Bella Blvd Studio Blog

Cards On Thursdays

It's another free-for-all card day on the blog today, and we have TONS of gorgeous cards from our Design Team to share with you. We're starting out with lots of springtime cards, a few everyday cards, and ending with a few winter cards.

“Thanks” card, by Kathy Martin.

My first card is a spring inspired design. All the Spring Flings & Easter Things papers are so colorful and cheerful, just like spring! And when I think of spring! I often imagine butterflies fluttering about during this time of year so I created a die cut butterfly for the focal point.

Supplies:
Spring Flings & Easter Things: Sunny Sunday, Mom’s Bouquet, Cute Cuts, Borders

“Spring Spectacular” card, by Kathy Martin.

My inspiration for this second card is the cover of the brand new Bella Blvd. product catalog that was released at CHA. Have you seen it? It’s adorable, full of clouds made from Bella’s own colorful paper collections! For my card, most of my papers are from the Spring Flings & Easter Things line. I have spring on the brain and have been drawn to it!

Supplies:
Spring Flings & Easter Things: A Tisket A Tasket, Sunny Sunday, Egg Hunt, Just Write Journaling Stickers; Baby Boy: Mama’s Boy, Borders; Sophisticates: Tall Tags

"Happy Easter" card, by Deanna Misner.

With Easter right around the corner I just had to make an Easter card with "Spring Flings and Easter Things". I love all the patterns of the paper, but also the eggs, bunnies, and Easter-y icons too. For this card, I chose to combine two of the same Cute Cute so a full bracket shape would be the foundation of the card. Then I added the eggs, the bunny, and my sentiment.

Supplies:
Spring Flings and Easter Things: Cute Cuts, Borders, Just Write sticker, Alpha + Bits

"It's Springtime” card, by Deanna Misner.

Again with the Spring theme. Can you tell I'm excited about this time of year?! lol! For this one, I thought I'd hide, tuck, and layer some of the different types of embellishments, most of which are brand new to Bella Blvd. So I hid a flower bouquet, tucked a Baby Bloom and layered a crocheted bloom on top of it. Add a flag, a butterfly, and a couple of other hand-cut pieces here and there, and you've got this card.

Supplies:
Spring Flings and Easter Things: Mom's Bouquet, A Tisket A Tasket, Egg Hunt, Cute Cuts, Borders, Sunny Sunday; Baby Blooms a Bella: Rossini; Crochet Flowers: Daisies; High Five Alphabet Stickers: Green; Winter Wonder: Miniature Stickers

"Thanks" card, by Gretchen McElveen.

I am still pretty obsessed with all the fun flowers in the Sunshine & Happiness line! And because you can never have enough extra thank you cards on hand, I cut out some flowers and used them to make a thank you card to add to my stash! The white paper on this card is actually from the Spring Flings & Easter Things Cute Cuts sheet. I thought it was fun that the "heart" flowers on the bottom coordinate sweetly with the hearts in the center of some of the flowers in the Sunshine & Happiness line.

Supplies:
Sunshine & Happiness: Borders, Cute Cuts, Petal Power; Spring Flings & Easter Things: Cute Cuts; Sophisticates: Miniature Card Sentiments

"Congrats" card, by Gretchen McElveen.

I have a friend who should be having a new baby boy any day now. So I used the new Baby Boy line to make a card for her! The alphabet stickers here are from the Winter Wonder Alpha+Bits stickers. They coordinate very well with the Baby Boy line! Those little hearts were cut out of Border sheet and I adhered them to the card with foam adhesive. Thanks for looking!

Supplies:
Baby Boy: Borders, Cute Cuts, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Just Write Journaling Stickers; We're Expecting: Baby Boy Bump; Winter Wonder: Alpha+Bits Stickers

"Winter Wonder" card, by Deanna Misner.
{A Winter CHA Project}

For this card I used a snowflake punch to create a falling snow effect down the card. I grounded it all with a couple of borders, and used the collection's name as my sentiment. I really like doing that since all the Bella collections have the cutest names! It's part of where I get my inspiration!

Supplies:
Winter Wonder: Toasty, Blizzard, Borders, Miniature Stickers

"Winter Wishes" card, by Kathy Martin.
{A Winter CHA Project}

I couldn't be more excited about the new Bella Blvd Designer Flags! Flags have been a favorite accent of mine that I often create using toothpicks or straight pins. Now I'll have ready made Designer Flags that go with all my favorite Bella Blvd. lines like the Winter Wonder collection I used for this card! It's so easy to make great cards when a collection contains lots of stylish coordinating patterned papers along with accents that match perfectly like the Just Write journaling stickers and borders strips I used.

Supplies:
Winter Wonder: Blizzard, Borders, Just Write Journaling Stickers, Flags

Layouts On Wednesday

I love Wednesday's, because it's a sign that the work/school week is halfway over. And it also means it's time for another round of free-for-all layouts from our fabulous Design Team!

"1 Inch Of Bliss", by Becky Williams.

This has been kind of a funny year for weather, one where the weather has been a bit of a roller coaster for so many of us. It is 70 degrees one day and then 30 the next. On this particular day we got a little bit of snow and my Aimee couldn't have been happier. I love the happy look on her face and wanted to pair that with lots of fun, colorful papers- it's my favorite thing about Bella Blvd. The "Bella Baby Bump" paper is intended to be for maternity scrapping but I thought it would be a cute addition to this page about the tiny bit of snow we got that day. 

Supplies:
We're Expecting: Bella Baby Bump; Making the Team: Borders; Sunny Happy Skies: Borders N Blocks; Sophisticates: Short Stories; Finally Fall: Apple Holler; Sweet Celebration: Stardust; Winter Wonder: Borders, Alpha+Bits, Miniatures, Icy; Tail Waggers & Cat Naps: Ciao Chip Icons; Simply Simona Chipboard Alphabets: Brownie, Saltwater, Pickle Juice, White Numbers

"So Huntsville", by Melissa Stinson.

Huntsville, Alabama is the home of LOTS of geeky engineers. We've got everything from NASA projects to missile defense going on at any given engineering firm in the city, so it's safe to say that many of us are geeks. And when there are geeks, we find great things to geek out over ... like a little show on the space shuttle. Huntsville actually doesn't get that much snow, so that in and of itself was a big deal, too, and a perfect excuse to use Bella's Winter Wonder collection!

Supplies:
Winter Wonder: Icy, Borders, Toasty, Blizzard, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Miniatures, Just Write Journaling Stickers; Flags: Winter; Button Market: Snowflakes

"Everyday", by Loredana Bucaria.

Hello everyone! It's spring time sooo a lot of colors, bright or soft and a lot of fun playing with the colorful materials from bella Boulevard! I fall in love with colors in this period with a white background! I know that you have a lot of scrapbooking  leftovers so this layout would inspire you to use them and create a wonderful and colorful page! What do you think? Play is the key word and Bella boulevard really inspires me to play with many embellishments and paper to mix up! I love these products, just looking at them I feel happy and free :) I'd love to see what you are creating with Bella Boulevard products:)

Supplies:
Too Cute To Spook: Itsy Bitsy Spider; Winter Wonderland: Blizzard, Icy, Toasty; Spring Flings and Easter Things: Egg Hunt, Mom's Bouquet, Borders, Alpha+Bits Stickers; Sophisticates: Sprinkles & Lace Peep, Essential Peep & Mcintosh; Lovely Dovey: Bear Hugs; Hello Beautiful: Cute Cuts, Thanks a Bunch; Sunshine & Happiness: Miniatures, Alpha+Bits, Borders

"Poser", by Kim Arnold.

Being a mum of one ratbag son, the Mr Boy collection is always a “go to” for me and this layout was no exception. The gorgeous blue patterned paper on the reverse side of the Cute Cuts paper was a perfect match for Benson’s vibrant blue cast so how could I not use it? I love the graph pattern on one of the journaling stickers, so I used it to punch out the clouds (great alternative use). And yes, my son is a serious poser!

Supplies:
Mr Boy: Borders n’ Blocks, Quadrants, Cute Cuts, Icons Chipboard, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Chit Chat Chipboard, Journaling Stickers; Sophisticates: Ciao Chip Simply Simona Oyster

"Love Each Other", by Sue Mylde.

I wanted to try a combination of papers from the Bella Blvd collection this time to shake things up a bit. I've taken papers and embellishments from five different collections to play around with and see how well they all go together. I've also challenged myself to add a bit of florals even in a layout with my son so here's what I came up with. Love how the blues and greens stand out in this page. Hope you'll be inspired to try something different today too!

Supplies:
Honey, I'm Home: Label Additions; Midterm: Physics; Hello Beautiful: Cute Cuts; Sunny Happy Skies: Alpha+Bits; Family Dynamix: Borders N Blocks

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.

Tuesday Inspiration

Welcome to another Tuesday Inspiration day, here on the Bella blog. Inspiration is all around us, and it's so interesting to see how a group of designers can all start with the same image, and be inspired by it in so many different ways.

{Image Source HERE, Etsy Seller HERE}

“She's A Swingin”, by Kimberly Neddo.

I was so inspired by this photograph of garland and color, so I decided to mimic it with paper and design on a layout. I LOVE the colors! If you want to make a garland like this, you can make one easily too. Just punch out random circles with papers of your choice. Then feed them one at a time through your sewing machine. You can space them apart as much as you want also. A fun technique for a fun look. Thanks for looking!

Supplies:
Making the Team: Volleyball, Cute Cuts, Borders, Alpha+Bits Stickers; Tail Waggers and Cat Naps: Cute Cuts; Hello Beautiful: Cute Cuts; Midterm: Borders and Blocks; Spring Flings and Easter Things: Mom's Bouquet; Hello Beautiful: Cute Cuts; Lovey Dovey: Borders and Blocks

"Spring Spectacular", by Nancy Damiano.

I love the clean, crisp look of a white ground and especially when it's paired with a bold color pattern. To make these pictures pop, I added some texture to the background with the Silhouette postage stamp cut. Then I layered stickers, color photos and a row of black and whites. My favorite part of the layout is the garland. I love how the inspiration piece is sewn together and emphasizes the circular shape. Instead of sewing the garland, I strung them on white string and attached them to the layout with a tiny stapler. I like how they add a splash of color and pattern to the page.

Supplies: 
Spring Fling and Easter Things: Borders, Mom's Bouquet, A Tisket-a-Tasket, Alpha+Bits, Just Write Journaling Stickers; Winter Wonder: Blizzard; Making the Team: Wall of Fame

"Luv U" card, by Gretchen McElveen.

What a fun piece of inspiration! I was inspired by the colors and all the circles. I used a very neutral background and then punched circles out of a variety of green and blue scraps of patterned paper. On this first card I created a scalloped border out of the punched circles and then cut the border of hearts out of the Baby Boy Border sheet to add above the scalloped border. The alphabet stickers are from the Winter Wonder Alpha + Bits sheet!

Supplies:
Estate Sale: Fresh Linens; Baby Boy: Borders, Alpha+Bits Stickers; Sophisticates: Surf N Turf; Winter Wonder: Alpha+Bits Stickers; Sunshine & Happiness: Borders, Happy Clouds

"Thanks For Everything" card, by Gretchen McElveen.

On this next card I still used a neutral background and punched a bunch of circles out of green and blue patterned papers. Then I lined up the punched circles over the neutral background. I cut out the heart from the Winter Wonder Cute Cuts sheet and substituted it for one of the circles. Then I adhered the heart and the sentiment with foam adhesive to add some dimension to the card.

Supplies:
Estate Sale: Fresh Linens; Winter Wonder: Cute Cuts; Sophisticates: Surf N Turf, Miniatures Card Sentiments; Baby Boy: Cute Cuts, Alpha+Bits Stickers; Sunshine & Happiness: Happy Clouds, Petal Power

“It’s a Boy” card, by Kathy Martin.

I used the ultra adorable new Baby Boy collection for this card full of circles to match our inspiration photo. This little lion head sticker from the Alpha+Bits stickers is a favorite and looks so sweet as a focal point for my card. To create my sentiment flag, I cut a piece of the borders paper and attached it to a stick pin.

Supplies:
Bay Boy: Baby Blue, Wild About You, Borders, Alpha+Bits Stickers

“Thanks” card, by Kathy Martin.

All the paper circles of our inspiration photo inspired me to create a card with circle cut-outs and I this floral Flirty paper was perfect peaking through, don’t you think? And wherever there are flowers, there are usually bees like this adorable Ciao chip bee.

Supplies:
Flirty: He Loves Me; Spring Flings & Easter Things: Ciao Chip; Sophisticates: Miniature Card Sentiments Family

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We hope you can find some inspiration by this image as well, or even by one of the projects that our designers have shared today. We would also love it, if you shared your inspired-by projects with us. It's always fun for us to see what you're creating! Feel free to leave a comment here, with a link to your project. Or share it with everyone over on our Facebook Page.

We're Expecting Projects

Today, we wanted to share some more CHA projects with you! Let's see what our Design Team did, using the new We're Expecting collection, mixed with the Baby Boy and Baby Girl collections.

"Expecting Our Miracle", by Becky Williams.

My favorite part of this collection is the Ciao Chip stickers. The little ultrasound sticker worked perfectly for this page!

Supplies:
We're Expecting: Bella Baby Bump, Coming Soon, Ciao Chip, Baby's First Miniatures; Baby Girl: Daddy's Girl, Sweet Dreams, Alpha+Bits; High Five Alphabet Stickers: Yellow, Blue

"Expecting", by Kathy Martin.

I love the way this new We're Expecting collection works seamlessly with the new Baby Boy and Baby Girl lines! So whether you are having a boy or girl, you can document all your pregnancy memories with either. And if you decide to keep the sex a surprise until the birth, this line is awesome on it's own!

Supplies:
We’re Expecting: Baby Boy Bump, Ciao Chip; Baby Boy: Heaven Sent, Borders, On the Go, It’s a Boy, Baby Blue, Cute Cuts, Wild About You, Miniatures; Sophisticates: Miniatures Card Sentiments; Button Market: Masculine Mix

"Welcome Baby Boy" card, by Kathy Martin.

Supplies:
We’re Expecting: Coming Soon; Baby Boy: Cute Cuts, Miniatures, Alpha+Bits; Sophisticates: Miniatures Card Sentiments

"Baby Shower" card, by Kathy Martin.

Supplies:
We’re Expecting: Coming Soon, Ciao Chip, Miniatures; Baby Girl: Alpha+Bits; Baby Boy: Borders; Crochet Flowers: Daisies

"Bee Happy We're Expecting" card, by Deanna Misner.

Since I chose to make a pregnancy announcement card, I wanted to keep it neutral, highlighting both boy and girl colors. I wove the two pattern papers together, glued them to a scrap piece of chipboard, and then cut out a heart. I also used the collection name from the top of the page to serve as part of my sentiment, bending it and using 3D foam to give it more shape.

Supplies:
We're Expecting: Baby Boy Bump, Baby Girl Bump; Baby Girl: Cute Cuts; Flag: Bugs

"Congrats" card, by Deanna Misner.

Supplies:
We're Expecting: Coming Soon; Baby Boy: Cute Cuts; High Five Alpha Stickers: Black/White; Baby Blooms a Bella: Champagne

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 first sketch for March, courtesy of Becky Fleck.

"Our Crazy Family", by Laura Vegas.

I love a good sketch, and this one went perfectly with my style. You might have spotted this photo of my family on one of my CHA layouts, but I really wanted a layout to add to my own albums, and this sketch was the perfect opportunity to get that done. I stayed pretty true to the sketch, with the exception of using a larger half circle for my title. I added some texture to the page, by cutting out a bunch of flowers from a Family Dynamix pattered paper. I crumbled each one up, and then flattened them back out, before adhering them to my page using pop dots. 

Supplies: 
Family Dynamix: Tight-Knit, Quadrants, Mother's Day, The Littlest Things; Making The Team: Cute Cuts; Ciao Chip Elements: Borders; Simply Simona Chipboard Alphas: Pickle Juice; High Five Alphabet Stickers: Pink/Red; Button Market: Purple Flora 

"Snow Good", by Lynn Ghahary.

I absolutely LOVE using sketches when I scrapbook. This sketch was pretty straightforward and I kept my layout the same. One picture of my son licking his lips after eating some snow sums up the story perfectly. To dress up the Blizzard patterned paper a bit I stitched some coordinating buttons to various snowflakes. I also replaced the "o" in "snow" with a snowflake sticker and button as well. It helps to add a bit of dimension and detail while tying the layout together.

Supplies:
Winter Wonder - Blizzard, Icy, Ski Slopes, Just Write Stickers, Alpha+Bits Stickers

"Time Together", by Kim Arnold.

I love how versatile the Baby Boy collection is. Here I used it for a layout about my son and his grandparents. My son is 7 years old in this photo so clearly you don’t need a baby boy to use this lovely collection!

Supplies:
Baby Boy: Baby Blue, Wild About You, Cute Cuts, Just Write Journaling Stickers, Chipboard Icons, Alpha+Bits; High Five Alphabet Stickers: Yellow

"Precious", by Sue Mylde.

For this sketch, I changed the location of things around a bit because I wanted to use this slim photo of my little girl. I love this sketch since it gives me some room for fun embellishment and journaling all in a perfect square. The scallops were created using punched circles and taped down from the bottom-up to create the scalloped effect. Another favorite part of this layout is the sentiment 'You are my sunshine on a sunny day' which is originally a long strip which I cut up into short phrases to line up on one of the panels. Pretty cute sentiment, reflecting exactly what I feel about my little girly girl :)

Supplies:
Spring Flings & Easter Things: Egg Hunt, A Tisket A Tasket, Mom's Bouquet, Sunny Sunday, Borders, Cute Cuts, Just Write Journaling Stickers, Alpha+Bits, Miniatures; Socialite: Tango 

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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.

Cards On Thursdays

It's Thursday, so that means another round of free-for-all cards from our Design Team. We're going to start out todays post with one last project from our March Guest Designer, Kim Jeffress! We hope you enjoyed her amazing projects this week, and maybe even tried out a few of her fun challenges. We want to thank Kim for joining us this month!

"Birthday" card, by Kim Jeffress.
{March Guest Designer}

Welcome back to the Bella Blog. I have one last challenge for you today. How about creating a card for a special occasion. Recently a friend asked me to make a card for her sister in law who lives in England. I wanted it to be bright and cheery so of course the Spring Flings and Easter Things collection was just perfect. I have mixed and matched pattern papers and also layered an element from the Just Write sheet with foam tape to add depth to the flower. I also added some bright sequins to further add to the festive feel.

For my CHALLENGE I would love to see some bright happy cards shared from you all - be they birthday, friendship, love or just because.

"Just A Little Note" card, by Gretchen McElveen.

I went all blue & purple on this card! I cut out more flowers from the Sunshine & Happiness border sheet and combined them with the large purple flower sticker from the Just Write Journaling Stickers. I used a circle punch to punch a piece of patterned paper from the Baby Boy line (I love how well the lines coordinate!) to cover up the sentiment on the purple flower sticker. Another thing I did was outline the purple scalloped border sticker with a black pen to help it stand out better against the background cardstock.

Supplies:
Sunshine & Happiness: Happy Clouds, Borders, Just Write Journaling Stickers, Alpha+Bits; Baby Boy: Cute Cuts

"Saying Hi" card, by Gretchen McElveen.

I was feeling very monochromatic when I made my cards this week! And I absolutely love the flowers in the Sunshine & Happiness line! So I cute out some pink and red flowers and combined them with the red flower from the pack of Chipboard Icons and decorated this card. Fun stuff!

Supplies:
Sophisticates: Pink-Red High Five Alphabets; Sunshine & Happiness: Borders, Cute Cuts, Play Date, Chipboard Icons

"I'm Crazy About You" card, by Kathy Martin.

Sophisticates papers are great to keep on hand because they coordinate with almost every Bella Blvd. collection and they also work well on their own. I love the stripes and bright colors of this B side of the petite pieces paper and thought it bold enough for my dotted design.

Supplies:
Sophisticates: Petite Pieces; Spring Flings & Easter Things: Ciao Chip; Ciao Chip Essentials: Asparagus & Pickle Juice, Peep & McIntosh

"Thanks Sew Much" card, by Kathy Martin.

I have always loved quilts, especially vintage quilts with all the hand stitched pieces of fabric that was often bits and pieces of clothing that was too worn in places to wear anymore. Quilts that use white backgrounds with colorful blocks of floral fabric for their design are just gorgeous and when I see some of the Spring Fling & Easter Things patterns, it reminds me of the perfect fabric for quilting.

Supplies:
Spring Flings & Easter Things: Sunny Sunday, Cute Cuts

"It's Your Day" card, by Kathy Martin.

I really enjoy taking a themed collection and creating something different with it. The collection that I used for this card is called Making the Team and with its bright pattern papers and fabulous B side designs, it works perfectly for birthday celebrations!

Supplies:
Making the Team: Borders, Cute Cuts, Wall of Fame , Soccer, Quadrants, Ciao Chip; High Five Alpha Stickers: Black/White

"Feeling Lucky", by Morgan Bandkowski.

I decided to make a St Patrick's Day card since it is one of my favorite holidays (I even have a shamrock tattoo)! Since Bella Blvd doesn't have a St Patrick's Day line I had to think outside the box. I've said it before & I will say it again. I love how versatile Bella Blvd's collections are, I used products for this card from 7 different collections!

{Inside of card}

Supplies:
Sunny Happy Skies: Magic in the Sky; Lovey Dovey: Bear Hugs; Winter Wonder: Toasty; Spring Flings & Easter Things: Alpha+Bits; Socialite: Alpha+Bits; Sweet Celebration: Sugar Cone; High Five Alphabet Stickers: Black/White; Flags: Camping; Baby Blooms A Bella: Champagne

"For Peeps Sake" card, by Morgan Bandkowski.

I decided to mix an old & new collection & created a spring/Easter card. The colors & designs from Swing into Spring & Spring Flings and Easter Things really work well together. I love to use pop dots to add some dimension.

Supplies:
Swing Into Spring: Rainbow Ribbons, May Flowers; Spring Flings & Easter Things: Sunny Sunday, Cute Cuts, Alpha+Bits

 

Tuesday Inspiration

Welcome to another Tuesday Inspiration day, here on the Bella blog. Inspiration is all around us, and it's so interesting to see how a group of designers can all start with the same image, and be inspired by it in so many different ways.

{Image Source: Photo Card Boutique}

"Cutie", by Becky Williams.

When I got the assignment to work with this color challenge I knew EXACTLY which picture I would use- this cute one of my baby girl in our funny green wig! What a fun, happy color scheme! I was able to use some older papers with some of the brand new CHA releases to make this page. I used a lot of punched shapes, stickers and handcut elements and amazingly enough didn't use one single strip of paper besides the background, which is so unusual for me but I love the way the page turned out. 

Supplies:
Baby Girl: It's a Girl, Pretty in Pink, Miniatures, Alpha+Bits; Spring Flings and Easter Things: Sunny Sunday, Alpha+Bits; Sunny Happy Skies: Borders N' Blocks, Magic in the Sky; Too Cute to Spook: Just Write Journaling Stickers; Christmas Wishes: Alpha+Bits; Finally Fall: Alpha+Bits; Family Dynamix: Alpha+Bits; Designer Tape: Pickle Juice Dot, Pink Stripe; Simply Simona Chipboard Alphas: Orange, Pickle Juice

"Car Twins", by Melissa Stinson.

I love taking inspiration for layouts from color palettes, so I picked papers that coordinated with the juicy pinks, yellows, and greens in the inspiration image. I ended up using a lot of the new Sunshine and Happiness collection in the process. It even has some cute fruit paper and stickers and also fit with the inspiration theme!

Supplies:
Sunshine and Happiness: Journaling Stickers, Miniatures, Alpha+Bits, Cute Cuts, Popsicle Kisses, Play Date, Petal Power; High Five Alpha Stickers: Yellow

"Girls", by Loredana Bucaria.

Hi everyone! How are you? Spring is coming and this photo inspiration is perfect for a spring page! Don't you think? I used it for a very colorful page with a B&W photo. I love this contrast. So a very simple and easy page, but one that was a lot of fun to create. I started from a sketch and I thought I would use lots of different strips of papers to create a background for my picture. Sometimes I love to use the same color embellishments and I am completely crazy for the words and phrases stickers! Simple to add, and cool to have on your page! This is a layout about my sister, Pamela. I love to go out with her, we have such a great time together! So try, it's your time to try a page like this! Have a lot of fun!

Supplies:
Spring Flings & Easter Things: Cute cuts, Alpha+Bits, Just Write Journaling Stickers, Mom's Bouquet, Egg Hunt; Winter Wonder: Icy; Sunshine & Happiness: Popsicle Kisses; Sophisticates: Sprinkles & Lace Peep; Plastino: Bermudas; Baby Blooms a Bella: Azzini; Clear Stamps: Flirty; Family Dynamix: Alpha+Bits

"Thanks" card, by Deanna Misner.

With the weather starting to feel like Spring and this bright color combo as inspiration, I thought I'd make a card featuring some fun spiral flowers. These are super simple to make. In fact, I'd forgotten exactly how to roll them, so I just googled "spiral paper flowers", and found a YouTube tutorial to refresh my memory. If you DO make these flowers though, remember that they probably won't fit in a normal envelope. That's why I made it a "Thanks" card. I'll hand-deliver it or simply slide it into a little present.

Supplies:
Spring Flings and Easter Things: A Tisket A Tasket, Mom's Bouquet, Borders, Alpha+Bits, Just Write Journaling Stickers; Sunshine & Happiness: Popsicle Kisses

"Wishing You Sunshine & Happiness" card, by Deanna Misner.

This card's style is a little on the modern/graphic side with more white space than what I normally create. But you know what? It's fun to mix up styles a bit and try something a little different.  I hand-cut the sun from the Cute Cuts paper, then hid it behind the sentiment. I also added a little detail at the bottom with the green buttons. Buttons are such a great way to add visual interest to card, and they're not too bulky either! I absolutely LOVE the new buttons that come in the Button Market!

Supplies:
Sunshine & Happiness: Play Date, Cute Cuts; High Five Alphabet Stickers: Green; Button Market: Green Squares

"Love Pieces Of You" card, by Alice Carman.

I know Valentine’s Day is over, but we can still celebrate love regardless. Today’s card is bright and simple using the miniatures from the Baby Boy collection. The miniatures have a variety of different shapes to play with and add great texture to your project. I love that you can use the greens in the collection and turn it into something totally different. I just love it!

Supplies:
Sunshine Happiness collection: Popsicle Kisses, Miniatures, Play Date; Baby Boy collection: Miniatures; Baby Girl collection: Miniatures

"100% Joy" card, by Alice Carman.

It’s a happy yea so far! We celebrated love, a President’s birthday and leap year. What more can you ask for? It’s a joyous day and what a better way to celebrate than to be joyful of today. Here’s another great use on Bella Blvd’s papers. I’ve mixed up the collections and the simple bright patterns make it so easy to use.

Supplies:
Sunshine Happiness collection: Miniatures, Popsicle Kisses; Baby Boy: Heaven Scent, Wild About You; Baby Girl: Miniatures; Sophisticates collection: Pink-Red High Five Alphabets; Baby Blooms a Bella: Rossini

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We hope you can find some inspiration by this image as well, or even by one of the projects that our designers have shared today. We would also love it, if you shared your inspired-by projects with us. It's always fun for us to see what you're creating! Feel free to leave a comment here, with a link to your project. Or share it with everyone over on our Facebook Page.

March Guest Designer: Kim Jeffress

Today, we are welcoming our March Guest Designer, Kim Jeffress! In addition to the projects she is sharing with us today, Kim will also have a few additional projects to share later in the week. We are so thrilled to have her joining us!

Hi! It’s Kim Jeffress here visiting the Bella Blvd Blog this week all the way from down under Australia. I live in beautiful sunny Brisbane with my husband and two sons aged 5 and 3. They are my main source of scrapbooking inspiration. I love to scrap about the good and bad things they say and do, their milestones and achievements! I am honoured to be guest designing for Bella Blvd this week, their gorgeous bright coloured papers and embellishments suit my style of scrapping perfectly. I have been lucky to have been chosen as one of Australian Scrapbooking Memories magazine Masters for 2012 as well as designing for several international manufacturers, however with all these accolades I have never lost sight of my purpose for scrapbooking which is recording the memories and stories which can be so easily forgotten.

With this in mind I would like to share my first project this week and issue a challenge to everyone out there to RECORD THE STORY!

"Jasper", by Kim Jeffress.

My husband and I visited gorgeous Canada for our honey moon 7 years ago and Jasper was my most favourite town. You can see the Winter Wonderland collection was perfect for my Winter photos. I especially love the words and sentiments from the Alpha+ Bits sticker sheet which just add that little bit extra meaning to my layout. You can see I have journalled my memories from that time.

So my CHALLENGE to you today is to create a layout on any theme but make sure to add your journaling as well before the memory is forgotten.

"Three", by Kim Jeffress.

My second challenge today centers on the photo. In Australia we are just coming out of a gorgeous Summer, my family and I spent lots of days at the beach enjoying the hot weather. I snapped this photo of my boys- big and small as they were headed down the beach for a paddle in the waves. I loved the photo so much I decided to just use that one photo on my page to really make it the star. The bright yellows and aquas of the Spring Flings and Easter Things collection matched my theme perfectly I wanted a real fresh Summery feel and although they are Spring based the patterns and colours suited completely.

My CHALLENGE today is to create a layout using just ONE special photo on your layout. The size of the photo does not matter as long as there is only one photo on your layout.

"Snow Day" snowglobe, by Kim Jeffress.

I love how the themed collections have papers, stickers and die cuts that can be used to create fun projects as well as layouts and cards. For my last project today, I have created a Snow globe. I found this Snow globe on sale at my local camera shop. I took it home and found a photo of my husband and I on our honey moon and created a little scene using the Winter Wonderland papers and Alphas+Bits sheet. I have added some foam tape to some elements to add depth to my scene. My sons love shaking it and watching the snowflakes falling around mummy and daddy.

So my final CHALLENGE today is to use some Bella Blvd product to create a SCENE on a project. It can be a layout, card or even an OTP page. The scene can take up the whole design or be just a small element of your project.

I am looking forward to seeing all your beautiful creations that you create. I also want to thank Stephanie and Laura for this incredible opportunity to be guest designer this week, I have had an absolute ball playing with the products and can’t wait to dive back in and create some more!

Step-By-Step Project Sheets: Winter Wonder & Lovey Dovey

Looking for fresh ideas and new inspiration using Bella Blvd products? Want to learn how to mix and match Bella products and create cute layouts? Stuck on a project and need some help? Want to teach a Bella Blvd workshop at your LSS? Or, do you own a LSS and need a sample idea to hang next to our products? If you've said yes to ANY of the above--you're going to love this!

You can download our fifth project sheet, featuring Bella's Winter Wonder collection, by clicking HERE.

Bella Blvd has launched a new monthly feature to help you get inspired and keep you scrappin'. I have been designing a fresh never-featured-before project along with step-by-step directions for you to use, EVERY MONTH! Complete with a list of tools, supplies and Bella products needed, it couldn't get any easier! So dive into your stash today, or check out the online store links (on the sidebar) and pick up your supplies today! You'll get more pages completed with our help! Use us ... that's what we're here for!!!

You can download our sixth project sheet, featuring Bella's Lovey Dovey collection, by clicking HERE.

To find our previous project sheets, from other collections, you simply need to click on "Project Sheets" in the "Category" section on the left sidebar. That will bring up any post, where we have shared project sheets. Or, to make it easy for you today, just click on THIS and you'll be able to download our previous four project sheets!

Fridays With Stephanie

I feel like I’m always saying this, but it’s 100% totally true: I cannot believe it’s Friday already. I feel like I finally get settled into all the things on my to-do list when it’s time to close-up shop! It’s the exact same way when I’m scrapbooking. Right when I get in a groove, it’s time to pack up my things and go! Bummer.

Speaking of scrapbooking and croppin’ last weekend I hosted a successful Bella Blvd event at a local scrapbooking shop, The Scrapbook Store, in Greenfield, Wisconsin. On Friday night 40+ women and I cropped the night away!

Thanks in part to our wonderful Design Team, we created a beautiful display of Bella Blvd ideas and samples, and released the paper and stickers at this store only for the night!

We had a great time, sold a ton of Bella Blvd products and enjoyed some great snacks and workshops all day on Saturday too!

Thank you to everyone that attended and supported this fabulous independent store! I can’t wait to coordinate our next event together! So, during the crop I was able to get a few layouts done! I wanted to play along with Guest Designer, Shannon Tidwell’s Challenge week (last week).

I chose the play along with Challenge from Day Four: Use Border Strip Papers. 

I used a swatch from the entire Borders paper, nearly 7” of it. Because my photograph featured mostly neutral colors (black and white and brown) I thought the bright variety of colors worked well and didn’t compete with the design.

The new Designer Tapes are seriously one of my new favorite things. I love ripping and layering it together like this!

The new Flags make for super easy embellishing too. Here I mixed together Cute Cuts elements with chipboard and flags. It was fun to add the Dog Flags with the Winter Flags!

And, seriously, what’s a layout without some chipboard alphabets? Swoon. I’m in love with these ;) I kept the title monochromatic and added it to the top of the Borders paper element. Again, in efforts to not compete with the design or the photograph!

It’s been so much fun checking out all the Design Challenge submissions from the past week! We’ll be announcing a winner soon! You still have the rest of today to play along if you’d like!

Have a wonderful weekend! And don’t forget to tell your LSS and favorite online stores about our new products! They’re going to begin shipping next week!!! Wha-hoo!!!!

Ciao ciao for now! Hugs!

Layouts On Wednesday

It feels like forever since we have had a "Layouts On Wednesdays" feature! With all of the CHA excitement and our challenge week, I'm pretty sure it's been just a week shy of two months since our last one. So, without any more chit chat, how about we get right to it? We hope you enjoy these "free-for-all" layouts, from a few of our designers!

"Joy And Happiness", by Becky Williams.

In light of recent events in my life and in the world I decided to create this layout as a message to my oldest daughter, Hailey. She is a sweet girl, so smart and talented and quite a perfectionist and as such she can sometimes get down on herself. Everyone needs to be told how wonderful they are now and then. Here I used some lyrics from a Whitney Houston song as the title of the page and used a mix of the brand new High Five Alphabets as well. 

Supplies:
Lovey Dovey: Bear Hugs, Alpha+Bits; Baby Girl: Cute Cuts, Alpha+Bits; Winter Wonder: Miniatures; Spring Flings & Easter Things: Egg Hunt, Ciao Chip Icons; Sophisticates: Ciao Chip Borders, Miniatures Card Sentiments; High Five Alphabets: Blue, Green, Yellow, Pink-Red, Black-White; Flags: Girl; Designer Tape: Yellow Chevron

"Wisteria", by Melissa Stinson.

Can it be spring yet? Please? I've been craving flowers lately, so for this layout I pulled out a few photos of wisteria that I shot last summer. I also used this page to show a different side of the new Baby Girl collection. If you take a couple of the B-side prints, throw in a dash of Socialite and a pinch of Too Cute To Spook, you get a different look entirely, and not a baby in sight! I also tried a fun glitter splatter technique, found HERE.

Supplies:
Baby Girl: Daddy's Girl, Borders; Socialite: Tango; Too Cute To Spook: Cute Cuts; Sophisticates: Essentials Brown & Champagne, Simply Simona Prune Alphabet; Baby Blooms a Bella: Champagne

"Dancy Fever", by Kimberly Neddo.

For this layout I used pictures I took with my IPhone. They aren't perfectly clear because the kids were dancing so fast, but I still wanted to scrapbook them. I wanted to create a sort of film strip effect with the pictures, to correlate the action with the film strip and pictures. I kept this super simple and used a combination of AWESOME Bella Products that worked so well to create exactly what I was looking for.

Supplies:
Sophisticates: Short Stories; Family Dynamix: Quadrants; Winter Wonder: Icy; Hello Beautiful: Cute Cuts; High Five Alphabet: Black/White

"Imaginations Gives You Wings", by Allyson Meinholz.

I came across this older photo of my daughter, Amelia (I’m a little behind in my albums). In this photo she is 3yrs old, and she is now going on 8yrs old. But for sure, one of my all time favorite photos of her! I decided to do a blocking background with the pattern papers - and POP the photo as the focus. I embellished with details throughout the page. Once I decided on the title, it was a bit long for the space provided and since the lower part of the photo was wide open I decided to lay the title across the photo and onto the page. The colors of Sunshine & Happiness went along perfect with her shirt and wings. I really enjoyed doing this page - can't believe how TIME FLIES.

Supplies:
Sunshine & Happiness: Sunny Side Up, Popsicle Kisses, Happy Clouds, Cute Cuts, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Miniature Stickers, Flags; Designer Tape: Teal Stripe; Sophisticates: Sprinkle & Lace Plum; Simply Simona Chipboard Alphas: Peep; High Five Alpha Stickers: Red/Pink; Crochet Flower: Daisies: Baby Blooms a Bella: Rossini

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Also, I wanted to remind you that you have TWO days left, to get your submissions in for our challenges from last week! We love the response we have seen so far, and are so glad that so many of you were inspired to take part in some, or all, of the challenges. Keep them coming ;)

Some Altered Project Fun

Today, we have a wide range of altered projects to share with you. We have an adorable set of altered canvases, that have been turned into wall art for a baby's room. There is a super creative little playset, made to be used with a child's favorite toys. Next up, you'll see a bright and happy framed project, to help count down the days until summer vacation. And last, but certainly not least, we have a really fun sports mini album, perfect for any young athlete. Enjoy!

Altered Baby Canvases, by Jennifer Edwardson.

I had so much fun making this sweet baby gift using one of my favorite collections, Lovey Dovey. This started out as a Valentine's project and quickly turned into wall art for a baby's room! I decided to 'scrapbook' these canvases like I would a layout, only without photos. I started by cutting a few background pieces, sanded the edges and adhered them to the 5 x 7" canvas bases.  

Then I precision cut all the Cute Cuts and added some of them to the front of the canvases, raising up a few of them using 3D foam.

I used Ciao Chip alphas for the title with a few sticker words and a Blooms a Bella flower on the elephant. I'm so happy with how they turned out!

Supplies:
Lovey Dovey: Cute Cuts, Love is in the Air, Circle of Love, Sweetheart, Bear Hugs; Simply Simona Chipboard Alphas: Peep, Saltwater; Baby Blooms a Bella: Rossini; Spring Flings and Easter Things: Miniatures

Winter Resort, by Marie-Josée Hamel.

My 7-year-old daughter loves her Littlest Pet Shop collection and has tons of animals, so I thought it would be fun to create a winter resort for her using the beautiful Winter Wonder collection.

To create the ski lodge, I altered a tiny wood house using paint and paper.

The skate rental booth is made out of a small cardboard box that I covered with paper. The skates are cut out of the Cute Cuts paper and adhered to the booth using pop dots. I used easels that I adhered to the back of the trees. This way, they can be moved around as my daughter sees fits.

The ski rack and sled display also have an easel on the back. It was pretty easy to curl the tip of the skis and the sleds; I used a pen and rolled the paper around it.

Speaking of the ski rack, did you notice the tiny ski poles? :) I cut toothpicks in two, punch tiny circles in paper, pierced them with a needle and put the toothpick pieces through them, and then created handles by rolling paper.

Supplies:
Winter Wonder: Blizzard, Toasty, Ski Slopes, Icy. Borders, Cute Cuts, Alpha+Bits, Just Write

Summer Vacation Countdown, by Sheri Feypel.

To say that we look forward to our Summer vacation would be an understatement! We live for our weeks in the North Woods, swimming, boating, tubing, wake boarding, fishing and just hanging out. It is our little paradise! I created this Summer Vacation Countdown so that the boys could see how many days til we hit the road to head Up North. I started counting how many days until we leave, and once I got past 100 I decided we would start our countdown on the last day of school.

This was so fun to create and came together rather quickly. I made a flag banner with some of the patterns from Sunshine & Happiness, created a few flags from the Designer tapes and added some of the Miniature stickers. I layered them with foam pop dots for dimension and added a few paper clips so that we could change the numbers easily.

Supplies:
Sunshine & Happiness: Happy Clouds, Play Date, Cute Cuts, Sunny Side Up, Miniatures, Flags; Designer Tape: Teal Stripe, Yellow Chevron; High Five Alphabets: Yellow, Blue; Sophisticates: Ciao Chip Trees

"Game On" mini album, by Suzanne Sergi.

With a boy that loves all sports, the Making the Team collection has our bases covered. Unfortunately, my family lives in Texas, so they are unable to see my son play. I made a quick, and fun album with a few action snapshots to share with them. This paper collection has all the traditional game colors, and one of my favorite elements are the Alpha+Bits sticker sheet. A fast, and creative way to add embellishments throughout this mini. After playing with this collection for the first time, it is safe to say this is my favorite sports line ever!

Supplies:
Making The Team: Chipboard Icons, Wall Of Fame, Fan Club, Borders, Volleyball, Football, Soccer, Cute Cuts, Alpha+Bits, Just Write Journaling Stickers; Simply Simona: Oreo Numbers; Mr Boy: Chit Chat; Super Stud: Label Additions

Challenge Week With Guest Designer Shannon Tidwell: Day Four

Hi, this is Shannon Tidwell back again for another fun Challenge on the Bella Blvd Blog!

Thursday Challenge: Use Border Strip Papers 

Border Strip papers are right up there with the Cute Cuts in my book! You get so much on just one sheet of paper! When I see these sheets I immediately want to cut it apart, but you don't have to. You could use the whole sheet as a background. A little too busy? Tone it down with some paint or spray. Is there one strip right in the middle you want to use? Cut it out and use it!  Border Strips are also great for cards. You can get a little bit of pattern without having to cut into a full sheet.

"He'll Remember", by Shannon Tidwell.

Flag banners are all the rage right now, and these Border Strip papers are perfect for them! I cut out several of the strips I wanted ... don't forget, you could use the backside pattern, too. I mixed the strips with a few patterned paper strips as well as a few border stickers. I also layered on a few stickers to dress the banners up just a little. I chose to have my banner come from the left side and kind of 'point' at the photo, but you could turn this any direction. Let the banner lead your eye toward the focal point of your page.  

Now, let's see the awesome layouts the Bella DT created for the Challenge.

"So Tiny", by Brook Stewart.

I loved Shannon's challenge this week! The border strip papers are always one of my favorite Bella staples! One thing I really love to do is to cut them up and use them as little tags/flags/banners. The word/phrase lines add just the perfect sentiments and the patterns tie it all in really well!

Supplies:
Baby Boy: Borders, Momma’s Boy, Heaven Sent, Just Write Journaling Stickers; Sophisticates Ciao Chip Alphas: Pickle Juice, Orange; Button Market: Masculine Mix; Designer Tape: Pickle Juice Dot

"Cupcake Love", by Lynn Ghahary.

Using just the Borders papers was definitely a challenge for me since I am a patterned paper junkie at heart.  I decided to create my own pattern of sorts using various border strips cut to size in red, pink, and white patterns to coordinate with the colors in my photos.  And, yes, those cupcakes did taste as good as they look ;)

Supplies:
Lovey Dovey: Bear Hugs; Sophisticates: Tall Tags, Quattrofina Peep & Saffron Stickers; Family Dynamics: The Littlest Things, Alpha+Bits Cardstock Stickers; Spring Flings and Easter Things: Borders; Winter Wonder: Borders

"Beautiful Butterfly", by Katherine McElvain.

Bella Blvd. Borders papers are a necessity in my stash. The variety of color on one sheet is so useful when doing projects. I often add a strip on a layout here and there. For this project I did my usual and added a strip to from the Winter Wonder Borders on the bottom of my page, and a green strip form the Sunshine and Happiness Borders layered with a sticker from the same line in the middle of the layout. But I also used the Borders strips to do some paper weaving. They coordinate perfectly to with the other Bella papers to create monochromatic projects.

I created circle flowers by weaving paper strips together. I used strips from the Borders as well as other matching papers to have a variety of patterns in the weave. Then I punched out circles and adhered them to the back of my woven paper. After I trimmed off the excess paper around the circle I had a woven flower to add to my layout. The same technique can be used with any shape. So get yourself some Borders strips and start creating.

Supplies:
Sunshine and Happiness: Borders, Happy Clouds, Popsicle Kisses, Sunny Side Up, Just Write Journaling Stickers, Alpha+Bits Stickers; Winter Wonder: Borders; Baby Boy: Baby Blue; Sophisticates: Oreo Ciao Chip, Blue High Five Alpha; Crochet Flowers: Juniper; Button Market: Neutrals Mix

"Will It Stick", by Julie Johnson.

For this layout I thought it would be fun to cut the border strips from the Winter Wonder collection into various sizes. I angled the ends like ribbons, and place them at different lengths around a circle. I left the ends loose to add a bit of dimension to the layout. My goofy son and nephew thought it would be fun to see if their tongues would stick to the frozen snowman so I titled the page with the question, "will it stick?". The alpha + bits letters didn't have a question mark so I got creative and changed an "R" to a question mark. The snowman is also cut from one of the border strips and backed onto a thin piece of chipboard. I added a scallop border, a few stickers from the Miniatures sticker sheet, a glittered snowflake, and a button to complete the layout.

Supplies:
Winter Wonder: Borders, Toasty, Ski Slopes, Alpha + Bits, and Miniatures

"So Happy For You" card, by Alice Carman.

For this card I cut out the flowers from the pattern and adhered it in clusters alongside the Bella Blooms. The technique layering the border strips against each other using different patterns and clusters.

Supplies:
Baby Girl: Borders, Daddy’s Girl; Baby Boy: Cute Cuts; Unity Stamps: So Happy For You; Baby Blooms a Bella: Rossini, Champagne, Azzini

"Congratulations", by Alice Carman.

Today’s challenge is to use the border papers creatively and it was a task indeed. I think my take on the challenge is simple, but also something different. I used different patterns as my borders and cut the paper according to the design so it differs from a straight cut.

Supplies:
Baby Boy: Borders, Cute Cuts, On The Go; Unity Stamps: New Set Of Wheels; Sunshine & Happiness: Happy Clouds

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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.

 

Challenge Week With Guest Designer Shannon Tidwell: Day Three

Hi, it's me, Shannon Tidwell, back again for another day of fun & scrapbooking.

Wednesday Challenge: Use Patterned Paper as an Embellishment

For me, patterned paper is the supply of supplies. The one thing I couldn't scrap without. Not only is it the most versatile supply, it's also the least expensive. Win win!  So let's go big with some patterned paper and use it for the main embellishment on your page. It doesn't have to be something super complicated or time consuming, just interesting. Sometimes I like to challenge myself to use it in a different way, and sometimes I go to my bag of tricks. Do you have a bag of tricks? You should! They are just techniques that you've used in the past that worked! Stuck on a layout? Pull out one of your tricks to get your layout 'un-stuck' and before you know it you'll have something you love. 

A few of my favorite tricks with patterned paper:

• Grab your scissors and cut. Circles, stars, hearts. This is a great way to mix up a lot of papers on your page, too. 
• Have a paper with great elements, but it's a little busy for the page? Cut out the elements and use them on your page.
• Strips. Wide, skinny, short, long. Create a background, a border, or a base for your title.
• Make something. I love making pinwheels and rosettes ... fun and easy ways to add interest & dimension to your page. The bigger the better of course! 

"Summer Swim Team", by Shannon Tidwell.

For my first layout today, I made a little party on my page. I love creating dimensional accents with patterned paper. They don't weigh the page down a ton....or make the $ value of the page skyrocket. I let the silly string in the photos inspire the accent. Curly-Q's are so simple to make.  Just trim super skinny strips of paper and the wrap them around any round tool you've got. I left my curly-q's pretty tight, you can unroll them some to help loosen them up, or use a larger round tool to wrap them around. 

Your first question might be, what are these going to look like in your book? The answer: still fun! I'll kind of arrange them as I put the page in the page protector. Instead of seeing the top of the curly-q's you'll see the side, which will still be fun. Go ahead, have a little party on your next page!

"Baby Love", by Shannon Tidwell.

And the technique I chose for my second layout, I grabbed my trusty fringe scissors. You could do this same technique with regular scissors, but the fringe ones make it go a lot faster ... and the cuts are more uniform. I love how the fringe scissors kind of curl the paper automatically. This adds a lovely bit of texture and dimension. And if a little fringe is good, a lot is great!  (This is kind of my motto with everything in scrapbooking.)

To create the fringe border on this layout I cut several strips of patterned paper.  I usually cut them about 3" wide and then I have plenty of room to fringe and overlap them. Plain strips of paper would have been okay, but the fringe makes the paper an embellishment. 

Let's see what the Bella Blvd team has for you!

"My 2 Loves", by Nancy Damiano.

I love the eclectic look of mixing different patterns gives. I used the Silhouette to cut a little more than a dozen hearts out to adhere to the page. I chose both large and small patterns, as well as solid colored and multi-colored patterns to give the heart collage some pop.  I adhered the hearts with a mix of buttons and mini-staples, as well as pop dots for a layered look. The entire collage was built on a square of vellum to ground it to the layout.  The row of black and white photos of my husband and son through the years really stands out against the stark colors. This was such a fun and easy look to pull together. A little bit of this and a little bit of that - just how I like my pages!

Supplies:
Sophisticates: Calendar, Petite Pieces, Miniatures; Winter Wonder: Blizzard, Icy; Spring Fling & Easter Things: Moms Bouquet, Alpha+Bits; Simply Simona Chipboard Alphas: Saltwater, McIntosh

"Pretty Tulips", by Becky Williams.

To create these flowers I simply cut narrow strips of patterned paper, added glue to the center and folded the ends to the middle. I then layered the strips and added a button with strong liquid adhesive. 

Supplies:
Sophisticates: Sprinkles and Lace Oyster, McIntosh; High Five Alphabet Stickers: Black/White; Spring Flings and Easter Things: Egg Hunt; Designer Tape: Red Dot, Pickle Juice Dot; Button Market: Snowflakes, Zebra, Bursts

"Wipeout", by Melissa Stinson.
{A Winter CHA Layout}

I'm just going to gloss over the fact that my husband and I were crazy enough to use our kayak as a sled (we hardly ever have snow here, so our existence is a sledless one) and skip straight to the techniques. I'd been wanting to try Marcy Penner's chevron tutorial for a while, and these photos of my husband falling out of the-kayak-I-shall-not-mention just begged for the jagged edges of a set of vertical chevrons. It kinds of makes the whole layout say "ouch," don't you think? And, yes, there is video of us being insane on YouTube...somewhere. ;)

Supplies:
Winter Wonder: Blizzard, Toasty, Ski Slopes; Button Market: Snowflakes; Flags: Winter; Sophisticates: Blue High Five Alphabets

"Lara", by Sue Mylde.

As a teenager in Singapore, I took the bus to and from school. These buses had mini printout tickets which we teens like to 'create' something with. One of my favorite things is to create these paper origami hearts with them. And for this challenge I wanted to make these hearts for this layout too! While I used one of the hearts out by its lonesome, I've also clustered up some hearts together to create a flower and then layered it on top with another one of those cute blooms from the Bella collection! Cute, right? I love these Spring Flings & Easter Things collection - so bright and fun! It's not yet spring here in Calgary but I'm sure feeling the warmth of this page!

Supplies:
Spring Flings & Easter Things: Egg Hunt, Mom's Bouquet, Sunny Sunday, Borders, Cute Cuts, Alphas +Bits; Blooms-a-Bella

"Sending You Sunshine" card, by Gretchen McElveen.

For this card I cut a bunch of clouds out of the Happy Clouds patterned paper from the Sunshine and Happiness line. Cutting images out of patterned paper is one of my favorite "techniques"!! I used the clouds to embellish around the sunshine from the Cute Cuts sheet. I adhered a couple of the clouds with foam adhesive to add some dimension to the card. I thought this was a perfect card to use the "Sending you some sunshine" sticker from the Alpha+Bits sticker sheet. Challenge complete!

Supplies:
Sunshine & Happiness: Happy Clouds, Cute Cuts, Sunny Side Up, Juicy Good Time, Alpha+ Bits Sticker Sheet; Flags: Floral

"Congrats" card, by Gretchen McElveen.

I used my circle punch to punch some patterned paper from the Baby Boy line. I also punched kraft cardstock with a slightly larger circle punch. Then I added the patterned paper on top of the kraft and created a big circle border across the card. I cut a couple of tiny hearts out of the Borders sheet from the Baby Boy line and used them as small embellishments on the card. Fun!

Supplies:
Baby Boy: Alpha + Bits stickers, It's a Boy, Momma's Boy, Cute Cuts, Borders

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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.

I saw a few questions come up in the comment section, and wanted to answer them here:
1. Yes ... cards count the same as layouts!
2. You don't have to have a blog to participate. You can link us to your project on Flickr, Pinterest, or in an online gallery.