelly.

Usually I typically put one or two pictures on a layout, so this sketch had me a little out of my comfort zone! But I love how it turned out and have already printed a bunch more 2x2 photos to try something like this again. I stuck pretty close to the sketch, changing up the title size and the embellishments. I am just so pleased to have a whole weekend's worth of pictures on my one layout. It is a nice quick way to tell a story that doesn't need the time and effort of multiple pages.

Supplies:
Thankful: Turkey Tracks, Homey, Bountiful, Perfect Day, Our Spot, Burlap, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Just Write Journaling Stickers; Ciao Chip Elements: Thankful Icons; Button Market:  Outdoors, Merlot Flowers, Checkers

“Thankful”, by Jaclyn Rench.

As scrapbookers, I'm sure we've all snapped a series of photos that almost perfectly tell a story all on their own. In those instances, it can be a challenge to put together a page on that topic, because inevitably some of those pictures will need to be eliminated in order to fit the memory on a one or two page layout spread. The 2" x 2" photo size from today's sketch is a great solution for that dilemma. The sketch allows for the ability to squeeze lots of pictures on the page, while still leaving room to effectively tell your story through journaling, pretty papers and of course, lots of fun embellishments. For those reasons this Saturday's sketch worked just perfectly for photos of this sweet moment I captured between my husband and daughter. I know this sketch is one I'll be reaching for again and again!

Supplies:
Thankful: Burlap, Our Spot, Homey, Cute Cuts, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Just Write Journaling Stickers, Chipboard Icons; Birthday Girl: Miles of Smiles; High Five Alphabets: Brown-Creme; Ciao Chip Elements: Stars & Hearts; Designer Tapes: Pony Dot; Button Market: Merlot Flowers, Checkers; Flags: Thankful 1

“Mr 6”, by Leanne Allinson.

When creating a layout from a sketch I like to find the elements within it, which will suit my style and smaller size.  For this sketch, I have used only three narrow photos rather than the same number of photos as shown on the sketch image.  Most of the elements have remained the same, such as title and journaling placement.  My journaling however, has been typed directly onto a piece of vellum and placed over a piece of patterned paper. These photos of my son were too adorable not to pair up with the Kiss Me: Mustache Love papers and now I have another layout to add to his series of quirky costume changes!

Supplies:
Kiss Me: Mustache Love, Borders & Cute Cuts, Alpha+Bits Stickers; High Five Alpha Stickers: Brown-Cream, Blue

“Got It”, by Wendy Antenucci.

When I saw the collection of small photographs I immediately thought of a strip of photo booth pictures and since it was my hubby and my 13th anniversary I figured it would be the perfect time to finally get to do that! I flipped the sketch to fit my photo strips that were printed and used the Love Story Cute Cut to start my layout. I used half circles to imitate the buttons and add a splash of color without making my layout too girly.

Supplies:
Kiss Me: Flutter, True Love, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Cute Cuts; Sophisticates: Sprinkles & Lace Surf N Turf, Sprinkles & Lace Oyster; High Five Alpha Stickers: Piggy-Punch; Sienna Chipboard Alphas: Blueberry

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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.