Bella Blvd Studio Blog

Silhouette March Promotion

We have two posts going on today. Scroll down to see our "Cards On Thursday" post!

Silhouette's March Promotion went live today, and we are excited to help them spread the news, while sharing some new project inspiration along the way.

We were encouraged to use the Silhouette Studio Designer Edition software in the creation of our projects. We set up two of our layout designers, Gina Lideros and Becki Adams, with this new software and in a little over 24 hours, they came up with some fabulous layouts to share with you today, along with a few peeks into how they used the sofware in their design process.

“Fashionista”, by Gina Lideros.

I wanted to create a layout that was as fun and fresh as my daughter's fashion sense. I started my layout by creating a triangular file in Silhouette and using the designer edition software to modify it. After I cut my Freestyle Sophisticates paper (Peep) I placed alternating strips of designer tape under my paper and then stitched on top. I added in pieces from the Engaged At Last collection and finished off my layout with some fabulous Bella feathers.

First I created a triangular shaped background using the polygon tool. I used the copy and paste feature to repeat the pattern. After I was done creating my triangle background I used the group feature to group my background together.

Next, I selected the Shear tool that comes with the designer edition software. I then selected the Horizontal shear 30 degree angle from the box on the right side. This gave my triangles an elongated look. After getting the desired angle that I wanted I sent cut my file and then used it as a background for my layout.

Supplies:
Engaged At Last Collection: Bachelor Extras, Alpha+Bits Stickers; Sand & Surf Collection: Borders; Freestyle Sophisticates: Freestyle Peep, Freestyle Scallop; Feathers: Bell Pepper, Oreo Black; Designer Tape: Gray Chevron, Ice Stripe, Gray Dot, Combo

“Dream Big”, by Gina Lideros.

I had this self portrait of my daughter that she took using her camera phone. I just loved the way the sun rays reflected on her in the background. I used that as my inspiration to create my title. I used the designer edition software for Silhouette to modify a title "dream big" that I had purchased in the Silhouette online store. Bella Blvd's Sand & Surf collection was perfect for the theme of my layout. I kept the background of my layout simple so that the focus could be on the title work and the photo. I finished off my layout by adding in a fun mix of Bella feathers, buttons and designer tape.

To get started, I opened up a file that I had purchased in the Silhouette online store (Dream big by KI Memories). I sized my title to the dimensions that I wanted and then selected the advanced knife tool that comes with the designer edition software.

When selected the knife tool will open up a window on the right side. The advanced knife tool comes with 11 different blades. This is a great feature of the designer edition. I selected the straight edge knife and positioned my blade in  the bottom right hand corner of my title. I then sliced into my title in an upwards angle.

After I cut the first angle I continued making more cuts in an upward angle until it appeared to look like a sunburst. After I achieved the desired sunburst effect, I cut out my title out of different pieces of pattern paper from Bella's Sand & Surf collection. And then I pieced them together on my layout.

Supplies:
Sand & Surf Collection: Flying High, Paradise, Surf's Up, Borders, Under The Coconuts, Cute Cuts, Miniatures Stickers; Flags: Sand & Surf; Freestyle Sophisticates: Freestyle Pickle Juice; Feathers: Pickle Juice, Pony; Designer Tape: Yellow Chevron, Ice Stripe; Button Market: Checkers, Bursts

“Summer Treats”, by Becki Adams.

For this layout I wanted to create one of my very own designs from scratch. So I started with a rectangle. The rulers that come with the Designer Edition were so helpful with this design because everything needed to line up perfectly in order for it to look right.

I used the shear feature to make the rectangles into parallelograms. I then copied and pasted the design several times along the bottom and left hand side of the page.

After cutting my design I attached the negative space to a piece of cardstock that had decorative tape on it. I finished the layout with lots of goodies from the Sand & Surf line. I'm so excited to have a layout created with my own design using the Designer Edition software.

Supplies:
Sand & Surf: Surfs Up, Paradise, Sand & Surf Chipboard Icons, Miniatures Stickers; High Five Alpha Stickers: Gulf; Sienna Chipboard Alphas: Pony; Designer Tapes: Hot Pink Dot Tape, Yellow Chevron Tape; Ciao Chip: Clouds

“Heartbreaker”, by Becki Adams.

I started my first project with a heart from Echo Park out of the Silhouette store. I knew I wanted the title of my page to be heartbreaker so I tried out one of the different knife features on the designer software.

I used the triangular knife to cut the center heart and make it look broken by cutting down the center and moving the right half of the heart slightly to the right and down.

For this particular design I used the negative space and backed it with cardstock that I had covered with decorative tapes. I wanted more attention drawn to the hearts so I used my black pen to create some faux stitching around the hearts. I wanted this layout to be about how my little guy has such blue eyes and blond hair that he's sure to be a heartbreaker when he gets a little older. I love how it turned out and how easy it was to create in the Silhouette Designer Software.

Supplies:  
Love And Marriage: Smokeys In Love, Just Write Journaling Stickers; Sand & Surf: Alpha+Bits; Designer Tape: Cotton Candy Chevron, Hot Pink Dot, Piggy Pink Stripe; High Five Alpha Stickers: Piggy-Punch, Blue 

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Silhouette makes some amazing products, and scrappers everywhere are addicted to these machines. If you've been thinking about purchasing either the Silhouette Portrait or the Silhouette CAMEO, now is a great time to make it happen. Please click HERE (make sure to use this link, as it's the only place our promo code will work) to take advantage of this month’s discount and don’t forget to enter "BELLA" as the promo code to get these special offers.

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Silhouette is so incredibily generous that they are providing us with a Silhouette Portrait to give away to one of our lucky blog readers!!! If you don't already own one of these amazing machines, just leave us a comment to be entered in our random drawing. Comments will remain open until Sunday evening, and we will announce a winner on Monday, March 4th. Good luck everyone!

Cards On Thursday

It's Thursday, which means we have a wide variety of amazing cards from our Card Designers to share with you!

"You Make My Days Better" card, by Gretchen McElveen.

I used the 'Love and Marriage' line here to make a general greeting card to send to a friend. I love the soft, pretty colors in this line and there are many pieces in this line that can be used beyond wedding projects!

Supplies:
Love and Marriage: Turner Hall Ballroom, Ester Fleming Floral, Cake Tasting, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Just Write Journaling Stickers; Engaged at Last: Miniatures Stickers; Designer Tapes: Gray Dot; Button Market: Neutrals Mix

"Destiny" card, by Gretchen McElveen.

I did get all lovey dovey with this card! I need a card to take to a wedding shower in a couple of weeks. Thanks to the new ' 'Love and Marriage' line it's done!

Supplies: 
Love and Marriage: Cake Tasting, Borders, Just Write Journaling Stickers, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Miniatures Wedding Day Stickers; Engaged at Last: Miniatures Stickers

"Congratulations" card, by Gretchen McElveen.

I did a lot of fussy cutting on this card! I cut out all those flowers and the 'congratulations' sentiment. Then I used a lot of foam adhesive to adhere the different elements to the card to give it all kinds of fun dimension. Thanks for looking!

Supplies:
Love and Marriage: Turner Hall Ballroom, Ester Fleming Floral, Cute Cuts, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Just Write Journaling Stickers

“Classy and Fabulous” card, by Gretchen McElveen.

I got a little crazy with the flower-cutting here! They are just so fun! I adhered some of them with foam squares to add a little dimension to the card and added some bling to the centers for a little sparkle. Also I punched a bunch of circles and used them to create a scalloped border on either side of the card. Thanks for looking!

Supplies:
Engaged at Last: Bridal Shower, Bachelorette Extras; Sand and Surf: Paradise; Flags: Bachelorette

“Spend Your Life” card, by Laurie Schmidlin.  

I just adore the new Freestyle Sophisticates collection! I couldn't decide which colors to use first, so I chose five of them! After I stitched on the background pieces, I layered on some chipboard, stickers, Designer Tape, and a Pink Flower button!

Supplies:
Love and Marriage: Wedding Day Miniatures; Engaged At Last: Just Write Journaling Stickers; Freestyle Sophisticates: Freestyle Scallop, Freestyle Saltwater, Freestyle Pickle Juice, Freestyle Banana, Freestyle Peep, Freestyle Cotton Candy; Sophisticates: Ciao Chip Stars & Hearts; Designer Tape: Gray Dot; Button Market: Pink Flowers

“Blushing Bride” card, by Laurie Schmidlin.

Wedding cards are so much fun to make! I used papers, stickers, and chipboard from the new Love and Marriage collection. For embellishment, I added some Yellow Chevron Designer Tape and a White Crochet Heart.

Supplies:
Love and Marriage: Esther Flemming Floral, Turner Hall Ballroom, Wedding Day Miniatures, Ciao Chip Wedding Icons; Designer Tape: Yellow Chevron; Crochet Hearts: White Hearts

“Amazing Birthday” card, by Laurie Schmidlin.

I love combining new collections with older ones! Here, I used Bella's Birthday Girl collection but added some new Designer Tape and a Pickle Juice Crochet Heart! I love how all of the colors go so well together!

Supplies:
Birthday Girl: Sugar Rush, Cute Cuts, Just Write Journaling Stickers, Ciao Chip Icons; Designer Tape: 12 mm Combo; Crochet Hearts: Pickle Juice Hearts

"Cupcake Card", by Laurie Schmidlin.

To me, the fun pastels combined with brighter hues is so classic Bella! This card combines all of that, plus many of my favorite Bella embellishments - Ciao Chip chipboard pieces, Flags, Buttons, and Sentiment Stickers! For a little extra fun, I added some chunky glitter around the edge of the cupcake!

Supplies:
Sophisticates: Miniatures Card Sentiment, Ciao Chip Stars & Hearts; Birthday Girl: Sugar Rush, Just Write Journaling Stickers, Cute Cuts, Flags 1; Button Market: Aqua Flowers

”Birthday Wishes” card, by Carina Lindholm.

I really like to use banners on my cards, I think they are very festive and fun. On this card I wrapped some string around my card and tied a bow at the left side. And to make my birthday banner I used both chipboard and sticker pieces. I adhered tiny pearls between all the sticker pieces to give the card some glamour.

Supplies:
Birthday Girl: Sugar Rush, Party Dress, Cute Cuts, Alpha+Bits Stickers; Birthday Boy: Chipboard Icons; Designer Tape: Piggy Pink; Button Market: Hot Pink Flowers, Stars

“Amazing Birthday” card, by Carina Lindholm.

For this card I started off by adhering strips of designers tape to my card base. I then stitch down all the strips using my sewing machine. Then I die cut a doily out of green paper, I adhered a large orange sticker flower and the sentiment label in the centre of the doily. I adhered everything with pop dots to really give this card some dimension.

Supplies:
Birthday Boy: Eat Cake, Just Write Journaling Stickers; Designer Tape: Orange Stripe; Button Market: Orange Stars

“I Only Have Eyes For You” card, by Carina Lindholm.

On this card I wanted to make this glasses cut out the focal point. I made the card in a soft color scheme to really make the hot pink glasses pop off the card. And to really draw your attention to the glasses I adhered a strip of green designers tape right under them.

Supplies:
Kiss Me: Bouquet Kisses, Cute Cuts, Alpha+Bits Sticker; Designer Tape: Pickle Juice Chevron

“So Many Of My Smiles Begin With You” card, by Carina Lindholm.

Bella Blvd has so many great designer tapes, in lots of different colors and patterns. I like to use my tapes to make fun and unique backgrounds on my cards, like I did on this one. In the centre of the card I adhered a sentiment sticker and a scallop border sticker from the “Just write” sticker sheet. I also cut out a flower from the “Cute cuts” sheet. I adhered it to my card using pop dots to give the card more dimension.

Supplies:
Collection: Kiss me: Cute Cuts, Just Write Stickers, Alpha+Bits Stickers; Designer Tape: Piggy Pink Stripe, Gulf Dot

Layouts On Wednesdays

It's Wednesday and we are back with a great selection of layouts from our Layout Designers.

"I {Heart} Winter”, by Sheri Reguly.

When creating a layout about my daughter’s love for winter, it seemed only natural to combine the fun loving Kiss Me collection, along with a touch of Winter Wonder. I love how these two collections complement one another so perfectly!

Supplies:  
Kiss Me: Flutter; Winter Wonder: Icy, Cute Cuts; Thankful: Alpha+Bits Stickers; Sunshine & Happiness: Borders, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Miniatures Stickers; Making The Team: Alpha+Bits Stickers; Button Market: Checkers

"Christmas Card 2012", by Becky Williams.

For this layout I pulled all of the colors (pink, red, blue, green) from my family's Christmas card for 2012. This allowed me to use a mix of collections while still allowing the colors to mesh together. I added the brown arrow paper from the Sand & Surf collection for a neutral and accented with bits and pieces of stickers, a calendar cut-out and Cute Cuts. 

Supplies: 
Kiss Me: Flutter, Love Notes; Sand & Surf: GPS, Paradise, Cute Cuts, Miniatures, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Just Write Journaling Stickers; Sophisticates: Calendars; Birthday Boy: Just Write Journaling Stickers; Designer Tapes: Red Dot, Pickle Juice Stripe, Gulf Stripe; High Five Alphas: Pink-Red

"I {Heart} Winter", by Yohko Takiguchi.

It was snowing outside when I took these photos. I love combination of snowflakes and rhinestones. I punched three snowflakes from white cardstock and added blue rhinestones on them. I layered many pieces of papers from the Winter Wonder collection around the large photos.

Supplies:
Winter Wonder: Blizzard, Borders, Cute Cuts, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Just Write Journaling Stickers, Miniatures; Sophisticates: Surf N Turf, Brownie, Oyster

“Let's Party”, by Diane Payne.

To add to the festive theme of my layout, I added glitter to some of the chipboard pieces and placed a star banner along the top of the layout. I carried the star theme through the layout and used the chipboard candle with star turned upside down as my exclamation point. I love how festive this layout feels!

Supplies: 
Birthday Boy: About A Boy, Toadilly Cool, Just A Note, Eat Cake, Streamers, Borders, Cute Cuts, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Chipboard Icons; Winter Wonder: Alpha+Bits Stickers; Sunshine & Happiness: Alpha+Bits Stickers; High Five Alpha Stickers: Blue; Button Market: Orange Stars

"Every Book”, by Leanne Allinson.

My three year old loves nothing more than to use his imagination when it comes to sitting down with a book! I wanted this layout to be playful and have an energetic, boyish charm to it. The layers of patterned papers and the Alpha+Bits stickers coordinate beautifully to create a hap-hazard mess that can easily be associated with any three year old! The patterned paper layers also create a textured background for the photos to rest on, while the white space above and below, still allow the eyes to rest.

Supplies:
Mr Boy: Borders N' Blocks, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Ciao Chips - Chit Chat; Birthday Boy: Eat Cake, Toadilly Cool, Borders; Sophisticates: Short Stories; High Five Alpha Stickers: Black-White, Yellow; Making The Team: Alpha+Bits Stickers; Designer Tapes: Pickle Juice Chevron

“Paper Mustache Madness”, by Sheri Feypel.

This layout features four wallet size photos of my son playing with a paper mustache from a happy meal. I wanted to keep it simple and paired my photos with the new Freestyle Sophisticates line. I wanted a bold, large title and the Chipboard Alphabets from Bella Blvd are perfect, I mixed and matched four different colors for added interest. I also added a few mustache elements from the Kiss Me line.

Supplies:
Freestyle Sophisticates:  Freestyle Peep, Freestyle Cotton Candy, Freestyle Scallop; Sienna Chipboard Alphabets: Punch, Frosting, Pony, Blueberry; Kiss Me: Alpha+Bits Stickers, Just Write Journaling Stickers; Button Market: Hot Pink Flowers

Bella Blvd & Epiphany Crafts Team Up: Giveaway Winner

I'm a day late on announcing a winner for our Bella Blvd & Epiphany Team Up giveaway. Oops. Sorry about that.

This time it's all about the Sand & Surf collection. The prize package will include products from the Sand & Surf collection along with coordinating buttons, designer tapes, and other embellishments. Value is over $100!!! And our winner is ...................

Congrats Stacey! Email me at [email protected] with "EPIPHANY TEAM UP GIVEAWAY WINNER" in the subject line and we will get your goodies on their way to you!

Tuesday Inspiration

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.

"LOVE", by Yohko Takiguchi.

I loved both the ribbon and the colors in this inspiration image. I chose the Engaged At Last collection and the Love And Marriage collection for my layout. These collections matched perfectly with the colors in the image. I also added a gray feather and a pink heart crochet. They are new products from Bella Blvd and so cute!

Supplies:
Engaged At Last: Bachelor Extracts, Just Write Journaling Stickers, Miniatures, Engagement Chipboard Icons; Love and Marriage: Cute Cuts, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Wedding Day Miniatures, The Wedding Party Miniatures; Kiss Me: Love Notes; Sophisticates: Sprinkles & Lace Punch, Sprinkles & Lace Oyster; Crochet Hearts: Cotton Candy Hearts; Feathers: Oyster; Designer Tapes: Piggy Pink Stripe

“Love Story”, by Leanne Allinson.

It's not often that I create a layout with my husband in it and even rarer if I am in the shot too! But I couldn't let an opportunity, using the gorgeous Kiss Me collection, go past, without documenting how he proposed to me. I love the colors in the inspiration image and especially the cute bow. But it was the background detail of the photo that caught my eye. I was inpired to recreate the cartography style lines with the chevron patterned paper. The white flag and the vertical lines of the pink and white straws were also incorporated into my design.

Supplies:
Kiss Me: True Love, Flutter, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Just Write Journaling Stickers; High Five Alpha Stickers: Piggy-Punch, Blue; Button Market: Pink Flowers

“The Photo”, by Kim Jeffress.

When I saw the beautiful image from this month’s inspiration challenge I immediately thought of banners, banners, and more banners. I adored the soft muted tones, so I tried to bring those soft colors into my layout. I included soft pink and grey but also bought in some other colors to make my project pop a bit more. I decided to make my own banner flags. I grabbed a couple of decorative pins, cut some banner pieces from pattern paper then added pop dots under the banner and adhered them to my page.

Supplies:
Freestyle Sophisticates: Freestyle Oyster; High Five Alpha Stickers: Gulf; Kiss Me: Flutter, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Just Write Stickers; Birthday Girl: Miles of Smiles

“Ready To Meet My Girl”, by Sheri Feypel.

I created this layout based on the color challenge, I sort of read between the lines (colors) a little bit. I rarely get to play with shades of pink, so I was more than happy to participate in this challenge. I added lots of pink layers with chipboard, stickers and buttons. While I really like adding lots of layers, I also enjoy creating little clusters of embellishments on my layouts. I love how all of the elements complimented my photo of this beautiful momma to be.

Supplies:
Love And Marriage: Cake Frosting, May Eighteenth; Kiss Me: True Love, Flutter, Alpha+Bits Stickers; Sophisticates: Sprinkle & Lace Surf & Turf; High Five Alpha Stickers: Piggy Punch; Sienna Chipboard Alphas: Punch; Ciao Chip Elements: Stars & Hearts; Freestyle Sophisticates: Freestyle Cotton Candy; Button Market: Pink Flowers

“Goodbye 2012”, by Jenny Evans.

This was such a fabulous inspiration image to create from! I was inspired by everything from this photo! From the straws, all the way to the printed background. I embellished with flags and circular punched pieces of paper, keeping the photo and clustering low on my layout like the ribbon is in the photo. I added my title so it resembled the flags mixed in with the straws. It is so great to be able to pull so many different Bella products and make them work together effortlessly! 

Supplies:
Freestyle Sophisticates: Freestyle Scallop; Sophisticates: Sprinkles & Lace Surf N Turf, Sprinkles & Lace Oyster; Kiss Me: True Love, Borders & Cute Cuts; Engaged At Last: Chipboard Icons; Simply Simona Chipboard Numbers: White; Sienna Chipboard Alphas: Pony; Designer Tape: Piggy Pink Stripe, Cotton Candy Chevron; Button Market: Blues; Flags: Just Married; Feathers: Oyster

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We hope you will take some creative time for yourself, and try out our inspiration image! 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. 

On-Going Guest Designers: Brook Stewart, Jodi Wilton, Juliana Michaels, Ebony van der Starre, Ann-Christin Larsen

When we were choosing our 2012-2013 Design Team back in September, we had a few additional designers that we just weren't ready to pass up. So just like last year, we decided to invite these designers to join our team this year as On-Going Guest Designers. They will be sharing projects with us every other month, and we are excited to share their work with you.

“Crazy Morning Hair”, by Brook Stewart.

I just love how my daughter’s polka dot pj's coordinated perfectly with the Kiss Me line. I knew I wanted to use the pics with the line right away! I had a lot of fun tucking bits of paper, journaling tags and stickers here and there for a layered look!

Supplies: 
Kiss Me: Mustache Love, Bouquet Kisses, Flutter, Borders & Cute Cuts, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Just Write Stickers; High Five Alpha Stickers: Piggy-Punch, Blue; Miniatures Stickers: Card Sentiments, Sunshine & Happiness

"I Wuv You Baby Ister" by Brook Stewart.

I really just cannot get enough of the color combination in the Kiss Me line! Definitely one of my favorites of all time! I love the small hint of yellow in the Love Notes chevron paper, so I pulled out a bit more with the yellow chevron Designer Tape! The hearts on the Love Notes paper were just begging to be cut out. I used 2 different sized hole punches on some small scraps of the papers I had cut and sprinkled them on until I liked the look and glued them down!

Supplies:
Kiss Me: True Love, Love Notes, Borders & Cute Cuts; High Five Alpha Stickers: Piggy-Punch; Family Dynamics: Quadrants; Baby Girl: Alpha+Bits Stickers; Designer Tape: Yellow Chevron

“I {Heart} Winter”, by Jodi Wilton.

I couldn't resist playing with the Winter Wonder collection, after our first big snow fall in Canada! I loved the “I {HEART} Winter” card  from the Cute Cuts sheet, and decided to use that as my title. To make it stand out more, I stitched around the heart with embroidery thread. I also wanted to incorporate lots of the blue buttons, and decided to make a patter at the bottom of my main photo!

Supplies:
Winter Wonder:  Borders, Ski Slopes, Cute Cuts, Just Write Journaling Stickers, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Miniatures; Button Market: Blues

“8 Months Luvable”, by Jodi Wilton.

I absolutely love the colors in the Kiss Me Collection, and thought I would play it up with a cute picture of my daughter when she was 8 months old. I used my Silhouette SD to cut up the chevron circles and backed them with a white die-cut doily. I then layered lots of fun die cut hearts as well as cute stickers from the Alpha+Bits sticker sheet.

Supplies:
Kiss Me: Flutter, Love Notes, True Love, Borders & Cute Cuts, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Just Write Journaling Stickers; Sophisticates: Sprinkles & Lace Ice; Sienna Chipboard Alphas: Punch; High Five Alphabet Stickers: Blue

“Party Time”, by Jodi Wilton.

I was excited to finally play with the Birthday Boy line! I once again, loved the colors in this line, and they matched perfectly for my son's 6th birthday. The chipboard Icons are super cute and provided the perfect embellishment to stick the Birthday Boy Flags. I used some Button Market Blues Buttons, but I decided to punch little cupcakes from the Eat Cake paper and fit them on top of the button!

Supplies:
Birthday Boy: About A Boy, Borders, Toadilly Cool, Eat Cake, Chipboard Icons, Birthday Boy Flags 1, Alpha+Bits Stickers; Button Market: Pickle Squares, Blues; Sienna Chipboard Alphas: Blueberry; Simply Simona Chipboard Numbers: White

“Celebrating With Friends”, by Juliana Michaels.

My husband had a surprise birthday party for me and this is a group photo of our guests. I love how some of us went all out when Danny asked us to make crazy faces for the camera!  The layout came together easily using some strips of patterned paper and tape. I especially enjoyed fussy cutting the frog from the Cute Cuts paper to add as a decorative element.

Supplies:
Birthday Boy: About A Boy, Toadilly Cool, Eat Cake, Cute Cuts, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Just Write Journaling Stickers; Thankful: Alpha+Bits Stickers; High Five Alpha Stickers: Gulf; Designer Tape: Orange Stripe, Pickle Juice

“Eat More Cake”, by Juliana Michaels.

No birthday party is complete without a birthday cake. For this layout, I again did some fussy cutting and used the cake image from the Cute Cuts paper as a decorative element on the layout. I created the flower elements by punching images from the All About You patterned paper and layering them with double sided foam tape for more dimension. 

Supplies:
Birthday Boy: All For You, About A Boy, Just A Note, Eat Cake, Cute Cuts, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Just Write Journaling Stickers; Birthday Girl: Miles Of Smiles, Party Dress; Thankful: Perfect Day

“Sand Castles”, by Ebony van der Starre.

As it is summer here in Australia and I wanted to create a fun, bright summery layout! One of my all-time favorite Bella Blvd products are the Alpha+Bits sticker sheets. On this layout I have used a variety of these to create the majority of my layout. I often cut them up, use them as frames and journaling spots, or just great layering pieces for my layout. I love mixing up new and past collections too. 

Supplies:
Sunny Happy Skies: Alpha+Bits Stickers, Blurb Stickers; Birthday Boy: Alpha+Bits Stickers; Family Dynamix: Just Write Journaling Stickers; Hello Beautiful: Blurb Stickers; Sophisticates: Sprinkles & Lace Surf & Turf; Simply Simona Chipboard Alphas: Saltwater, McIntosh, Oyster; High Five Alpha Stickers: Black-White; Designer Tape: Yellow Chevron, Jailbird; Button Market: Gulf Squared

“You Are My Favorite Little Lady”, by Ebony van der Starre.

I am a scrapper who loves to use whatever I can place my hands on! I love working with various scraps of patterned papers all varying in color and patterns. This layout is a collective of scraps of my favorite papers, stickers and embellishments.

Supplies:
Sophisticates: Sprinkles & Lace Chlorine, Sprinkles & Lace Apricot; Hello Beautiful: Borders & Blocks, Thanks A Bunch; Birthday Girl: Miles Of Smiles, Alpha+Bits Stickers; Birthday Boy: Alpha+Bits Stickers; Kiss Me: Bouquet Kisses, Mustache Love; High Five Alpha Stickers: Gulf, Pink-Red, Green; Baby Blooms A Bella: Azzini; Ciao Chip Elements: Trees; Designer Tape: Pink Stripe, Orange Stripe, Pickle Juice Dot, Yellow Chevron 

"Please Don’t Grow Up", by Ann-Christin Larsen.

I actually love wigs! I have a bunch of them, in different shapes and colors. This is my son, Ludvik, who had to try on one of my red haired wigs. We had a good laugh. I also love summer layouts and all those bright colors in the Birthday Boy collection.

Supplies: 
Birthday Boy: Streamers, Eat Cake; Sunshine & Happiness: Cute Cuts, Alpha+Bits Stickers; Quattrofina Alpha Stickers: Milk & Oreo

"Fresh", by Ann-Christin Larsen.

In January I became an aunt for the first time! She is just devine and I love to catch the moments when she is so tiny and fresh. This is a clean and simple layout, and I think it brings out the picture in a soft way using only some small details.

Supplies: 
Sunshine & Happiness: Miniatures Stickers; Birthday Girl: Party Dress ; Ciao Chip Elements: Borders, Stars & Hearts; Quattrofina Alpha Stickers: Mustard & Apricot

"Life", by Ann-Christin Larsen.

I am a daydreamer. When I was little I was dreaming about living in the middle age, with all the dresses, queens and drama:) I still daydream, but now it’s about life and memories that I have shared with family and friends. 

Supplies:
Birthday Boy: Eat Cake, Alpha+Bits Stickers; Sophisticates: Sprinkles & Lace Oyster, Calendars; Ciao Chip Elements: Trees, Stars & Hearts; Birthday Girl: Alpha+Bits Stickers; Sunshine & Happiness: Miniatures Stickers

Bella Blvd Fabric Style

Riley Blake Designs markets our fabrics under Stephanie Hunt as the designer. When purchasing or searching the Riley Blake website it's actually easier & more efficient to find the Bella Blvd fabrics under "Stephanie Hunt" as the artist.

Fabric Camera Strap, by Tiffany Hood.

I recently got a new camera, and the old strap just wasn't good enough :)  So I knew just where to turn- my darling Bella Blvd fabrics!  My favorite color is aqua, and I'm in love with the aqua print in the Sunny Happy Skies fabric line. I paired it with an aqua and apple green stripe print from the Puppy Park line. They coordinate perfectly!

Then to top it off, I used a large and small Azzini "Baby Blooms a Bella" cotton flower, removed the white buttons from the centers, layered them on top of each other, and then stitched a Tie Die and Pickle Square button to the center for a cute embellishment!

Supplies:
Sunny Happy Skies Cotton Fabric; Puppy Park Cotton Fabric; Baby Blooms a Bella: Azzini; Button Market: Tie Dye, Pickle Squares; Thin batting

Baby Quilt, by Tiffany Hood. 

My little sister is having her first girl in a few months, so I was so excited to use the adorable Sunny Happy Skies fabrics to make her a baby quilt!  I love the colors in this line, and they're so perfect for quilting.

This pattern is "Daisy May" from Stitch Studios by Cyndi Walker.  For the back of the quilt I used minky fabric which is super cuddly and lush for a baby.  In the center of each flower is a yo-yo that was made using a Clover Brand Yo-Yo maker, but you could make these by hand as well.

 

I think I may snuggle up in this every night until the baby comes, what do you think?  :)

Supplies:
Bella Blvd Sunny Happy Skies Fabrics; Pink rose-style minky fabric; Clover Brand Yo-Yo Maker Tool size small; Pattern: "Daisy May" by Stitch Studios by Cyndi Walker

Tote Bag, by Kathy Frye.

I designed this tote bag with traveling in mind!  It features a zipper top, pockets inside and out, and plenty of room for necessities! The detail in this bag is great for showing off fun fabric, like Sunny Happy Skies. I fussy cut the flowers for the centers of the square in a square blocks. I also replicated a flower from the fabric on the front pocket. There are some appliqued hearts and a little rick rack, it is so springy!

"Love" Fabric Wall Hanging, by Kathy Frye. 

This wall hanging is ready for Valentine’s Day! I think it might look cute in my grand-daughters room too! The LOVE wall hanging features the pinks from the Sunny Happy Skies fabric collection. I added some pink and white buttons, a little pink and white ribbon, some pink chunky rick rack and lots of free motion hearts in the quilting. Oh and of course, the word LOVE, free motioned in a pink satin stitch! Finished Size 14" x 20".

Supplies:
Sunny Happy Skies fabrics; Button Market buttons; Ribbon; Rick rack; Steam-a-seam fusible quilt batting

Bella Blvd & Epiphany Crafts Team Up Week: Day Five + A Giveaway

We have had such a great time this week and we hope you have too, during our team up with Epiphany Crafts. We had a group of our Bella designers that mixed Epiphany Crafts fun punches, epoxy shapes, and charms into our projects. And the Epiphany Crafts designers were busy mixing Bella's collections and embellishments into their projects. We have a few last projects to leave you with, so let's get started.  

“XOXO” card, by Laurie Schmidlin.

I just adore these sweet ladybugs (from Bella's Sunshine & Happiness Collection)! I cut apart the border with these on them, and used them in my Square Shape Studio from Epiphany Crafts! For the center one, I mounted it on a Square Silver Charm Setting and then added a small white bow. 

Supplies:
Sunshine & Happiness: Happy Clouds, Borders, Alpha+Bits Stickers

“Let Forever Begin” card, by Laurie Schmidlin.

I started by adding a feather and then layering on a couple of Love & Marriage Cute Cuts and Ciao Chip Wedding Icons. For the embellishments, I added a white bow with a Crochet Flower and dangled a custom charm that I created using the Epiphany Square Studio and Square Silver Charm Settings.

Supplies:
Love & Marriage: Cute Cuts, Cake Frosting, Ciao Chip Wedding Icons, Wedding Day Miniatures; Crochet Flowers: Juniper; Feathers: Punch

“Heaven On Earth” card, by Laurie Schmidlin.

With our cold temps and snow still on the ground, I am dreaming of summer! I couldn't help digging into the warm and sunshine filled Sand & Surf Collection! I combined a Journaling Sticker with some Cute Cuts to create a cluster effect. For the accents, I used a couple of Miniatures stickers along with the Square Shape Studio from Epiphany Crafts.

Supplies:
Sand & Surf: Miniatures, Just Write Journaling Stickers, Cute Cuts, Borders; Designer Tape: Cotton Candy Chevron; Button Market: Pink Flowers

"Sweetness", by Laura Vegas.

I have had this photo collage of my youngest daughter, Sarah, printed out and sitting on my desk for close to a year now. I finally was inspired to do something with it and searched out patterned paeprs that would match her clothes. I love pulling papers from a variety of collections for a really fun look. I used Epiphany's Shape Studio Tool Pennant, along with the epoxy shapes, to create a few quick and simple embellishments for the page.

Supplies:
Birthday Boy: Toadilly Cool, Streamers; Mr Boy: Dinomite; Tail Waggers & Cat Naps: Alpha+Bits Stickers; Freestyle Sophisticates: Freestyle Pickle Juice; Family Dynamix: Quadrants; Sienna Chipboard Alphas: Pony

"It's Your Birthday" card, by Laura Vegas.

I always need birthday cards, and yet I never seem to have them on hand. I figured this was a great chance to make a few birthday cards, since the banner shape is a perfect match for birthdays. I used the Shape Studio Banner Tool Pennant on some scraps of patterned paper from the Birthday Boy collection, and created a row of the epoxy shapes below my sentiment sticker.

Supplies:
Birthday Boy: Toadilly Cool, Streamers, Eat Cake, About A Boy, Just A Note, Just Write Journaling Stickers; Mr Boy: Dinomite

"Cupcake" card, by Laura Vegas.

For this card, using the Birthday Girl collection, I skipped the epoxy shapes and used the Shape Studio Pennant Tool as just a punch. I punched out a ton of the little banner pieces, using a bunch of tiny scrap pieces of paper that I had laying around. I adhered my "Frosting To My Cupcake" Cute Cut card to the center of my card using pop dots, and then started layering the banner pieces around the outside edge.

Supplies:
Birthday Girl: Miles Of Smiles, Party Dress, Dancing Queen, Sugar Rush, Celebrate, Borders, Cute Cuts; Family Dynamix: Quadrants

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You know we can't have a team up without having a giveaway!!! This time it's all about the Sand & Surf collection. The prize package will include products from the Sand & Surf collection along with coordinating buttons, designer tapes, and other embellishments. Value is over $100!!! Just leave us a comment and we will announce a randomly chosen winner on Monday.

We want to say a special thank you to Epiphany Crafts, including all of the participating designers and the plethora of product that was sent our way from Epiphany Crafts studios. It's such a pleasure to work together in this industry to create excitement about all of our products. We hope you enjoyed this week full of inspiration, variety and giveaways!

Bella Blvd & Epiphany Crafts Team Up Week: Day Four

Welcome back. Bella Blvd is teaming up with Epiphany Crafts for a week full of inspiration. We have a group of our Bella designers that have mixed Epiphany Crafts fun punches, epoxy shapes, and charms into our projects. And the Epiphany Crafts designers have been busy mixing Bella's collections and embellishments into their projects. We have loads of projects to share with you, and watch for a giveaway at the end of the week as well. 

“You've Made Our Lives So Very Pink”, by Jaclyn Rench.

I've been wanting to try out the ever popular ombre trend that's been popping up in all sorts of design mediums for some time now. The Epiphany shape oval tool allowed me to highlight many bits and pieces of pink, from some of my favorite Bella patterned papers, to successfully accomplish this look. After punching and piecing the ovals into an ombre design, I used the oval bubble caps to turn some of those simple patterned paper pieces into fun and dimensional accents. The Oval Metal Charm helped me to highlight a favorite sticker phrase, from the Kiss Me collection, and make it a focal point on my page.

Supplies:
Kiss Me: Bouquet Kisses, Flutter; Birthday Girl: Dancing Queen, Cute Cuts, Celebrate; Sophisticates: Sprinkles & Lace Punch, Tall Tags; High Five Alpha Stickers: Pink-Red, Piggy-Punch; Button Market: Fruit Punch, Pink Flowers, Hot Pink Flowers

“Love U” card, by Jaclyn Rench.

I pieced my favorite border strip, from the Kiss Me collection Border & Cute Cuts paper, along the outer edges of this card front, to mimic the look of a full sheet of patterned paper. A simple white embossed cardstock piece covers up the empty space that is left behind from the thin border strips and creates a great backdrop for embellishment. I have been hanging onto this Bella chevron chipboard heart for just the right project. I love it on this card, topped off with the Epiphany Bubble Capped Oval and coordinating 'Kiss Me' sentiment.

Supplies:
Kiss Me: Borders & Cute Cuts; Ciao Chip Elements: Stars & Hearts

“Home” card, by Jaclyn Rench.

The Epiphany Oval Shape Tool, Caps and Metal Charm proved to be the perfect size to house and show off this sweet little home image from the Thankful collection. Turning this sweet sticker into a custom charm, makes it the focus of the card and in addition, pairs so nicely alongside the Bella sentiment sticker.

Supplies:
Thankful: Our Spot, Borders, Burlap, Just Write Journaling Stickers, Alpha+Bits Stickers

“Love Notes”, by Becki Adams.

The first thing I thought of when I got my Epiphany goodies out of the box was the idea of attaching the silver pieces to tiny clothes pins to make a cute banner. I loved how it came together and added some additional shine and dimension to my project. I wanted a fun pink girly layout for the photo of my daughter and me. My little girl is always leaving little notes around the house for me. Most of them say "I love you." I wanted to add one of these notes to my project.

Supplies:
Kiss Me: Love Notes, True Love, Bouquet Kisses, Borders & Cute Cuts, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Just Write Stickers; Button Market: Blues, Fruit Punch; Designer Tapes: Punch Chevron, Gulf Dot, Piggy Pink Stripe; Baby Girl: Miniatures Stickers; Sienna Chipboard Alphas: Punch 

“Happy Birthday” card, by Becki Adams.

I love how the Epiphany Bubble Caps make the tiniest bit of patterned paper just pop off the page. My daughter recently had a birthday. She's turned 8, I wanted to create a fun, happy, bubbly card for her birthday. I turned to the Kiss Me Collection for some bright, happy, girly papers. I cut out several dots from the True Love paper and embellished it with some of the Bubble Caps. My little girls loved her card!

Supplies:
Kiss Me: True Love, Flutter, Borders & Cute Cuts, Flutter; Sophisticates: Piggy-Punch Letter Stickers

“Celebrate In Style” card, by Becki Adams.

I wanted to create a card that was a little more sophisticated and include the silver frames for the Bubble Caps. I decided to used them as charms hanging from a bow. I backed the frames with a white doily for some added texture. I kept this card simple so that the focus would be on the silver frames.

Supplies:
Birthday Girl: Pretty As A Present, Sugar Rush, Borders, Alpha+Bits Stickers; Designer Tape: Punch Chevron

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Now, head on over to the Epiphany Crafts blog and check out what their Design Team has created using their fun punches and accessories and our fun Bella products! You can also follow them on the Epiphany Crafts Facebook page. Keep coming back to both blogs all week long, because we have a ton more projects to share with you. And there might just be some giveaways too!

Bella Blvd & Epiphany Crafts Team Up Week: Day Three

Welcome back to day three of our big week. Bella Blvd is teaming up with Epiphany Crafts for a week full of inspiration. We have a group of our Bella designers that have mixed Epiphany Crafts fun punches, epoxy shapes, and charms into our projects. And the Epiphany Crafts designers have been busy mixing Bella's collections and embellishments into their projects. We have loads of projects to share with you, and watch for a giveaway at the end of the week as well. 

”Beautiful Roses”, by Carina Lindholm.

To make the background for this layout, I used strips of a few different papers and  designer tapes. Mixing paper and tapes is a fun way to make unique backgrounds. To decorate my page I used a few of Bella’s cute buttons and the Shape Studio Tool Flower and Bubble Caps Flower. I punched out flowers in different colors and added the bubble caps from Epiphany crafts. It’s a very fun way to make your own embellishments.

Supplies:
Kiss Me: Flutter, True love; Sophisticates: Sprinkles & Lace Oyster, Miniatures Card Sentiments; Simply Simona Chipboard Alphas: Saltwater; High Five Alpha Stickers: Gulf; Designer Tape: Pony Dot, Pickle Juice Dot; Button Market: Checkers, Pink Flowers

“Party” card, by Carina Lindholm.

To make this colourful party-card I mixed and matched papers and elements from different Bella blvd collections. I adhered the large party chipboard letters at the top of the card and decorated the bottom half with flowers that I made using the flower punch and bubble caps from Epiphany crafts.

Supplies:
Spring Flings & Easter Things: Mom’s Bouquet; Birthday Girl: Miles Of Smiles, Alpha+Bits Stickers; Birthday Boy: Chipboard Icons; Designer Tape: Orange Stripe

“Happy Birthday” card, by Carina Lindholm.

I build a small landscape on this card using the Epiphany flower punch and flower bubble caps. I punched out flowers in different papers and adhered them to the cloud paper using pop dots. I cut out stems for the flowers in green cardstock and made quilled leafs using the same cardstock. I die cut some grass in green paper and then adhered it all in a polaroid shape. And to finish the card off I decorated it with Bella’s orange tape, buttons and letter stickers.

Supplies:
Birthday Boy: Toadilly Cool, Just A Note, Eat Cake, About A Boy, Borders, Alpha+Bits Stickers; Thankful: Borders, Burlap; High Five Alpha Stickers: Gulf; Designers Tape: Orange Stripe; Button Market: Outdoor

"Love you to the Stars and Back", by Becky Williams.

For this project I made use of my die cutting machine and cut some stars into the background and used Bella Blvd patterned paper and Designer Tapes to fill in the negative space. These coordinated perfectly with the smaller star shape from Epiphany Crafts. 

Supplies: 
Baby Boy: On the Go, Momma's Boy, Baby Blue; Birthday Boy: Borders; Kiss Me: Alpha+Bits Stickers, Just Write Journaling Stickers; Sunshine & Happiness: Borders; Designer Tape: Gulf Dot, Yellow Chevron, Hot Pink Dot, Pink Flowers; Sienna Chipboard Alphabet: Ice

"Smile" card, by Becky Williams.

I used the leftover cardstock stars from my layout for this card. First I made a background by using a mix of Designer Tapes and then added the cardstock stars and stars made using my Epiphany Crafts star punch. I finished it off with a diecut sentiment. 

Supplies:
Designer Tape: Hot Pink Dot, Pickle Juice Stripe, Yellow Chevron, Teal Stripe, Pink Flowers, Orange Stripe, Pickle Juice Dot, Piggy Pink Stripe, Gulf Dot

"Happy Birthday" card, by Becky Williams.

I have four daughters and as such hadn't used stars on my projects as much as you might use them if you had boys. Just as we use flowers a lot on girl-themed pages I think that stars are used a lot on "boy" projects. I backed the Epiphany Crafts stars with a mix of patterned papers and added them to this quick and easy card. 

Supplies: 
Birthday Boy: Borders, Cute Cuts; Baby Boy: Baby Blue; Designer Tape: Ice Stripe, Pony Dot, Yellow Chevron

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Now, head on over to the Epiphany Crafts blog and check out what their Design Team has created using their fun punches and accessories and our fun Bella products! You can also follow them on the Epiphany Crafts Facebook page. Keep coming back to both blogs all week long, because we have a ton more projects to share with you. And there might just be some giveaways too!