Bella Blvd Studio Blog

Pinterest Inspired

It's always been fun to browse thru Pinterest, looking at the endless ideas and inspirational images that are out there. Our designers always enjoy taking whatever image we provide them, and using it in whatever way inspires them the most as they work on their projects. It's amazing to see how many different ideas and designs can be inspired by just one image.

{Image Credit: Sweet Pickins}

"Bad Case of the Mondays", by Leanne Allinson. 

My eye was immediately drawn to the wall of circles and I knew I wanted to replicate this look on my layout, only without the fuss of multiple patterns. I still wanted to represent the varied sizes of the circles, therefore my choice with the Classic Calendars Bell Pepper Calendar, was quite deliberate. I trimmed two sheets of this patterned paper at the same point, so when the top paper has circles punched into it, the bottom patterned paper still revealed what the negative shape would have taken away. Too much fuss? Perhaps, but I liked the extra dimension the layered paper creates on the page. After the paper was positioned together, I hand stitched around the outside of the circles with white embroidery floss. This not only helped secure the two pieces of paper together but created that extra touch of texture.

Supplies:
Classic Calendars: Bell Pepper Calendar; Family Forever: Family Rules, Mom & Dad, Treasures & Text, Trinkets; Max: Paper Pieces; Lucky Starz: Surf N Turf Starz; Snapshots: Bookplates Day

“He Is”, by Jen Chesnick.

For my Pinterest inspiration project I took the circles from the photo as my jumping off point. I created circles in my Silhouette software and cut out the large background. I then went through with smaller circle punches and cut out the backgrounds of each circle. I popped all of them up using foam squares and then finished the back off with a piece of chipboard for stability. I really love how it came together. 

Supplies:
Max: Sketchbook, Rock Star, Master of Disguise, Science Fair, That's My Boy, Shark Attack, Treasures & Text, Paper Pieces, Candid Cards; Daily Chevies: Chevy Carrot

"Bride & Groom" card, by Laura Vegas.

I love all of the circles going up the wall in the inspiration image, and knew this design would translate well to my cards. For my first card, I used a circle die cut card from the Silhouette store to cut with my Cameo from white cardstock. I then backed some of the circles with my patterned papers. I am a big fan of white-on-white backgrounds, and the little pops of color from the circles add a fun touch of interest to the card.

Supplies:
Love and Marriage: Cake Testing; Baby Girl: Borders; All Inclusive: Bookin' On The Beach; Button Market: Wood Mix; Flags: Love and Marriage

"Birthday Boy" card, by Laura Vegas.

For my second card, I stayed with the fun circle design to fill the front of my card, but pulled out my trusty circle punches to do the job instead of die cutting them. I knew I wanted to make a birthday card for a little boy (one of my daycare boys turns 2 today!), so I pulled out patterned papers in tan, aqua, green, and yellow, to coordinate with the birthday boy flags. After punching numerous circles in varying sizes, I adhered them randomly to cover the card base.

Supplies:
Sand & Surf: Beach Balls, Borders; Play Date: Chasing Rainbows; All Inclusive: Bookin' On The Beach; Birthday Boy: Alpha+Bits, Chipboard Icons; Flags: Birthday Boy 1, Birthday Boy 2

What's New Wednesday

Welcome to "What's New Wednesday"! Every Wednesday, our designers will be sharing projects using the latest and greatest products from Bella Blvd. Especially our newest collections, which our designers are having so much fun creating with!

“Box City”, by Katherine McElvain.

I am loving the all the Bella Blvd Stars! I have come to find there are so many themes that stars can be used. This layout is about my teenage son who volunteered to participate in a church activity called "Box City". He and a group of teens slept in cardboard boxes overnight to raise money to help homeless people in our area. You could say sleeping under the stars. You get the idea. So I doodled up some stars and letter stickers to create a colorful memory of him practicing sleeping in his box. 

Supplies:
Summer Squeeze: Summer Breeze, Treasures & Text; Scattered Sprinkles: Treasures &Text, Bell Pepper Sprinkles, Pickle Juice Sprinkles; Lucky Starz: Treasures & Text; Classic Calendars: Just Write Journaling Stickers, Treasures & Text; Max: Treasures & Text; Family Forever: Treasures & Text; Daily Chevies: Arrows Black & White; Designer Tape: Grey Stripe, Pickle Juice Dot

“Cute”, by Kay Rogers.

This is my nephew’s son, and he is the sweetest little guy! I love the colors of the Tiny Tots collection, and how nicely the sentiments on the stickers and die-cuts fit this age. I added some dimensional pop to the ends of the banners to give the page more dimension.

Supplies:
Tiny Tots: Toy Chest, Borders, Sweet & Sassy, Flashcards A-L, Treasures & Text, Trinkets, Paper Pieces

“3^rd Birthday” card, by Morgan Bandkowski.

I am loving these new collections! I'm obsessed with Tiny Tots! I decided to you the flash card 3 bees for my little cousin's 3rd birthday coming up in August. I also love the crochet hearts and use them on most of my projects. 

Supplies: 
Tiny Tots: Flashcards YZ123, One Fish Two Fish, Toy Chest, Treasures & Text; Crochet Hearts: McIntosh 

“Spooky Greeting” card, by Morgan Bandkowski.

The Daily Details are always a go to for me. I used the purple star as the main focus of my card, added a couple stickers and some designer tape.  

Supplies: 
Halloween Magic: Daily Details, Treasures & Text, Trinkets; Designer Tape: Orange Stripe

Scrapbook.com Videos from SPC Trade Show 2014

We wanted to share a few videos that Scrapbook.com filmed, showcasing our new collections, while at the SPC Trade Show 2014 last week. 

 

 

 

 

The new collections will begin shipping to retailers, online stores and distributors in early September! Let your favorite online or local LSS know today so they can get their orders in!

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.

Halloween Fabric Chalkboard, by Kathy Frye.

I am not trying to rush summer away, but my project this month is for Halloween! Using the Bella Blvd "Too Cute to Spook" cotton fabric, I made a Halloween Chalkboard wall hanging.

You can write a Halloween message or greeting on it, a menu, or a joke! It could be used for tic-tac-toe games, etc. It was fun to add the different Halloween prints around the chalkboard fabric. 

I did some fun doodling free motion quilting around the chalkboard fabric, and made a spider web that mimics the webs in the purple fabric. 

Near the bottom of the wall hanging, I added a clear vinyl pocket to hold the chalk and a little eraser. I added a swatch of fabric with some of the cute Halloween characters on the front of the clear vinyl pocket.

And just to add a little detail to the back of the wall hanging, I appliqued more Halloween characters.

Supplies:
Bella Blvd Too Cute to Spook cotton fabrics for Black Riley Fabrics; chalkboard fabric; cotton quilt batting; thread; ribbon; clear vinyl; chalk

Monday Morning Challenge: Incorporating Border Strips and Border Stickers Into Project Design

Welcome to Monday Morning Challenge, where we offer up a challenge, and share with you our designers take on that challenge. Today we asked our designers to incorporate at least SIX border strips and/or border stickers into the project design.

"Today, Today", by Nicole Nowosad.

I really loved this challenge! It was easy to select different border strips from several different Bella lines for my page as the lines co-ordinate so well together. I layered a mix of different colored stars and scallop strips to create the border on my page!

Supplies:
Lucky Starz: Oreo Starz, Treasures & Text; Freestyle Sophisticates: Freestyle Scallop; Summer Squeeze: Daily Details, Treasures & Text, Wildflower; Family Forever: Candid Cards, Treasures & Text; Scattered Sprinkles: Treasures & Text; Classic Calendars: Treasures & Text; Snapshots: Daily Details; Molly: Selfie, Trinkets; Sienna Chipboard Alphas: Ice, Pickle Juice

“Sweet Sassy You”, by Jodi Wilton.

I love using Bella Blvd's Borders on all my projects and for this project I was inspired to use the Strawberry Squeeze Patterned Paper! I decided to mix it with a variety of sticker borders as well as borders from the Summer Squeeze collection. I added some designer tapes to the mix to create a fun eye catching design to complement the Strawberry Squeeze paper.

Supplies:
Summer Squeeze: Wildflower, Strawberry Squeeze, Borders, Treasures & Text; Scattered Sprinkles: Treasures & Text, Just Write Journaling; Classic Calendars: Treasures & Text; Sienna Chipboard Alphabets: Punch, Pony; Baby Blooms a Bella: Saffron; Designer Tape: Red Dot, Red Chevron, Cotton Candy Chevron

“Love” card, by Kathy Martin.

What a challenge! Six border strips on a single A2 size card? I had to get pretty creative and cut out some of the months with a pennant die and a few icons with circle dies. Then I arranged them on a Just Write calendar page sticker from the Classic Calendars collection. No matter the day, month or season, love endures!

Supplies:
Classic Calendars: Ice Calendar & Borders 1, Oyster Calendar & Borders 2, Just Write Journaling, Treasures & Text; Scattered Sprinkles: Oreo Sprinkles, Ice Sprinkles; Summer Squeeze: Treasures & Text

“Hello” card, by Kathy Martin.

To fit six border strips on my second card I chose a block of borders from the Molly collection for a fun and colorful background. It’s the perfect girlie girl card with peace symbols, stars, cupcakes, cameras and flowers all wrapped in a pretty green grosgrain bow.

Supplies:
Molly: Borders, Sketch with Style, Selfie, Treasures & Text; Lucky Starz: Treasures & Text

Unlimited Inspiration: Summer 2014 Collections

A few weeks ago, during our Summer 2014 collection reveals, we shared some of our catalog layouts with you using the new collections. Well, today we are here with more inspiration featuring our new collections, as we share the second half of our catalog layouts. Remember, our new collections will begin shipping during the first part of September!

“Adventure”, by Stephanie Buice.

Who doesn't like the beginning of the summer season!? It's full of fun times, adventure and the opportunity to create lasting memories. My son Brady loves to be outside, so I had planned a fun water day for us in the backyard. I went out and got a fresh kiddie pool, water guns, and even an outdoor bowling set for us to spend the day having a blast. We had an outdoor picnic including all kinds of his favorite treats, he was so happy! I love this picture I captured of him while we were sitting there digging in the dirt, for him I'm pretty sure it was the best day ever and that makes me just as happy.

Supplies:
Tiny Tots: Toy Chest, Busy Bee, Borders, Daily Details, Treasures & Text, Paper Pieces

"Pile It On", by Jen Chesnick.

Creating a clothesline seems to be one of my go-to techniques these days. I like to create bits and clusters to hang from them using stickers, shapes and chipboard pieces. The large happy harvest gourd shape dictated a lot of where things were placed on this page.

Supplies:
Hello Autumn: Gatherings, Borders, Time to Rake, Paper Pieces, Chipboard Icons, Treasures & Text; Amorie Chipboard Alphas: Brownie

"Halloween Cutie", by Laura Vegas.

I am a total "B side" scrapper. The B sides of the patterned papers are always my favorites, and I am a sucker for great tone-on-tone patterns. I cut strips from five different patterned papers (two strips of the black) and lined them up to create the background for my page. Since the tone-on-tone papers created a nice, clean backdrop, I was able to use a little busier pattern (but still a B side paper) in the center of the page and still keep the general look of the page very clean.

Supplies:
Halloween Magic: Boo Buddies, Hocus Pocus, Goblin Treats, Funny Bones, Borders, Daily Details, Treasures & Text, Chipboard Icons, Paper Pieces; Button Market: Text

“Christmas Tree”, by Megan Klauer.

I'm a big fan of using large photos on my layouts. They provide such a direct view into the story of your page. I used the photo as the focal point and sprinkled lots of pieces from the embellishment portion of the Christmas Cheer collection to complete the page.

Supplies:
Christmas Cheer: Merry & Bright, Borders, Daily Details, Paper Pieces, Treasure & Text, Chipboard Icons; Amorie Chipboard Alphas: Green

Pinterest Inspired

It's always been fun to browse thru Pinterest, looking at the endless ideas and inspirational images that are out there. Our designers always enjoy taking whatever image we provide them, and using it in whatever way inspires them the most as they work on their projects. It's amazing to see how many different ideas and designs can be inspired by just one image.

{Image Credit: Pinterest}

“Live Laugh”, by Jamie Harder.

I love Pinterest inspiration and this image was no exception! I was immediately drawn to all the colours and wanted to mimic the linear row of colours. I did this using several patterned papers to be my background - every time I mix different collections, I am always so impressed how easily they mix and match! I then layered several embellishments - keeping them in line with their colour family. I think the photo really pops with such a colourful backdrop and definitely reflects my daughters vibrant personality.

Supplies:
Lucky Starz: Carrot Starz, Gulf Starz; Summer Squeeze: Summer Breeze, Pocket Full of Posies; Scattered Sprinkles: Treasures & Text, Just Write Journaling Stickers; Snapshots: Daily Details; Playdate: Daily Details, Alpha+Bits; Molly: Paper Pieces; All American: Borders & Cute Cuts; Ciao Chip Elements: Stars & Hearts

"Summer Family Fun", by Stephanie Buice.

Color always speaks to me, so when I saw this picture I was immediately inspired to get my distress stains out and went to work creating my background. I wanted it to pull your eye into the center of my layout where my picture and embellishments are, because Bella offers many of their embellishments in a rainbow of colors it was super easy to pull from here and there to get the look I was going for. I paired the crochet hearts with mostly the Summer Squeeze collection to get a summery layout bursting with brightness and pops of black.

Supplies:
Summer Squeeze: Daily Details, Treasures & Text; Family Forever: Treasures & Text; Scattered Sprinkles: Peep Sprinkles; Max: Treasures & Text; Crochet Hearts: McIntosh, Orange, Bell Pepper, Pickle Juice, Gulf; Designer Tapes: Chevron Combo

“P.S. I Love You” card, by Shellye McDaniel.

Rainbow-colored cards are an easy thing to make with Bella Blvd's color palette of McIntosh, Bell Pepper, Gulf and Pickle Juice. Just pick your favorite patterns from almost any collection and create a rainbow! For this card I chose to layer the same pattern of border but with various colors of the Lucky Starz papers. I only adhered the border strips at the base and then curled forward the scalloped top just a bit. I love the natural dimension that this adds!

Supplies:
Lucky Starz: Gulf Starz, McIntosh Starz, Bell Pepper Starz, Pickle Juice Starz, Treasures & Text; Daily Chevies: We Are Family Bookplates; Button Market: Outdoors

“Beautiful Reasons” card, by Shellye McDaniel.

I followed the arc pattern created by the paintbrushes on this card. I used a jar lid to trace a semi-circle onto a piece of cardstock and then cut around it. Next, I cut triangular strips of paper, placed them onto the cardstock and then trimmed the ends of the strips to the shape of the semi-circle. I decided on a base paper of the Oreo Sprinkles to match the cute sentiment sticker!

Supplies:
Summer Squeeze: Treasures & Text; Scattered Sprinkles: Oreo Sprinkles, Bell Pepper Sprinkles, McIntosh Sprinkles, Pickle Juice Sprinkles, Ice Sprinkles, Treasures & Text; Button Market: Outdoors

Sierra Pacific Craft Show 2014

The Bella Blvd team is in Salt Lake City this week at the Sierra Pacific Craft show. Here's a peek at the behind the scenes. This show is smaller and more casual than the normal CHA shows, and is actually Bella Blvd's very first time being a part of the show.

We're thrilled to see so many of our customers this summer in SLC and even more exited to debut our four new collections for summer. Have you discovered Tiny Tots, Hello Autumn, Halloween Magic and Christmas Cheer? You'll love the colors and various patterns. Our booth display shows off some awesome page layouts from our talented team.

If you're at the show be sure to stop by booth 102 to see everything in person, create a make n take card set and take advantage of our show specials and discounts.

Project Life: Bella Style

Project Life is everywhere these days, in many shapes and forms. Whether you create full Project Life albums, a few Project Life inspired layouts/spreads here and there, or even simply working Project Life style products (such as Bella's new Daily Details papers) onto your everyday layouts, there are so many ways to incorporate this popular style into your designs. We are asking our designers to be inspired by Project Life, and show us how they work that inspiration onto their own pages.

"Week 27 | June 30 - July 6", by Leanne Allinson.

Week 27 was a very busy week for my family. I had a high volume of photos to include plus several significant events to record! And because of the complexity of all these events, I needed to use colours that would be universal across the spread. Luckily for me, all of the Bella Blvd collections compliment each other!

I chose a neutral base of grays from the Scattered Sprinkles and Lucky Starz collections and added pops of bright yellow and pickle juice green. My highlight colour is the beautiful ice blue, found in the die cut bow, my son's shirt and various stickers on the two pages.

I have designed Week 27 to include clusters of related photos. This week my daughter performed in a large professional production of CATS the Musical. Included along with the journaling about this adventure for her, I have layered several elements, drawing the eye to the Molly Candid Card 'fox' image. This cute little guy, for all given purposes, has now been labelled a cat!

Also during the week I took my boys to visit the Museum, my husband and I celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary and my youngest son turned five. To document all these events I have happily combined Bella's latest collections with some older ones found in my stash. I just love how you are never limited when using Bella Blvd products.

Supplies:
Scattered Sprinkles: Oreo Sprinkles, Ice Sprinkles, Just Write Journaling Stickers, Treasures & Text; Summer Squeeze: Pocket Full of Posies, Borders, Daily Details; Max: Trinkets, Paper Pieces; Molly: Candid Cards; Lucky Starz: Pickle Juice Starz, Candid Cards, Trinkets; Family Forever: Trinkets; Snapshots: Captions, Tabs, Everyday Bookplates; Christmas Countdown: Captions; Birthday Boy: Cute Cuts, Alpha+Bits; Mr. Boy: Dinomite; High Five Alpha Stickers: Black-White; Flags: Cat 

“Family Time At Seven Peaks”, by Wendy Sue Anderson.

We like to buy season passes to the local(ish) water park, so every summer we spend several days there – sliding, splashing, relaxing, and just soaking up the sun before the long, cold winter returns! I usually don’t take my camera or phone into the water park with me, but I try to remember to take it at least once or twice so I will have photos to record our fun times! 

As you can imagine, these photos are often super busy, and always very colorful. When it comes time to scrapbook the photos, I figure I have two choices – use very neutral papers and accents so they don’t compete with the photos, or embrace the colors and chaos, and just go with it! As you can see here, I’ve opted for the second choice – it’s much more fun!!

Supplies:
Summer Squeeze: Pocket Full of Posies, Summer Breeze, Treasures & Text, Just Write Journaling Stickers; Scattered Sprinkles: Treasures & Text, Just Write Journaling Stickers; Classic Calendars: Treasures & Text, Just Write Journaling Stickers; Family Forever: Treasures & Text, Trinkets; Lucky Starz: Treasures & Text, Trinkets, Candid Cards

August Guest Designer: Megan Klauer

We are welcoming back one of our favorite designers, Megan Klauer, as our August Guest Designer! We were privileged to have Megan on our design team for two years, and are excited to have her back showing off her creations with some of our recent collections.

Hi everyone, it's Megan Klauer here. I am a stay at home mom of three and wife to my high school sweetheart. I currently design for Elle's Studio. I spend my weekends capturing moments as Megan Klauer Photography. It allows me to keep my creative juices flowing while preserving memories for others. I also recently started up a blog, called Growin & Crowin - Bringing back the Homestead, all about life on our farm. Here are some things I made with the Bella Blvd products!

“Birthday Girl”, by Megan Klauer.  

I'm convinced the camo papers and deer images incorporated into the Max & Molly collections were created with me in mind. Okay maybe not, but they fit perfectly into our everyday life. This page is about how we spent our daughters 4th birthday at an Antler hunt. The touch of pink kept it girly, while the camo & deer images kept it tomboyish. Just the way my little Ella truly is.

Supplies: 
Molly: Borders, Unlimited Text, Treasures & Text, Candid Cards; Max: Borders, That's My Boy; Lucky Starz: Carrot Starz, Candid Cards, Trinkets

“Handsome Little Fox”, by Megan Klauer.

This is possibly my favorite page! I love how easily it came together. The black & white photo pops just perfectly against the multicolored triangle paper and of course the Fox images tie everything together. I love to layer alphabet stickers and did just that to create a 3D look for my title.

Supplies: 
Lucky Starz: Bell Pepper Starz; Max: Sketchbook, Candid Cards, Treasures & Text; High Five Alpha Stickers: Green, Black-White, Orange

“Peek-A-Boo”, by Megan Klauer.

This page highlights my adorable nephew playing peek-a-boo during his one year photo session. The adorable little monsters found in the Max collection worked perfectly with his little expression. I incorporated some of my favorite embellishments such as the crochet hearts and chipboard alphabets. They are a staple in my scrap room.

Supplies: 
Max: Science Fair, Candid Cards, Borders, Trinkets; Lucky Starz: Gulf Starz, Pickle Juice Starz; Sienna Chipboard Alphas: Pickle Juice, Ice; Crochet Hearts: Pickle Juice

Project Life Spread, by Megan Klauer.

Most of my pages these days are Pocket or Project Life style, there for I love how you don't have to specifically buy 3x4 or 4x6 cards to create these pages. Simply cut any 12x12 paper down to incorporate them as you'd like! We spent a day over Spring break at an indoor water park. The perfect excuse to use the fun sharks and anchors from the Molly & Max collections.

Supplies:
Molly: Trinkets, Treasures & Text, Refuse to Sink, Trinkets; Max: Paper Pieces, Candid Cards, Sketchbook; Lucky Starz: Candid Cards, Color Crazy Starz, Pickle Juice Starz, Trinkets, Scallop Starz; High Five Alpha Stickers: Color Wheel; Designer Tape: Yellow Chevron, Ice Stripe, Hot Pink Dot 

Thanks to Stephanie and Laura for inviting me back to the Bella Blog this month! I hope you all enjoyed my projects!