Bella Blvd Studio Blog

Saint Patrick's Day: Focus On Green

Happy Saint Patrick's Day! In honor of today's holiday, we asked our designers to focus on the color green and the theme of "lucky". We hope you enjoy what they created for us!

Lucky Shamrock, by Ashley Marcu.

I love decorating for the holidays! This fun simple project was made by layering several different green patterned papers with a few layers of dimensional adhesive under the leaves to give a little lift. 

Supplies:
Color Chaos: Pickle Juice Strandz, Guacamole Strandz; Clear Cuts: Pickle Juice Confetti; Simply Spring: Gingham; Star Student: Schoolyard; Designer Tape: Gulf Dot; Amorie Chipboard Alphas: White

"Lucky Me", by Stephanie Buice. 

I’m one lucky momma to have him, he is my world and he pretty much knows it. We take silly pictures all the time so I thought it would be fun to share one with you guys on a layout. I used a mix of green papers to stick with the St. Patrick’s Day theme and my Lucky Me title was inspired by it as well. I added some of the Ciao Chip stars and some from a few of the Treasure & Text sticker sheets to make my little star groupings on each side of my picture.

Supplies:
Color Chaos: Oreo Black Strandz, Treasures & Text; Scattered Sprinkles: Pickle Juice Sprinkles; Family Forever: Treasures & Text; Lucky Starz: Treasures & Text; Ciao Chipboard: Stars & Hearts 

"Lucky To Have You", by Jamie Harder.

I feel so lucky to be a mom and I want to make sure my daughters always know that! I had a blast putting this layout together - mixing lots of different collections together.

Supplies:
Color Chaos: Peep Strandz; Simply Spring: Patchwork, Treasures & Text; Campout: Treasures & Text; Molly: Paper Pieces; Play Date: Captions; Sienna Chipboard Alphas: Pickle Juice; Feathers: Frosting; Crochet Hearts: Cotton Candy 

Bella Buzz March 2015 Newsletter

If you've signed up for it already, the Bella Buzz March 2015 issue of our newsletter should have arrived 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 download The Bella Buzz March 2015 Newsletter RIGHT HERE.

Bella Blvd 2015 Creative Team

It's finally time to share our exciting news with you! After pouring through all of the submissions for our Creative Team call, we have put together a team of talented and diverse designers that we know will bring amazing projects to the blog and to you! Please give a warm welcome to our newest Creative Team members!

We want to thank each and every one of you that sent in your submissions to our Creative Team call. Once again, we were truly amazed at the wonderful response we got, and loved seeing so many talented designers that wanted to be a part of what we do around here.

Our new Creative Team members are so excited to get started and we can't wait to share their talented designs with you. We will begin introducing everyone to you, and showing you some of their work, on Tuesday, April 7th! Until then, we hope you'll visit their blogs to get to know them:

Becki Adams | Julia Akinina | Leanne Allinson | Kat Benjamin | Stephanie Buice | Jennifer Chapin | Jen Chesnick | Kristine Davidson | Lisa Dickinson | Corri Garza | Christin Grønnslett | Heather Leopard | Nichol Magouirk | Amélie Mordret | Christine Ousley | Laurie Schmidlin | Laura Vegas

Mixed Media: Thinking Beyond The Scrapbook Page

With the addition of our new specialty papers, Clear Cuts and Invisibles, we've challenged our designers to think beyond the scrapbook page and create projects of all kinds using different mediums.

Pencil Holder, by Laurie Schmidlin.

I love creating little boxes for pencils! I especially love to coordinate the box and decorations with the print on the pencils! For this box, I started with one of the new Invisibles papers. After creating the box, I decorated with some Color Chaos embellishments and papers.

Supplies:
Color Chaos: Ice Strandz, Treasures & Text, Trinkets; Invisibles: A Day At A Time; Enamel Dots: Oreo Black

Easter Basket & Treat Containers, by Diana Fisher.

Add something special to Easter this year with a little handmade basket. The Clear Cuts overlays are perfect for making a unique basket. Make sure to throw in some grass and candy! I added two treat containers with critter likenesses to my basket. The Simply Spring collection is too cute, and perfect for making little gift bags, tags or cards for the Easter holiday.

Supplies:  
Clear Cuts: Bell Pepper Confetti, Peep Confetti; Simply Spring: Hippity Hop, Campout: Daily Details

Easter Crayons Box, by Kathy Martin.

My favorite way to use Bella Blvd’s new Invisibles is to die cut them and with all the dies available today, there are so many options for creating some really cute projects! Also, don’t forget about those older dies you may have stashed away, like Sizzix Originals. I have one for making bread tags and using the Invisibles for these made some pretty sturdy tags. Then I used one to spruce up a bandage tin and filled it with Crayola colored pencils for Easter.

Supplies:
Simply Spring: Borders; Invisibles: Flower Fancy; High Five Alpha Stickers: Piggy Punch

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!

"First Day of School", by Jamie Harder.

I used to love the first day of school as a kid and now I get to experience it as a mother! I knew I wanted to use the “world is yours” quote found on the Star Student Daily Details - so I grabbed that first and built around it. Love this collection!

Supplies:
Star Student: Artistic Clear Cut, Chemistry, Geek Chic, Borders, Daily Details, Trinkets, Chipboard Icons; Ciao Chipboard: Hearts & Stars; Amorie Chipboard Alphas: McIntosh

"You Are My Sunshine" card, by Shellye McDaniel.

Sunshine after the rain is the best! I placed two different colored sections of the Clear Cuts over the "Dancing in The Rain" paper. I like the small dots of color without taking away from the background paper. Next, I die cut a tree lined hill and placed a chipboard sun coming up over the trees. The felt bow grounds the sentiment and adds such a nice texture to finish off this sweet card!

Supplies:
Simply Spring: Dancing in the Rain, Treasures & Text; Color Chaos: Peep Strandz; Clear Cuts: Peep Confetti, Pickle Juice Confetti; Ciao Chipboard: Flowers & Clouds; Enamel Dots: Bell Pepper; Bella Bows: Punch

"Love You To The Moon & Back" card, by Shellye McDaniel.

I dressed up this simple sentiment card by die--cutting a 2.5" circle from the yellow dot paper and then a 1/3 of a section off to use at the bottom. A couple of the chipboard shapes, enamel dots and this little card is ready to give for any occasion. Perfect for welcoming a baby boy!

Supplies:
Star Student: Art Journal, Chipboard Icons; Campout: Daily Details; Color Chaos: Peep Strandz; Ciao Chipboard: Flowers & Clouds, WhatNots; Enamel Dots: Blueberry

Step-By-Step Monthly Project Sheet: Clear Cuts & Instagram Photos

Are your Instagram photos piling up? Get them printed today and create this Insta-collage inspired layout! Our new 12x12” Clear Cuts^tm transparencies are all the rage!  Add some texture to your pages by layering these Clear Cuts, or even feed them through your personal die-cut machine. This month’s layout features both Instagram square photos and our new Clear Cuts! Enjoy. 

CLICK HERE TO BEGIN DOWNLOADING MARCH’S FREE PROJECT SHEET! 

This month's step-by-step project sheet includes a complete supply list including tools needed and all directions to make this 12x12" "Senior Year Instagrammed" layout, featuring our new Clear Cuts specialty papers, along with our new collections. Just click the link to download the pdf worksheet and print. Not familiar with our free monthly Project Sheets? Sign up via our homepage, HERE, to receive them in your inbox each month, or check out all previous Project Sheets via the "Project Sheet" icon on the right sidebar of our blog.

And to see more project ideas featuring our new Clear Cuts, check out the Clear Cut idea gallery.

Monday Morning Challenge: Feathers, Crochet Hearts, Chipboard

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 use feathers, crochet hearts, and chipboard elements on their layouts.

"Wax Museum", by Katie Rose.

When I saw the challenge using feathers I immediately thought of these photos of my daughter as Sacagawea for her Wax Museum at school. Since this was a school event I decided to use mostly the Star Student line and chose coordinating feather colors. For the background I attached the Typewriter Clear Cut to white card stock and stitched the feathers on top of that. I arranged my photos and added a couple of border strips underneath, including the blue scalloped chipboard border. I added a cluster of crocheted hearts and arranged chipboard elements around the layout.

Supplies:
Star Student: Art Journal, Borders, Treasures & Text, Typewriter Clear Cut; Color Chaos: Months; Ciao Chipboard: WhatNots, Symbols, Borders; Amorie Chipboard Alpha: Blueberry; Feathers: Pickle Juice, Bell Pepper, Surf N Turf, Orange; Crochet Hearts: Pickle Juice, Orange, Saltwater

"Giggles & Dimples", by Laura Vegas.

I started this layout with the colorful circle patterned paper from the Simply Spring collection, and then picked out several colors of crochet hearts to coordinate with the colors from the paper. I thought it would be fun to arrange my title along a wavy strip of cardstock, which also allowed me more room to fit my longer title. I used the white cardstock wavy strip to hold my crochet hearts as well, topping each one with a coordinating enamel dot. I tucked two feather behind my photo, which is a very subtle way to work the feathers onto a page.

Supplies:
Color Chaos: Bell Pepper Strandz, Pickle Juice Strandz; Simply Spring: Sunshine, Daily Details, Treasures & Text; Campout: Treasures & Text; Ciao Chipboard: Borders, Hearts & Stars; Amorie Chipboard Alphas: Peep, Brownie, White; Crochet Hearts: Bell Pepper, Pickle Juice, Cotton Candy, Saltwater, Scallop; Feathers: Pony, Frosting; Enamel Dots: Bell Pepper, Guacamole, Cotton Candy, Ice, White

Free-4-All Projects

Today we are sharing some free-for-all projects from our designers, where they have free reign to use whatever collections they like as they create. 

“Me and You” card, by Diana Fisher.

Clear Cuts Overlays are a great way to add dimension and pop to any project — especially a card. Going with the dots theme from the overlays, I also used the Color Chaos Whatnots Chipboard to add another fun layer to the card.

Supplies:
Color Chaos: Treasures & Text; Clear Cuts: Gold Confetti; Ciao Chipboard: WhatNots  

“Beautiful Day” card, by Diana Fisher.

What an uplifting image! Who wouldn't want to get a parachuting hedgehog on a card?! I couldn't help but use this 4x6 card as the main image on a card.

Supplies:
Simply Spring: Daily Details, Treasures & Text 

“You’ve Got A Friend” card, by Shellye McDaniel.

Circles are a fun and easy shape that can transform a square or rectangle journal card. Layer it with a larger mat circle and you have a quick card!

Supplies:
Simply Spring: Daily Details, Eggstravaganza, Spring Patchwork, Treasures & Text, Chipboard Icons; Enamel Dots: Bell Pepper; Bella Bows: Milk White

“Bear Hug” card, by Kathy Martin.

I can’t decide which new Bella Blvd. accent is my favorite…the new Clear Cuts, Invisibles, Enamel Dots, Enamel DooDads or Bella Bows. All of them make my heart pitter pat and my projects full of interest, dimension and texture. For this Bear Hug card I used one of my favorite Clear Cuts, Bear Tracks. I tucked it in between two patterned papers and then topped those with a Daily Details bear, Ciao Chipboard accents and an enamel dot.

Supplies:
Campout: In the Woods, Under the Stars, Daily Details, Chipboard Icons, Bear Tracks Clear Cut; Ciao Chipboard: WhatNots; Enamel Dots: Milk White

“Bear Hug” card, by Morgan Bandkowski.

When I saw the Camp Out collection, I thought maybe I couldn’t make cards with it. But I was wrong. Stephanie added some great pieces on the daily details sheet that are perfect for card making. I loved this bear 2x2 square. I inked all the pieces of the card and popped up the little heart. 

Supplies:
Campout: Daily Details, Trail Mix, Trinkets, Treasures & Text; Designer Tape: Pickle Juice Dot

“Hello” card, by Morgan Bandkowski.

I love all the colors of this new line Color Chaos; it is so bright and vibrant! One of my favorite things of this line are the paint splatters. Instead of using the backside of the Orange Strandz, I cut out the 4x6 paint splatter from the Daily Details sheet. I inked all my pieces in black and used a black cardstock as my base of the card I think it helps create some contrast with the bold hello on the sticker. I added a few ice enamel dots on the small light blue paint splatters. The Bell Pepper Bow is the finishing touch. 

Supplies:  
Color Chaos: Bell Pepper Strandz, Orange Strandz, Daily Details, Just Write Journaling Sticker; Bella Bows: Bell Pepper; Enamel Dots: Ice

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: Antique Home Design}

"B is For Brady", by Stephanie Buice.

The jumping off point for this layout all started with the inspiration picture, I decided to make the monogram letter the focal point of my page. After I cut the B out I decided to layer some of the new Invisibles and some paint splash paper I made under it for a fun pop of color. B is my son’s favorite letter and the first one he learned so I based my layout on B is For Brady.

Supply list:
Color Chaos: Oreo Black Strandz, Trinkets, Treasures & Text; Invisibles: Brilliant, Referee; Max: Paper Pieces, Treasures & Text; Tiny Tots: Chipboard Icons; Ciao Chipboard: Hearts & Stars; Pack Your Bags: Carla Black Alpha Stickers; High Five Alpha Stickers: Green; Enamel Doodads: Bell Pepper, Guacamole; Enamel Dots: Ice, Blueberry

“My Girl”, by Kelly Holbrook.

I really liked the contrast of the flowers against the wood grain in the inspiration photo. Bella has a variety of wood grain patterned papers to choose from. I decided to use the one from the Love and Marriage collection, because it was the closest in color. I fussy cut some flowers from the 'B' side of the Punch Strandz paper, and arranged them in clusters on my page. I love how it turned out!

Supplies:
Color Chaos: Ice Strandz, Punch Strandz, Words of Wisdom, Treasures & Text, Just Write Journaling Stickers; Clear Cuts: Ice Confetti; Simply Spring: Treasures & Text; Love and Marriage: Smokey’s in Love; Enamel Dots: Cotton Candy, Milk White; Bella Bows: Oreo Black; Designer Tape: Chevron Combo; High Five Alpha Stickers: Color Wheel

“Love Spring” card, by Ashley Marcu.

There are so many fun bits of inspiration from this Pinterest picture. I love all of the colors clustered together around blank space. I took that inspiration to create this card with lots of different colored embellishments. 

Supplies:
Simply Spring: Dancing in the Rain, Treasures & Texts, Trinkets; Clear Cuts: White Woodgrain; Enamel DooDads: Milk White; Designer Tape: Green Chevron

“Hop On” card, by Ashley Marcu.

For this card, I took the same idea but made it a little different by choosing a fun flowered pattern paper and then kept the rest neutral. My neutral here is blue and I layered several blue papers and embellishments together to keep it interesting.

Supplies:
Simply Spring: Daily Details, Borders, Treasures & Texts, Trinkets; Color Chaos: Ice Strandz

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!

“Memories At The Lake”, by Katie Rose.

This layout was inspired by the Journaling card from the Daily Details patterned paper in the Campout Collection. We take a lake vacation every year with family, and this statement could not be more true! I decided to use it smack dab in the middle of the layout so it could really take center stage. I then placed lake photos all around it. I backed the entire layout with the Fresh Air Invisible.

Supplies:
Campout: Let's Go Camping, Gone Fishing, Daily Details, Treasures & Text, Trinkets, Chipboard Icons, Fresh Air Invisible; Enamel Doo Dads: Blueberry, Ice

"A Day At The Museum", by Leanne Allinson.

When creating this layout, I took inspiration from the colors in the clothes my son was wearing. After all, this is a layout about him and I wanted the focus to be drawn to the photo first. From there I added a bold pop of red to create a visual triangle which includes the three main elements on my page - title, photo & journaling. As my page is already quite busy with the strong choice of patterned papers, the Clear Cut transparency beneath my photo was ideal to create a little extra interest without the extra clutter. I also love that the words that are visible on the Clear Cut, relate back to the story I am documenting.

Supplies:
Color Chaos: Blueberry Strandz, Ice Strandz, McIntosh Strandz, Bell Pepper Strandz; Campout: Treasures & Text, Arrows Clear Cut; Amorie Chipboard Alpha: White; High Five Alpha Stickers: Brown-Cream; Ciao Chipboard: Symbols, WhatNots; Enamel Dots: Oreo Black

“Cherish Today”, by Stephanie Buice.

Who says bows are just for girls!? I know that’s probably the general consensus so I wanted to show that boy layouts can do bows too. Since bows do tend to fall into the girly category I decided to stick with a masculine color palette. I used some Color Chaos papers in bold patterns in black and white to send off a strong boy vibe. I added the bows on the bottom of my pictures and they kind of reminded me of bow ties, what little baby doesn’t look cute in those!?

Supplies:
Color Chaos: Bell Pepper Strandz, Ice Standz, Oyster Strandz, Words Of Wisdom, Trinkets; Ciao Chipboard: Borders, Whatnots, Symbols; Bella Bows: Bell Pepper, Gulf, Saltwater; Enamel Dots: Milk White

“Captured”, by Jennifer Edwardson.

Yellow is not the first color that I reach for when working on a project but of course for this fun pic of Em at IKEA it was the obvious choice. I did pull out a piece of Freestyle Sophisticates for the base and then cut up the new polka dot clear cuts to start my layering. I just love these! The Color Chaos collection is amazing and had everything I needed for this everyday photo. There are so many perfect pieces for every memory you want to get into your albums!

Supplies:
Color Chaos: Scallop Strandz, Daily Details, Treasures & Text; Clear Cuts: Bell Pepper Confetti, Blueberry Confetti; Ciao Chipboard: Borders, Hearts & Stars; Star Student: Treasures & Text; Enamel Dots: Oreo Black