Bella Blvd Studio Blog

Patriotic Week Feature: Canada Day

Happy Canada Day to all of our Canadian friends! With Canada Day and the 4th of July both being celebrated this week, we thought it would be fun to have a patriotic themed week here on the Bella blog. Our design team members have been searching our products in reds, whites, and blues to use on their projects this week. Today, we are going to start with some altered projects perfect for Canada Day.

Canada Day Home Decor, by Jennifer Edwardson.

I've seen so many fabulous mantle projects over the years but have yet to tackle my own … until now! There are several pieces to this collection of red & white for Canada Day and it was so fun to put together. I'm excited to have it out for many July 1st celebrations over the coming years!

I love the dimension a container of wool balls can add to any décor. I painted a plain wooden box white and created some white, red and mixed balls. They needed a little something so I created some cardstock Canada flags from scratch and tucked one into the front.

Using some fun red & white Bella Blvd papers, I made a few different sized paper flowers and added a maple leaf to the center of each. I took a favorite phrase from our national anthem and used different Bella alphas to spell it into the frame.

I wanted to add some height to coordinate with the largest frame, so I added twine, designer tape, buttons and custom flags to a couple of red & white candles – love them!

This frame was fun as I bordered the mat using designer tape and added a few maple leafs cut from Bella paper.

It was hard for me to pick a favorite piece but this one may be it. I am ALWAYS collecting frames (much to my husband's dismay) so I was excited to see that I had the perfect one in my stash for this fun piece. I printed the outline of a map of Canada onto a piece of Sophisticates and precison cut it out. I adhered it to a mat and added it to this great red & white striped frame!

The last frame took the most time to create but i LOVE how it all came together. I used several of the red alphas from different Bella collections mixed with typed computer print matted on cardstock to have our national anthem in full in this frame – this makes me happy :))

Supplies:
Sophisticates: Oyster, Sprinkles & Lace McIntosh, Ciao Chip Simply Simona McIntosh, Pink-Red High Five Alphabets, Quattrofina Peep & Saffron; Finally Fall: Bliss; Tail Waggers & Cat Naps: Puppy Park; Midterm: Cute Cuts; Family Dynamix: Alpha+Bits; Designer Tape: Red Dot; Button Market: Masculine Mix

Canada Day Hat, by Marie-Josée Hamel.

This is a quick and easy project I created for Canada Day. I had my husband buy me a hat at the dollar store, and I altered it with flowers I created with Bella Blvd patterned papers, in red and white. I also used some Family Dynamix letter stickers on a white banner and thin strips of paper that I rolled around a pencil to add a bit of interest to the whole thing. I then used some Terrifically Tacky Tape to adhere all those pieces to the hat. Here's my cute little daughter wearing the hat!

Supplies:
Christmas Wishes: Borders; Making the Team: Quadrants; Tail Waggers & Cat Naps: Puppy Park; Family Dynamix: Alpha+Bits Stickers; Plastic Buttons: Red Flowers; Crochet Flowers: Poppy

Layouts On Wednesdays

“You 3 Color My World”, by Kimberly Neddo.

I thought I would change things up a little with this project, by using black and white photographs with a LOT of color in the background. I love working with the Hexagon shapes, so this was a fun background to create with a ton of different patterned papers. I love how this turned out!

Supplies:
Winter Wonder: Icy, Ski Slopes; Too Cute To Spook: Itsy Bitsy Spider; Spring Flings & Easter Things: Mom's Bouquet, Sunny Sunday; Sunshine & Happiness: Popsicle Kisses, Happy Clouds, Miniatures; Sophisticates: Sprinkles and Lace Punch, Spinkles and Lace Ice; Baby Boy: Momma's Boy; Baby Girl: Pretty in Pink; Crochet Flowers: Daisies, Juniper, Poppy; High Five Alpha Stickers: Black-White; Designer Tape: Teal Stripe, Green Pickle Juice Dot; Button Market: Pink Flowers; Simple Simona Chipboard Alphas: Pickle Juice, Orange, Salt Water

"Best Sis Ever", by Sue Mylde.

Hello Summer! Lara's been waiting to wear this T-Shirt for a long time! She loves the 'Best Sis Ever' sentiment! I took this opportunity to snap and make a page of her in her fave new shirt! After all, she is the Best Sis Ever! Although there are two blocks here on the page - for the title and for the main photos, I repeated the layers of strips under the title to tie the page together. I wanted the theme of the design to reflect the bright summer sun in the photos to achieve a fun, whimsical feel.

Supplies:
Sunshine & Happiness: Popsicle Kisses; Sunny Happy Skies: Cute Cuts, Alpha+Bits, Just Write Journaling Stickers; Hello Beautiful: Thanks A Bunch, Borders N Blocks, Sky's The Limit; Designer Tape: Red Dot; Crochet Flowers: Daisies; Button Market: Aqua Flowers; Flags: Floral

“Summer Sunday”, by Loredana Buccaria.

I love Summer! Relaxing days, sun, beach, sea and friends. After a long year it's time to relax and enjoy the season. I love bright colors , the sunshine, the sound of the waves and the good days with surprise. Like Sunday, when a group of friends came to my city to visit me and we spent a really lovely day smiling, talking a lot, eating yummy food and laughing so much. I wanted to express all this with colors, and the Sunshine & Happiness collection was perfect for this layout. I love those colors they make me so happy and free.

Supplies:
Baby Girl: It's A Girl, Daddy's Girl, Cute Cuts; Sunshine & Happiness: Borders, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Just Write Journaling Stickers, Chipboard Icons; Designer Tape: Yellow Chevron, Pickle Juice Dot; Crochet Flowers: Juniper

“Wasn't Me”, by Julie Johnson.

This is our 1 year old puppy, Diesel. What were we thinking leaving our leather couch outside?  Definitely not too smart and we found this out the hard way. But, it's a great way to get new furniture!! Anyway, I have always loved the colors in the Tail Waggers & Cat Naps collection.  You really don't even need to use it for dog or cat photos, it would be a great collection for all kinds of photos because the paper is so versatile on the prints. Just a few are geared specifically for dog or cat. I love to layer paper, especially with Bella's papers! So for this layout I cut some shapes, layered the papers, and then added a few die cut shapes to add some details. I added my title using the Alpha+Bits stickers and I couldn't resist using the "trouble maker" embellishment from the Chit Chat chipboard. The final touch was a bow made of ribbon and twine with a Bella Flag through it. 

Supplies:
Tail Waggers & Cat Naps: Puppy Park, Treats, Doggy Sweater, Cute Cuts, Paws and Claws, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Just Write Journaling Stickers, Chit Chat chipboard; Flags: Dog

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

Welcome back to day three of our week-long team-up with Core'dinations! We have a group of our Bella designers that have mixing Core'dinations wonderful cardstocks into our projects. And Core'dinations designers have been busy mixing Bella's products into their projects. We have loads of projects to share with you, so let's get started!

"Biker Chicks", by Gretchen McElveen.

I wanted to use a lot of red and black with this picture of me and 2 of my favorite bike-riding friends. I ended up digging a bunch of "Making the Team" and the Alpha + Bits "Family Dynamix" stickers out of my Bella Blvd stash and pairing them up with the red and black sheets from the pack of Jillian Dot Spotted cardstock from Core'dinations to get the look I wanted. I sanded the dotted cardstock to create a fun subtle polka-dotted background. I added the flower from the "Making the Team" Just Write Journaling Stickers to help keep this layout girly even though I used some pretty strong colors!

Supplies:
Making the Team: Volleyball, Borders, Just Write Journaling Stickers, Alpha+Bits Stickers; Family Dynamix: Alpha+Bits Stickers; Simply Simona Chipboard Alphas: Oyster

“Serious Game Face”, by Sheri Feypel.

I started my layout with the Core'dinations Tillie Dot Spotted Cardstock. I lightly sanded the cardstock to make the dots stand out. Then I hit up my stash of scraps to create a colorful background to help my photo stand out. I used the Ciao Chip alpha to make a bold title and overlapped it on my photo to draw attention to the expression on my son's face in the photo. It really is a priceless expression to me. I framed the sides of the photo with stickers and flags as well.

Supplies:
Family Dynamix: Quadrants; Making The Team: Fan Club, Wall Of Fame, Cute Cuts, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Miniature Stickers; Simpy Simona Alphabet Chipboard: McIntosh; Simply Simona Chipboard Numbers: McIntosh; Designer Tapes: Yellow Chevron, Red Dot; High Five Alpha Stickers: Yellow; Flags: Patriotic

“Perfect Puppy”, by Jennifer Edwardson.

I was so excited to finally work with these pictures of Alex and his puppy Oscar. The colors of the 'Tail Waggers and Cat Naps' collection were the prefect match with the new Coredinations 'Spotted' cardstock. I am a total sanding block girl so this cardstock is a BIG favorite of mine. I sanded the top off of the base sheet as well as the brown cardstock too. The colors and patterns coordinated so well that I even added a strip of 'pickle juice dot' designer tape to a strip of cardstock and then used a paw print border punch on it to create a custom border shown above the 'bone' strip. After precison cutting out several of the cute cuts, I added flags, stickers and a button with twine too. I was thrilled with how it all came together.

Supplies:
Tail Waggers & Cat Naps: Borders, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Flags; Button Market: Masculine Mix

"What A Guy" card, by Gail Hoeker.

I used an "oldie but goodie" paper called Man of the House for this card. I only have scraps left but I had it in my head to use this for a Father's Day card for my hubby. I teamed it with Spotted Jillian, sanded it and was very pleased with the results.

Supplies:
Man Of The House: Wide Tie, Bits-A-Bella, Dad's Socks

"Thinking of You" card, by Gretchen McElveen.

I actually made this card with leftovers from my "Biker Chicks" layout. Who knew that the "Family Dynamix" and "Making the Team" lines who go so well together?! And the red and black scraps of the Jillian Dot Spotted cardstock from Core'dinations I had leftover made for the perfect background for this card!

Supplies:
Family Dynamix: Just Write Journaling Stickers; Making the Team: Borders; Button Market: Red Flowers; Sophisticates: Card Sentiments

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Today, we have our first of two giveaways up for grabs! This is our Paper & Sticker giveaway! Just leave us a comment to be entered in the random drawing. We will be announcing our winners next Monday.

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! Keep coming back to both blogs all week long, because we have a ton more projects to share with you.

Cards On Thursdays

With Mother's Day coming up in a few days, I asked a few of our Card Designers to create cards that would be perfect for the occasion.

"Happy Mother's Day" card, by Gretchen McElveen.

I really love how the Bella Blvd products work so well together. On this first card I went with a fun pink, brown, and yellow color scheme using products from 4 different lines! Making stuff sure is fun and easy when all the products coordinate so well!

Supplies:
Sunshine & Happiness: Petal Power; Spring Fling and Easter Things: Miniature Stickers, Chipboard Icons; Baby Girl: Chipboard Icons; Winter Wonder: Toasty; Button Market: Wood Mix

"It's Your Day” card, by Gretchen McElveen.

On this next card I used some of the new Ciao Chip (Family Words and Clouds) with papers from the Sunshine & Happiness and Baby Girl lines. I don't know if I have ever used a pink, purple, and red color scheme like this before...but I think I like how it turned out! Happy Mother's Day to all of you mothers out there!

Supplies:
Sunshine & Happiness: Petal Power, Borders; Baby Girl: Pretty in Pink; Ciao Chip: Clouds, Family Words; Sophisticates: Pink-Red High Five Alphabets

"Best Mom" card, by Laura Vegas.

It might seem a bit odd that I turned to the Tail Waggers & Cat Naps collection when I sat down to make a few Mother's Day cards. A pet collection for Mother's Day cards? Sure, why not! I am very driven by color, when making my paper choices, and I just love the colors and patterns in this collection. The small circles patterned paper has little hearts and paw prints in some of the circles. To cover up the paw prints, I just used a regular hole punch to punch out some of the circles with hearts from a scrap piece of paper, and adhered them over the paw prints using mini pop dots.

Supplies:
Tail Waggers & Cat Naps: Treats, Borders N' Blocks; Simply Simona Chipboard Alphas: Pink; Quattrofina Alpha Stickers: Pink-Red; Designer Tape: Teal Stripe

"Congrats To The Best Mom" card, by Laura Vegas.

I started this card with a few of the pattern papers from the Tail Waggers & Cat Naps collection as well, but mixed in a bit more red and pinks this time. I used a mix of a Ciao Chip "Mom" word, some letter stickers, and a flag, to create my sentiment. I also used a fun cloud border punch along a few strips of patterned papers, and layered them together along the bottom of the card.

Supplies:
Tail Waggers & Cat Naps: Blocks N' Borders, Cute Cuts; Winter Wonder: Blizzard; Sophisticates: Sprinkles & Lace McIntosh; Family Dynamix: Quadrants; Ciao Chip: Family Words; Quattrofina Alpha Stickers: Pink-Red; Flag: Just Married

“Mom, You Make My Days Better” card, by Alice Carman.

Love that this week’s cards are focused on Moms. Now I have 2 cards ready to go for Mother’s Day. Yay! Using some favorite dies, I punched out some flowers and played with some borders. 

Supplies:
High Five Alphabets: Green; Baby Girl: Snuggly Safari, Miniatures; Sunshine & Happiness: Sunny Side Up, Borders

“Mom” card, by Alice Carman.

I think I went die cutting crazy on this card. Just love the different shapes you get and how it alters the look of the paper. Just love this Lovey Dovey line, don’t you?

Supplies:
Lovey Dovey: Alpha+Bits, Love is in the air, Cute Cuts, Borders, Circle of Love; Estate Sale: Hat Box; Designer Tape: Teal Stripe

"Mother's Day" card, by Wendy Wagner.

This card has a lot going on, like most of my scrapbooking! I love pattern, layers, and bling. The flags accent it perfect and are easy to attach to the pop dots under the heart. There is also some inking, glimmer mist and stickles going on. This is for sure a card I would love to get! Enjoy your upcoming Mother's Day :) 

Supplies:
Sunshine & Happiness: Popsicle Kisses, Borders, Juicy Good Time; We're Expecting: Miniatures Stickers; Baby Girl: Alpha+Bits Stickers; Flags: Floral, Spring Flings & Easter Things; Sophisticates: Stars & Hearts Ciao Chip; High Five Alpha Stickers: Blue, Green

"Happy Mother's Day" card, by Wendy Wagner.

This card was super simple but very classy. Three simple circles popped and inked, along with a matching crochet flower. I added the cute little Mothers Day banner and a cute border across the top. All on the simple white makes it a clean, easy to see simple card. Much different from the way I usually scrapbook, but sometimes it’s fun to go outside the lines! Enjoy!

Supplies:
Sophisticates: Sprinkles & Lace Peep, Sprinkles & Lace Banana, Sprinkles & Lace Ice, Ciao Chip Borders; Crochet Flowers: Daisies, Juniper, Dahlia; Spring Flings & Easter Things: Miniatures Stickers

Saturday Sketches

It's time for another round of Saturday Sketch's. Twice a month, we'll be bringing you a new sketch, and showing you a few takes on the sketch by our designers. Today, we have the first sketch for the month of November!

"Gingerbread Fun", by Becky Williams.

This Christmas collection is so much fun and I really like the pop of blue! For my take on the sketch I decided to use four smaller pictures instead of the two larger ones. I used some of the fun stickers and chipboard that go with this collection, too, cutting the "Holiday Favorites" to use as a subtitle for the page and added some red glitter for some extra sparkle on Rudolph's nose. 

Supplies:
Christmas Wishes: Gifts Galore, Candlelight, North Pole, Ciao Chip Icons, Just Write Journaling Stickers, Alpha+Bits; Finally Fall: Alpha+Bits; Sophisticates: Simply Simona Saltwater, Essentials Asparagus and Pickle Juice; Miniatures: Family

"Winter Snow Pals", by Kimberly Neddo.

I love to add dimension to my layouts with pop dots and layering embellishments. I used a couple of stickers for the embellishment on the top left corner of this layout. I also punched a circle with red cardstock to add color pop to it as well. Working with the rule of thirds, I used the red accents to draw the viewers eye around the layout with ease. I love working with sketches, it make everything go together smoothly with out a lot of design planning of my own.

Supplies:
Winter Wonder: Patterned Paper-Borders and Blizzard; Miniatures; Alpha and Bits

"Pics At The Patch: The Outtakes", by Brook Stewart.

Getting a good picture of both my boys together these days can be pretty tricky. Half the time, it doesn't happen at all. But that's okay by me. The non-perfect pictures totally show off their personalities and are my favorites by far, most of the time! My little Miles was having way too much fun at the pumpkin patch to sit still for pictures. He would run off the other way, sit backwards when he would finally sit, or show off his pumpkin stem to big brother. By the time I finally got him to sit, my oldest was tired and annoyed from sitting. So that was the picture I got. All those outtakes tell the story and I love that! Bella's Finally Fall line was the perfect compliment to my pictures and for helping me tell this story!

Supplies:
Finally Fall: Borders, Quadrants, Bliss, At the Patch, Cute Cuts, Just Write Sticker Sheet, Miniatures, Icons Chipboard Stickers; Sophisticates: Salt Water & Pacific alpha stickers

"Play", by Sue Mylde.

This layout just shows how 'boyish' layouts, can be fun too! The faux ribbon edges are cut out of the strips from various patterned papers from the 'Making The Team' and 'Mr. Boy' Lines - my absolute favorites so far, for creating layouts for Lucas. I love the Saturday Sketch this week, but I also wanted to take up a bigger challenge of transforming the layout on a 2-pager. I like how this turned out because I was able to incorporate even more photos on the page than on a 1-pager! Fab! The sentiment stickers were cut out of the big piece and placed in different places - rule of three's. I used some subtle misting here on the page and love how it turned out on the page! 

Supplies:
Making The Team: Football, Cute Cuts, Borders, Just Write Journaling Stickers, Alpha+Bits Stickers; Mr. Boy: Cute Cuts, Connect The Dots, Borders

"U Animal Lover" card, by Alice Carman.

Using the layout sketch, I pulled the squares, photo corners and title from the layout sketch to create my card design. I didn’t use everything I saw from the layout sketch, but used what would work on a smaller scale. The squares act as a back drop, the photo corners gave the squares more defined shape and the title was used as my sentiment. Totally fun!

Supplies:
Tail Waggers & Cat Naps: Cute Cuts, Alpha+Bits, Borders and Blocks, Quadrants, Pampered Pet; All Inclusive: Bookin on the Beach

"Together Is The Place To Be" card, by Gretchen McElveen.

We are not going to see my side of the family on Thanksgiving this year. I pulled out some Finally Fall and took advantage of this cool sketch to make a card to send home saying that we are sorry we can't be there. I think I am going to use the journaling spot on the inside of the card to write, "But we sure are looking forward to Christmas!"

Supplies:
Finally Fall: At the Patch, Bliss, Borders, Cute Cuts, Leaf Pile, Alpha + Bits Stickers, Just Write Journaling Stickers

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 #2

Twice a month, we'll be bringing you a new sketch, and showing you a few takes on the sketch by our designers. We loved seeing some of you create your own layouts, based on last week's sketch. Stephanie and a few of her Local Artistas were at Scrapfest last weekend, and hosted a Crop Around Town. They decided to host a challenge that evening, and asked everyone to create layouts or cards based off last week's sketch. You can check out some photos of some of the works in progress HERE. This week, I have a few of our Local Artistas joining us, for our second sketch.

 

 

"He's My Brother", by Sheri Feypel.

I created this layout with the Tail Waggers and Cat Naps line based on the sketch provided. This was the perfect line for me to document how much my son Logan loves his furry brother Riley. They've grown up together and have a cute bond.

 

 

 

"The Best Gift Of All", by Allyson Meinholz.

I used this sketch, along with the Christmas Wishes collection, to create a layout about one of the best gifts of all. Great Friendship. Since the photos were taken at Christmas, this collection was the natural choice to scrap them. I decided to do a mirror image of the sketch, and just flip everything to the opposite side of the page.

 

 

 

"Sweet & Sassy", by Wendy Wagner.

I used the sketch exactly as it was shown. Usually when I look at a sketch I can pick photos out easily to work with it. In this layout I trimmed 5x7 photos to adapt to the 4x6 openings. They are not true 4x6's, but are close enough! I personally love sketches because it takes away half the work of preparing a layout! Thanks for the challenge :)

 

 

Remember, we'd love to see your takes on our sketch, if you try it out. You can link it here in the comment section, or share it on Bella's Facebook page.