Bella Blvd Studio Blog

Sketch Week Day 6 | Melissa Mann

Good Morning!

I was so excited that I got to work with this month's sketch and it is such a GOOD ONE!! 

I loved the multiple photo option and the big title option on this sketch. I stuck pretty closely to the sketch but ended up moving my title just a bit to have the layout flow a little better to my liking.

I started by backing a piece of white card stock to a piece of pattern paper from the You Are My Sunshine paper collection. I used a piece of leftover flower cut-out on the white card stock and layered my pattern paper boxes on top. I stitched the pattern paper boxes together with my sewing machine. I ended up using three photos that were wider rather than longer and layered them cross the bottom of the more vertical boxes. 

Once I had the photos secured, I punched a bunch of hearts out of various papers from the You Are My Sunshine collection and used them in conjunction with a bunch of chipboard hearts from the Home Sweet Home and You Are My Sunshine Ciao Chip. I popped up a few of the hearts using foam dots. 

I filled up the boxes above my photos with journaling, my chipboard title word and ephemera from the You Are My Sunshine collection. I really loved how this project turned out :-)

Bella Blvd Supplies Used:
1. You Are My Sunshine Paper Collection
2. Flower Cut-Out
3. Home Sweet Home Ciao Chip
4. You Are My Sunshine Ciao Chip
5. You Are My Sunshine Ephemera
6. Bella Pops
7. You Are My Sunshine Doohickey Stickers
8. Oh Happy Day Puffy Stickers

Sketch Week Day 5 | Erica Thompson

Hey friends! Welcome back to the Bella Blog and another day of sketch inspiration! Erica here with you and I am excited to share my layout using this months sketch for inspiration. 

This months sketch is lovely and I had so much fun creating with it and my Bella Blvd stash of products.

I have been wanting to use the Zoo Crew cut file that is available in the Silhouette Design Store to document one of our summer zoo trips! I knew it would be the perfect title piece for my layout and I placed it towards the bottom of my page. The sketch does now show a cut file but it does have a large title so this works perfectly! 

I started with the Fairy Garden 12x12 paper from the Let's Go On An Adventure collection as my starting point for what colors I wanted to use. This is my favorite paper from this collection and I love to use it! I fussy cut some of the florals on this page because I knew I wanted to add them around the layout. 

I pulled papers to match the Fairy Garden paper from Squeeze the Day, Bug Explorer and the Chloe collection. I backed the cut file and also die cut some stitched hearts to layer up next to my photo,

I mixed up the sketch a bit but it was great to use as my inspiration piece to get my layout started and I love how it turned out! To finish it off I added my journaling and some matte enamel dots from the Cooper collection. 

Thanks so much for stopping by today and we can't wait to see what you create with this months sketch!

Zoo Crew Cut File | Let's Go On An Adventure collection | Chloe Collection | Dog Mix Enamel Dots | Squeeze the Day Collection

Sketch Week Day 4 | Tegan

Good day Bella Blvd friends! Tegan with you here today sharing my take on September's super fun sketch! I am obsessed with the brand new You Are My Sunshine collection, so of course I used that as well! Come take a look! 

First, here is the sketch...What ideas do you get from it right away?

And here is my take! I tried to keep the main elements (photos, title, etc) in the same areas as the sketch. I had so much fun using the sketch to create today's layout! 

Did you catch the cool grid pattern background on the original sketch? At first, I wanted to get out my stencils and paints to create a grid pattern but I recently moved and those supplies are still nowhere to be found. So I decided since I did have the Bella Blvd Heart Attack Cut-Outs I would try to do something with them that I haven't done before!  I layered the bottoms of the hearts behind some of the patterned papers so that just the top scallops stick out. I love that it gives the page a little bit more detail here! I embellished the top of the page here with You Are My Sunshine Chipboard Stickers and Ephemera Die-Cuts. I love the little Bella enamel dots too.

I made sure to include the embellishment cluster underneath the photos section even though I didn't use stars. Here I used a mix of the You Are My Sunshine Chipboard Stickers and Ephemera Die-Cuts. I absolutely LOVE all of the colors and graphics in this collection!

And the AMAZING Aria Puffy Stickers in a rainbow of colors were absolutely perfect for making my large title! And they pop so well against the tiny black polka dot Daily Details Patterned Paper!

What part of the You Are My Sunshine collection is your favorite? Is it the colors? The flowers and adorable bees? Or the darling butterflies?!

Thank you for joining us today! I hope I have inspired you to grab the awesome September sketch for your next layout! It was so much fun! 

Bella Blvd Products Used:

You Are My Sunshine Collection: Daily Details Patterned Paper, Happy Thoughts Patterned Paper, My Only Sunshine Patterned Paper, Ray of Sunshine Patterned Paper, Chipboard Stickers, Ephemera Die-Cuts, Doohickey Stickers

Bella Blvd Cut-Outs: Heart Attack

Aria Alphabet Stickers: Orange, Ice, Gulf, Punch, Guacamole, Blueberry, Pickle Juice

 

Sketch Week Day 3 | Brianna Lepper

Hey friends!  Brianna Lepper here today sharing a new layout using the gorgeous September Sketch and the You Are My Sunshine collection.  Do you like to create with sketches?  They really take a lot of the work out for you and it's fun to take a sketch and alter it to fit your design/style as well.  Here's what I came up with!

 

 

Here's the gorgeous September Sketch created by my fellow CT member, Niki Rowland. It's fabulous!

 

 

When I looked at the sketch, I noticed a fun mixed media background using a stencil.  So I took a stencil from my stash and ink blended on a few different Distress Oxide ink pads in pink, orange and yellow. It was super simple and quick!  You could even add stitching in place of the mixed media.  It would add some great texture.  

 

 

I usually add only one photo to my layouts but this sketch called for several and I really wanted to stick as close to the sketch as possible.  I had a bunch of photos that I had taken of my boys playing basketball in the pool and I thought it would be fun to arrange them frame by frame.  I matted them using the Everyday Magic 12x12 patterned paper and popped them all up on foam tape to give them all a little bit of lift.  The photos and the mattes are all in blue tones so they really popped on top of my background. 

 

 

I wanted to add more color and without using additional patterned papers, I thought it would be neat to add washi tape to the top and bottom of the page.  I used both a polka dot washi and skinny stripe washi and really like how it pulled everything together. For my title, I used the "Memories" acrylic piece and added onto it using the Aria Alphas in Gulf.  

 

 

Next, I pulled in some ephemera, puffy stickers and chipboard and cardstock stickers.  I created embellishment clusters around my page and added some tangled thread to them as well.  

 

 

Here's a close up shot of one of the clusters.  All of these bright colors make me so happy.  

 

 

One more shot of this fun layout!

 

 

Thank you so much for stopping by today, I really appreciate you being here!  If you do end up using this sketch to create a page, please make sure to tag me in your social media posts.  I would love to see your take on it!  I'd also love it  if you checked out my process video down below to see how this layout came together.  See you next time friends!

 

 

 

 

 

Bella Blvd Supplies Used: 

You Are My Sunshine Collection: 12x12 Patterned Papers, Ciao Chip Stickers, Doohickey Cardstock Stickers, Ephemera, Puffy Stickers; Bella Besties: Aria Alphas in Gulf, Memories Acrylic Piece.  

 

 

Sketch Week - Day 2 | Nathalie DeSousa

Hello Bella Blvd.friends!

Nathalie here to continue sharing more inspiration with this month's sketch.   We love sketches, they are one of the  best ways to get a project done in a short amount of time with great results. Let's take a look at this week's sketch

Just love all the small picture  spots, and the large title.   Now here is my project:

 

 

I started by creating the background for my page.   The sketch shows a broken grid print in the background; I am replacing that with a bit of mixed media.  A bit of ink blending, then followed by a stencil application just adds a bit of color to the white cardstock.

 

 

Next, it was all about working with the photos.  I chose to back my 4 photos with papers from TO THE MOON Collection, and glued them as per the sketch.  However, I replaced the center photo with part of  my title.   I used Aria puffy alphas to spell the word, "DAD", in the center of the page in vertical formation.  

 

 

I used a circle stencil for the background, so I used a set of dies to cut some of the TO THE MOON collection and BELLA BESTIES Ombre/hearts into circles.  These are scattered at the bottom of the photos, along with  chipboard  stars and puffy star stickers from To The Moon collection.   I added a few extra accents atop the word "DAD", and a few extra embellishments at the outer edges of the pictures at both ends of the page.

 

 

I love the font in the Doohickey sticker page.  I used the ones from TO THE MOON collection for my title work.   I followed the placement for the journal lines, but decided to bring a bit of extra embellishment to the bottom edge of the page.

 

 

The sketch also shows a bit of embellishing on the top edge of the layout.  I chose to trim the top edge, and distress it a bit. Then backed the empty space with one of the papers used in the circle die cuts. I repeated this look at the bottom of the page, too.

 

 

I love how this turned out, and how easy it came together using the sketch as inspiration for the page. Remember to share your projects -inspired by the sketch- with us, too.  We would love to see your take on the sketch!

 

XO

 

 

Supply List

TO THE MOON Collection:  Patterned papers, Doohickey Stickers, Ephemera, Puffy Stickers, Chipboard Stickers

BELLA BESTIES Ombre/Heart Collection - Blueberry

ARIA PUFFY Stickers - Blueberry

Others:  Stencil - Vicki Boutin exclusive; Distress Ink - Salvaged Patina, Peacock Feathers; Dies - Freckled Fawn

Sketch Week Day 1 | Sarah Millerhouse

I love working with a great sketch! My favorite time to work with a sketch is when I have a creative block and can’t think of a page to make. This sketch by Niki Rowland was so much fun to use!

I started by creating the five blocks at the top. This was a great way to be able to use lots of the beautiful patterned papers from the You Are My Sunshine collection. I used the more solid patterns as a frame and placed those in rainbow order (of course)! I then chose five of the more colorful patterned papers to place on top, making sure they featured the color of the solid below. I distressed the edges of each paper. I picked those up and created a foundation for each block using distress inks. I love to use a few drops of ink from the distress reinker bottles because I am able to get the vivid colors Bella Blvd is known for! 

I then cut my sweet photos into circles to place across the top of the blocks. When a sketch or page is super linear, I find it important to break that up with circles or rounded corners to give the layout some softer edges. I also included my journaling in one of those circles. 

For the title, I used ciao chip pieces from the Let's Go on an Adventure collection. These were originally white, and I used embossing powders in coordinating colors to achieve this look. I gradually changed embossing powders across the words to coordinate with the solid patterns I used for the frames above. I then added strips of patterned paper to act as a foundation of ruffles below the title. I placed them in rainbow order, descending down the page. I love how this turned out and the color it adds to the layout! 

I added one more strip of paper (my favorite pattern in the collection) in the top left corner and a sticker from the Doohickey sheet. This was in place of the stitching from the top of the sketch. 

 

Finally, I added beautiful embellishments from the collection! I nestled lots of sweet things just under my photos to act as the stars from the sketch. I did these mostly tone-on-tone, highlighting the color from the solid frame below. 

I added a couple of the Bella Pop butterfly stickers above my photos and one of the cardstock butterflies from the ephemera pieces down near the bottom. For this butterfly, I trimmed off the white border, curled up the edges, and added a little glitter to the white dots! 

I love how the final layout turned out and the inspiration this sketch provided! I hope you’ll use this sketch for one of your upcoming layouts!! 

Bella Blvd Products Used:

You Are My Sunshine Collection: Patterned papers, Doohickey, Ciao Chip, Puffy Stickers, Epoxy Sprinkles, Epoxy Hello Summer stickers, Bella-Pops, Ephemera 

Let's Go on An Adventure: Ciao Chip

Other Products:

Distress Ink