Challenge Week With Guest Designer Shannon Tidwell: Day Five

Hey everyone! It's Shannon Tidwell here again, for our last challenge day. We love seeing all of the projects you've been linking up for the challenges, and hope to keep seeing more and more over the next week (deadline is a week from today). Thanks so much to Bella Blvd for having me this week! It's been so fun scrapping with Bella products and sharing with you guys!

Saturday Challenge: Use Punched Circles 

For my last Challenge this week we are grabbing our trusty circle punches. Don't have one? Run, don't walk, and get one. The size I use most often is my 2" circle punch, but they are fun to combine. Remember earlier in the week when I talked about my 'bag of tricks'? My circle punch is definitely in there, as is the border I made on my first layout.

A few other ideas for your circle punch:

• Cut the circles in half and create a scalloped border around your page or photo
• Punch circles out of patterned paper and use the negative space to fill with embellishments
• Create bubbles for your title
• Punch out your photos to get rid of a noisy background or to get a lot of photos on one page

"Baby Love", by Shannon Tidwell.

To create the border simply punch circles out of the papers you want to use. Then fold the circles in half. You can mix different sizes and patterns, or keep them all the same. Then adhere one side of the circle down so that the other half sticks up. You could also create a double sided border and place the circles back to back. On this layout I chose to first create a larger scalloped border underneath the folded circle border. There are all kinds of variations you could do. Wouldn't little tiny circles be cute?!

"You & Me", by Shannon Tidwell.

On the second layout I created my own polka dot background. I actually punched the circles from a patterned paper that already had circles on it. It was just a little too busy for the layout I had in mind. So by punching out a few of the circles and then adhering them to my background I was able to create my own look. The backside of the paper had a pattern on it, so I flipped some of the circles and opted for the pattern instead. It can take a bit of time to figure out your circle placement. My biggest tip is not to try 'too' hard. You want it to look natural. Sometimes I just drop the circles on the page and let that help me figure out a natural looking placement (this is especially useful with sequins or confetti).

Thanks again for letting me hang out with you this week!  Let's see how the Bella DT used their circle punches. Ciao!

"Always My Baby", by Kimberly Neddo.
{A Winter CHA Project}

For this layout, I really wanted to showcase how versatile everything is with each other. You can see that I used 3 different flag pack designs together. The Baby Boy collection can easily be used with non-baby themed layout designs, rather than strictly boy or baby themed projects. I LOVE the colors in the Baby Blue collection. I punched out the circles from one of the Baby Boy papers, and adhered them along the bottom of my white cardstock, alternating full circles and half circles. I think it adds a fun touch!

Supplies:
Sunshine & Happiness: Popsicle Kisses, Happy clouds; Baby Boy: Mama’s Boy, Baby Blue, Alpha+Bits Stickers; Sophisticates: Black/White High Five Alpha Stickers, Yellow High Five Alpha Stickers; Flags: Text Me, Winter, Just Married

"Beautiful", by Laura Vegas.
{A Winter CHA Project}

When I saw the backside of the Pretty In Pink patterned paper, with all of the fun polka dots, I knew they needed to be punched out and used in a fun way. I started by adhering the cloud pattern paper to the center of my white cardstock background, leaving lots of room around the edges. I then tucked the punched out circles behind the cloud paper, one by one, overlapping them as I went. I love how they frame the main part of the layout.

Supplies:
Baby Girl: Pretty In Pink, Sweet Dreams, Borders, Cute Cuts, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Chipboard Icons; We're Expecting: Chipboard Icons

"Sending You Sunshine" card, by Gretchen McElveen.
{A Winter CHA Project}

I punched circles out of Sunshine & Happiness patterned paper to add some interest to this card and to play off of the "sunshine" theme a little bit. I sanded the edges of each circle before adhering it to the card. To me, sanding the edges like that helps to set it apart from the background paper. Also I adhered the sentiment and sunshine stickers to the card with foam adhesive to give the card some extra dimension.

Supplies:
Sunshine & Happiness: Borders, Popscicle Kisses, Sunny Side Up, Alpha + Bits Stickers, Just Write Journaling Stickers

Springtime Altered Canvas, by Katherine McElvain.
{A Winter CHA Project}

The idea for this canvas came from a painted art project I saw on Pinterest. I decided to create a similar piece using punched circles and buttons from Bella Blvd. The first step was to draw the vines in pencil and paint over them using black acrylic paint. 

I punched a variety of circles in three Bella Blvd colors, and placed them on top of the branches to fill the canvas. When I was satisfies with how the colors and circles were distributed I Mog Podged the circles to the canvas.

To create some variety and texture to the project I added cut out flowers to the circles, and sewed on coordinating buttons form the new Bella Button Market.

Supplies:
Sunshine and Happiness: Borders, Popsicle Kisses, Happy Clouds, Petal Power; Button Market: Bursts, Feminine Mix, Aqua Flowers, Fruit Punch

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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.

Comments

[julie Tucker-Wolek]

Ohhhhhhh I love circles! Loving what everyone made! Beautiful!

[Sophia Allison]

What a great challenge...hope to get to play along!

[rkokes]

LOVE that canvas!!!

[KimR]

Wow--I LOVE that canvas! Beautiful! Some really great work here, love the card and the Los. I can't wait to play!

[Erika Hayes]

SOOOO many ideas-- Kimmie it is great to see your work up today.. those kids keep growin' up.. I saw a layout of Fos the other day and almost fell out of my chair... I love all the colors and Bella BLVD is by far one of the best companies out there.. I just love it all--Thanks for all the inspiration
Blessings
e

[Kathy Martin]

Smashing projects ladies! How fun this challenge is....love me some circles! :) Twas fun having Shannon here all week! :)

[Kerys]

Loving all the DT examples! SO much inspiration - thank you. Just linked up mine. Onto the next challenge!! :-)
Can you do challenges more regularly please - this is great fun! :-) x

[kazoulis]

Springtime Altered Canvas - this is fabulous!!!