Bella Blvd Studio Blog

Wedding Celebration Week: Day Five

Tomorrow is the big day for Stephanie and Steven, as their wedding day finally arrives! We hope she has enjoyed getting a peek at the design team's own wedding photos as we have all shared our layouts this week. We also hope you've enjoyed seeing us put the new Love and Marriage collection to work, along with some of Bella's other amazing products. We have a few layouts left to share with you today, all from the local designers, all of which are lucky enough to be attending Stephanie's wedding!

“Happily Ever After”, by Sheri Feypel.

I don't know if I am qualified to give marital advice, but here goes. Communicate, Compromise, Nurture, Laugh, Cry. Marriage is always a work in progress, so to speak. 

Supplies:  
Love and Marriage: Cute Cuts, Borders, Smokeys In Love, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Miniatures The Wedding Party, Miniatures Wedding Day; Engaged At Last: Alpha+Bits Stickers; Feathers: White; Crochet Heart: White

 

“Autumn Love”, by Allyson Meinholtz.

A few tips to a happy marriage: Never go to bed angry. Say "I love you" everyday. Communication is key. Never leave without saying good-bye. Patience. Always make time for one another - date night!

Supplies:
Thankful: Bountiful, Our Spot, Turkey Tracks, Borders, Cute Cuts, Alpha+Bits Stickers; Love and Marriage: Smokeys In Love; Finally Fall: Leaf Pile; Sienna Chipboard Alphas: Pony; Carla Alpha Stickers: Mudpie; High Five Alpha Stickers: Brown-Cream; Blooms A Bella: Sole; Baby Blooms: Saffron; Button Market: Checkers

“Until GOD Opens The Next Door”, by Wendy Wagner.

Stephanie....I can't wait to see the layouts you create from your wedding day. I know they will be beautiful. Always make time for each other, laugh together and play together. Finding time alone every day is so important, even if it’s for 15 minutes! God's blessings to both you and Steve! I love you! Xoxo

Supplies:
Love and Marriage: Cake Tasting, Smokeys in Love, Cute Cuts, Turner Hall Ballroom, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Chipboard Icons; Engaged At Last: Chipboard Icons; Sienna Chipboard Alphas: Pony; High Five Alpha Stickers: Black-White, Blue, Gulf; Quattrofina Alpha Stickers: Salt Water & Pacific; Crochet Hearts: Scallop

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Stephanie and Steven - We hope you have an absolutely amazing wedding day, spend surrounded by family and friends, and filled with love and laughter!

Bella Blvd & Epiphany Crafts Team Up Week: Day Four

Welcome back. Bella Blvd is teaming up with Epiphany Crafts for a week full of inspiration. We have a group of our Bella designers that have mixed Epiphany Crafts fun punches, epoxy shapes, and charms into our projects. And the Epiphany Crafts designers have been busy mixing Bella's collections and embellishments into their projects. We have loads of projects to share with you, and watch for a giveaway at the end of the week as well. 

“You've Made Our Lives So Very Pink”, by Jaclyn Rench.

I've been wanting to try out the ever popular ombre trend that's been popping up in all sorts of design mediums for some time now. The Epiphany shape oval tool allowed me to highlight many bits and pieces of pink, from some of my favorite Bella patterned papers, to successfully accomplish this look. After punching and piecing the ovals into an ombre design, I used the oval bubble caps to turn some of those simple patterned paper pieces into fun and dimensional accents. The Oval Metal Charm helped me to highlight a favorite sticker phrase, from the Kiss Me collection, and make it a focal point on my page.

Supplies:
Kiss Me: Bouquet Kisses, Flutter; Birthday Girl: Dancing Queen, Cute Cuts, Celebrate; Sophisticates: Sprinkles & Lace Punch, Tall Tags; High Five Alpha Stickers: Pink-Red, Piggy-Punch; Button Market: Fruit Punch, Pink Flowers, Hot Pink Flowers

“Love U” card, by Jaclyn Rench.

I pieced my favorite border strip, from the Kiss Me collection Border & Cute Cuts paper, along the outer edges of this card front, to mimic the look of a full sheet of patterned paper. A simple white embossed cardstock piece covers up the empty space that is left behind from the thin border strips and creates a great backdrop for embellishment. I have been hanging onto this Bella chevron chipboard heart for just the right project. I love it on this card, topped off with the Epiphany Bubble Capped Oval and coordinating 'Kiss Me' sentiment.

Supplies:
Kiss Me: Borders & Cute Cuts; Ciao Chip Elements: Stars & Hearts

“Home” card, by Jaclyn Rench.

The Epiphany Oval Shape Tool, Caps and Metal Charm proved to be the perfect size to house and show off this sweet little home image from the Thankful collection. Turning this sweet sticker into a custom charm, makes it the focus of the card and in addition, pairs so nicely alongside the Bella sentiment sticker.

Supplies:
Thankful: Our Spot, Borders, Burlap, Just Write Journaling Stickers, Alpha+Bits Stickers

“Love Notes”, by Becki Adams.

The first thing I thought of when I got my Epiphany goodies out of the box was the idea of attaching the silver pieces to tiny clothes pins to make a cute banner. I loved how it came together and added some additional shine and dimension to my project. I wanted a fun pink girly layout for the photo of my daughter and me. My little girl is always leaving little notes around the house for me. Most of them say "I love you." I wanted to add one of these notes to my project.

Supplies:
Kiss Me: Love Notes, True Love, Bouquet Kisses, Borders & Cute Cuts, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Just Write Stickers; Button Market: Blues, Fruit Punch; Designer Tapes: Punch Chevron, Gulf Dot, Piggy Pink Stripe; Baby Girl: Miniatures Stickers; Sienna Chipboard Alphas: Punch 

“Happy Birthday” card, by Becki Adams.

I love how the Epiphany Bubble Caps make the tiniest bit of patterned paper just pop off the page. My daughter recently had a birthday. She's turned 8, I wanted to create a fun, happy, bubbly card for her birthday. I turned to the Kiss Me Collection for some bright, happy, girly papers. I cut out several dots from the True Love paper and embellished it with some of the Bubble Caps. My little girls loved her card!

Supplies:
Kiss Me: True Love, Flutter, Borders & Cute Cuts, Flutter; Sophisticates: Piggy-Punch Letter Stickers

“Celebrate In Style” card, by Becki Adams.

I wanted to create a card that was a little more sophisticated and include the silver frames for the Bubble Caps. I decided to used them as charms hanging from a bow. I backed the frames with a white doily for some added texture. I kept this card simple so that the focus would be on the silver frames.

Supplies:
Birthday Girl: Pretty As A Present, Sugar Rush, Borders, Alpha+Bits Stickers; Designer Tape: Punch Chevron

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Now, head on over to the Epiphany Crafts blog and check out what their Design Team has created using their fun punches and accessories and our fun Bella products! You can also follow them on the Epiphany Crafts Facebook page. Keep coming back to both blogs all week long, because we have a ton more projects to share with you. And there might just be some giveaways too!

Bella Blvd & Epiphany Crafts Team Up Week: Day Three

Welcome back to day three of our big week. Bella Blvd is teaming up with Epiphany Crafts for a week full of inspiration. We have a group of our Bella designers that have mixed Epiphany Crafts fun punches, epoxy shapes, and charms into our projects. And the Epiphany Crafts designers have been busy mixing Bella's collections and embellishments into their projects. We have loads of projects to share with you, and watch for a giveaway at the end of the week as well. 

”Beautiful Roses”, by Carina Lindholm.

To make the background for this layout, I used strips of a few different papers and  designer tapes. Mixing paper and tapes is a fun way to make unique backgrounds. To decorate my page I used a few of Bella’s cute buttons and the Shape Studio Tool Flower and Bubble Caps Flower. I punched out flowers in different colors and added the bubble caps from Epiphany crafts. It’s a very fun way to make your own embellishments.

Supplies:
Kiss Me: Flutter, True love; Sophisticates: Sprinkles & Lace Oyster, Miniatures Card Sentiments; Simply Simona Chipboard Alphas: Saltwater; High Five Alpha Stickers: Gulf; Designer Tape: Pony Dot, Pickle Juice Dot; Button Market: Checkers, Pink Flowers

“Party” card, by Carina Lindholm.

To make this colourful party-card I mixed and matched papers and elements from different Bella blvd collections. I adhered the large party chipboard letters at the top of the card and decorated the bottom half with flowers that I made using the flower punch and bubble caps from Epiphany crafts.

Supplies:
Spring Flings & Easter Things: Mom’s Bouquet; Birthday Girl: Miles Of Smiles, Alpha+Bits Stickers; Birthday Boy: Chipboard Icons; Designer Tape: Orange Stripe

“Happy Birthday” card, by Carina Lindholm.

I build a small landscape on this card using the Epiphany flower punch and flower bubble caps. I punched out flowers in different papers and adhered them to the cloud paper using pop dots. I cut out stems for the flowers in green cardstock and made quilled leafs using the same cardstock. I die cut some grass in green paper and then adhered it all in a polaroid shape. And to finish the card off I decorated it with Bella’s orange tape, buttons and letter stickers.

Supplies:
Birthday Boy: Toadilly Cool, Just A Note, Eat Cake, About A Boy, Borders, Alpha+Bits Stickers; Thankful: Borders, Burlap; High Five Alpha Stickers: Gulf; Designers Tape: Orange Stripe; Button Market: Outdoor

"Love you to the Stars and Back", by Becky Williams.

For this project I made use of my die cutting machine and cut some stars into the background and used Bella Blvd patterned paper and Designer Tapes to fill in the negative space. These coordinated perfectly with the smaller star shape from Epiphany Crafts. 

Supplies: 
Baby Boy: On the Go, Momma's Boy, Baby Blue; Birthday Boy: Borders; Kiss Me: Alpha+Bits Stickers, Just Write Journaling Stickers; Sunshine & Happiness: Borders; Designer Tape: Gulf Dot, Yellow Chevron, Hot Pink Dot, Pink Flowers; Sienna Chipboard Alphabet: Ice

"Smile" card, by Becky Williams.

I used the leftover cardstock stars from my layout for this card. First I made a background by using a mix of Designer Tapes and then added the cardstock stars and stars made using my Epiphany Crafts star punch. I finished it off with a diecut sentiment. 

Supplies:
Designer Tape: Hot Pink Dot, Pickle Juice Stripe, Yellow Chevron, Teal Stripe, Pink Flowers, Orange Stripe, Pickle Juice Dot, Piggy Pink Stripe, Gulf Dot

"Happy Birthday" card, by Becky Williams.

I have four daughters and as such hadn't used stars on my projects as much as you might use them if you had boys. Just as we use flowers a lot on girl-themed pages I think that stars are used a lot on "boy" projects. I backed the Epiphany Crafts stars with a mix of patterned papers and added them to this quick and easy card. 

Supplies: 
Birthday Boy: Borders, Cute Cuts; Baby Boy: Baby Blue; Designer Tape: Ice Stripe, Pony Dot, Yellow Chevron

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Now, head on over to the Epiphany Crafts blog and check out what their Design Team has created using their fun punches and accessories and our fun Bella products! You can also follow them on the Epiphany Crafts Facebook page. Keep coming back to both blogs all week long, because we have a ton more projects to share with you. And there might just be some giveaways too!

Layouts On Wednesdays

It's time once again for another round of free-for-all layouts from our layout designers. I love that we're still seeing lots of Christmas and holiday themed layouts. I think what I love about them the most is how creative our designers get when making their product choices, pulling from such a wide variety of collections to put together a fun mix of papers and accents to make gorgeous pages.

“Gingerbread House”, by Diane Payne.

Purchasing a gingerbread house kit was the best $20 I have ever spent. The entire family, including grandparents, spent an entire evening putting it together. It was a fun memorable evening for everyone. I used a mix of collections to create the unique color combo. The wood buttons are beautiful natural, but did you know you can spray them with mist to coordinate with the colors of your layout? I sprayed the Snowflake button with a pink metallic mist to customize it to the colors of my layout.

Supplies:
Winter Wishes: Blizzard, Borders, Cute Cuts; Sunshine & Happiness: Popsicle Kisses; Spring Flings & Easter Things: Sunny Sunday; Baby Girl: Daddy's Girl; Simply Simona Chipboard Alphas: Peeps; Ciao Chip Everyday Elements: Trees; Button Market: Snowflakes, Fruit Punch

“Love 2 Trim The Tree”, by Sheri Reguly.

I love to mix and match papers and embellishments! When creating this holiday layout, I realized that I had very minimal Christmas themed product on hand, so I had to get creative. By adding stars, sequins and snowflakes, and incorporating a Christmas sticker within the large circles of the “True Love” patterned paper from the “Kiss Me” collection, I was able to make everyday papers appear to be more festive.

Supplies:
Kiss Me: True Love; Sophisticates: Sprinkles & Lace Ice; Winter Wonder: Borders; Christmas Wishes: Miniatures Stickers; High Five Alpha Stickers: Gulf; Designer Tape: Pickle Juice

“Our Little Reindog”, by Malika Kelly.

I had taken these silly pictures of our dog and wanted to make a layout about how patient she is with us and all that we do to her. I used a bunch of fun, bright papers to capture the playful feel of the pictures. Using my cameo, I cut out some reindeer and snowflakes to give it a Christmassy twist. I love how Bella Blvd's papers are so versatile. These papers came from a couple different collections, but not one of them was specifically Christmas themed. Have you ever made a Christmas project with non Christmas themed paper? I'd love to see your layouts!

Supplies:
Birthday Girl: Party Dress, Celebrate; Kiss Me: Mustache Love, Flutter; All Inclusive: Bookin' On the Beach; Sophisticates: Short Stories; Sienna Chipboard Alphas: Pony; High Five Alpha Stickers: Green; Ciao Chip Elements: Family Words, Borders; Designer Tape: Pickle Juice Chevron, Piggy Pink Stripe; Button Market: Masculine Mix

"Christmas", by Jenny Evans.

I love scrapping Christmas!! I went off of my photo and pulled out some navy, turquoise and pink (from the kids' pajamas). I then proceeded to grab every other color I could find! I think mixing in a small bit of the traditional red and green from the Christmas Wishes collection makes any color combination look fabulous for Christmas!

Supplies:
Christmas Wishes: Quadrants, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Miniatures Stickers, Chipboard Icons; Birthday Boy: Streamers; Kiss Me: Flutter; Sophisticates: Sprinkles & Lace Surf N Turf; High Five Alpha Stickers: Blue; Ciao Chip Elements: Stars & Hearts, Borders; Designer Tape: Orange Stripe

“Nana's Pumpkins”, by Allyson Meinholz.

These photos were taken in 2011 at the pumpkin farm of my mom and her 4 grand-daughters. Fall is my favorite time of year, so this collection is one of my favorites. I kept the layout pretty simple to let the photos stand out.

Supplies:
Thankful: Our Spot, Bountiful, Cute Cuts, Just Write Journaling Stickers, Alpha+Bit Stickers; Button Market: Wood Mix

On-Going Guest Designers: Brook Stewart, Juliana Michaels, and Ebony van der Starre

When we were choosing our 2012-2013 Design Team back in September, we had a few additional designers that we just weren't ready to pass up. So just like last year, we decided to invite these designers to join our team this year as On-Going Guest Designers. They will be sharing projects with us every other month, and we are excited to share their work with you. Today, we are the talents of Brook Stewart, Juliana Michaels, and Ebony van der Starre.

Brook Stewart

“A Letter From Santa”, by Brook Stewart.

Christmas is one of my favorite times of the year. There's so much magic in the air when you have little kids. One of our favorite traditions is of course our Elf on the Shelf. This is his second year in our home and the boys had done really good about not touching him until this year, Two year old = lots of trouble! On our elf's 3rd day, my little guy decided to knock him down off the curtain rod with his foam sword. I heard a blood curdling scream come from the living room and I just knew someone was hurt! I ran in as fast as I could. As I rounded the corner, little Miles had a hold of Kindle (our elf) saying "If you touch him, he'll lose his magic!" as big brother was in absolute tears because he was the one holding him. I had to take a breath and thank goodness that no one was actually hurt. Needless to say, Santa had a letter waiting with Kindle the next morning that gave the kids permission to touch him without losing his magic. Their faces were priceless and everyone was happy and Kindle is WELL loved! I wanted to get this story documented and of course, the Christmas Wishes line did the trick! Amazing colors, amazing prints. I just love it!

Supplies:
Christmas Wishes: North Pole, Candlelight, Quadrants, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Just Write Journaling Stickers, Miniatures Stickers, Chipboard Icons; Family Dynamics: Quadrants; Designer Tape: Pickle Juice Chevron; High Five Alphabets: Brown-Cream, Pink-Red; Simply Simona Chipboard Alphas: Saltwater

“Little Sister Love”, by Brook Stewart.

I love love LOVE this picture of my 3 kiddos. It's one I have in a feame on a shelf. These boys just adore their little sister! I am a bit obsessed with this new Kiss Me line, as the colors are so fresh and pretty and love-able! They complimented the mood of my photo just perfectly!

Supplies:
Kiss Me: Flutter, True Love, Borders & Cute Cuts, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Just Write Journaling Stickers; High Five Alphabets: Gulf, Brown-Cream; Sienna Chipboard Alphas: Punch; Designer Tape: Pony Dot

Juliana Michaels

“Let It Snow”, by Juliana Michaels.

For this layout, I was inspired to create my background by the snow that was falling when we took this photo. I used my Silhouette Cameo to cut out snowflakes from white cardstock. I then used the negative piece for the background. I backed each snowflake with various shades and patterns of blue paper. I added the orange to give it a punch of color. Orange thread is tied in French knots along the border sticker and then used to tie the Star buttons in place.

Supplies:
Sunny Happy Skies: Pandaland; Sophisticates: Sprinkles & Lace Surf N Turf, Sprinkles & Lace Ice; Thankful: Perfect Day, Borders; Tail Waggers & Cat Naps: Alpha+Bits Stickers; Birthday Boy: About A Boy; High Five Alpha Stickers: Blue; Button Market: Stars

“Love You More”, by Juliana Michaels.

I love this photo of my husband and the look he is giving me as I took this photo. When I saw the "I Love You" word bubble sticker I knew that I wanted to scrap the daily conversation we have about which one of us loves the other one more. Of course, I always win! I used stickers, chipboard and borders to help tell the story. To create the background piece behind the photo, I punched circles from the Kiss Me True Love patterned paper. This allowed me to place the patterned circles where I wanted them and to save the rest of the paper for future projects. To create the heart punched border strips, I adhered the Punched Chevron Designer Tape to white cardstock before punching the border.

Supplies:
Kiss Me: Borders & Cute Cuts, Mustache Love, Flutter, True Love, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Just Write Stickers; High Five Alpha Stickers: Blue; Ciao Chip Elements: Stars & Hearts; Designer Tapes: Punch Chevron

Ebony van der Starre

“Love”, by Ebony van der Starre.

It’s sad but true but I rarely scrap photos of myself or of my husband and I! So when I saw the Kiss Me collection, I just knew I wanted to scrap this photo I took on my phone!

Supplies: 
Kiss Me: Bouquet Kisses, Mustache Love, True Love, Borders & Cute Cuts, Alpha+Bits Stickers; Sophisticates: Calendars, Sprinkles & Lace Chlorine; Birthday Girl: Alpha+Bits Stickers; Estate Sale: Alpha+Bits Stickers; Lovey Dovey: Alpha+Bits Stickers; Simply Simona Chipboard Alphas: Saltwater; Ciao Chip Elements: Borders; Designer Tape: Yellow Chevron

“Side By Side”, by Ebony van der Starre.

In this layout I have chosen to leave a lot of white space and use a variety of elements from various ranges. I just love these photos of my children on a holiday recently and wanted to use bright and fun colors!

Supplies:  
Hello Beautiful: Borders N’ Blocks; Birthday Girl: Miles Of Smiles, Alpha+Bits; Kiss Me: Bouquet Kisses, Borders & Cute Cuts; Tail Waggers & Cat Naps: Alpha+Bits; High Five Alpha Stickers: Yellow, Piggy Punch, Blue; Ciao Chip Elements: Stars and Hearts

Altered Project Shares

You are all in for a treat today! Our Altered Project designers have been busy, creating up a variety of different Christmas and winter themed projects to share with you today.

Altered Christmas Canvas, by Wendy Antenucci.

I was looking for a large piece of Christmas art to put on my mantle so I decided to make one. I've taken a few of Christy Tomlinson's online classes, so I used a few of her tricks to prepare my canvas.

I first stamped a music background on tissue paper using Staz-on ink and then applied that to my 12x12 canvas. I used various mists, paints, masks, rub-ons and glitter to further added touches to my background.

I then layered strips of papers on my canvas to form a tree. A few Christmas words, presents and of course a train for my little boy added those special touches to my canvas. Other than a strip of Christmas Tree paper everything was made from everyday supplies and yet they became a wonderful Christmas piece of art.

Supplies:
Birthday Girl: Party Dress, Miles of Smiles; Thankful: Perfect Day; Sophisticates: Sprinkles & Lace Asparagus; Winter Wonder: Toasty, Icy; Christmas Wishes: Trees for Sale; Finally Fall: Bliss; High Five Alpha Stickers: Pink-Red, Green, Brown-Cream; Ciao Chip Everyday Elements: Stars & Hearts, Borders

Christmas Tree, by Wendy Antenucci.

I've made these trees before and while they are really quite easy, the impact when they are done is wonderful! I cut strips of 1"x6" paper which I folded in half and stapled at the top. Taking a cone, start from the bottom and hot glue the strips on your tree, alternating as you go up the tree. This time I chose to cover a chipboard star with some paper and tie twine through the button holes. I added different buttons scattered throughout the tree for a finishing touch.

Supplies: 
Sophisticates: Sprinkles & Lace Asparagus; Birthday Girl: Party Dress, Miles of Smiles; Sunshine & Happiness: Petal Power; Button Market: Stars, Merlot Flowers, Fruit Punch, Outdoors

Pine Cone Ornament, by Wendy Antenucci.

These ornaments are made from a Styrofoam egg and a heart punch - and yet combined the effect is amazing! I like to use a 1" heart punch (or die-cut machine) and you need about 1.5 pieces of paper to finish the project. Once you have cut all of your hearts, I like to fold them in a mountain, valley, mountain pattern to make them easier to cluster together. Start at the bottom of the egg and roll one of the hearts push this firmly into the tip of the egg. From that point you will hot glue your hearts around the egg shape, taking care to alternate each row, the hearts will face to the rolled piece. The perfect last minute touch is to add either a flower or large bow at the top with a hanger for your ornament and then I used Stickles (icicle) to highlight each piece of the pine cone.

Supplies:
Thankful: Burlap

Christmas Wreath, by Shellye McDaniel.

While shopping at my local scrapbook store this week I ran across these cute acrylic trees! I first envisioned a banner made with the trio, but after assembling I thought they would look so sweet attached to a straw wreath.

I started by tracing the tree pattern onto the "North Pole" paper, cutting out and then machine-stitching to the acrylic sheet. Next, I made triangular insets from pieces of the "Christmas Love" and "Candlelight" papers and then edged them in a red ric-rac trim before attaching to the tree shapes. Layering a circle with scalloped circles made the perfect background for the chipboard letters spelling out JOY.

Wanting to personalize the wreath, I made a banner using the Designer Tape, baker's twine and alpha stickers. I added the banner to the trees using Glue Dots. I love that the dimension really makes it look as though it's hanging! 

Finally, after attaching the three trees together (also with Glue Dots), I secured it to the straw wreath with a thin gauged wire. A large gingham bow completed the top. It looks so merry and bright hanging on our front door!

Supplies:
Christmas Wishes: Christmas Love, North Pole, Candlelight, Chipboard Icons; Designer Tape: Pickle Juice Chevron, Orange Stripe, Piggy Piggy Stripe; Button Market: Tie Dye; Ciao Chip Elements: Stars & Hearts; Simply Simona Chipboard Alphas: Saltwater; High Five Alpha Stickers: Piggy Punch

Winter Themed Candy Jar, by Sheri Feypel.

I picked up these glass jars to house my overflowing collection of buttons and quickly realized that they would be very easy to alter. So, now I need to find more for my buttons. Instead of wrapping one piece of paper around the jar, I chose to cut them into strips. It worked out much better as I didn't have to worry about the seams matching up. Yay me! On this one I attached a large snowflake ornament that I altered with Winter Wonder. I cut small strips of paper and folded them in half, arranged them in a circle on top of the snowflake. I then topped them off with a cute sticker from the Alpha+Bits Stickers. I attached it to the jar with on glue dot and then secured it with twine. I wanted the receiver to be able to enjoy the treat contained in the jar and have a removable ornament.

Supplies:
Winter Wonder: Blizzard, Borders, Slopes, Cute Cuts, Miniatures, Alpha+Bits Stickers; Button Market: Hot Pink Flowers

Christmas Themed Candy Jar, by Sheri Feypel.

For this one I used the Christmas Wishes line. I kept it pretty simple using only one pattern for the body of the jar. I cut each strip and put them on in the order that I cut them to keep a nice flow. I then added the tree from the Chipboard Icons, topped it off with a few Miniature stickers. I also added a sticker to the little glitter ornament, I brought it all together with twine, wrapped around several times and finished up with a bow.

*Tip, when I add the miniature stickers to projects like this, I put a little bit of baby powder on the back to remove the sticky. This way the stickers are not all unruly getting stuck everywhere.

Supplies:
Christmas Wishes: Trees For Sale, Chipboard Icons, Miniatures

Accordian Card, by Sheri Feypel.

My first idea was to make a set of miniature gift cards, I had a few pieces of 3x6 cardstock scraps. I decided to attach them all together to make an accordian. So my card idea quickly tuned into a card/decor idea, two gifts in one! I started with a cardstock base and covered each square with a different pattern. I arranged my letters where I wanted them to be on each square. I then added all sorts of embellishments; flags, stickers, snowflakes. Once that was all done, I glued down my letters.

For the cover I went pretty simple because all of the fun was inside! I wrapped the closed accordian with twine and added a Miniature tag. The twine and embellishment can be easily slipped off the card for the receiver to open.

Supplies:
Christmas Wishes: North Pole, Candlelight, Gifts Galore, Cute Cuts, Borders, Quadrants, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Miniature Stickers; Button Market: Outdoors, Red Flowers; Sienna Chipboard Alphas: Punch

Tuesday Inspiration: Christmas Style

This week we are keeping with many of our usual daily features, but putting the focus on Christmas projects! Inspiration is all around us, and can be interpreted in so many different ways. We have chosen one image, and asked a handful of our designers to create a layout based on the inspiration piece. It's always fun to see what part of a piece a designers finds inspiring, and how they translate that into their designs. 

{Photo credit: BHG}

“Tracking Santa Online”, by Malika Kelly.

I loved both the pine cones and the colors in this inspiration image. I immediately went to my cameo and found a pine cone shape that I liked and cut out a bunch in two different sizes. The papers that I chose for this layout matched perfectly with the colors in the image, but were not from a Christmas line. I love when patterned paper does not have to be used for only one theme and Bella Blvd does a great job at making versatile papers. The tall glass jar also inspired me to cut long strips of patterned paper to use in my background. I matted my photos on small doilies to make my layout more elegant like the pretty inspiration photo.  

Supplies:
Thankful: Bountiful, Cute Cuts, Our Spot, Burlap, Chipboard Icons; Sophisticates: Family Miniatures; Sprinkles & Lace: Oyster; High Five Alpha Stickers: Black-White; Ciao Chip Everyday Elements: Borders, Chip Essentials; Designer Tape: Pickle Juice Chevron; Button Market: Checkers, Masculine Mix, Outdoors ; Flags: Just Married

“Peace & Joy”, by Sheri Reguly.

The inspiration piece inspired me in a couple of different ways. The glitter covered pine cones immediately caught my attention, and reminded me of a holiday photo that I took of my daughter several years back. In the photo, she was holding a pine cone and dressed up in her holiday best. This sweet photo became the initial starting point for my layout. I also loved the classic red, gold and greens within the inspiration image. I had full intentions of staying within that combination, until I decided to see what a little hint of pink would look like included in the mixture. I loved how it softened the look, making it perfectly fitting for a little girl’s holiday page.

"Don't Open Until Christmas" card, by Sheri Reguly.

Supplies:
Kiss Me: Mustache Love; Birthday Girl: Party Dress; Thankful: Alpha+Bits Stickers; Winter Wonder: Borders; Christmas Wishes: Candlelight, Star Stripe, Miniatures Stickers; High Five Alpha Stickers: Piggy-Punch, Pink-Red; Button Market: Stars

“It's Our Tradition”, by Jaclyn Rench.

So many elements from the inspiration image inspired me while putting together my layout. Most notably, of course, is the similarity in color scheme.  I rummaged through my stash of Bella pulling items that were primarily green, brown and red, later adding in touches of sparkle and glitter. The shiny, round Christmas bulbs encouraged me to incorporate a circular design element onto the page, which in turn, provided a great spot to highlight many of the page embellishments. The Designer Tape 'fringe' I created along the right edge of the page, was my attempt at referencing the texture and dimension of the pretty pine cones. I should also note, that while the Christmas Wishes line tops my list of Bella favorites, there is not one stitch of it on this page. That just goes to show you, that you don't always have to turn to holiday themed products to create a very holiday look and feel to your page!

Supplies:
Thankful: Burlap, Bountiful; Birthday Girl, Party Dress; Sophisticates: Petite Pieces, Tall Tags; Green High Five Alphabets, Brown-Cream High Five Alphabets; Ciao Chip: Trees, Stars & Hearts; Designer Tapes: Pony Dot; Button Market: Red Flowers, Stars, Checkers, Blues; Stick Pin Flags, Home Sweet Home; Miniatures Stickers, Family

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We hope you will take some creative time for yourself, and try out our inspiration image! 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. 

Bella Blvd & Basically Bare Team Up Week: Jenny Evans

Welcome to day five of our week long Team-Up with Basically Bare! We have a group of our Bella designers that have mixed Basically Bare's gorgeous mini albums and embellishments into our projects. And the Basically Bare designers have been busy mixing Bella's products into their projects. Let's see what our designers have whipped up for us today. And remember to check back in the afternoon, as we have our last mini album share. And there might even be a GIVEAWAY ;)

"Patch Memories 2012" mini albums, by Jenny Evans.

This mini album is photos from our family trip to the Pumpkin Patch/Corn Maze. It was our first time going and I wanted to document it in a special way. The Thankful collection was perfect for it, with some other Bella products thrown in! The Basically Bare album is wonderful to work with! I loved the different type and styles of the pages, perfect for a fall themed mini. I added in some extra pages using the film strips and camera chipboard pieces. I love how this turned out, and so happy to have it to look back on!

Supplies:
Thankful: Perfect Days, Turkey Tracks, Homey, Bountiful, Our Spot, Borders, Cute Cuts, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Just Write Journaling Stickers, Chipboard Icons; Sophisticates: Spinkles & Lace Apricot, Chipboard Essentials Apricot & Bananas, Chipboard Essentials Asparagus & Pickle Juice; Family Tree: Leaves of Ancestry; Finally Fall: Miniature Stickers; High Five Alpha Stickers: Green, Blue, Yellow, Brown-Cream; Ciao Chip Everyday Elements: Clouds, Stars & Hearts, Family Words; Designer Tape: Piggy Pink Stripe, Pickle Juice Chevron, Teal Stripe, Pickle Juice Dot, Pony Dot; Button Market: Checkers, Masculine Mix, Outdoor, Merlot Flowers; Flags: Thankful 2

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Now, head on over to the Basically Bare blog and check out what their Design Team has created using their gorgeous mini albums and embellishments, and our fun Bella products!  

We want to say a special thank you to Basically Bare, including all of the participating designers and the plethora of product that was sent our way from Basically Bare’s studios. It's such a pleasure to work together in this industry to create excitement about all of our products. We hope you enjoyed this week full of inspiration!

Bella Blvd & Basically Bare Team Up Week: Leanne Allinson

Welcome to day three of our week long Team-Up with Basically Bare! We have a group of our Bella designers that have mixed Basically Bare's gorgeous mini albums and embellishments into our projects. And the Basically Bare designers have been busy mixing Bella's products into their projects. Let's see what our designers have whipped up for us today. And remember to check back in the afternoon, as we are doing TWO posts every day this week!

"Home Away From Home" mini album, by Leanne Allinson.

I decided to create a mini on some of our favorite camping spots. We like to get away as often as possible and are so very fortunate to have many beautiful places to camp at, that are also within an easy drive for us. Some of these places have actually started to feel like a "Home away from Home".

The first few pages in this mini are half the size of the album. Some of them are full page 4x4 inch Instagram photos and represent the things we always do while camping … set up the camp site, ride bikes, swim and go on bush walks. I love that this is a great introduction to the main mini album concept.

The Basically Bare mini album I used came with envelopes. I have used these pages to hold extra journaling about how we spend our time at specific camp grounds. I have also stored the contact details and other relevant information in here too.

The great thing about this project is that I can easily add more pages and envelopes to it as we travel and experience additional camping adventures with our children. And I know I can add a wish list of the places we'd like to visit at the very back of the album. This way we might actually start checking the boxes and crossing things off our list. What a nice concept!! Thanks for visiting.

Supplies: 
Thankful: Perfect Day, Borders, Burlap, Homey, Turkey Tracks, Cute Cuts, Bountiful, Alpha+Bits Stickers; Finally Fall: Quadrants, Just Write Journaling Stickers, Minatures, Alphas+Bits Stickers; Sophisticates: Tall Tags; High Five Alpha Stickers: Brown-Cream; Ciao Chip Elements: Clouds, Trees; Birthday Boy: Alpha+Bits Stickers; Mr Boy: Alpha+Bits Stickers, Ciao Chip; Making The Team: Borders; Crochet Flowers: Juniper; Designer Tape: Pony Dot, Pickle Juice Chevron, Gulf Dot; Flags: Thankful 2

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Now, head on over to the Basically Bare blog and check out what their Design Team has created using their gorgeous mini albums and embellishments, 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.

Bella Blvd & Basically Bare Team Up Week: Sheri Feypel

Welcome to day two of our week long Team-Up with Basically Bare! We have a group of our Bella designers that have mixed Basically Bare's gorgeous mini albums and embellishments into our projects. And the Basically Bare designers have been busy mixing Bella's products into their projects. Let's see what our designers have whipped up for us today. 

"Hello Fall" mini album, by Sheri Feypel.

I created my mini album using Basically Bare's Oh So Mini Album. Each of the pages has a different texture to them (felt, chipboard, canvas), which is what drew me to this one. The size was also perfect for me to showcase some pictures of my son on our annual fall photo shoot. I used mainly Bella Blvd's Finally Fall collection for this book, with a little bit of the new Thankful collection mixed in. Although Finally Fall is the 2011 fall collection from Bella Blvd, I still love it! The colors are perfect for my pictures. As I put this book together I treated each page as if it were just a mini layout. Some are heavily embellished, while others aren't. As you can see I used lots of Designer tape through out the album as well, it is the perfect accent to any page and there are so many that matched with this line. I also got a bit carried away with the Alphabet Stickers, as I love mixing and matching all of the different sizes and fonts.

Supplies:
Thankful & Finally Fall: At The Patch, Bliss, Autumn Splendor, Leaf Pile, Apple Holler, Cute Cuts, Borders, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Just Write Journaling Stickers, Miniature Stickers; Quattrofino Alphabet Stickers: Mustard & Apricot, Brownies & Cream; Ciao Chip Elements: Trees; High Five Alphabet Stickers: Pink/Red, Yellow, Green, Blue; Simply Simona Chipboard Alphas: Orange; Designer Tapes: Pony Dot, Pink Stripe, Teal Stripe, Orange Stripe, Yellow Chevron, Piggy Pink Stripe, Pickle Chevron; Button Market: Aqua Flowers, Fruit Punch, Orange Stars, Outdoors, Feminine Mix

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Now, head on over to the Basically Bare blog and check out what their Design Team has created using their gorgeous mini albums and embellishments, 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.