Bella Blvd Studio Blog

Guest Designer - Sheri Reguly, part 2

We want to welcome back Sheri Reguly, as our newest Guest Designer. She was so inspired by the Bella products she received, that she created a few extra projects. There were so many to share, that we felt she deserved two days in the spotlight!

 

I'm so happy to be back, to share the rest of my projects with you. How is everyone doing on the challenge that I put out to you, on Monday? I hope some of you are playing along, and I would love to see what you come up with.

 

"Today Was Fun", by Sheri Reguly.

My third layout, entitled, “Today Was Fun” features a mix of supplies from the Sophisticates collection, in addition to a simple strip of grid paper from Making The Team. This fun combination of colors was perfect for these lighthearted photos of my daughter splashing away in her pool.

 

The Sprinkles & Lace papers also happen to be perfect for die cutting. They provide wonderful patterns, in monochromatic designs, that add so much more interest to your pages than any plain solid possibly could.

 

"You're So Sweet", by Sheri Reguly.

My forth layout, entitled “You’re So Sweet” also features supplies from the Sophisticates collection. The bright colors are perfect for those summertime photos, or simply to document those heartwarming everyday moments.

 

Both of my cards were designed around the Tall Tags from the Sophisticates collection. These tags are a definite must have for me, for they can be used in such a variety of different ways.

 

"Make Everyday Memorable" card, by Sheir Reguly.

For my first card, I used the MAKE EVERYDAY MEMORABLE tag, in addition to the adjacent one on the left hand side. I trimmed them down to create a square, rounded the corners,  then matted them onto a kraft cardstock background. A thin strip of striped patterned paper from the Making The Team collection added a splash of additional color, and a gorgeous Baby Blossom added some wonderful dimension, as well as provided the perfect finishing touch.

 

"Happiness" card, by Sheri Reguly.

For my second card, I combined the HAPPINESS tag with Sprinkles & Lace patterned paper in Peep, and stripes cut from Petite Pieces. For a touch of the unexpected, I then cut oak leaves from Sprinkles & Lace patterned paper in Apricot. The color combination that I used isn’t your typical Autumn palette, but Bella’s lines are so versatile, and mix & match so well together, that it really opens up the possibilities.

On a final note, I’d like to say a great big “thank you,” to both Stephanie and Laura for this wonderful opportunity. I had so much fun working with the supplies that were sent to me! I was extremely inspired, and have many more ideas in mind that I just can’t wait to get started on!

 

Midterm Isn't Just For School

 

Our Back To School Week sort of spilled over into this week a little bit, didn't it? We've already seen a few of you sharing your layouts on our Facebook page, from Sheri's "First Day of School" challenge she gave you yesterday. It's always fun to see some of you playing along with us! Today, we have some more layouts to share with you, featuring the Midterm collection. Except this time, they're not layouts about school. We wanted to show you how this collection can be used for lots of different types of layouts, and not just the theme the products were created for.

 

"I Chat", by Tanisha Long.

I joined my first online scrapbooking community in 2006, 2 years after I started scrapbooking. Since then, social media has become an important of my day. I have developed wonderful relationships with people from all around the world who share the same passion as me. This layout serves to highlight my feelings about them, which is "online friends ROCK"!!

 

Since this layout is about chatting online, I chose to highlight 2 papers to help draw the point home, Steve's Keys and Text Me. The "hanging with my peeps" block from the borders and blocks paper was the perfect addition for the journaling! I ran out of chipboard Cs, so I used the negative space to complete my title. I cut the negative space "c" into a circle and sanded the edges for a more uniform look.

 

Supplies:
Midterm: Steve's Keys, Physics, Pep Rally, Text Me, Borders N Blocks, Alphabets and Bits; Simply Simona Ciao Chip Alphabets: Oyster

 

"Blog Blog", by Michelle Clement.

I was really inspired by the keyboard paper and laptop cut-out in the Midterm collection, for this page. I liked that the collection seemed like I could use it for more than just the 'school days' it was designed with, in mind. The computer-inspired patterned paper reminded me of my computer, which made me think of blogging. I ended up thinking about the last few years of blogging and how they've pushed my art and my scrapbooking to a new level, with so much positive reinforcement and inspiration out there on the web. I wanted to document that little thought, and some of the bright photos I take for my blog, now - which represent that growth, because I've learned so much about photography in the last year alone online!

 

Tip: Water down acrylic paint in a plastic container instead of using it straight from the tube - a few drops of water make it go onto the paper smoothly and dry faster.

 

Supplies:
Midterm: Borders N Blocks, Steves Keys , Cute Cuts

 

"VJ Nat", by Janis Medina.

 

 

And now we have a giveaway winner to announce. Hopefully, you all caught sight of our giveaway in the August newsletter. And hopefully, you all made you way over to Bella's Facebook page, and "liked" us, so that you could have a chance at winning.  

 

The winner of a set of SIX Chipboard Alphabets is:

Deanna Daily Misner 

Congrats Deanna! Please email me, with "AUGUST NEWSLETTER GIVEAWAY WINNER" in the subject line, at lauravegas.bellablvd@yahoo.com.

 

Retailers Emails Needed!

Bella Blvd has a great new marketing tool for retailers, online stores, kit clubs, distributors, etc. If you are a wholesaler, be sure to send an email to SALES@BELLABLVD.NET and we'll be sure to get you on the new e-blast you won't want to miss out on each month!

 

Guest Designer - Sheri Reguly, part 1

We couldn't resist inviting one more amazing Guest Designer to join us this month. We are excited to have Sheri Reguly here, to share some fabulous projects with you, and she's even got a challenge prepared for everyone, that coincides with our "Back To School" theme we had going on last week. 

 

Hi everyone!  I can’t even begin to tell you how thrilled and honored I am to be Bella’s guest designer for the week. I’ve been a big fan of Bella Blvd since the beginning, when they first captured my heart with their fabulous products in amazing colors, patterns, and designs. Bella’s products perfectly fit with my scrapbooking style, which I would describe as being fun and lighthearted, clean and streamlined, with a few carefully chosen embellishments mixed in. I’m also all about the tiny details, those ones that add that “little extra something” to my pages.

Ever since I was a little girl, I’ve been drawn to pretty papers, and I could never resist a cute stationary set, or a colorful pack of stickers. That, combined with my love for photography, destined me to become drawn to this wonderful hobby. I didn’t actually start scrapbooking though, as we know it today, until 2001, shortly after the birth of my son, Justin. However, I always purchased photo albums with stationary lines beside each photo pocket, which allowed me to jot down little details about each photo or event. I also feel the need to confess, that I used to decorate the pages of those albums in those glorious caption stickers that came in the corniest of phrases. If that counts as scrapbooking, then I’ve been doing it for practically as long as I can remember :)

 

"Play Ball", by Sheri Reguly.

My first layout, entitled “Play Ball” features some recent photos of my son that I’ve been very anxious to scrapbook. His team recently became the All Star District Champs, and I couldn’t be more proud of the wonderful contribution that he made during the duration of the tournament. The Making The Team collection provided me with the perfect inspiration, as well as everything I needed to help make this layout come together quick and easy.

 

I also incorporated Quattrofina letter stickers from the Sophisticates collection in Milk & Oreo. A simple star sticker placed behind the “a” in my title helps play on the sports theme.

 

"Grade 2", by Sheri Reguly.

My second layout that I’ll be sharing with you today, is entitled “Grade 2,“ and features a combination of supplies from the Midterm collection, as well as the fabulous border stickers from Making The Team, and a calendar from the Sophisticates collection. 

 

I find it so very hard to believe, but my son is actually getting ready to start grade 5 in just a few days. I therefore have to confess, that it’s taken me nearly three entire years to get around to scrapbooking this particular first day of school photo. Please tell me that I’m not the only one out there who has let a page slide for this long, especially one of such significance. The start of a new school year is such a huge milestone for a child, one definitely worthy of being properly documented.

Do you feel a challenge coming on? Do you have any back to school photos of your children that you have yet to scrapbook? If so, I challenge you stop procrastinating, and get that photo scrapped, ASAP! :) Or, if you happen to be an amazingly efficient scrapbooker, who is currently completely up to date, first let me say that I am extremely jealous. And secondly, I challenge you to create a layout reminiscent of your own school days, whether it be grade school, high school or college. Pull out your favorite Bella supplies from the Midterm, or any other collection, and create a school themed page. Be sure to link us to your pages ... we’d really love to see them!!!

I hope you will come back on Wednesday, when I share the rest of my projects with you. I still have 2 more layouts, and 2 cards, that I can't wait to show you!

 

Archiver's: Scrapfest

 

Bella's honored, for the first time ever, to be a part of Archiver's annual event, Scrapfest! Every year, Archiver's literally converts the Mall of America into a giant scrapbooking party full of Make & Takes, workshops, and so much excitement! 

Stephanie and several local Bella Artistas will be traveling to Minnesota next month, teaching three workshops!

 

While some of the workshops are already sold out, we still have some seats available:

Stay Little Forever Pages & Card
Sunday, Sept. 18 (1 - 1:45pm)

Do you know a handsome little boy who is growing up way too fast? Document those days of learning, curiosity, and being little with two awesome 12x12 pages featuring Mr. Boy collection patterned papers and embellishments. Plus, you'll create a matching card, too!

Everyday Life Pages & Card
Saturday, Sept. 17 (2 - 2:45pm)

Document your every day or family memories with a colorful, two-page 12x12 layout. You'll use lots of fun patterned papers and layer your layout with tons of cool embellishments. Plus, you'll create a matching card, too. This workshop is all about the little details — don't miss it!

 

Bella will also be hosting our first-ever Crop Around Town!

Stephanie, the owner and designer of everything Bella Blvd, will be at the Archiver's Store in Roseville Saturday night, September 17 at 6:30 to host the night crop. The $45 sign-up fee includes a great goodie bag (valued at $20), door prizes, a spooktacular Halloween make-n-take, snacks and croppin' space! All of Roseville's store information can be found HERE. Call the store today to sign up --- there's only a couple seats left! 

Buy admission ($20 plus tax) HERE. 

Learn more about Scrapfest on this year's HOMEPAGE. 

We hope to see you there, and if you can't make it to Scrapfest this year, be sure to follow us on the Blog as we give you live updates, photos and we'll giveaway some workshop class kits too! It's going to be great!

Guest Designer: Jen Jockisch

Today, we have another fabulous guest designer joining us on the blog. Let's give a warm welcome to Jen Jockisch!

 

Jen has been scrapbooking for 6 years, and has been fortunate to have been published in numerous publications including Scrapbook Trends, BHG Scrapbooks Etc. and Creating Keepsakes. She was a member of the 2010 Creating Keepsakes Dream Team, and currently designs for Studio Calico and Two Peas in a Bucket, as a Garden Girl. 

Hi everyone! I'm thrilled to be guest designing for Bella Blvd. I got the chance to see all of the new release in person at CHA this summer and everything was fantastic, so I couldn't wait to get this stuff in my hands to start creating! 

 

"One Year", by Jen Jockisch.

One of my favorite things to do in scrapbooking is to mix and match papers and patterns, and these collections were perfect for that. I don't have any boys, nor do I have kids that play sports (yet!) so I wasn't sure how to use the Making The Team collection. But some of the pieces really mixed well with the Finally Fall and Sophisticates collections, especially the border stickers and some of the papers. You wouldn't necessarily think they would go together at first, but if you play with it you'll see that you can make it work. I used pieces from all 3 collections for my "One Year" page, and I'm really happy with how it came out. 

 

 

"Dinosaur Roar", by Jen Jockisch.

It's been hot, hot, hot here in Central Illinois, so I am SO ready for fall. The Finally Fall collection worked perfectly with my current state of mind; rich colors and patterns that get me in the mood for sweaters and pumpkins and apple cider. I love this photo of our 4 year old Ayla with one of her beloved dinosaurs, and thought the colors were perfect for these papers. My "Dinosaur Roar" page came together super quick, just layered some papers and added in some stickers and that was it. 

 

 

"Aunt Peggy & You", by Jen Jockisch.

My "Aunt Peggy and You" page is my favorite of the three layouts I made. I layered a bunch of papers, hand-cut the butterfly and then embellished, added the ribbon with foam adhesive and then punched some small circles with a border punch and used mode podge to adhere. All the colors in the Bella papers are so bold and vibrant and just add life to the page. 

 

Thank you, Bella Blvd, for letting me join you as one of your guest designers!

 

"Friday" with Stephanie: Inside the Studio

False alarm---it's NOT Friday, but we have a super talented Guest Designer (Jen Jockisch) hosting here tomorrow, so here I am---squeezing my "Friday" note in on Thursday. Warning: There's LOTS of randomness coming from me @ the studio today ;)Yup that's me! Well, me footsies anyways---because my face doesn't look all that pretty today! I bought these jellies (super comfortable) at Homegoods for only $13--score! Anywho....remember that cupcake paper? Treats & Sweets was a pattern from one my very first collections back in 2008: Sweet Celebration. We sold out like crazy, re-printed and then sold out again. Three years later there's still peeps asking for it, wanting to order it, trying to find it online, etc.

So guess what?!

WE'VE REPRINTED IT!

And it's even better than the first version, because it's now double-sided with the graphic candles (previously Make A Wish on the b-side!) woot! woot! How excited are you? 

Other big news around here is that all FOUR new collections are ....   

Here at the studio in the entryway you'll find two large maps "pinning" (what a familiar phrase these days, huh?!) locations of where Bella Blvd is sold. It's a pretty cool visual for everyone, and very inspiring too! Here's a sneak at the U.S. of A

(would you expect anything other than pink pins?!) And here's a sneak at the international map...

(PS-we have different colored pins for "styles" of customers...but the pink ones are online & independently owned stores)

The warehouse is the place to be this week...we are busy bees packing, shipping, packing, shipping. I wonder who's order this is.......

And since the air conditioning broke in the studio front (and yesterday it was 90 degrees with 98 percent humidity).....everyone's fleeing to the comfortable warehouse temperatures-who would have thought?!

I think Too Cute To Spook is beginning to reveal itself as the top collection we released from CHA. Which one is your favorite? Leave a comment below and you just might win your favorite Bella products! I'll pick a winner as part of my post next Friday.....in September! Yikes!

One more thing before I go....I'm proud to say I accomplished a BIG goal I set for myself this past week. I have re-designed my personal blog, "I Am Stephanie: Designing My Life" and have a two-part post beginning today about album storage! I hope you'll stop by, and continue too as I re-enter the blog world again to gain a bit of personal design freedom!

 

Happy "Friday!"...okay, well not really. But you know! 

Back To School Week: Cards

 

Today, it's all about cards on our "Back To School Week" feature. After you're done creating a few school layouts, collect all your paper scraps and put them to good use on some fun cards. Need some ideas? How about a card to give to your child, after they get a great grade on a hard test. Cards to give to your child's teachers, to let them know you appreciate all they do. Cool cards, to toss in your teen's backpack, so they find them during their 4th period class. Cute mini cards to tuck inside your child's lunchbox. You can never have enough cards in your stash, so that you're prepared to make any little moment, a special moment.

 

"Good Times" card, by Alice Carman.

I made this card using Bella's Midterm collection. Look at those adorable shoes! You can find the shoes and other great pieces by using the Midterm Cute Cuts. The music notes strip was cut from the Midterm Border and Blocks. I finished this card using a light color pattern so the vibrate cut out pieces pop off the page.

Supplies:
Midterm Collection: Text Me, Pep Rally, Cute Cuts, Border and Blocks

"Dorm Room Pizza Party" card, by Alice Carman.

Have you seen the Cute Cuts page from the Midterm Collection? This pattern paper is loaded with cute embellishments to use on cards, layouts, altered projects or whatever your creative hands make. Don’t you just love the cute little pizza slices? I cut the pizza slices out and used it across my card like a banner.

 

Supplies:
Midterm Collection: Physics, Pep Rally, Cute Cuts, Alpha+Bits Cardstock Stickers; Sophisticates: Salt Water & Pacific Quattrofina Alphabets

 

"Friends" card, by Gretchen McElveen.

The fun Midterm collection is perfect for your back to school cards, congrats cards for graduates, good luck cards for college freshmen and other school-themed cards!

Supplies:
Midterm: Pep Rally, Physics, Borders 'N Blocks, Alphas+Bits stickers

 

"Live Out Loud" card, by Gretchen McElveen. 

The bright colors and cool patterns in this line make it versatile enough for your general greeting cards as well! And the Midterm collection has some great blues, greys, and reds for those hard-to-make masculine cards too!

Supplies:
Midterm: Text Me, Physics, Borders 'N Blocks, Alphas+Bits stickers

 

Don't forget to head over to Bella Blvd's Facebook page, and "like" us, to be eligible for our newletter giveaway. We will be announcing a winner later this week ;)

I also wanted to give you all a head's up, that we will be having a fabulous guest designer joining us here on Friday. She has some gorgeous layouts, and I can't wait to you to see them!

And last, but not least, don't forget that our first ever Bella Artista Design Team call is open and accepting submissions. The deadline is Friday, September 2nd, and you can see all the details HERE.  

 

Back To School Week: More Layouts

 

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Welcome back to our "Back To School" week feature! We all know there's the first day of school layouts, that most of us do every year. Today, we want to show you some ideas for those other school moments that happen throughout the year. We have a layout about school rewards. A layout about a special themed, sports day. And a layout about being in the high school marching band.

 

"Sweet Reward", by Katherine McElvain.

Every time we get report cards in our family we celebrate by going to Krispy Kreme Donuts, where they reward students for every A with a glazed donut. With 4 kids, we usually get about 2 dozen donuts in all. It is funny, because when we are on our way to pick up the donuts, my son reminds me that his teacher said that to exercise off one glazed donut from Krispy Kreme, you have to run 10 miles. I don't know if that is true but it is definitely a good reminder for me before I dig in. LOL!

 

I wanted to scrap our donut/report card tradition, and Bella’s Midterm collection was perfect! I liked the post it notes for journaling and added my own note to two of them, "end of 3rd quarter" and "free donuts", to go with the layout’s story. I also glimmer misted an "A" in the background (using an old chipboard letter) to bring some attention to the reward for A's. Crazy to think that with school starting back up, that in a couple of months we will be back at the donut counter. I better start running those 10 miles :) 

 

Supplies:
Midterm: Steve's Keys, Pep Rally, Text Me, Borders and Blocks, Physics, Alpha+Bits stickers; Family Dynamics: Quadrants Paper; Tail Waggers and Cat Naps: Icon Chipboard; Mr Boy: Icon Chipboard; Sophisticates: Sprinkle and Lace Chlorine, Quattrofina Cardstock Stickers Salt Water and Pacific; Simply Simona Ciao Chip Alphas: Mcintosh 

 

"School Sport's Day", by Kerryn Fry.

When Laura asked me to create a school layout without using the Midterm collection, I knew straight away what collection I was going to use. Bella's Making The Team collection is perfect for my son's school colors, and really enhanced the colorful sport's day photos. My first dilemma was trying to include lots of photos. That problem was easily solved by creating a collage of photos using Picasa. I've tried to give the page lots of dimension, using layers and foam tape. It always works well with the easily cut out bits in the Bella Blvd collections.

 

I love the alpha stickers and how well they always coordinate. I have mounted them onto kraft cardstock to add some bulkiness, and then used more foam tape to lift them off the page. It gave me the opportunity to add some doodling similar to the attitude sticker, which just finished the page off perfectly.

 

Supplies:
Making the team: Soccer, Football, Wall of fame, Volleyball, Fan Club, Borders, Cute cuts, Alpha+Bits stickers, Just Write journaling stickers

 

"MHS Band", by Laura Vegas.

My daughter, Alyssa, started High School last year. She's been playing the clarinet for 3 years now, and she was really excited to be taking high school band. One of our favorite things of the year, was seeing the band play at all the football games and marching for the half time show. I actually never got any photos at the football games last year, and that's something I am going to make sure and do this year. But I didn't  let that stop me from making a layout about the first year marching band experience. I snapped a few photos of her in her band tshirt, and with her clarinet, and paired it up with Bella's Midterm collection.

 

I hand cut three of the banner's, from the Pep Rally paper, so that I could "hang" them at the top of the page. Because I cut in so close to the edges of each flag, it gave the banner's lots of wiggle room, so that I could arrange them in a very carefree way. The top banner, "Go Team", I adhered with pop dots, to give it some extra dimension. I also added little silver accent pieces in between some of the banner flags.

 

Supplies:
Midterm: Text Me, Physics, Pep Rally, Borders N Blocks, Alphas+Bits; Simply Simona Ciao Chip Alphas: Macintosh; Simply Simona Ciao Chip Numbers:White

 

Back To School Week: Layouts

 

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I think most of us can say we are in the "back to school" mindset, in one way or another. For some, your kids are still enjoying their last days of summer break, and starting to collect their school supplies for the upcoming school year. For some, your kids are getting ready to start back this week, and are planning their first day outfits and packing their backpacks. And then there are some, like me, whose kids started back a few weeks ago, and are already deep in homework and tests.

This week, we are bringing "school" to the Bella blog, and sharing layouts and cards featuring Bella's Midterm collection. Some of these were booth projects, from CHA, that we were saving for this week. And some are brand new projects, that we asked a few designers to create, especially for the week. We have a wide range of school themes and topics being featured, from first day of school, to band and awards. We even have a few ideas for using Bella's Midterm collection to create adult-themed layouts.

 

"First Day 2011", by Gretchen McElveen.

It's August and that means it is back to school around here! Don't forget to take those first day of school pictures. If school has already started and you forgot to take them, then it is not too late to take those "beginning of the year" pictures. When I got ready to scrap these “First Day Of School” photos, for a friend of mine, I knew I wanted to mix Bella’s Midterm collection and the new Making The Team collection. The two coordinate perfectly, to work with your school pictures.

 

 

I really wanted black alphabets to go on this layout but didn't have enough of the new Simply Simona Oreo (Tiny Dot) letters left to complete my title. So instead I used the Simply Simona Oyster (Dictionary) alphas. I just peeled the printed layer off of the alphas to expose the raw chipboard underneath. Then I used a black Sharpie to change the raw chipboard to the black color I wanted. Easy! Instead of a Sharpie, you can also ink the chipboard or paint it to get your desired color!

 

Supplies:
Making the Team: Wall of Fame, Alpha+Bits stickers, Just Write Journaling stickers; Midterm: Text Me, Physics, Steve's Keys, Pep Rally, Alpha+Bits stickers; Simply Simona Ciao Chip Numbers: Oreo; Simply Simona Ciao Chip Alphas: Oyster

 

"One Sharp Kid", by Sheri Feypel.

I created this layout of my son Jordan using Bella's Midterm collection. He is at that age where cutsie just doesn't cut it anymore. So Midterm was the perfect collection to highlight his graduation from 8th grade. Just for fun and some dimension I added some No. 2 pencils. Not only did they give me the dimension I was looking for, they also added a bit of weight to the layout.

 

To reinforce the layout a little bit I glued all of the pencils to a piece of trimmed chipboard before adhereing them to the layout. It helped make the layout a little more sturdy so that it will withstand a little bit of handling, whether in an album or framed on a wall.

 

Supplies:
Midterm: Borders and Blocks, Physics, Pep Rally, Steve's Keys, Alphas+Bits stickers; Simply Simona Ciao Chip Alphas: Oyster