Bella Blvd Studio Blog

Bella's 4th Birthday Celebration Week: Birthday Layouts

Welcome back to day two of our Birthday Celebration Week, in honor of Bella's 4th birthday, happening this week. Yesterday was all about birthday cards. Today, it's all about birthday layouts, featuring both the Birthday Boy and Birthday Girl collection.

"Look Who's Two", by Brook Stewart.

For this layout, I kept it pretty simple. I just love how the vibrant colors in the Birthday Boy collection pop on white cardstock! I used the Designer Tape in the new Pickle Juice Chevron for a border around the entire layout and just layered a few border strips under my photos. It came together pretty quickly and I just love how my photos are the main focus, yet there's still a perfect balance of fun colors and patterns alongside them!

Supplies:
Birthday Boy: Borders, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Just Write Journaling Stickers; Designer Tape: Pickle Juice Chevron, Orange Stripe; Sienna Chipboard Alphas: Blueberry; High Five Alpha Stickers: Pink-Red, Yellow

“Happy Unwrapping”, by Katherine McElvain.

Let’s talk about strips. Strips made from boarders, tape, cardstock, stickers, pattern paper, and photos. That’s what makes up this layout. I used all of these products in small groups, sewn together, to create a series of color strips to divide up the photo strips. (Can you say strips 10xs fast, haha!). When the layout was all put together I didn’t have room to journal the full story about my son who so lovingly taping his sisters birthday gift to be a real bugger to open, so I wrote a little poem to describe the story instead.

Supplies:
Birthday Girl: Icons, Just Write Journaling Stickers, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Borders, Cute Cuts, Party Dress, Sugar Rush; Birthday Boy: Icons, Alpha+Bits; Sophisticates: Ciao Chip Clouds; Simply Simona Chipboard Alphas: Oreo; High Five Alphabet Stickers: Pink-Red; Flags: Birthday Girl Flags 2; Button Market: Text; Designer Tape: Teal Stripe, Pink Stripe, Chevron Pickle Juice, Gulf Dot

"Celebrate You", by Becky Williams.

The Dancing Queen paper was my very favorite from the Birthday Girl collection. I accented the cute colors of the hearts by adding coordinating Designer Tape and cardstock stickers. 

Supplies:
Birthday Girl Collection: Borders, Dancing Queen, Just Write Journaling Stickers, Alpha+Bits Stickers; Designer Tape: Gulf Dot, Punch Chevron, Orange Stripe; Flags: Birthday Girl 1; Sienna Chipboard Alpha: Punch

“Birthday Party”, by Kathy Martin.

Preserving birthday memories is a lot of fun with the Bella Blvd. Birthday Boy collection! Bright and happy colors mixed with birthday icons such as party hats, birthday cake and presents are all included in this line! I especially love the ‘Eat Cake’ paper that worked so well with the photo of my son blowing out his candles!

Supplies:
Birthday Boy: Eat Cake, Toadilly Cool, Borders, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Just Write Journaling Stickers, Ciao Chip, Birthday Boy Flags 1 & 2; Button Market: Orange Stars, Checkers; Designer Tape: Teal Stripe, Red Dot, Orange Stripe, Piggy Pink Stripe, Gulf Dot

"First Birthday", by Allyson Meinholz.

For this layout, I started out by making banners with a few patterned papers. I knew I wanted to make the long Happy Birthday sticker into a banner as well. Once I added my photos, I started to embellish with stickers, bling, buttons and crochet flowers. I knew I wanted the embellishments to go thru the page like confetti, since there were balloon strings in the photos. As a final touch, and to help secure the banners, I added some twine stitching to the top.

Supplies:
Birthday Girl: Celebrate, Dancing Queen, Miles of Smiles, Pretty As A Present; Alpha+Bits Stickers, Just Write Journaling Stickers, Chipboard Icons; Sienna Chipboard Alpha: Punch; High Five Alpha Stickers: Blue; Button Market: Purple Flowers, Aqua Flowers, Fruity Punch, Stars; Ciao Chip Elements: Borders; Crochet Flowers: Daisies, Dahlia

"Happy Birthday Mister Mister", by Allyson Meinholz.

I used the Birthday Boy collection for this layout, which is such a HUGE change of direction for me, as a mommy of 4 girlie GIRLS. I usually don't get to do too many boy pages, so I decided for this birthday week that I would take the opportunity to play with the new birthday boy collection. These photos were taken at a dear friend’s son's birthday party. We call him "Mister Mister", and "Mister Mister" was turning ONE! 

Supplies:
Birthday Boy: Toadilly Cool, Eat Cake, Borders, All For You, Streamers, Just A Note, About A Boy, Cute Cuts, Just Write Journaling Stickers, Alpha+Bits Stickers

 

Bella's 4th Birthday Celebration Week: Birthday Cards

Bella Blvd is celebrating our fourth birthday this week! It's hard to believe that we are four years old already! Thanks to you, and our growing customer base, we plan to continue bringing you fun and happy new products for years to come! We wanted to make this week all about celebrating our birthday, and our new Birthday Boy and Birthday Girl collections were just what we needed to fill up the blog with TONS of birthday inspiration. We are kicking off the week with Birthday cards, which have to be one of the most-given types of cards throughout the year!

"Happy Birthday" card, by Gretchen McElveen.

Who says you can't put a flower on a birthday boy card??! I think it works! :) I thought the cute frogs were a fun compliment to the flower! :) The 'birthday boy' sentiment here is cut off of the strip on the bottom of the patterned paper that you would normally throw away. Don't throw it away! It makes for a fun sentiment! Thanks for looking!

Supplies:
Birthday Boy: Toadilly Cool, Just a Note, Flags 2, Just Write Journaling Stickers, Alpha+Bits Stickers; Designer Tapes: Orange Stripe

"Birthday Boy" card, by Gretchen McElveen.

I can't resist cutting all the shapes out of the Cute Cuts sheet! I attached the presents here with foam adhesive to add some dimension to the card. Easy peasy! :)

Supplies:
Birthday Boy: Just a Note, Cute Cuts, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Flags 2; Designer Tapes: Orange Stripe

“Brother’s Birthday” card, by Kathy Martin.

You can whip up cool birthday cards in no time with the awesome new Birthday Boy collection from Bella Blvd. For my card I combined the ‘Just a Note’ patterned paper with stickers from the Alpha+Bits and Just Write Journaling sheets to create this Toad-ally cool design. One of the things I love most about Bella Blvd products is how easily all the collections and accents work together. The blue button is from the new Thankful line and the pennant stickers are from two different sets of Miniatures Stickers.

Supplies:
Birthday Boy: Just a Note, Eat Cake, Just Write Journaling Stickers, Alpha+Bits Stickers; Button Market: Outdoors; Miniatures Stickers: Card Sentiments, Family

“Good Times” card, by Kathy Martin.

The new Bella Blvd Birthday collection includes a lot of colorful and beautiful patterned papers that I’m head over heels for! I wanted to show off as many of these great papers as possible so I created this column design for my card. With a fancy background I didn’t want to cover it up so I used a single Just Write sticker as a combination sentiment/ accent and a monochromatic die cute phrase place along one of the paper strips.

Supplies:
Birthday Girl; Pretty as a Present, Party Dress, Dancing Queen, Sugar Rush, Borders, Just Write Journaling Stickers

"Party card, by Sheri Feypel.

This card was inspired by the Borders sheet in the Birthday Boy line. I think the little birthday hats are so cute, I wanted a larger one for my card. So I got to cutting and this is what I came up with. My base has several different patterns, so I had to use lots of foam pop dots to make the hat stand out. 

Supplies:|
Birthday Boy: Cute Cuts, Borders, Just A Note, Eat Cake, Toadilly Cool, About A Boy, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Chipboard Icons; Designer Tape: Pickle Juice, Orange Stripe; Button Market: Orange Star

"Happy Birthday" card, by Wendy Wagner.

I love this birthday collection. As always, it matches everything. I added some stickles & bling to sparkle it up! I’m really loving pop dots right now, so I have a few things popped!

Supplies:
Birthday Girl: Cute Cuts, Celebrate, Sugar Rush, Birthday Flag, Just Write Journaling Stickers; Crochet Flower: Juniper

"Happy Birthday To You" card, by Wendy Wagner.

For this fun card, I based it off the 'happy birthday to you' song with the fun music note paper & of course the song sticker! I added bling & stickles and there you have it. A super fun birthday card!

Supplies:
Birthday Girl: Dancing Queen, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Just Write Journaling Stickers; Sophisticates: Ciao Chip Borders

"Happy Birthday" card, by Allyson Meinholz.

This card was pretty simple with a sticker border on top and bottom, and then adding banners along the side of the card. I knew I wanted to use designer tape, a flag, pattern papers and borders for various banners and effects. Then I added embellishments for dimension, like chipboard icons, flag, buttons and a sticker.

Supplies:
Birthday Girl: Alpha+Bits Stickers, Celebrate, Borders, Miles of Smiles, Chipboard Icons; Designer Tape: Pickle Juice Dot; Button Market: Hot Pink Flower Buttons, Blues, Fruit Punch; Flags: Birthday Girl 2

Endless Inspiration Week: Bonus Altered Project

I just couldn't resist extending our Endless Inspiration Week feature just one more day, so that I could share this fun little altered project that I put together for the booth for CHA!

Altered Wooden Spools, by Stephanie Hunt.

This random alterred project actually came together after I realized the wooden spools I bought for the Designer Tapes display (for the CHA booth) were much too small.

I went back to the store and purchased larger spools for the product display and made this frame for the booth.

But, I had all these miniature-sized spools left over and wanted to create something with them. I started playing around with my hot glue gun and & Designer Tapes....and whalaa, these itty-bitty photo holders were born. I created a family of them.

Some are soley for decoration and others have clothespins attached to the top that hold wallet-size photos, or notes/tags.

They're so easy and fun, and make great handmade gifts for creative friends or teachers too! I've put together a brief tutorial on my blog, so be sure to visit today.

Supplies:
Designer Tapes: Red Dot, Pony Dot, Pink Stripe, Teal Stripe, Pickle Juice Dot, Orange Stripe, Pink Flowers, Yellow Chevron, Gulf Dot, Piggy Pink Stripe, Pickle Juice Chevron, Blue Gingham, Punch Chevron; Stick Pin Flags: Thank You’s, Love, Baby Girl, Bugs, Girl, Home Sweet Home, Boy, Baby Boy

Endless Inspiration Week: Embellishments

Today we want to share some projects with you that really showcase our new embellishments. Designer Tapes, Button Market, Flags, Crochet Flowers, and our chipboard alphas. All of these products are perfect for embellishing your layouts, cards, and altered projects!

“Good Morning Ella”, by Megan Klauer.

For this layout I used a combination of the Designer Tapes. I started by stacking the actual rolls next to each other until I came up with a combination of colors that I liked for my layout. I then applied them to my kraft card stock in that order. I tore them roughly at the ends because I like that sort of "imperfect" look. I used the negative portion of the Punch Sienna Chipboard Alphabet sheet on top of the Designer Tapes to create a fun & unique base to my page.

Supplies:
Sunshine & Happiness: Chipboard Icons, Just Write Journaling Stickers, Miniatures Stickers; Sienna Chipboard Alphas: Punch, Pony; High Five Alphabet Stickers: Pink & Red, Blue; Designer Tapes: Gulf Dot, Punch Chevron, Orange Stripe, Piggy Pink Stripe, Pink Stripe, Yellow Chevron, Pickle Juice Chevron

"Prettied Up", by Laura Vegas.

I wanted to really feature the Designer Tapes on this layout, so I picked out a fun assortment of colors that matched my photo. I started with a graph paper background (from the Family Dynamix collection), so that the tapes would really stand out against the white. A bonus to using the graph paper, is that it made it super easy to line up the tapes in straight rows. I like how the tapes give the illusion of patterned paper!

Supplies:
Sunshine & Happiness: Happy Clouds; Family Dynamix: Quadrants; Ciao Chip Elements: Borders; Simply Simona Chipboard Alphas: Peep, Oreo; Designer Tape: Yellow Chevron, Piggy Pink Stripe, Jail Bird, Punch Chevron, Teal Stripe; Crochet Flowers: Daisies, Juniper, Dahlia; Button Market: Pink Flowers, Aqua Flowers, Fruit Punch, Neutrals Mix

"So Many Smiles" card, by Gretchen McElveen.

I used a few different tapes on this card to basically create the background for the card. All the designer tapes are great to coordinate and mix with the different Bella Blvd lines! Like on this card, I cut the flowers out of sheet of paper from the Birthday Girl line and the sentiment is a sticker from the Birthday Boy line. Cool, huh?! 

Supplies:
Designer Tapes: Orange Stripe, Pony Dot, Gulf Dot; Birthday Girl: Party Dress; Birthday Boy: Just Write Journaling Stickers

Altered Tag Tree, by Stephanie Hunt.

My goal in creating these gift tags was to embellish, embellish, embellish. I wanted to show how great all of Bella's embellishments can work together.

I just love all the different textures that the Crochet Flowers, wooden buttons and pearl-topped Stick Pin Flags create against the various patterned papers.

I hand cut several leaves from the green polkadot paper and tucked them in and around the Crochet Flowers for more dimension.

A couple of the tags are actually strips and strips of Designer Tape, all overlapping to create their own background pattern.

When displaying the Tag Tree at CHA, brown twine from The Twinery all cut at different lengths suspended the double-sided tags from the jewelry necklace holder.

I'm hoping to use them in the future as sweet little gift tags to embellish presents and thank yous for my friends. I'm sharing a bit more information and pictures over at my blog today as well----be sure to visit!

Supplies:  
Sophisticates: Sprinkles & Lace assorted papers; Thankful: Homey, Burlap; Birthday Girl: Miles of Smiles, Party Dress, Dancing Queen, Sugar Rush, Celebrate; Crochet Flowers: Poppy, Daisies, Juniper, Dahlia; Designer Tapes: Yellow Chevron, Jail Bird; Button Market: Masculine Mix, Checkers, Green Bursts; Flags: Spring Flings, Thank You, Love, Patriotic, Bugs

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Today is the last day of our two-week long Endless Inspiration feature, showcasing booth projects from CHA, using our new collections and products. We hope you have enjoyed all of the layouts, cards, and altered projects that our designers have whipped up, and we hope that you are inspired and ready to create with these new products. They will be available before you know it!

Fridays With Stephanie

Today. Is. Friday.

(that’s a wonderful thing, isn’t it?!)

And … it’s kick off day of the 2012 London Olympic Games! Do you plan on watching? I know I do … I love watching most all the sports events! Anywho. This week was the team’s first full week back at the office post-CHA. I like to call this week the “calm before the storm” as we are entering and taking orders, mailing catalogs, etc. etc. and preparing to begin shipping very soon (the week of August 6^th to be exact!) Lucky for you I had the chance to export the pictures from my camera and share a CHA Recap with you!

Here she is in her glory; the new Bella Blvd booth, the morning the show opened. The customers loved the bright & clean look, and were so happy to say the same amount of project inspiration inside.

I think this (personally) was my favorite feature of the new booth: the porch posts strung with jute displayed twenty-four (12x12) layout ideas, clipped back-to-back. I love showcasing all the talent and creativity and inspiring customers. At the same time, this half-wall was very airy and didn’t feel too cluttered.

And this was my team for the show. We have spent four years together working hard, preparing and planning and have become quite the efficient team (at least I like to think so!)

The new products adorned the walls, this time in different formats than before. The Birthday Boy products were cut into 6x12” strips (see photo below) and clothes-pinned to the wall.

The layouts and projects were a hit, as always, the Bella DT gets so many compliments throughout the show … it is wonderful to hear!

And the Birthday Girl and Thankful collections were displayed on a shelf, trimmed to various sizes and mounted for easy pick-up.

The displays came together really well.

We also had more altered projects than ever before including mini albums, home décor, paper pinwheels and party ideas too.

And, as always it’s wonderful meeting Design Team members in person, chatting and getting to know them. This time around Kathy Martin stopped in to introduce herself and check out her beautiful cards and pinwheels in the booth.

And last, but of course not least, it’s WONDERFUL seeing all of our Bella fans and loyal customers. Some that are so very loyal we can hardly forget, including Sharon Kilma from Buffalo Stamps & Scraps and her husband that we’ve mentioned here before, Mark, of whom comes to our booth every-day-to-be-the-first-in-line for the make-n-takes! This time we learned Sharon & Mark’s favorite k9 companion is sick, and Mark stayed home with him. We thought we’d cheer him up by saying hi ... We definitely did miss you Mark, and hope to see you at CHA Winter in January!

To everyone that stopped by, thank you for spending the time and money it took to attend the show. We love your enthusiasm and are grateful for your business. For those of you that didn’t make it to Chicago and would like a catalog please email us at [email protected].

Thank you for celebrating our fourth birthday with us!

Endless Inspiration Week: Thankful

We are back with more inspiring booth projects from our CHA designers, using the new Thankful collection. We have lots of layouts and cards to share, so let's get right to it! 

“Pumpkin Patch”, by Brook Stewart.

Fall is my favorite season of the year and the colors in the new Thankful line take me to that time of year: pumpkin patches, apple cider, Thanksgiving meals with lots of family…This is definitely one of my favorite lines from Bella! It matched up perfectly with this photo of my oldest at the pumpkin patch last year!

Supplies:
Thankful: Perfect Day, Turkey Tracks, Homey, Our Spot, Borders, Cute Cuts, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Flags2; Sienna Chipboard Alphas: Pony; Designer Tape: Pony Dot

"Back to School", by Becky Williams.

One of the highlights of fall is the first day of school. I loved how this collection coordinated so well with the pictures of my oldest girls on their first day of school last year. I like that the collection has the traditional fall colors with touches of pink and blue!

Supplies:
Thankful: Cute Cuts, Burlap, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Just Write Journaling Stickers, Ciao Chip Icons; Designer Tape: Piggy Pink Stripe, Gulf Dot, Pony Dot; Simply Simona Alphas: Orange, Pickle Juice

"Fall Memories”, by Sheri Feypel.

There is never a shortage of fall photos over here. Fall is my favorite season to photograph and to scrapbook! With that said, I was thrilled to see a new Fall-ish collection from Bella Blvd! The warm blues and reds are perfect for my photos. I wanted to keep this layout clean and simple, focusing on the photos. Well it started that way, until I got into the embellishments! I contained myself and kept my embellishing mostly to the center of the layout, but honestly what scrapper can resist Designer Tapes and chipboard!

Supplies:
Thankful: Perfect Day, Burlap, Homey, Our Spot, Cute Cuts, Chipboard Icons, Alpha+Bits Stickers; Designer Tape: Orange Stripe; Button Market: Masculine Mix

"Thanksgiving" card, by Laura Vegas.

How adorable is this little turkey from the Cute Cuts patterned paper? I knew he would look super cute on a card. I hand cut the turkey twice, from two different sheets of paper, and then cut out some of the individual feathers. I adhered these to the full turkey with mini pop dots, directly over the coordinating feather, and then added a bit of paper glaze for a shiny finish.

Supplies:
Thankful: Burlap, Cute Cuts; Designer Tape: Piggy Pink Stripe; Flag: Thankful 1

"Give Thanks" card, by Gretchen McElveen.

I cut the 'give thanks' out of the sheet of Cute Cuts from the Thankful line. It makes for an easy sentiment for this card! I added buttons to embellish toward the bottom of the card. The Wood Mix buttons and new Outdoors buttons coordinate perfectly with this line! Thanks for looking!

Supplies:
Thankful: Cute Cuts, Turkey Tracks, Our Spot, Alpha+Bits Stickers; Button Market: Wood Mix, Outdoors

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Remember. All of our new products will begin shipping to stores and online retailers on August 6th! You won't have to wait too much longer!

Endless Inspiration Week: Birthday Girl & Birthday Boy

Today, we're visiting the new Birthday Girl and Birthday Boy collections again. Our CHA designers created lots and lots of projects with these collections, so we have plenty more to share with you.

"Make a Wish", by Becky Williams.

One of my favorite parts of the Bella Blvd collections are the Cute Cuts. They have so many great things that you can add as simple embellishments for pages, cards and other projects. 

Supplies:
Birthday Girl Collection: Celebrate, Borders, Cute Cuts, Miles of Smiles, Party Dress, Sugar Rush, Just Write Journaling Stickers; Sienna Chipboard Alphas: Punch; High Five Alphabet Stickers: Blue; Button Market: Hot Pink Flowers; Designer Tape: Piggy Pink Stripe, Orange Stripe, Gulf Dot, Punch Chevron

"Today We Celebrate You" card, by Gretchen McElveen.

I love the fun hippo on the Cute Cuts sheet! I cut it out and adhered it to this card with foam adhesive to create a dimensional embellishment for this card. Who would not love to get a birthday card with a cute hippo on it??! Thanks for looking!

Supplies:
Birthday Girl: Dancing Queen, Sugar Rush, Celebrate, Cute Cuts, Alpha+Bits Stickers

Altered Paper Ribbons, by Laura Vegas.

These fun little paper ribbons can serve two purposes at birthday parties. First, they make for a great tabletop decor item. Second, you can hand them out to the party guests, either during or after the party. This is a great project to make with your scraps of patterned paper, since they are all assembled using bits and pieces of papers.

I used my Silhouette die cut machine to cut all of the pieces needed for these ribbons. The shape that I choose actually came with every piece you see layered on here, including the ribbon tails. However, these would be simple to create even without a die cut machine.

You could achieve the same look using a variety of circle punches, scalloped circle punches, or even certain flower punches, in varying sizes. The ribbon tails are just strips of paper, with notches cut at one end.

I layered the pieces together, using pop dots on a few of the layers. In between two of the layers, i added a piece of Designer Tape, adding small staples to each end to help secure it. I finished off each paper ribbon with either a threaded button, a crochet flower, or a sticker added to the center.

I cut 4 long pieces of curling ribbon for each paper ribbon, and curled them with my scissors. I tied them onto a wooden stick, and then I hot glued the paper ribbon to the top of the stick. I created all of these assembly line style, doing each step for all 8 at the same time. So they really did come together very quickly.

To display these, I found a long (but small) metal tin, and added some styrofoam and filler grass inside. Then I just shoved the wooden sticks into the styrofoam to hold the paper ribbons in place.  

Supplies:
Birthday Girl: Pretty As A Present, Miles Of Smiles, Party Dress, Dancing Queen, Sugar Rush, Celebrate, Borders, Cute Cuts, Alpha+Bits Stickers; Designer Tapes: Gulf Dot, Punch Chevron; Button Market: Checkers, Blues; Crochet Flowers: Dahlia, Daisies

“Favorite Boys”, by Megan Klauer.

I love to use a good amount of embellishments when I add clusters to my design & the Birthday Boy collection has such a great variety to work with. I started with a piece from the Cute Cuts page and built on that using the Alpha + Bits & Just Write Stickers. I once again used the photo corner stickers as more of a design element to help draw the eye directly to the photo.

Supplies:
Birthday Boy: All For You, Borders, Eat Cake, Toadilly Cool, Cute Cuts, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Just Write Journaling Stickers, Chipboard Icons; Sienna Chipboard Alphas: Blueberry; Designer Tapes: Pickle Juice Chevron; Button Market: Orange Stars

"Happy Birthday" card, by Gretchen McElveen.

Cupcakes can be boy-ish! I cut out the cupcake on this card from the sheet of Cute Cuts in the Birthday Boy line. I used the Birthday Boy patterned papers to make the card, adhered the cupcake with foam adhesive, added a few stickers, and voila! My boyish birthday card was done!

Supplies:
Birthday Boy: Toadilly Cool, Cute Cuts, Borders, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Just Write Journaling Stickers

Birthday Flag Bouquet, by Sheri Feypel.

This is by far my favorite altered project! I loved making all of the flags and I even snuck a pinwheel in there too! I made them in various sizes and shapes, some with paper, and some with tape.

I added lots of embellishments including stickers, chipboard and more flags! Each flag is attached to a wooden dowel with glue dots and then secured with scrappers floss. 

I arranged them in a jar filled with rice (Wouldn't it be cute to have aqua M&M's in there? Someone would probably eat them all:).

I also have a small piece of styrofoam in the bottom to hold some of the larger flags in place.

Of course I didn't stop with just the flags. I had to jazz up the jar a bit too. Although this looks like a large project, it doesn't really use a ton of product, so it’s a great project for using up your scraps.

Supplies:
Birthday Boy: Streamers, Toadilly Cool, Eat Cake, Borders, Cute Cuts, Just A Note, Chipboard Icon, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Flags; Designer Tape: Pickle Juice, Orange Stripe

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Remember. All of our new products will begin shipping to stores and online retailers on August 6th! You won't have to wait too much longer!

Endless Inspiration Week: Sunshine & Happiness

We released our Sunshine & Happiness collection during CHA Winter, back in January, and it was a huge hit! It was also on display at CHA Summer, and we have some new designer projects from the booth that feature this fun, bright, and summery collection.

“Beach Baby”, by Brook Stewart.

The Sunshine & Happiness collection is probably one of my most favorite Bella lines of all time! I just love the super bright, fun colors and patterns. They are perfect for everything summery and bright including beach photos like this one!

Supplies:
Sunshine & Happiness: Popsicle Kisses, Happy Clouds, Borders, Cute Cuts, Miniatures, Ciao Chip Icons; Sophisticates: Sprinkles & Lace Ice; Designer Tape: Pickle Juice Chevron; High Five Alphas: Blue, Red-Pink

"Like Blowing Bubbles", by Becky Williams.

In order to showcase the papers in this collection I did a play on chevron stripes and then added Designer Tapes to compliment the colors in the collection.  

Supplies:
Sunshine & Happiness: Popsicle Kisses, Borders, Cute Cuts, Happy Clouds, Juicy Good Time, Miniatures; Designer Tapes: Punch Chevron, Gulf Dot, Orange Stripe, Jailbird, Piggy Pink Stripe, Pony Dot; Simply Simona Chipboard Alphabets: Pickle Juice, Saltwater; High Five Alphabet Stickers: Pink-Red

“Sweet 16”, by Sarah Klemish.

Love the bright party feel to the Sunshine & Happiness papers. I started with a white background and layered pieces of patterned papers. I also created a colorful banner with the different patterns of Sunshine & Happiness. After adding pictures I placed my title, photo corners and journaling strips.

Supplies:
Sunshine & Happiness: Borders, Happy Clouds, Popsicle Kisses, Juicy Good Time; Birthday Boy: Flag; Birthday Girl: Alpha+Bits Stickers; Sienna Chipboard Alpha: Punch; Simply Simona Chipboard Numbers: White

“I Heart Summer Card” card, by Kathy Martin.

One of my favorite paper crafting techniques is hand sewing and this Cute Cuts accent from the Sunshine & Happiness collection is perfect for stitching. To match the bright colors of this line, I used multi colored sewing thread to outline the sentiment.

Supplies:
Sunshine & Happiness: Juicy Good Time, Happy Clouds, Cute Cuts, Miniatures Stickers; Button Market: Neutrals Mix

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Remember. All of our new products will begin shipping to stores and online retailers on August 6th! You won't have to wait too much longer!

Endless Inspiration Week: Crochet Flowers

Happy Monday everyone! Welcome back to our second week of Endless Inspiration feature, showcasing tons of projects that our designers created for our CHA Summer booth. Today, we are sharing projects that really showcase our Crochet Flowers. These little flowers are small and sweet, measuring just 1" in diameter. But they sure can make a big impact on your layouts, cards, and even your altered projects.

“She’s Turning 2”, by Megan Klauer.

For my She's Turning Two layout I used the dots side of the Miles of Smiles paper to punch out different colored circles to sprinkle along side of the Crochet Flowers to create a confetti look. I also cut the Punch Chevron Designer Tape along the angles to create an arrow look. 

Supplies:
Birthday Girl: Miles of Smiles, Borders, Just Write Journaling Stickers, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Chipboard Icons; Sienna Chipboard Alphas: Punch; High Five Alpha Stickers: Pink & Red, Blue; Crochet Flowers: Poppy, Daises, Juniper, Dahlia; Designer Tapes: Gulf Dot, Punch Chevron

"Sweetheart", by Becky Williams.

The crocheted flowers add such a sweet touch to projects and were just the right thing for this layout of my sweet baby girl. I like that you get two different styles in each pack and the colors go perfectly with the new Birthday Girl collection. 

Supplies:
Birthday Girl Collection: Sugar Rush, Cute Cuts, Miles of Smiles, Borders; Designer Tape; Punch Chevron, Pony Dot, Gulf Dot, Piggy Pink Stripe, Orange Stripe; Sophisticates Ciao Chip: Borders, Stars & Hearts; Sienna Chipboard Alphas: Punch, Pony; Crochet Flowers: Daisies, Juniper, Poppy, Dahlia

"Love You" card, by Gretchen McElveen.

I love using the crochet flowers on cards! They add such nice texture and dimension! These Juniper flowers coordinate very well with both the new Birthday Girl and Birthday Boy lines. I managed to use some of both lines on this card! Thanks for looking!

Supplies:
Birthday Girl: Celebrate, Party Dress, Alpha+Bits Stickers; Birthday Boy: Just a Note; Crochet Flowers: Juniper; Spring Fling & Easter Things: Alpha+Bits Stickers; Sophisticates: Miniature Card Sentiments

Altered Pen Jar, by Wendy Wagner.

This was a super FUN project to create! I started with a simple glass jar, without a lid. I attached everything to the jar with a strong adhesive and made some adorable pens for the girls at CHA to use while they were working! I used the Designer Tapes to wrap all the pencils. It attached to the pens very easy and looks adorable! 

Supplies:
Sunshine & Happiness: Play Date, Borders, Cue Cuts, Popsicle Kisses, Miniatures Stickers, Just Write Journaling Stickers; Crochet Flowers: Poppy, Daisies, Juniper, Dahlia; Baby Blooms a Bella: Rossini, Saffron, Champagne; Designer Tapes: Pink Stripe, Teal Stripe, Pickle Juice Dot, Pink Flowers, Yellow Chevron, Piggy Pink Stripe, Blue Gingham

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Remember. All of our new products will begin shipping to stores and online retailers on August 6th! You won't have to wait too much longer!

Endless Inspiration Week: More Birthday Boy & Birthday Girl

We hope you're ready to be inspired! We are looking forward to providing you with endless inspiration during these two weeks, with never-before-seen projects that will be featured in our CHA Summer booth display. We just know that you are going to love seeing all our new products in action. Our Design Team has been busy, busy, busy creating plenty of happiness with all of the new collections and products, and we are excited to finally share those projects with you!

The new Birthday Boy collection is such a fun and colorful collection, perfect for boys of all ages! And quite honestly, this collection works great for girls as well. You'll love the new Orange Stripe and Pickle Juice Chevron designs on the new Designer Tapes. The new little Orange Star and Gulf Square buttons add a fun touch to your projects, and the Birthday Boy additions to our flag collections are perfect for tucking here and there on projects! And check out the new Blueberry Sienna uppercase chipboard alphas, perfect for adding bold titles to your layouts!

“Birthday Boy Skype Party”, by Katherine McElvain.

This photo makes me smile! It captures a moment when my family is skyping with Grandma and Grandpa at my son’s birthday party. They live in Michigan and could not travel to be with us. Having them on the kitchen table via the computer for the first time was fun. If I remember correctly, Grandma was having a little trouble figuring things out, and Grandpa was reluctant to get into site of the camera. Possibly those were some of the reasons for all the smiles. I wanted to record this “skype party” because technology is such a big part of our lives and is ever changing. In the future it will be interesting to look back at this birthday celebration and explore how technology and celebrations have changed over time.

Supplies:
Birthday Boy: Icons, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Just Write Journaling Stickers, Borders, About a Boy, Toadilly Cool, Just A Note; Flags: Birthday Boy 1; Button Market: Stars, Orange Stars; Designer Tape: Chevron Pickle Juice; Sienna Chipboard Alphas: Blueberry; High Five Alpha Stickers: Blue

“Make a Wish” card, by Kathy Martin.

When you think about birthdays, what’s the first thing you think of? My mind goes straight to the cake! What’s a birthday celebration without it? I don’t want to know! For this card I used an yummy chipboard cake with matching patterned paper from the new Birthday Boy Collection. I love the candles with the stars for flames! Too cute!

Supplies:
Birthday Boy: Eat Cake, Ciao Chip; High Five Alphas: Blue; Button Market: Orange Stars

Cupcake Glassine Goody Bags & Altered Crate, by Sheri Feypel.

I've been hanging on to this wooden crate for a while knowing that I would eventually alter it. I covered each piece of wood on the frontand back with paper and sanded the edges so that it wouldn't curl up or peel off. I added the chipboard frog complete with some birthday flags to keep it festive! Once I was done I filled it up with the goodie bags for guests.

These little glassine goodie bags were really simple to make and look so cute! I made a bunch of them and didn't use a ton of product, plenty left over to scrapbook the photo's from the party:) I made them look like a each bag had a "prize ribbon" on them to reward guests. I jazzed it up a bit by covering mini clothespins with paper and use them to keep the bag closed.

Supplies:
Birthday Boy: Just A Note, About A Boy, Toadilly Cool, Borders, Cute Cuts, Chipboard Icons, Alpha+Bits Stickers

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The new Birthday Girl collection is such a cute, girly collection, perfect for little and big girls! You'll love the new Gulf dot and Punch chevron designs on the new Designer Tapes. The new Purple Flower and Hot Pink Flower buttons add a fun touch to your projects, and the Birthday Girl additions to our flag collections are perfect for tucking here and there on projects! And check out the new Punch Sienna uppercase chipboard alphas, perfect for adding bold titles to your layouts!

“Cake Smash”, by Megan Klauer.

I love the new large photo trend lately. I printed this cutie at 12x8 and began layering the Birthday Girl papers & embellishments around it. The upper right corner of my photo had some great "empty or white" space which lead to the perfect spot for my title work. I cut the bottom of one of the stickers from the Just Write sheet to create the "Cake" portion of my title.  

Supplies: 
Birthday Girl: Celebrate, Borders, Sugar Rush, Miles of Smiles, Cute Cuts, Just Write Journaling Stickers, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Chipboard Icons; Sienna Chipboard Alpha: Punch; Designer Tapes: Punch Chevron, Gulf Dot; Flags: Birthday Girl 2; Crochet Flowers: Dahlia, Daises

"Celebrate in Style" card, by Gretchen McElveen.

What's not to love about a girly birthday line?! With lots of pink and purple, it is perfect for birthday-themed projects like this card, but it can also be used for sweet little girl layouts!

Supplies:
Birthday Girl: Dancing Queen, Borders, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Chipboard Icons

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Thanks for joining us for our first week of Endless Inspiration! We will be back for another full week of sharing CHA Summer projects with you, starting on Monday!

Also, be sure to stop by Stephanie's blog today, as she is giving away a Birthday Girl collection to one lucky reader ;)