Bella Blvd Studio Blog

On-Going Guest Designers: Carina Lindholm, Diane Payne, Wendy Bretz

Last year, when we were choosing our new Design Team, we had a group of talented designers that we just couldn't pass up. So we added a special team of On-going Guest Designers, that will joining us here on the blog throughout the year, along with the rest of our Design Team. Today, we are welcoming back Carina Lindholm, Diane Payne, and Wendy Bretz for their last round of projects.

Hello everyone! I’m Carina Lindholm. I live in a small town in the middle of Sweden with my husband Per and our three children Marcus (8), Filip (6) & Alva (5). I’m a stay at home mom, but I sometimes work extra in a scrapbook store. I consider myself both a scrapbooker and a card maker and my style is playful and I like to use lots of color on my projects. When I’m not paper crafting I love to sew, read and spend time with my family.

”You Are My Sunshine”, by Carina Lindholm.

I used the adorable baby girl collection to make this layout about my daughter. Using a heart die I die cut a few hearts on the paper with all the cute animals. I then matted it on the purple paper using foam tape so the hearts would really pop of the page. I decorated with a crochet flower a flag and a chipboard tree. And to finish it off I adhered a few strips of green designers tape.

Supplies:
Baby Girl: It’s a Girl, Borders; Sophisticates: Trees Ciao Chip, Miniatures Family; Spring Flings & Easter Things: Miniatures; Crochet Flower: Poppy; Flags: Love; Designers Tape: Pickle Juice Dot; Button Market: Neutrals Mix

“Till Havs”, by Carina Lindholm.

I love, love, love this collection, it’s just so playful and fun. So of course I had to make a playful layout about my son using it. I cut out a few images from the cute cuts paper and adhered them to my page using pop dots.

Supplies:
Sunshine & Happiness: Happy Clouds, Cute Cuts; High Five Alphabets: Blue; Flags: Floral; Designer Tape: Pickle Juice Dot

“You Are Wonderful”, by Carina Lindholm.

When I use cut outs on my cards I like to adhere them to the card using foam tape, to give the card more dimension. And that’s what I did with the giraffe, cloud, hearts and the sentiment.

Supplies:
Baby Boy: On The Go, Cute Cuts, Borders; Button: Fruit Punch

“Love You”, by Carina Lindholm.

On this card I used the baby girl collection to make a love card. I covered my card base in pink cloud paper, I personally love cloud papers and use them all the time, I think they are a perfect fit for any themed card. I decorated with an adorable turtle cut out, button, tags stickers and floral tape.

Supplies:
Baby girl: Sweet Dreams, Cute Cuts; We’re Expecting: Baby’s Firsts Miniatures; Sophisticates: Miniatures Card Sentiments; Designer Tape: Pink Flower; Button Market: Fruit Punch

“Baby”, by Carina Lindholm.

On this card I cut out a few strips from the Borders paper and adhered a scallop border at the bottom of each strip. I then adhered them all to the card. I matted the monkey sticker on patterned paper and cut a scallop border around it using decorative scissors.

Supplies:
Baby Boy: Baby Blue, Borders, Just Write Journaling Stickers; Buttons Market: Neutrals Mix

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Hello everyone! I’m Diane Payne, and I reside in the big state of Texas with my wonderful husband of 22 years and our two teenage children. Although I love recording the details of our life, I enjoy the creative process of scrapbooking as much as the memory keeping. I like to experiment with different techniques and incorporate photos into our home décor. I scrapbook with a variety of photo styles, including current, vintage, and Hipstamatic prints. My favorite tool for journaling is my vintage 1930's Underwood typewriter which is also used as decor in the entry way of my home.

“Most Improved Player”, by Diane Payne.

I was so proud of my daughter being awarded as the Most Improved Player at the softball team awards banquet last spring. To document the special moment, I drew inspiration from the dress that she wore to the awards ceremony. The Sophisticates paper complemented the colors perfectly and I used my Cameo to mimic the patterns in her dress.

Supplies:
Sophisticates: Sprinkles & Lace Apricot, Sprinkles & Lace McIntosh, Sprinkles & Lace Ice, Tall Tags; Hello Beautiful: Alpha+Bits Sticker; Winter Wonder: Miniatures; High Five Alphabets; Pink-Red, Black-White; Ciao Chip Elements: Stars & Hearts; Button Market: Red Flowers, Fruit Punch; Flags: Birthday, Fall

 

“Where Dreams Come True!”, by Diane Payne.

I love this old photo of my kids during their first visit to Disneyland. It brings back happy memories. We've been back several times and it is always as much fun as the very first visit. To convey the happy mood of the photo I used the Sunshine & Happiness collection paired with the Ciao Chip Clouds and a mix of colorful letter stickers.

Supplies:
Sunshine & Happiness: Borders, Sunny Side Up, Popsicle Kisses, Alpha+Bits Stickers; Ciao Chip Elements: Clouds; Quattrofina Alpha Stickers: Peep & Saffron, Salt Water & Pacific; High Five Alpha Stickers: Green; Button Market: Wood Mix; Designer Tape: Pink Stripe, Pink Flowers, Pickle Juice Dot, Teal Stripe; Crochet Flowers: Dahlia

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My name is Wendy Bretz and I currently live in a small town located in Western New York along Lake Erie. I am a full-time working mother to an adorable, energetic little girl named Hannah. I started scrapbooking about 8 years ago when Hannah was born. My style of scrapbooking is very clean, simple and graphic. Since I began scrapbooking I have met some incredible people who have guided, encouraged and taught me a lot throughout the past eight years. I look forward everyday to talking with friends I have met and creating new designs for layouts my daughter can one day admire.

“Twelve Twenty Five”, Wendy Bretz.

Christmas is probably my most favorite theme to scrapbook! The excitement of the holiday season along with the fun scrapbooking products that come out just make creating these layouts an absolute joy. I love Bella Blvd's Christmas Wish Collection. Even though I'm a simple, hybrid scrapbooker who uses minimal product, I can always find something to create with. Here, I used a Border and made a little tree out of the Sophisticates Patterned Paper for my layout. I attached my title and then scanned it. I added a few digital touches and there you have it ... a fun and simple Christmas layout.

Supplies:  
Sophisticates: Sprinkles & Lace McIntosh; Christmas Wishes: Borders; Quatrofina Alpha Stickers: Milk & Oreo

“Just Us”, by Wendy Bretz.

The thing about Bella Blvd's products I like most is how versatile they are to every style scrapper out there. From the simplest of scrapbookers to the ones who use use lots of products on a page, Bella's paper and embellishments can be used in so many ways. For this layout I created another simple graphic layout. I used the letter stickers from the Camped Out collection and decided to turn them on the side. I then hand cut one of the little tiny houses from the Block Party Patterned Paper and added it to my layout on the opposite side. To finish this layout, I added a digital stitched circle, my photo and the words "happy girls" to balance out the layout.

Supplies:
Camped Out: Carla Mudpie Cardstock Stickers; Honey I'm Home: Block Party; Quatrofina: Milk & Oreo

Summer Mini Album

Today, we have a fun and colorful summer mini album to share with you. It's based on the photo-a-day idea, but on a smaller scale, covering just the summertime.

Summer Holidays mini album, by Marie-Josée Hamel.

In January, I wanted to start taking a picture a day for the whole year, but I changed my mind quickly, because I knew I would forget to take one some days or lose interest after a while for lack of interesting things to feature. However, at the beginning of the summer, the idea surfaced again and I decided to do it from June until September. Since I spend all summer at home with my daughter, I knew the timing would be perfect and that I would have plenty of things to document. So, I started taking pictures right on the first day of our summer vacation. I decided that I wanted a quick and easy way to document our summer and as such, I decided to add text directly to each picture using Photoshop Elements. Here are a few examples of the pictures I took so far.

Then, I had to start working on the album that would be used to feature those pictures. However, I knew right from the start that I could not create a traditionnal mini-album, because it would be way too thick, given that I will have over sixty day of pictures to feature by the end of the summer.

So I browsed the Web in search of ideas and found many examples of three-ring albums. I figured a 2.5" spine would be perfect and big enough to include all the pictures I would take over the summer. So I got the biggest ring I could find to fit that size. I also settled on a 5.5" x 7" format, which will allow me to included patterned papers and embellishments. Since I take both landscape and portrait pictures, I will have to flip the album while looking through it, but I prefer this format to a square, bigger format. 

I created the base of the album with chipboard that I covered with patterned paper. This makes the album sturdier. The spine is 2.5" x 7" and each covers measures 5.5" x 7. I adhered the ribbons that I will use to close the album to the chipboard before adhering the pattered papers. It is important to use three rings, otherwise, the pages will move too much.

Once the base of the album was created, I added tabs, once for each month of the summer as well as one more for special events.

When working on a huge project like that, I find it is easier to cut most of the pieces in advance, instead of cutting them one at a time. So I cut more than 60 pieces of Bella Blvd paper, in various colors and patterns. Each piece measures 4.75" x 6.6".

I also set aside a few pieces of paper with patterns that can be used as embellishments when cut out. Here's a sample of such papers.

Once this was done, I started adhering the pieces of paper to each piece of white cardstock. I selected a different paper for each day, either choosing a color that was part of the color scheme of the photo or an opposite color. I also created a cover page for each month.

As you can see, the album is already pretty thick, and I have not added papers nor pictures for the month of August yet! So, if you chose to create a similar album, don't forget to make it large enough so you will be able to close it once it is completed.

And finally, I decorated a few pages. As you can see, it doesn't need many embellishments since it is already pretty busy with the background paper and the text right on the photo. I added a bit of washi tape, flags and stickers.

Supplies:
Patterned papers: Various collections, among them Sunny Happy Skies, Family Dynamix and Socialite; Designer Tape: Red Dot, Pickle Juice Dot; Ciao Chip Versatile Elements: Stars & Hearts, Borders; Ciao Chip Simply Simona Alphabets & Numbers: McIntosh

Cards On Thursdays

It's time for more free-for-all cards from our design team today, and we have a wide variety of cards to share with you.

"Hi" card, by Deanna Misner.

One of my favorite new papers in the Birthday Girl collection is "Party Dresses". I love those flowers and could cut them out all. day. long. So that's exactly what I did for this card. Instead of making it a birthday card, I chose just to make a really girly card with the flowers. I added the really big flower from "Cute Cuts" and anchored the sentiment with some Designer Tape.

Supplies:
Birthday Girl: Party Dresses, Miles of Smiles, Cute Cuts; Sienna Chipboard Alphas: Punch; Designer Tape: Gulf Dot, Pickle Juice Dot

"Happy Birthday" card, by Deanna Misner.

Polka Dots and cupcakes make me happy, so for this card I used what makes me happy. I hand-cut the cupcake, topped the cupcake's cherry with a cute little button, and added a banner sentiment. All the things I love rolled in to one card!

Supplies:
Birthday Girl: Miles of Smiles, Celebrate, Cute Cuts, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Chipboard Icons; Button Market: Hot Pink Flower; Designer Tape: Punch Chevron

"Happy Birthday To You" card, by Deanna Misner.

When I first opened up my product package with my daughter, she squealed and fell in love with this hippo at first sight. So this one's for her - her favorite colors and her favorite hippo. And I love the fun, funky font that comes with each collection so I used it to continue the sentiment up the side of the card. Also, to bring in a little more color (other than the pink and the purple) I added the notched yellow journaling card to the top and the bottom.

Supplies:
Birthday Girl: Sugar Rush, Cute Cuts, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Just Write Journaling Stickers; Chipboard Icons; Button Market: Hot Pink Flowers

“Score, It’s  A Boy” card, by Alice Carman.

I wanted to do something different instead of a typical baby theme so I went with a sporty theme. What Father doesn’t buy a mini glove or ball for their newborn son? 

Supplies:
Making the Team: Fan Club; High Five Alphas: Pink-Red; Ciao Chip: Oyster; Button Market: Masculine Mix; Unity Stamps: You’re A Hit

“Lovely Smile” card, by Alice Carman.

I love bright and happy colors and Spring Flings and Easter Things is perfect for that. I smile every time I use this collection, how can you not? It’s so happy!

Supplies:
Spring Flings and Easter Things: A Tisket A Tasket, Borders, Sunny Sunday, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Miniatures Stickers; High Five Alphabets: Pink-Red

“Boo” card, by Alice Carman.

I’ve been so inspired by all the Halloween decorations I’ve seen in stores lately. Here’s my take using Bella Blvd’s Too Cute To Spook stamp, paper and embellishments. I ran out of O’s so I decided to use the head of my Frankenstein as the missing O.

Supplies:
Too Cute To Spook: Cute Cuts, Miniature Stickers; Ciao Chips: Orange  Chipboard Alphabet; Love Dovey: Borders N’ Blocks; Stamps: Too Cute Too Spook Kit

"Miss You" card, by Gail Hoecker.

I did a little hand stitching as a border on this card. Yes, I have a sewing machine and it could go a lot quicker, but I just love the look of the thicker floss sometimes. For the larger section of the card, I used a cute cut, no paper piecing necessary. As a good friend of mine says, "let the paper do the work for you!".

Supplies:
Spring Flings & Easter Things: Egg Hunt, Cute Cuts; Button Market: Wood Mix; Flags: Spring Things & Easter Things

"The Best Thing" card, by Gail Hoecker.

I love mixing and matching lots of papers, so this card design is perfect, four different papers on one card. I punched out circles and popped them up on one of the strips in the same paper as the background. To get even more paper designs on one card, you could punch your circles out of all different patterned papers. Fun card to play around with...try it!

Supplies:
Supplies: Sunshine & Happiness: Petal Power, Sunny Side Up, Juicy Good Time, Happy Clouds, Alpha+Bits stickers

"Congratulations" card, by Gail Hoecker.

I love using the Unity stamps made for Bella Blvd. They stamp nice clear images each time. Today I stamped in Versamark ink and used white embossing powder. When I stamp an image for a card or scrapbook page, as I did here in white, I will stamp a bunch of different images using the same ink and embossing powders. You might love the way it looks and would have never using that combination for another stamp.

Supplies:
Baby Girl: Pretty in Pink, Daddy's Girl, Sweet Dreams; Unity Stamps: New Set of Wheels

The Bella Buzz August 2012 Newsletter

If you've signed up for it already, the Bella Buzz August issue of our newsletter should be arriving in your inbox today. If you have not signed up yet, you can do so HERE, so you can be sure to get on our subscriber list. You can also find previous issues HERE, to browse and download.

You can view and download our August 2012 issue HERE.

Layouts On Wednesdays

We are back with more free-for-all layouts from our design team. It looks like everyone had summer on the creative brain, as we have lots of bright and colorful summer layouts to share today!

“I love Summer Time”, by Loredana Buccaria.

Hi everyone! This is a summer layout, one of the last mini trips I made this summer for my second wedding anniversary. I chose Capri for the location and it was an amazing weekend! Sun, sea, beach, yummy food, relax and love, all the words that I adore! For this layout, I wanted to play with many different kinds of tiny details. I imagined a page with a big circle photo and around many little things. I think that the colors of these little treasures were perfect for my page and for what I would to remember. I had a lot of fun playing with them and mixing them. Have fun!

Supplies:
Estate Sale: Linens; Sunshine & Happiness: Popsicle kisses, Cute Cuts, Miniatures Stickers, Alpha+Bits Stickers; Baby Boy: Borders; Baby Girl: Chipboard Icons; Button Market: Masculine Mix, Pickle Squares, Checkers, Stars, Fruit Punch; Designer Tape: Yellow Chevron; Ciao Chip Elements: Stars & Hearts, Clouds; High Five Alphabets: Blue; Crochet Flowers: Daisies

"Throw Me At The Enemy", by Melissa Stinson.

We don't go to the community pool very often, and sometimes I miss all those awesome pool photos that I see other scrappers using on their layouts. You can bet, then, that when I snapped these photos of my nephew playing in the pool at his birthday party, I jumped at the chance to scrap one of them- I just love the blue of the water and the fun summer-y vibe! Bella's Sunshine + Happiness collection was perfect for this page. I pulled out the more masculine colors from the line and used mostly yellow, green, orange, and blue for this layout.

Supplies:
Sunshine & Happiness: Popsicle Kisses, Cute Cuts, Sunny Side Up, Petal Power, Happy Clouds, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Flags; Family Dynamix: Quadrants; Designer Tape: Teal Stripe; Button Market: Checkers; Flags: Summer; Ciao Chip: Borders, Clouds; Simply Simona Alphas: Salt Water; High Five Alphabet Stickers: Blue

“I Love Summer”, by Vivian Masket.

The bright and summery colors of the Sunshine & Happiness collection were a perfect match for my photos. I created lollipop embellishments for this fun and colorful layout by layering two different sizes of circles punched from patterned paper. Pieces of wooden skewers serve at lollipop sticks. 

Supplies:
Sunshine & Happiness: Petal Power, Sunny Side Up, Playdate, Popsicle Kisses, Happy Clouds, Borders, Cute Cuts, Miniatures Stickers; Designer Tape: Pink Stripe

"You Are My Sunshine & Happiness", by Kim Arnold.

Although it is winter here in Australia at the moment, I loved this photo of my hubby and I together enjoying the view on a sun shiny winter’s day and I knew that Sunshine & Happiness would be the perfect range to use. Once again Bella Blvd proves just how well different ranges work together with me using embellishments from the Spring Flings and Easter Things collection, Baby Girl range and Ciao Chip elements. I have then used a range of different letter stickers to create a very long title that also incorporate a word block from the Cute Cuts patterned paper.

Supplies:
Sunshine & Happiness: Happy Clouds, Petal Power, Popsicle Kisses, Cute Cuts, Alpha+Bits Stickers; Baby Girl: Chipboard Icons; Spring Flings and Easter Things: Chipboard Icons; Ciao Chip Elements: Stars & Hearts, Borders; Designer Tape: Pickle Juice Dot, Red Dot; Button Market: Blues; High Five Alphabets: Pink-Red

"BBQ Season", by Nancy Damiano.

I am always looking for different ways to scrap our family event photos. I ended up with a stack of BBQ pictures this past month and what better way to show them off than with a giant, colorful picture frame. I used the "b" sides of some of my favorite Bella patterns for the rainbow color palette.  I was able to include three of my favorite photos by stacking them into a collage. I sewed a row of photo corners to embellish the journaling area. Adding some stickers, chipboard and stickers for the title block completes the page! 

Supplies:
Sunshine & Happiness: Petal Power, Happy Clouds, Popsicle Kisses, Just Write Journaling Sticker, Miniatures Stickers; Winter Wonder: Alpha+Bits Stickers; Finally Fall: Bliss; Button Market: Text; Flags: Text Me; Designer Tape: Pickle Juice Dot; Simply Simona Chipboard Alphas: Oreo; High Five Alphabet: Pink-Red

Tuesday Inspiration

It's been a while since we have had a Tuesday Inspiration feature on the blog, and we are very excited to bring it back today. Inspiration is all around us, and can be interpreted in so many different ways. We have chosen one image, and asked a handful of our designers to create a layout based on the inspiration piece. It's always fun to see what part of a piece a designers finds inspiring, and how they translate that into their designs. 

{Photo Credit}

"MASL 2012 Fall Season", by Laura Vegas.

I really loved the random grid design on this inspiration piece. I'm a very linear scrapbooker, but I've really enjoyed being a little more carefree on my layouts lately, but still keeping everything on my page neat and orderly. I started out with my focal photo in the center of the page and added more photos on either side. I arranged my title towards the bottom right corner of the page, just like the row of numbers on the inspiration image. Then I just started arranging stickers and scraps of patterned paper around my photos and title, and added some simple embellishments to finish it off.

Supplies:
Making The Team: Fan Club, Soccer, Borders, Cute Cuts, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Just Write Journaling Stickers, Chipboard Icons; Family Dynamix: Quadrants; Winter Wonder: Alpha+Bits Stickers; Simply Simona Chipboard Alphas: Oreo; Simply Simona Chipboard Numbers: Oreo; Quattrofina Alpha Stickers: Red-Pink; Designer Tape: Red Dot, Pickle Juice Chevron; Flags: Sports; Button Market: Neutrals Mix, Blues, Masculine Mix

“Online Friends Meet in Chicago”, by Megan Klauer.

When I first saw the Inspiration piece I immediately thought of travel. I started by using my Silhouette to cut the map of the United States image from Kraft card stock. I then backed it with the Hearts side of the Birthday Boy: Borders paper. Using pop dots, I cut another map just a little bit smaller so I could still see the pattern paper underneath. This created the perfect space for my title work. Then, sticking to the inspiration piece I created a variety of tag & banner pieces to sprinkle around my design.

Supplies:
Birthday Girl: Miles of Smiles; Birthday Boy: All For You, About A Boy, Eat Cake, Borders, Alpha+Bits Stickers; Thankful: Turkey Tracks; Sophisticates: Short Stories, Calendars, Family & Card Sentiments Miniatures; Simply Simona Chipboard Numbers: White; Simply Simona Chipboard Alphas: Pickle Juice; Ciao Chip Everyday Elements: Borders, Stars & Hearts; High Five Alphabets: Black-White, Blue, Yellow; Stick Pin Flags: Girl

"Happiness Together", by Kimberly Neddo.

I loved this inspiration piece and loved using the chipboard accent pieces to add just the right dimension to this layout. I used the actual design of the inspiration piece for my layout. I loved the layout format, and incorporated my title, tags and photograph to fit into the design itself. The Cute Cuts are PERFECT to create tags with, and the borders are a fun piece to just add strips to any layout. 

Supplies: 
Baby Boy: Mamma's Boy; Sunshine & Happiness: Borders, Cute Cuts, Ciao Chip; Spring Flings & Easter Things: Cute Cuts; High Five Alpha Stickers: Black-White; Designer Tape: Green Pickle Juice Dot

"Life Is Good My Boy”, by Sheri Feypel.

When I finally got the chance to sit down and plan this project and check out the inspiration, the first thing that jumped off the page was the tags. I used them as the focus for creating my layout. First I decided where I wanted my picture on the layout. Then I laid out my tags and added several different patterned papers to them and dressed them up with stickers, buttons and other goodies.

Supplies:
Thankful: Perfect Day, Turkey Tracks, Homey, Burlap, Our Spot, Borders, Alpha+Bits Stickers; Birthday Boy: Alpha+Bits Stickers; Button Market: Checkers, Masculine Mix, Wood Mix; High Five Alphabet Stickers: Blue

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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.

2012-2013 Design Team Call For Submissions

Scroll down for more current posts!
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I have been receiving emails this morning, all asking the same question, so I thought I would add this here for everyone that might be curious. You are more than welcome to submit for more than one category (cards & layout, layouts & altered projects, etc). We will just need you to send in TWO SEPERATE (or more, if needed) submissions/emails, since I sort them all out by the category you are submitting for to make our process a bit easier.

Step-By-Step Monthly Project Sheet: Birthday

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 Birthday project sheet HERE. And if you are looking for a layout idea using the Birthday Boy collection, keep in mind, this design will easily work with either birthday collection!

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!!!

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 project sheets!

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 August, courtesy of Becky Fleck.

"Brand New", by Brook Stewart.

My mom was in the delivery room when our little girl was born last month, so I have a ton of pictures from shortly after she was born (Thanks mom!!). This sketch was absolutely perfect for documenting those little things they do after they're born--her first bath, washing her hair, getting her foot prints, putting on the cute little clothes, putting on her ID bracelet...I loved the sketch as it was, so I mostly stuck to it! I added little layers here and there with paper, stickers and the flower and button embellishments. Photos taken by my mom :)

Supplies:
Baby Girl: It's A Girl, Pretty in Pink, Daddy's Girl, Snuggly Safari, Cute Cuts, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Just Write Journaling Stickers, Miniature Stickers; Button Market: Pink Flowers; Ciao Chip Elements: Stars & Hearts; High Five Alphabets: Pink-Red; Crochet Flowers: Dahlia

"Beautiful Lara Isabel", by Sue Mylde.

As a tribute to the fun and happy colors that are such a trademark for Bella Blvd, I combined some of my favorite collections together. Instead of the 2x2 inches offered by the sketch, I sized my images and the panels to 3x2 inches. Embellishing each of the panels was a lot of fun - adding things like stickers and chipboard. Love that. Combining the elements like cloth flowers, and chipboard also add texture to this bright and cute page! Hope you enjoy it!

Supplies:
Sunshine & Happiness: Petal Power, Popsicle Kisses, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Miniatures Stickers, Just Write Journaling Stickers; Spring Flings & Easter Things: Sunny Sunday, Miniatures Stickers; Baby Girl: Chipboard Icons; High Five Alphabets: Black-White; Buttons: Fruit Punch; Designer Tape: Pink Flowers; Baby Blooms a Bella: Champagne

“Away We Go”, by Julie Johnson.

To create this layout I developed my photos in wallet size so I could still see most of the photo. I adjusted the sketch a bit by using 2 1/2 x 2 1/2 inch photos instead of 2 inch photos. I didn't get as many photos on the page but I think it looks just as nice. I added a few more strips of paper since I didn't use a lot of embellishments on the page and I wanted to add some color. I decided to keep this layout a bit on the simple side and this was the perfect sketch for doing that. Give this sketch a try. It's quick and easy. 

Supplies:
Making the Team: Fan Club, Soccer, Wall of Fame, Quadrants, Borders, Cute Cuts; Simply Simona Chipboard Alphas: Oreo; High Five Alphabet Stickers: Pink-Red

"Beauty”, by Allyson Meinholz.

I love working with Sketches. They are so fast and I love the instant gradification for completing a layout. They are a perfect fit for my lifestyle while I am still adjusting to being a mommy of 4 beautiful little girls. Sketches still allow me to squeeze in a page or two every now and then.

Supplies:
Thankful: Burlap, Our Spot, Bountiful, Homey, Borders, Cute Cuts, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Just Write Journaling Stickers; December Details: Carla Berry

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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. 

Fridays With Stephanie

Ciao Ciao Bella fans! It’s hard to believe it’s Friday already because this week has flew by….we began shipping all the brand NEW Bella Blvd products collections!

Be on the look-out for these new products at your favorite local and online stores!

In fact, we’ve already located them online … Check out Two Peas in A Bucket. If you’ve seen them online please comment below and leave a link so fans can click to purchase!

There are also so many awesome things in the works for the weeks ahead! Just around the corner we will be announcing a Design Team call for the next annual Term.

So … if Bella Blvd is one of your scrapbooking loves you’ll want to be sure to STOCK UP NOW and fill up your Bella Blvd Stash so you’re to create & submit!

You could be part of our next team of talented designers! Be sure to visit on Monday for all details! 

Happy Friday!