Bella Blvd Studio Blog

Mix & Match

Today's feature is all about mixing & matching Bella's collections. One of the great things about our collections is that you'll find the same colors throughout, whether you're using an older collection from a year or two years ago (or more!) or a newer collection that you just got your hands on. While it's so convenient to pull out a single collection and work from just that assortment of products, it can also be a lot of fun to mix and match between two, three, or even more collections.

"November", by Leanne Allinson.

Mixing and Matching is so effortless with Bella Blvd collections! It is as simple as pulling colors from your photos and transferring them to the cardstock via the patterned paper. For this layout, I have focused on blue, brown and orange from Hello Autumn, Campout and Simply Spring. I've highlighted details on my layout by fussy cutting images from both Hello Autumn and Lucky Stars to create a cascade effect from the top of my page, leading the viewer's eye towards my title. This color combination is perfect for my boy claiming November to be his favorite month of the year!!

Supplies:
Hello Autumn: Gatherings, Daily Details, Autumnal Floral; Lucky Starz: Carrot Starz; Campout: Gone Fishing; Simply Spring: Daily Details; Max: Candid Cards; Enamel DooDads: Ice

“Papa's Pond”, by Becki Adams.

Tiny Tots is one of my all-time favorite Bella Blvd collections. I combined the Tiny Tot's collection with the Campout collection to create this layout about my kids (and nieces and nephews playing in my grandpa's pond. These two collections came together perfectly. I used fish paper from both collections and added the frog border from the Tiny Tots collection. These two collections came together perfectly!

Supplies:
Tiny Tots: Watch Me Grow, Love To Learn, Borders; Campout: Treasures & Text, Trinkets, Chipboard Icons, Under The Stars, Borders; Ciao Chip Elements: WhatNots; Amorie Chipboard Alphas: Blueberry; Enamels: Blueberry, Bell Pepper, McIntosh

"Celebrate” card, by Laurie Schmidlin.

It's my littlest guy's birthday next week and I wanted to make a card for him. I absolutely love the Tiny Tots collection and was eager to see what other papers would go with it! To start, I chose some embellishments from the Tiny Tots collection that I wanted to use. My son is going to love that lion! Whenever I think of birthdays or celebrations, I immediately think of the Lucky Starz collection, so I chose the Surf n Turf Starz paper for the background. I loved how the dark color really grounded the card (not to mention it is a cool color blue so my son will love it as well). I then layered on some of the polka dot paper (Go Jump in the Lake paper from the Campout collection). I add a slightly smaller piece of vellum on top to soften the pattern a bit so that the focal images would pop a little more. I added his name using some of the McIntosh Amorie Alphabet.

Supplies:
Tiny Tots: Paper Pieces, Treasures & Text; Lucky Starz: Surf n Turf Starz; Campout: Go Jump in the Lake; Ciao Chip Elements: Hearts & Stars; Amorie Chipboard Alphas: McIntosh

“Little Pumpkin” card, by Laurie Schmidlin.

When I first sat down to create using multiple collections, I immediately thought of Halloween! I love Bella's Halloween colors, especially that all of the colors match many of their other collections! I like to keep my Halloween cards light and whimsical (not too scary) so started by pulling papers from the Daily Chevies collection. When mixing collections on cards, I like to limit it to two and every now and then three different ones (but mostly two). I find that if I try to fit more than that on a card (which is a small are to work with) it looks too busy. After choosing a couple of neutral papers for the background, I chose a complimentary paper from the Halloween Magic collection. I then layered on a piece of watercolored paper. To finish the card, I then added one of the Paper Pieces, a Ciao Chip chipboard piece, and stickers all from the Halloween Magic collection.

Supplies:
Halloween Magic: Borders, Trinkets, Treasures & Text, Paper Pieces, Chipboard Icons; Daily Chevies: Chevy Bell Pepper, Chevy Pickle Juice; Enamel DooDads: Oreo Black

Bella Blvd & Illustrated Faith

Hi there friends, it's Shanna Noel here! I wanted to share some of my favorite ways to use the other Bella Blvd lines in the margins of my bible. While all the Illustrated Faith lines are so fun and easy to use, I love pulling in the other Bella lines because they are just so beautiful and FUN!!!

One of my favorite new lines from Bella is the Fresh Market lines and it has an easy place to use it right there in the bible ... you guessed it the fruits of the spirit (Galatians 5:22-23).

The first thing I do is pull out the line and my favorite pieces. I then decide that it would be fun to cut out some of these great fruit shapes! I roughly cut out a couple and place them on the page then I get my title ready.

I wanted to add a little color in with these great colors so they weren't just sitting on the bible pages. I decided to use one of my favorite techniques (please note this only for the highly skilled artists! - ok just kidding I use to teach this one to my preschoolers!) use a little bit of watercolor (I use the coordinating colors to the fruits) at sit a tiny puddle on top of the page, and then use a straw to push the color across the page. Fun, right!?

Then I place by adorable shapes down and use adhesive to secure them to the page, I love the look of the splashes of color coming out form behind them! Then I add my journaling, some additional stickers that go with my journaling... this part is just for fun! At the end I add my tabs, for this one I LOVE the "main squeeze" tab, I mean seriously Jesus is my main squeeze, I think we need a t-shirt here folks! And this adorable pineapple sticker poking out from the top is a must! Because. Pineapples!!!!

And that is it, really simple and easy! Remember this should be simple don't let "techniques" get in the way from getting in your bible in a creative way!! I can't wait to see what you do with your fresh market collection!!!

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}

“Playplace”, by Jennifer Chapin.

The Pinterest inspiration piece was so fun this month! As soon as I saw it, I knew I wanted to incorporate some colorful buttons and color blocking into my layout. I started with a piece of white cardstock, then layered one of the Confetti Clear Cuts over it and adhered. I cut a few different colors of patterned paper from the new Family Frenzy collection and placed them across the page. I used buttons and Bella Blvd enamel and stickers in a monochromatic scheme to mimic the Pinterest inspiration piece. I also liked how the black letters in the title really popped on the page.

Supplies:
Family Frenzy: A Lot Going On, Donut Day, Around the Block, Daily Details, Treasures & Text, Little Bits; Clear Cuts: Silver Confetti; Enamel Dots & Doo Dads: McIntosh, Bell Pepper, Guacamole, Oreo Black; Genesis Collection: Big & Bold Alpha Stickers - Black

"Roller Girls", by Kat Benjamin. 

I was inspired by the rainbow color pattern and all the circles in the Pinterest image. I decided to create my own rainbow pattern from punched out circles. Even though this layout took me a while (like, FOREVER!) to make, it was quite a cathartic process! I think the end result is really fun and highlights the fun times my nieces are having in the photos.

Supplies:
Whatever is Lovely: Lovely; Family Frenzy: Donut Day; Color Chaos: Punch Strandz, Treasures & Text, Oreo Strandz; Star Student: Art Journal; Lucky Starz: Carrot Starz; Ciao Chip Elements: Hearts & Stars; Enamel Dots: Oreo Black; Enamel DooDads: Oreo Black, Bell Pepper, Ice, Guacamole, Punch; Little Bits: Punch, Orange, Bell Pepper, Pickle Juice, Ice

Flashback Friday

Welcome to Flashback Friday! Sometimes we get so caught up in using our newest Bella collections that we forget about all of the older collections that we still love and can find so many uses for. We know that so many of you have these same collections in your stash as well, and thought it would be fun to "flash back" and be inspired by them once again!

"100% You", by Jennie McGarvey.

How fun to play with some older Bella Blvd products! The Classic Calendars are pretty much classic (as the name says) with their timeless patterns and colors -- you can't go wrong. They helped give my page the fun feeling I was looking for. The crochet hearts are always adorable and any project is instantly just a little bit more fun when the hearts are involved!

Supplies:
Classic Calendars: Peep Calendar, Bell Pepper Calendar, Pickle Juice Calendar; Family Forever: Family Game Night; Amorie Chipboard Alphas: White, McIntosh; Crochet Hearts: Punch, Orange, Pickle Juice, Gulf, Bell Pepper

“Hello Fall”, by Kat Benjamin.

Since it is officially autumn, I decided that the Hello Autumn collection would be perfect for this Flashback Friday. I adore the “Time to Rake” patterned paper and wanted to find a way to make it stand out on the page. I’ve also never used feathers on a layout before and thought that these feathers matched the theme and colors perfectly. Finally, I am hoping that an Autumn-themed layout will bring slightly cooler temps and colorful leaves to my neck of the woods! I am ready for boots weather!

Supplies:
Hello Autumn: Borders, Time to Rake, Treasures & Text, Paper Pieces; Feathers: Saffron, Pony; Amorie Chipboard Alphas: Brownie; Crochet Hearts: Scallop; Bella Bows: Bell Pepper

Halloween Treat Box & Card, by Corri Garza.

I really love making projects for Halloween. Who wouldn't love getting a treat in the cute haunted house treat box? I used my Cameo and a cut file from the Silhouette Store along with some paper from The Hello Autumn and Trick or Treat Collections. The matching card is made with die cuts from the Trick or Treat Collection. This fun gift set would make a great gift for a teacher or co-worker. 

Supplies:
Hello Autumn: Borders; Trick or Treat: Borders; Bella Bows: Milk White; Enamels Dots: Oreo Black; Enamel DooDads: Oreo Black

Spread It Out: Two Page Layouts

We've got a new feature, called "Spread It Out", that we'll be bringing to you once a month. This feature is all about the two page layouts! While there are plenty of you out there that shy away from two page layouts and like to focus on single pagers, we like to believe that there are also plenty of you out there that embrace the two page layouts and could use a little inspiration featuring Bella collections and products. So that's just what we're aiming to bring you with this new feature!

"Strawberry Fields", by Heather Leopard.

Two page layouts really intimidate me which is why I usually gravitate towards 1 pagers. When I do take on two pages, I usually do one of two things: Option 1 - create two layouts that coordinate so much that they look like it's meant to be a two pager. I will design using the photos from the same day and use the same papers but I will design each of them as as if they are a one pager. The only difference is that I will only use one title and journaling. Option 2 - I default to a grid type layout, which is what I did today. I created in 2" x 2" increments so all the elements on the page are either 2" x 2", 2" x 4", 4" x 4" or 4" x 6". I laid everything out and moved papers around until everything was in place. I created about 2/3 of the grid on one page and the other 1/3 on the other page, leaving room for the title and journaling. I still chose to use different backgrounds for each page because well, it just felt right. So next time you struggle with two-pagers, consider using one of my go-to methods.

Supplies:
Fresh Market: Fruitful, Daily Details, Freshly Picked, Treasures & Text, Little Bits; Amorie Chipboard Alphas: McIntosh, Guacamole; Ciao Chip Elements: WhatNots, Flowers & Clouds; Crochet Hearts: Cotton Candy; Enamel Dots: Milk White, McIntosh; Enamel DooDads: Ice, McIntosh

"Family Photos 2015", by Laura Vegas.

For the first time in about six years, we managed to take some new family photos. When it came time to do my next two page layout, I knew it was the perfect chance to get them scrapped right away. While we took these photos at the end of August, and here in my part of CA we won't experience anything close to "fall" until late October, maybe November, the Hello Autumn was the perfect collection to pair up with these photos. We didn't plan ahead for what to wear, but all of the colors we wore matched well with the patterned papers in the fall themed collection. I printed most of my photos as 3x4", 4x4", a single 4x6", and then added in one photo that is 5x5" just to add a little height difference to my lined up photos. I couldn't really find any specific accents to fit that far right side of the page, so I simply die cut a tree from my patterned papers and embellished it with buttons.

Supplies:
Hello Autumn: Falling Into Fall, Gatherings, Day Dream, Time To Rake, Treasures & Text, Paper Pieces; Finally Fall: Chipboard Icons; Simply Simona Chipboard Alphas: Blueberry; Quattrofina Alpha Stickers: Brownie & Cream; Button Market: Outdoors, Masculine Mix, Wood Mix

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!

"Summertime Fun", by Lisa Dickinson.

One of the newest collections from Bella Blvd is Fresh Market and it’s so ideal for all the summer photos you’ve been taking the past few months! The fun fruit theme in the happy color palette Bella is known for makes it so much fun to work with. I mixed it up with papers from other new collections - Family Frenzy and Make it Merry, as well as the staple supplies in Color Chaos and Just Add Color.

For this layout, I selected two photos - one horizontal and one vertical. Using two differently-oriented photos is always challenging for me, as I never know quite how to arrange them to avoid a large gap. To solve that, I cut one of the one of the 3x4 cards cut the Fresh Market Daily Details paper to serve as my title block. It fits perfectly between the photos and helps create a nice visual triangle. To soften all the straight lines and corners created by this block, I added various sized circles around the edges.

To embellish the page, I chose several circular chipboard and stickers and also used a circle punch to punch a few cute summer icons from the patterned papers. There are so many cute graphics within Bella Blvd designs, so don’t be afraid to trim them out and use them for accents now and then!

Supplies:
Fresh Market: Whole Lotta Seeds, Fruitful, Daily Details; Family Frenzy: Donut Day, A Lot Going On, Treasures & Text; Make It Merry: Treat Exchange; Color Chaos: Oreo Black Strandz, Pickle Juice Strandz; Just Add Color: Daily Details; Ciao Chip Elements: Flowers & Clouds, WhatNots, Hearts & Stars

“Donut Worry Be Happy” card, by Julia Akinina.

I love the cute donut patterns on the new Family Frenzy paper. That's why I decided to create two donut cards as a gift to the prettiest cafe in our town - Donut Bar, where they make delicious coffee and pretty good donuts! I left my cards on the inspiration board of this bar. I cut out the elements from the Donut Day sheet of paper and used it as an embellishment on my card. The main sentiment of my card I found on the sheet with daily details.

Supplies:
Family Frenzy: Donut Day, Around the Block, Daily Details, Treasures & Text, Little Bits; Enamel Dots: McIntosh, Guacamole, Bell Pepper

“Coffee+Donut=Together” card, by Julia Akinina.

This card is more layered and there are many embellishments on it. I love the pretty little card from the daily details sheet of paper. You can see the sentiment on it is "We're better Together". I used the wood textured cardstock for the background of my card and I love how the paper matches with the kraft paper. Golden stars die cuts are perfectly finished my card and added some accents on it.

Supplies:
Family Frenzy: Donut Day, A Lot Going On, Around the Block, Daily Details, Borders, Treasures & Text, Little Bits; Enamel Dots: McIntosh, Guacamole, Blueberry

Bella Blvd & Illustrated Faith

Hi everyone, it's Shellye McDaniel here today with another Illustrated Faith share. 

Calendar Tag Book, by Shellye McDaniel.

It's that time of year to start thinking about calendars for next year! Plus they make great Christmas gifts for a secret pal, teacher or friend!

I have used a premade tag book that measures 4.25" wide X 7.5" high. The cover was covered in patterned paper and then dressed up with various stickers and enamels.

The inner tags were left blank for journaling, adding birthdays or favorite scriptures to. I did add various designer tapes and border stickers to the bottom edges.

The "Months" paper from the "Color Chaos" collection was cut a part and then added before each tag. I used different sentiment stickers from the Illustrated Faith and other Bella Blvd collections as embellishments for the cards.

Create your own tags by using svg files or other templates to make your calendar unique and fun!

Supplies:
Whatever is Lovely: Little Bits, Treasures & Text, 3X4s, Lovely; Illustrated Faith: Washi Tape- Reminders, By Grace, Say It Colorful, Banners, Remember It, Love It, Say It- Black & White, Mini Mint To Be Stickers; Make It Merry: Treasures & Text; Hello Autumn: Treasures & Text; Halloween Magic: Treasures & Text; Family Frenzy: Treasures & Text; Fresh Market: Treasures & Text; Color Chaos: Months, Treasures & Text; Enamel DooDads: Bell Pepper, Guacamole, McIntosh, Oreo Black, Ice; Enamel Dots: McIntosh, Bell Pepper, Ice, Oreo Black, Guacamole

September Guest Designer - Loredana Bucaria

We are so excited to introduce you to our talented September Guest Designer, Loredana Bucaria. Let's get to know a little more about Loredana and check out the projects she created to share with us!

Hey there, it's Loredana Bucaria here with you all the way from Italy! I'm so happy to be here as guest designer today for this amazing company! I had the luck to meet Stephanie in person and I have immediately loved her. Why? Because I love persons that have a real pure soul! She is as you see here exactly! Scrapbooking has made me a lot of gifts meeting such beautiful persons from all over the world and I’ll infinitely thankful for this!

I could write and write and write so let’s talk about these new wonderful collections and how much they have inspired me to create. The products of Bella Boulevard are colorful. They are like some cartoons and you could think that you need to have a fanciful style to use them and instead is exactly the opposite.  These products have perfectly matched with my style that is not always so full of colors like crazy. I think my style is more soft, more clear and these products were just perfect to add colors and shine to my creations.

I have been so inspired that the ideas come together shortly. You can play with these products using brushes, using watercolors or black and white photos or just playing with different shapes of die cuts.

"Pure Love", by Loredana Bucaria.

For the page “ Pure Love” I wanted to use just black and white photos and the amazing Just Add Color collection that was perfect. I have added some little phrase stickers and embellishements and the page comes up immediately. In this page there is my heart, I look back at these pictures and I feel so happy and so blessed to have found the time to take these selfies and to have made this page about.

"Love, Memories & Fun", by Loredana Bucaria. 

Bella Boulevard products have allowed me to start a travel into my feeling and my latest “right now” moments. For the page “Love, Memories and Fun” I have again used a black & white picture and the Just Add Color papers. Specifically that paper with words is beautiful! I had the idea of coloring some words with a pencil, words that can be a title for my page. Some ink drops mixed with the enamel dots were the perfect match.

"Family", by Loredana Bucaria. 

And then we arrive at the page “Family” that has my heart! Full of color as my family is! I wanted to use many papers of the Family Frenzy collection together to stickers and embellishments. The felt bow is simply gorgeous I couldn’t use it! Crazy for it! I have used a cut file with my cameo and just feel it with many different cloves of patterned papers and not only. In one of the clovers I have sticked the wonderful phrase about family that you can find in the die cuts from Family Frenzy collection.

Bible Journaling, by Loredana Bucaria.

And at last but not the least my Journaling Bible. A new adventure to me, a new beginning that means a lot to me! It means a new approach to God,. From my father’s death the relationship with the Lord was so hard to me, there are a lot of things that I’ll never understand or know but there is something in me that says “Go to the church, stay with HIM”, follow HIM… “ I don’t know what but I think that He is trying to talk with me again. This makes me feel scared sometimes, I have fear that something horrible can happen again in my life but I want to LIVE and live in HIS word as well. It’s a long way I know but I think that the creatuve mood will help me for sure! And how to start a new adventure if not with a colorful mood? The Whatever Is Lovely collection and the Illustrated Faith products are really perfect with transparencies, little words of wisdom, little phrases to add to your journaling and notes on your Bible! I love them madly.

Thanks for joining me on the blog and thanks to Bella Blvd for having me guest design today!

 

Bella Buzz September 2015 Newsletter

If you've signed up for it already, the Bella Buzz September 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 September 2015 Newsletter RIGHT HERE.

Fabric Style

Today we are switching things up, and instead of featuring projects using our paper collections, we are sharing projects created with our fabric collections!

Halloween Dress, by Christine Ousley.

Halloween is fast approaching and so that means it’s time for decorating and wearing fun Halloween outfits. Bella Blvd’s Halloween Magic fabric is perfect for just that! 

For this special dress, I’ve used the main blue color way of the fabric and accented it with a purple solid and another fabric, the black cobwebs from Halloween Magic.

The main fabric is so adorable. It has all those cute little characters that you have come to love in the Halloween scrapbook papers that Bella Blvd releases each year!

So get those sewing machines out and whip up the perfect Halloween dress for your littles using this amazing Halloween Magic fabric from Bella Blvd. I’m thinking that a perfect scrapbook page would be to have your littles clothing match the scrapbook paper. What do you think?

Supplies:
Bella Blvd Halloween Magic fabric by Riley Blake Designs; Nadia’s Square Neck Dress PDF Pattern by Create Kids Couture; lace; buttons

Haunted House Mug Rugs, by Nichol Magouirk.

With fall quickly approaching, I’m in the mood for snuggling under a warm quilt with a mug of hot chocolate and a good book. If you’re like me and need something to place that mug or glass on, these fun haunted house mug rugs sew up super quick and are the perfect Halloween coffee/end table decor!

I used the Sweetwater Feed Co Mug Rug Pattern and whipped up these four mug rugs in a little under 3 hours using mostly leftover scraps from a quilt project! Quick and easy, who doesn’t love that?!

Each mug rug measures approximately 8” x 9”. These would make great gifts if tucked in a basket with some other fall goodies too!

Supplies:
Bella Blvd Halloween Magic fabrics by Riley Blake Designs; Bella Blvd Too Cute Too Spook fabrics by Riley Blake Designs

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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.