Bella Blvd Studio Blog

Bella Blvd & The Twinery Team-Up: Day Four

Welcome to day four of our week long Team-Up with The Twinery! We have a group of our Bella designers that have mixed The Twinery's gorgeous baker's twine into our projects. And The Twinery's designers have been busy mixing Bella's products into their projects. Let's see what our designers have in store for us today.

“Girly Clothes”, by Brook Stewart.

I've had so much fun clothes shopping for our first little girl coming this summer! Her closet is already getting well stocked and I wanted to make sure to document it! I went with a lot of pink on this layout to reinforce the "girly" aspect of the subject. I added the beautiful pink twine colors around the outside as a border and secured them with mini staples. I also added a border of the lighter pink twine around my journaling spot to define it. I just stuck it down with some liquid glue.

Bella Blvd Supplies: 
Sunshine & Happiness: Juicy Good Time, Play Date; We're Expecting: Bella Baby Bump, Baby's First Miniatures; Baby Girl: Alpha+Bits Stickers; High Five Alphabet: Pink-Red; Baby Blooms a Bella: Rossini

The Twinery Supplies:
Pink Sorbet, Blossom

"We Love You" by Becky Williams.

For this layout I wanted to do something I'd seen on projects created by others: writing with the twine. It was a lot easier than I thought it might be. You simply draw the word with liquid glue and add the desired color of twine. You could even mix up the colors by cutting smaller segments of twine. 

Bella Blvd Supplies:
Baby Girl: It's A Girl, Ciao Chip Icons; Baby Boy: Miniatures Stickers; Sunshine & Happiness: Borders, Just Write Journaling Stickers; We're Expecting: Baby's Firsts Miniatures Stickers; Designer Tape: Pink Flowers; Sophisticates: Ciao Chip Borders; High Five Alpha Stickers: Black-White

The Twinery Supplies:
Maraschino, Pink Sorbet, Denim

“Easter Eggs”, by Kathy Martin.

I wanted the twine to really shine on this page so I created a frame with it. In order to make straight lines with the twine, I used a scoring board and then I traced those lines with a glue pen. I could have easily used the Bella Blvd. Spring Things & Easter Things for this dyed egg page, but the new Sunshine & Happiness line is equally adorable and versatile!

Bella Blvd Supplies:
Sunshine & Happiness: Petal Power, Popsicle Kisses, Happy Clouds, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Chipboard Icons, Flags; Sophisticates: Sprinkles & Lace Punch; Button Market: Fruit Punch; Flags: Spring Flings & Easter Things; Ciao Chip: Clouds; High Five Alpha Stickers: Black-White, Blue

The Twinery Supplies:
Lemondrop, Orchid

“When I See You Smile” card, by Megan Klauer.

For the "rainbow-cloud" I took a piece of white card stock, covered the front side with adhesive & glue dots and began wrapping the twine around it. I then added a layer of dimensional pop dots to the top and added another piece of white card stock with the cloud punched out. This is such a versatile technique! Change the punch and the twine colors and you can get a whole new look! Have fun with it!

Bella Blvd Supplies:
Sunshine & Happiness: Happy Clouds, Cute Cuts, Miniature Stickers

The Twinery Supplies:
Lilac, Caribbean, Peapod, Lemondrop, Mandarin, Pink Sorbet

Heart card, by Morgan Bandkowski.

I attend a lot of weddings so I am always trying to come up with different ideas for wedding cards. I used a die cut of a heart and wrapped twine all around it. I love using the Lace side of the Sprinkles & Lace paper because it gives the card a classy feel. 

Bella Blvd Supplies:
Sophisticates: Spinkles & Lace Oyster, Sprinkles & Lace Oreo; Christmas Wishes: Christmas Love

The Twinery Supplies:
Maraschino

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Now, head on over to The Twinery blog, and check out what their Design Team has created using their gorgeous baker's twine, and our fun Bella products! Also, be sure to check out THEIR giveaway. All the details, on how to be entered in their giveaway, are on their blog. NOTE: This is for The Twinery's giveaway on their blog. NOT our giveaway, which will happen on Friday ;)

Check back in with us tomorrow, for our last day of inspiration. And we'll reveal our big giveaways too!

Saturday Sketches

First up, we have another round of 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.

"Baby Ella Bean", by Megan Klauer.

I always love starting with a good sketch. It's like that first step of the creative process is done for you. The next step for me is making it my own. Adding some embellishments, tweaking it, or even rotating it; that's the fun part! I have had this cute little photo of Ella for a while now & just haven't found the right papers for it. Then I tried it with the Spring Flings & Easter Things collection ... perfect!

Supplies:
Spring Flings & Easter Things: Egg Hunt, Mom's Bouquet, Sunny Sunday, Just Write Journaling Stickers, Alpha+Bits; Button Market: Wood Buttons, Pink Flora; Sophisticates: Chip Essentails; High Five Alphabet Stickers: Blue; Simply Simona Chipboard Alphas: Pink; Designer Tape: Yellow Chevron

"It's A Girl", by Brook Stewart.

After 7.5 years worth of little boys, we recently found out that we're having a baby girl this summer. I'm nervous and excited all at the same time! This sketch worked perfectly with my new ultrasound pictures. I used the sketch mostly as is, but instead of just photos, I cut papers to fit the photo areas since my pictures were a little smaller. I added my journaling where the embellishment cluster is since I had quite a bit to say and it wouldn't fit on the tag with my title.

Supplies:
Baby Girl: It's A Girl, Snuggly Safari, Miniatures;  We're Expecting: Bella Baby Bump; Spring Flings & Easter Things: Mom's Bouquet; High Five Alphas: Red & Pink; Ciao Chip Borders; Ciao Chip Alphas: Simply Simona Peep; Ciao Chip Sophisiticates: Trees

"Spring", by Julie Johnson.

This sketch was so easy and fun to work with. It's a great sketch if you are wanting to use up some left over scraps or not wanting to use a lot of paper. All you need is a few strips for this one, but to look at it, you would never think so. I loved how the "Just Write Journaling Sticker" fit perfectly between my photos to create my title and journaling block. As for the details on the page, the bottom flower border is cut from one of the journal squares from the Cute Cuts sheet. I added some stickers from the Alpha + Bits sticker and Miniature sticker sheets, and hand punched a few butterflies. I'm loving the new Bella Flags but since I haven't got my hands on any yet (it's tough waiting, isn't it), I decided to make my own. I cut a rectangle from pattern paper, folded it in half and glued it to a toothpick and then cut the ends at an angle to look like a flag.

Supplies:
Spring Flings and Easter Things: Borders, A Tisket A Tasket, Sunny Sunday, Journaling Stickers, Alpha+Bits, Miniatures, Cute Cuts

"Shovel", by Vivian Masket.

I loved the simplicity of this sketch! I followed the sketch almost exactly, omitting the stitching and adding some extra embellishments at the top of the journaling block. The gorgeous colors in the Winter Wonder papers provided the inspiration for my title and snowflake elements, which were die cut from coordinating solid colored cardstock. The Winter Wonder Miniatures Stickers added the perfect finishing touches!

Supplies:
Winter Wonder: Blizzard, Icy, Miniatures Stickers; Family Dynamix: Quadrants

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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.

Challenge Week With Guest Designer Shannon Tidwell: Day Two

Hi, it's me, Shannon Tidwell, back again for another day of fun & scrapbooking! We hope you're all working on our first challenge, because we really want to see YOUR takes on the ideas. And now, we're going to dive right into our next challenge.

Tuesday Challenge: Use patterned papers from 4 or more collections on your project

I LOVE mixing up patterned papers. Sometimes I start with the papers before the picture.  I dig through my stacks and put together a mix that I like and then see what photos I have that will go with them. If mixing patterned papers from different collections or even manufacturers seems daunting I have a few tips. You could stick with the same color scheme, mix larger patterns with smaller ones to help the balance, find inspiration from fashion or home decor, and my biggest tip ... don't overthink it!

"Happy", by Shannon Tidwell.

For my layout, Happy, as I was looking through the colorful stack of Bella Blvd papers my eye was drawn to the chevron pattern. So I picked out several of the similar pattern in different colors. To help balance it I added in a couple polka dots. I started with one paper as the background and just kept adding strips of patterned paper. I added in a few chipboard accents as well as stickers to add dimension and separation between the patterns. A couple fun things about the page. I sprinkled sequins across the page and then covered them with masking tape. A fun and easy border. Second, I stacked the chipboard title. I actually couldn't decide between the two colors so I decided to use both! The border sticker across the top wasn't quite 8.5" so I snipped it on one side and left a gap, then I filled the gap with a couple sticker tags and tied them together with twine.

"Birthday Girl", by Shannon Tidwell.

For my second layout today I decided to go with a monotone color scheme. That keeps matching papers super easy, especially with pinks. I based my layout on a sheet of Kraft cardstock to mellow the layout a bit. Then I punched about six 2" circles of each paper I'd chosen. By having such an interesting background I decided to keep the rest of the page relatively simple. I balanced the photo with a kraft tag and a few stickers as well as the pin she wore at her birthday (complete with pink icing on it). I thought the top of the page needed a little something so I combined a few stickers for a fun little embellishment.

I can't wait to see what the Bella Blvd Design Team came up with for the challenge.

"Hello Cupcake", by Melissa Stinson.

Mixing Bella collections is so easy! There are so many colors that are similar across the lines (such as the entire Sophisticates palette), so if you pick a red or yellow from one line, it's pretty much guaranteed to coordinated with the same color from another. For this layout I wanted aqua, yellow, and red, so I flipped through some older (and one of the new!) Bella collections, to pull together several sheets that complimented my photos.

Supplies:
Sophisticates: Blue High Five Alphabets, Essentials Peep & McIntosh Chipboard, Simply Simona McIntosh Chipboard; Baby Blooms a Bella: Azzini, Saffron; Midterm: Blurbs; Designer Tape: Yellow Chevron; Sunny Happy Skies: Creamsicle Clouds; Family Dynamix: Quadrants; Sunshine & Happiness: Borders, Happy Clouds; Hello Beautiful: Just Because; Socialite: Tango

"Happiness", by Laura Vegas.

Collections are great, because you can pull one set of papers out and know that they will all match. But I love the challenge of mixing papers from a wide variety of collections, onto one layout. And with Bella's patterned papers, this is so easy to do. For my layout, I started with the chipboard "Happiness" title, and I pulled all of my patterned papers to match the colors in the chipboard letters. Because so many of the papers are tone-on-tone patterns, they can be used together easily. Even in choosing each color's paper, I had lots of different papers to choose from. For example, I could have pulled a great green pattern paper from 3-4 different collections. (BTW, for a little "tutorial" of sorts, on how I created the sunburst on my layout, visit my blog HERE)

Supplies:
Sunshine & Happiness: Happy Clouds, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Miniatures Stickers, Chipboard Icons; Family Dynamix: The Littlest Things, Words of Wisdom, Quadrants; Too Cute To Spook: Itsy Bitsy Spider; Socialite: Cute Cuts; Tail Waggers & Cat Naps: Blocks N Borders; Sophisticates: Sprinkles & Lace Punch; All Inclusive: Skippin Stones; Ciao Chip Elements: Clouds

"At The Beach", by Kimberly Neddo.

I love mixing product lines together. It gives such a great realm of freedom to play and inter mix the products. It takes away all limits while you create! Sometimes I like having limits, and sometimes I like to be able to mix and match to get the look I want. The photographs are always what dictate my color pallet. How can I frame them? How can I make them stand out? Playing with colors and dimensions, are always what I play with to start every project. Thanks for looking! I hope this inspires you to get creative with your products too!

Supplies:
Sunshine & Happiness: Happy Clouds, Chipboard Icons; Finally Fall: At the Patch; Spring Flings & Easter Things: Mom's Bouquet; Sophisticates: Stars & Hearts Chipboard, Green High Five Alpha Stickers; Winter Wonder: Miniatures; Baby Boy: Alpha+Bits

"Drive", by Vivian Masket.

It's so easy to combine Bella Blvd products from different collections. The colors repeat across lines, so everything works well together. On this layout, I combined products from six different lines, including patterned papers from five different lines. I created a tone-on-tone effect by handcutting or punching shapes from three of the patterned papers and layered those shapes over the same patterned paper using pop dots. By having the star, heart, and cloud hang over the edges a bit, they are easier to spot, adding interest and detail without a lot of distraction.

Supplies:
Making the Team: Quadrants, Just Write Journaling Stickers; Sophisticates: Apricot Sprinkles & Lace; Finally Fall: At the Patch, Bliss; Family Dynamix: Quadrants; Super Stud: Eclipse; Tail Waggers & Cat Naps: Just Write Journaling Stickers

"Bliss" card, by Deanna Misner.

For both my cards today, I chose to combine pieces of the Spring Flings collection with the brand new baby collections. I really love that I keep seeing these adorable sunshines popping up everywhere, so I thought I'd make one myself. I used the cloudy background to "ground" my card, then used the deeper golden colors from the Spring Flings collection to create my sun. I love how the Ciao Chipboard pieces not only provide the sentiments for the card, but they also give it depth and a more substance. They're quickly becoming my "go to" embellishment.

Supplies:
Baby Boy collection: Heaven Sent; Spring Flings collection: Sunny Sunday; Sophisticates Ciao Chipboard

"Congrats" card, by Deanna Misner.

I had a little fun playing and finding fun color combinations and I ultimately decided to go with the classic pink and purple girly girl combo. I used a tag I had leftover from a previous Baby Girl collection project, so I thought I'd pair it with the pink chevron from Spring Flings. And I most definitely couldn't resist that adorable pink frog that comes in Spring Flings as well! I topped it off with the "Congrats" flag and 2
buttons from the Button Market and called it a day.

Supplies:
Baby Girl collection: Cute Cuts, Borders; Spring Flings collection: Egg Hunt; Button Market: pink flowers

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And now, we are going to ask you to play along with our challenge! This week, we will be featuring FIVE challenges. But it's not just about showing you what we came up with. We want to see your take on our challenges too. And we have a little extra incentive to get you creating and sharing.

We will be drawing one winner, to receive a prize package of $100+ worth of Bella Blvd products!

But this is different than our regular giveaways. You will have to participate in the challenges, in order to be entered in the drawing for that prize package. If you participate in one challenge, your name will be entered in one time. If you participate in three of the challenges, your name will be entered in three times. Make sense? And how about a bonus. If you participate in all five challenges, your name will be entered in not five times, but TEN times! We really hope you'll join in on the fun with us. Just click on the button below, to link us up to your completed projects. You have until Friday, March 2nd, to get your links added on. We will then announce a winner on Saturday, March 3rd. 

Bella Blvd & Unity Stamps: Inspiration & Giveaway Day

We are back with another Bella Blvd & Unity Stamps Inspiration Day! We choose a few of our co-branded stamps to highlight today, along with the new Baby Boy and Baby Girl collections, and asked a few of our Design Team members to create some cards using these stamps. 

"Congrats" card, by Laura Vegas.

The Calendar Month stamp, from Bella and Unity, is one of my favorites. It's so versitle, and can be used on just about any card you create. You can use it just like a calendar, and mark an important date for the person you're giving the card too. Or you can use it as a fun background accent, which is how I usually use it. I used a few strips from the Baby Boy Borders paper, along with a few of the Chipboard Icon pieces, to create this fun little baby card. I even used a flag from the Wedding Party set, to tuck in with the onesie.

Supplies:
Baby Boy: Borders, Chipboard Icons, Alpha+Bits; High Five Alpha Stickers: Blue; Flags: Just Married; Unity Stamp: Calendar Month

"Birthday Girl", by Laura Vegas.

When I saw the cute cupcake chipboard pieces, I knew they would be perfect for little girl birthday cards. I started by embossing the front of my card, with a flower embossing folder. I added on a few strips of Baby Girl and We're Expecting pattern papers. The Calendar Month stamp makes a fun accent piece on birthday cards. I heat embossed the stamped image with yellow embossing powder, and then added High Five Alpha Stickers to it for my sentiment.

Supplies:
Baby Girl: Borders, Chipboard Icons; We're Expecting: Baby Boy Bump; High Five Alpha Stickers: Blue, Red/Pink; Unity Stamp: Calendar Month

"A Little Birdie Told Me" card, by Alice Carman.

As a card maker I try to think outside of the box when using my stamps by finding different ways to stamp. Today my challenge is to use the calendar month stamp alongside another stamp. My theme is baby and of course I used our new Baby Girl collection. I thought stamping another image onto a stamped image is a little different from anything I’ve ever done. What do you think? Does it work? I also paper pieced my birdie stamp as well to give it some color without having to color it.

Supplies:
Baby Girl: Sweet Dreams, Borders; Sophisticates: Sprinkles & Lace Punch, Black-White High Five Alphabets; We’re Expecting: Bella Baby Bump; Unity Stamps: Calendar Month, Birdie Told Me

"New Set Of Wheels" card, by Alice Carman.

On this card I used the calendar month stamp and turned it into a fence on my peep card. I cut out a few of the grid boxes from the calendar stamp and lined it up to make a fence. I also paper pieced the New Set of Wheels stamp and stamped directly onto the Sunshine Happiness Play Date pattern paper to make the stamp pop.  

Supplies: 
Baby Boy: Heaven Scent; Sunshine & Happiness: Play Date; Baby Girl: Pretty in Pink; Unity stamp: Calendar Month, New Set of Wheels stamp

"Brand New Baby Boy" card, by Gail Hoecker.

Supplies:
Baby Boy: Wild About You, Cute Cuts, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Miniature Stickers; Sophisticates: Yellow High Five Alpha Stickers; Unity Stamp: Calendar Month

"5th Birthday Party" card, by Gail Hoecker.

Supplies:
Baby Boy: Wild About You, Cute Cuts, Miniature Stickers; Sophisticates: Yellow High Five Alphabet Stickers; Unity Stamp: Calendar Month

"A Little Birdie Told Me" card, by Morgan Bandkowski.

I love using the Unity stamps & was so excited to be asked to use some of the new releases! They are so easy to use & stamp great! I attend a lot of baby showers, so both of these stamps are perfect to add to my collection. 

Supplies:
Baby Girl: It's A Girl, Pretty In Pink, Daddy's Girl, Alpha+Bits; Flags: Thank You

"Congratulations On Your New Set Of Wheels" card, by Morgan Bandkowski.

Supplies:
Baby Boy: Baby Blue, Heaven Sent, Borders; Sophisticates: Sprinkles & Lace Oyster

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And now for our giveaway time!

Giveaway #1 - New Set Of Wheels Itty Bitty stamp

Giveaway #2 - Birdie Told Me Itty Bitty stamp

All you need to do to be entered in our random giveaway, is leave a comment on this post. We will announce a winner on Saturday morning.

We're Expecting - Layout & Mini Album

We hope everyone enjoyed out two week long Inspiration Unlimited feature! The past four weeks have been filled with CHA reveals, giveaways, and projects galore. And now, we're ready to get back to our normal blogging schedule. We do still have a TON of CHA projects left that we want to share with you. So expect to see them sprinkled in, along with all the new layouts our designers are working on, over the next month or two. Starting with today, as we feature two We're Expecting projects!

"Mommy To Be", by Megan Klauer.

The We're Expecting Mini Release is the perfect addition to the Baby Boy & Girls line. They mix together wonderfully. The Chipboard Icons are simply my favorites! Love the little heart & sonogram image!

Supplies:
We're Expecting: Bella Baby Bump, Coming Soon Chipboard Icons, Baby Girl: Daddy's Girl, Borders, Alpha+Bits, Flags Designer Tapes: Yellow Chevron

"Baby" mini album, by Megan Klauer.

I created the base of my album with simple 6x6 pieces of kraft cardstock which aloud me to get 4 pages out of one piece of paper. When ordering my photos from mpix.com, I ordered a few 5x5 square photos as well as a mini (set of 8) 1.75x2.5" {I split these between my cover & the layout shown above}. The rest of the photos were printed as 3.5 x 5" with a white border. I mixed a lot of the Baby Girl, Baby Boy, & of course the We're Expecting line throughout the album. The Yellow Chevron designer tape was the perfect touch to the photos on each page.

Supplies:
Baby Girl: It's A Girl, Pretty In Pink, Snuggly Safari, Borders, Sweet Dreams, Alpha+Bits, Cute Cuts, Chipboard Icons, Just Write Journaling Stickers, We're Expecting: Bella Baby Bump, Coming Soon, Chipboard Icons, First Miniature stickers, Baby Boy: Mommas Boy, Miniature Stickers, Alpha+Bits, Designer Tape: Yellow Chevron, Crochet Flowers: Dahlia, Poppy, Flags: Just Married

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We'll see you back here Monday, as we start the week with three days PACKED to the brim with Valentines/Love themed projects!

Inspiration Unlimited Week: Crochet Flowers

This week while we are catching up and recovering from being in California at the CHA Trade Show debuting all the brand new products that we revealed over the past 2 weeks, we are going to share with you projects, projects and more projects with everything new! If you are starving for new inspiration and ideas, you're in the right place! The Bella Design Team have done wonders with the new products and now we can finally show you! Each day we will be featuring one of our new Collections and/or Embellishment products and showing you some great ideas! Get ready for a fun energy boost ... here we go!

Today, we are featuring projects that focus on our Crochet Flower embellishments!

"My Smiles Begin With You", by Kimberly Neddo.

I LOVE using different fonts in my project titles. The new High Five Alphabets are perfect to add to each collection for this kind of look. This layout is sweet on my heart, as my daughter Olivia is ALWAYS bringing me flowers. Documenting this sweet gesture she does was important to me, and I wanted it to stand out and tell a story with the photographs.

Supplies:
Spring Flings & Easter Things: Sunny Sunday, Egg Hunt, Mom’s Bouquet, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Miniatures Stickers; High Five Alpha Stickers: Blue, Pink/Red; Crochet Flowers: Dahlia

"Expecting Ethan", by Sheri Feypel.

This layout was so fun to create! I was able to mix two of the new Bella Blvd collections and a couple of Bella Blvd's new embellishments! I am loving all of the soft grey, blue's and yellow in the We're Expecting collection! Grey is quickly making it's way up my list of favorite colors. This is a "borrowed" photo of my friend's pregnant belly at 38 weeks. I cut all of these little onesies from the Baby Boy line to create a banner on my page. Wouldn't they make a great mini garland? I also added a few of the new Crochet flowers along the side of my picture. I am not a flowery kind of girl, but these crochet flowers are my favorite! They are so cute and petite, perfect for layouts and cards without being so bulky.

Supplies:
We're Expecting: Coming Soon, Ciao Chip Icons; Baby Boy: Baby Blue, Borders; Crochet Flowers: Juniper, Daisies; Designer Tape: Yellow Chevron, Teal Stripe; High Fives Alpha Stickers: Blue, Yellow; Simply Simona Chipboard Numbers: White

"Worth Every Pound" card, by Deanna Misner.

For this card I was inspired by the graphic design I saw on a quote while browsing through Pinterest. It's my new addiction! But I loved the idea of different strips with different patterns all cut the same exact way. I also loved using the new crocheted flowers! They were the perfect finishing touch!

Supplies:
Baby Boy: Wild about You, Borders, Baby Blue, Just Write Journaling Stickers; Crochet Flowers: Juniper

"Thank You" card, by Gretchen McElveen.

Yay for these fun crochet flowers! The colors coordinate so well with just about every Bella Blvd collection and they compliment the Blooms a Bella so well! And you can't beat the low price either!

Supplies:
Sophisticates: Surf in Turf, Black & White High Five Alphabet Stickers; Crochet Flowers: Daisies

Inspiration Unlimited Week: Unity Stamps

This week while we are in California at the CHA Trade Show debuting all the brand new products that we revealed over the past 2 weeks, we are going to share with you projects, projects and more projects with everything new! If you are starving for new inspiration and ideas, you're in the right place! The Bella Design Team have done wonders with the new products and now we can finally show you! Each day we will be featuring one of our new Collections and/or Embellishment products and showing you some great ideas! Get ready for a fun energy boost ... here we go!

Today, we are featuring projects that focus on our Unity/Bella Itty Bitty Stamps!

"We Make A Great Pear" pillowbox, by Sheri Feypel.

This is the cutest little pear stamp ever. Why wouldn't you want this cute stamp with a chevron pear on it?? I heat embossed the Great Pear stamp and added it to a pillow box covered with a little bit of Baby Boy and Sunshine & Happiness papers. This would make a really cute gift box for a pair of earrings!

Supplies:
Sunshine & Happiness: Popsicle Kisses; Baby Boy: Baby Blue; Unity Stamp Company: Great Pear 

"Life Begins" card, by Katherine McElvain.

To make this card I wanted to use this cute ultrasound stamp in a unique way. To do so I stamped the image in sequence on a curve to create a half circle. I wanted the image to be highlighted so layered it on craft cardstock and bordered it with two of the Bella Blvd baby boy papers. Added some twine, popped up a coordinating sticker, and this card was quick, easy and finished in no time.

Supplies:
We’re Expecting: Baby Boy Bump; Baby Boy: Baby Blue, Alpha and Bits; Unity Stamp: So Happy For You

"It's A Girl" card, by Alice Carman.

I colored my stamp and used a few papers from the different Bella Blvd collections to enhance my card. Don’t you just love the new crochet flowers and the buttons? The Sophisticates letter stickers are a must when crafting, especially the new Sophisticates alphabets. I love that you get 4 different fonts and styles. Don’t forget Bella Blvd/Unity stamps not only comes with a image stamp, but you also get a sentiment which can be used all different ways. I only stamped the word, “girl” from the sentiment stamp, so you can break up the sentiment stamp or use the whole thing.

Supplies:
Baby Girl: Sweet Dreams; Sunshine & Happiness: Sunny Side Up; We’re Expecting: Baby Bella Bump; Sophisticates: Black and White High Five Alpha Stickers; Button Market: Text; Crochet Flowers: Daisies; Unity Stamp Company: It’s A Girl

Inspiration Unlimited Week: Button Market

This week while we are in California at the CHA Trade Show debuting all the brand new products that we revealed over the past 2 weeks, we are going to share with you projects, projects and more projects with everything new! If you are starving for new inspiration and ideas, you're in the right place! The Bella Design Team have done wonders with the new products and now we can finally show you! Each day we will be featuring one of our new Collections and/or Embellishment products and showing you some great ideas! Get ready for a fun energy boost ... here we go!

Today, we are featuring projects that focus on our Button Market embellishments!

"Kisses", by Katherine McElvain.

Fun scrapbooking for me is putting together bits and pieces from all different collections  and products to make a creation. With the Bella Blvd new release of products I had the perfect opportunity to play, and make a row of flags for this layout of my daughter leaning in to give her little friend a big ol’ smooch. I love how scared he looks, LOL...Anyway to create the flag strip I first cut some paper flags from patterned paper and added some flag strips made from the new Bella Blvd. designer tape. To create the tape flags I folded the tape over the twine and stuck it to itself, finishing it off by cutting a “V” in the edge. After I created the base for my strip of flags, I went in to my stash of Bella Blvd looking for pink and black. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the new wood buttons, and crochet flowers. Using all those products gave the layout so much texture and dimension. It was very fun to play, you should give it a try!

Supplies:
Baby Girl: Daddy’s Girl, Borders; We’re Expecting: Bella Baby Bump, Firsts Miniatures; Sunshine and Happiness: Happy Clouds; Spring Flings and Easter Things: Chipboard Icons; Button Market: Wood Mix, Zebra, Pink Flowers, Text; Designer Tape: Pink Stripe, Pink Flowers; Sophisticates: Stars and Hearts; Crochet Flowers: Poppy

"Frosty Friends", by Kimberly Neddo.

I worked off of a sketch for this layout. I love using sketches to create fun inspiring layouts, and to utilize different patterned papers and such. It’s a great way to jump start your creativity and spur you on. The Winter Wonder line is one of my favorites, because of the soft and bright colors mixed together. They work so well to mix and match with other lines as well. These new button’s also a favorite too! I love the Kraft look they have to them.

Supplies:
Winter Wonder: Blizzard, Borders, Icy, Ski Slopes, Minatures, Alpha+Bits; Buttons: Snowflakes

"Winter Memories", by Kathy Martin.

I'm a huge fan of buttons! You would be hard pressed to find a project of mine that doesn't have at least one! So I'm thrilled that Bella Blvd now carries them! I love the shapes, colors, and wood styles!

Supplies:
Winter Wonder: Icy, Borders, Just Write Journaling Stickers, Miniatures; Flags: Winter; Button Market: Snow Flakes, Masculine Mix

"I Love You" card, by Deanna Misner.

I instantly fell in love with the baby elephants when I first saw them in this line. I LOVE how adorable they are and how their cute little ears are a different pattern. This card practically scrapped itself, I was just combining all the patterns and images I love from the Baby Girl collection. Since the little elephant felt lonely all by itself on top of the strips, I layered some buttons to keep it company.

Supplies:
Baby Girl: Borders, Snuggly Safari, Alpha+Bits; Button Market: Pink Flowers, Wood Buttons

Fridays With Stephanie: CHA Winter 2012 Recap

I never would have thought I'd be here today ready with a post for you! I'm "live from the Phoenix airport" as I prepare this blog post. I'm on my way home from Anaheim (California) and am plugged into the wall and sitting next to a very large, unstable sign on the floor! ha.

Enough of that....onto more fun things! I know many of you have been patiently waiting for CHA updates! It's hard to believe the show is over. It always comes and goes so quickly. As a team, we went from this:

to this in only 48 hours:

The booth was beautiful. (So we were told!) Okay, but yes, it truly was. The bright white walls reflected the lighting very well this go-around and the projects and products lit-up beautifully. This is Bella's first CHA with our new 2011-12 Design Team and the girls participating did a fabulous job!

There were so many beautiful cards, altered projects, mini books and layouts. Our customers were lovin' every square inch of inspiration! I thought I'd share some eye candy from the booth today for ya'll.

I think it's safe to say that the Brand new Baby Boy & Baby Girl collections were a hit!

And the mini series, We're Expecting was very popular as well. Because of all the beautiful pregnancy photo shoots people are taking these days, this line is beautiful and feminine for those favorite belly shots!

 

And I can't tell you how excited everyone was about our embellishment release!

For three years, Bella Blvd has really been known for our patterned papers and stickers. I've already expressed how thrilled I am to be releasing a bunch of new embellishments including these darling Crochet Flowers, the stick pin Flags, The Button Market and Designer Tapes too!

I can proudly say you these new embellies will not be hard to find! Once we start shipping in the middle of March your favorite local and online scrapbooking stores will have them! They were hot hot hot!

I know this is getting long, but hopefully you had enough eye candy here to keep reading until now! A huge thank you from my team and I for making this a very successful CHA show and product release. For those of you that came by the booth, thank you for all of your excitement and for your business. 

My girls are my faves. They all worked so hard, they always do. We make a great team! 

I'm posting a couple more pictures from CHA over on my blog....be sure to stop by for more happiness ;)

Ciao Ciao for now....I'm headed to Italy this afternoon where I'll be teaching at the PACS Show!

Ciao Ciao for now! Have a great weekend....I know I will ;)

Inspiration Unlimited Week: We're Expecting Mini Series

This week while we are in California at the CHA Trade Show debuting all the brand new products that we revealed over the past 2 weeks, we are going to share with you projects, projects and more projects with everything new! If you are starving for new inspiration and ideas, you're in the right place! The Bella Design Team have done wonders with the new products and now we can finally show you! Each day we will be featuring one of our new Collections and/or Embellishment products and showing you some great ideas! Get ready for a fun energy boost ... here we go!

Today, we are featuring projects using the We're Expecting collection!

"Oh Baby", by Deanna Misner.

I was lucky enough to have taken this picture right before I had my son, and I loved the idea of doing a mostly gender neutral layout with it using the "We're Expecting" line as well as a couple of the neutral papers from the Baby Boy and Baby Girl collections. All three lines compliment each other so well!

Supplies:
We're Expecting: Coming Soon, Baby Boy bump; Baby Boy: Heaven Sent, Ciao Chip; Baby Girl: Daddy's Girl; Crochet Flowers; High Five Alphabet: White; Sophisticates: Miniatures Stickers

"We're Expecting", by Brook Stewart.

I have to say … when I saw these peeks back at the beginning of January, I couldn’t have been more giddy! We recently found out that we are expecting baby #3 this summer. Talk about perfect timing! The We’re Expecting Mini line was perfect for my recent ultrasound photos. I was able to use a mix of all the colors since we don’t know what it is yet. I added in a couple of neutral papers from the Baby Boy line to tie it all together along with some of the new Sophisticates Ciao Chip Borders (LOOOVE these!!).

Supplies:
We’re Expecting: Coming Soon, Bella Baby Bump, Baby Boy Bump, Miniatures; Baby Boy: On the Go, Mommas Boy; Sophisticates: Chip Borders, Black-White High Five Alphas, Yellow High Five Alphas

"Mommy To Be" card, by Kathy Martin.

This collection is just the sweeetts! I love that it works seamlessly with the new Baby Boy and Baby Girl collections! It also has some of the cutest Ciao Chip!

Supplies:
We’re Expecting: Coming Soon, Ciao Chip; Baby Boy; Alpha+Bits, Miniatures; Sophisticates:  Miniatures Card Sentiments; Button Market: Blues; Crochet Flowers: Daisies

"Adorable Baby", by Laura Vegas.

The new patterened papers from the We're Expecting collection are great for making baby cards. Since they coordinate with the Baby Boy collection and the Baby Girl collection, you can easily assemble a handful of cards to have on hand. New babies are coming along all the time, and it's nice to have cards already made and ready for giving!

Supplies:
We're Expecting: Coming Soon, Ciao Chip; Baby Girl: Sweet Dreams, Daddy's Girl, Flags; Sophisticates High Five Alphas: Red/Pink

Sneak Peek Week: We're Expecting

How are you enjoying our sneak peeks so far? We have loved reading all the positive responses, and excited comments from all of you. It's hard not to just show you everything at once. It's more fun to spread out the excitement though, right ;) So far, we have shown you the Baby Boy collection and the Baby Girl collection. However, there are moments that come before the baby arrives that deserve to be documented as well. And that is where our next reveal comes in.

Coming Soon ... You've experienced several ultrasounds, read all the books that could possibly prepare you for this big moment, and enjoyed delicious food and sweets from those irresistible cravings! As your friends and family throw you a Baby Shower, they anticipate if your growing belly is a Baby Girl Bump or a Baby Boy Bump! Soon the delivery day will be here! Prepare for your little one with this mini series, We're Expecting, including versatile patterns, chipboard, stickers and stamps too! Everything coordinates perfectly with both the new Baby Boy & Baby Girl products.

"Expecting", by Laura Vegas.

I think the addition of the We're Expecting mini series is such a fabulous idea! I love that the patterned papers, the stickers, and the chipboard all coordinate perfectly with both the Baby Boy collection and the Baby Girl collection. You can easily pull items together, to coordinate both your pregnancy layouts and your baby layouts.

Double Sided Patterned Paper:

Cardstock Stickers:

Chipboard:

And now for giveaway time! We want to give one lucky blog reader a chance to own our new We're Expecting collection, before it even hits the stores. Just leave us a comment to be entered. One comment per person, please. All of our giveaways for our sneak peeks will be left open until Saturday, January 28th. All winners will be announced on Sunday, January 29th, which is the first day of the Winter CHA show!