Bella Blvd Studio Blog

Digital Day Designs

You can view and purchase all of our available digital products in our Digital Shop, located on the Bella Blvd website.

“Explore” digital layout, by Megan Klauer.

Hello everyone! It's Megan here and I am sharing a recent digital layout I created using a few photos captured on my iPhone while out hiking in our woods.  

The design of this layout is super simple and translates into an easy sketch as well. Often times when I'm working on a page I envision it as a sketch and do a simple pencil drawing or computer rendering to get the creative process started.

I began my layout using Daily Details sheet from the Cute Baby Boy line for my background and layered an off white layer on top of that. I resized my photos, added a white border and placed them within the design. 

My title & subtitle were created with the Cio Chipboard. One benefit of working in digital is being able to change and adapt the elements to work well with your photos. You can also resize them and add or lessen the opacity. 

You'll see I also changed the color of the Love die cut from the Cute Baby Boy collection to again blend with my photos. The heart elements were added to the page by simply opening the He Stole My Heart paper file, selecting the hearts I wanted using the Magic Wand Tool and dragging them onto my layout. 

The cute little hedge hog chipboard piece again from the Cute Baby Boy collection just made me think of standing in the woods breathing in the fresh air and taking in the peace and quite. She's even holding a leaf. Perfect for my Explore layout! The GPS text sticker got a bit of an adjustment to say "no GPS required". Simply add text of your own to make it work with your design! Easy peasy!

How many of you are exploring the world of digital or have you been doing it for decades? I'm loving every bit of the process but there are days I just need the smell of that good ol scrapbook paper too, ya know? Which do you prefer? Or a bit of both?

Digital Supplies:
Cute Baby Boy collection; Let's Go collection; Chipboard Scripts

Spread It Out: Two Page Layouts With Laura

"Adventure At Great America", by Laura Vegas.

Hey everyone, it's Laura here to share another two page layout with you. I've always said that I'm not scared of the two page layouts. I know some dread them, but not me! I love to incorporate as many photos as I can onto my layouts, and two pagers are great for just that. I almost always create two pagers for things like birthdays, holidays, family get togethers, as well as vacations and day trips. And this day trip to Great America theme park six years ago has been on my to-do list to get scrapped and in the album.

One of my favorite ways to work lots of photos onto my pages are by creating photo collages. As a clean and linear scrapper, it's a great way to keep the photos looking organized and clean on the page. I often pick the same template to use for both sides of the two page spread, and I simply rotate the template 180 degrees for the second collage. The nice thing about using collages is that when you sit down to start creating your layout, it's almost like you're only working with 2 large photos as you plan out the design of the spread. Once I figure out where my collages will go, I just start building the patterned papers around them.

I love to incorporate die cutting into my layouts as well, and use my Silhouette Cameo for the majority of my projects. Die cut backgrounds are a favorite of mine to use, as it helps break up the look of too much patterned paper on a page (if that's a thing?). This circle die cut background is my go-to background cut, and I use it more than I probably should. I was able to cut the background from just one sheet of the tan arrow patterned paper, as I knew I could then cut that piece in half and use one half for each side of the spread.

I needed a little something in the upper corner of the first page, so I thought I would die cut this funky sun shape. I die cut the sunbeams from black cardstock, orange Strandz patterned paper, and the white stars Clear Cut, and then layered them all together. I die cut the center of the sun from two additional patterned papers, and layered those together. I tend to keep my layouts fairly flat, without too much bulk. Even with a full seven layers of paper where the sun is placed, my layout is still very flat.

When choosing patterned papers for my layouts, I rely on the photos to dictate the colors I go with. I had a lot of black and tan in the photos, with touches of orange and green. Those colors stood out the most to me, so those are the colors that I went looking for when starting this spread. I tend to stick with mostly tone-on-tone patterned papers, as they don't overwhelm the page as much as busier patterns can do. 

For my title, I used my favorite white text Sienna chipboard alphas, along with one of the new chip script words ("adventure"), which is also white. I'm always a sucker for a title that incorporates a cursive font, alongside a clean, solid font, so I'm really loving the new chip script words.

The last thing I do is add my embellishments. I'm a pretty simple scrapper, so I usually keep the embellishments to a minimum. Enamels and buttons are some of my go-to pieces to add to layouts, as they're fairly flat and super simple to sprinkle around the page.

I'm hoping there are others like me out there, that enjoy a good two pager now and then. I plan on sharing new two page layouts once a month, and am looking forward to getting lots of photos scrapped this way!

Supplies:
Color Chaos: Orange Strandz; Lucky Starz: Carrot Starz; Daily Chevies: Chevy Pickle Juice; Sand & Surf: GPS; Fresh Market: Whole Lotta Seeds; IF Whatever Is Lovely: Lovely; Clear Cuts: Stars White; Sienna Chipboard Alphas: Pony; Ciao Chip Elements: WhatNots; Chip Scripts: Adventure; Button Market: Pickle Squares; Enamel DooDads: Oreo Black

Giveaway Time: WINNER

It's time to announce our randomly chosen winner for yesterday's giveaway!

Congrats Jessica! Email me at lauravegas.bellablvd@yahoo.com, with "GIVEAWAY TIME WINNER" in the subject line, and we'll get your goodies on their way to you!

*** All giveaway winners have three weeks to claim their winnings or they will be forfeited.  

Blind Selfies & Fussy Cutting With Jamie

"See", by Jamie Pate.

Sometimes I find myself sort of timid to create layouts about myself. I’m not a huge selfie taker. It is usually my oldest daughter teasing me with the selfie snap. She has a way of fishing me in. But for the most part, it’s just not ‘me’. 

But very recently I was playing with my camera grabbing some shots of my kids goofing off at the park. I decided to take a ‘selfie’ with my dslr. A ‘blind-selfie’ if you will. Because I had no idea what was in the lens. Well, today’s project is a result of that happy blind shot.

But let’s start from the beginning. I’m a sucker for black and white graphic images. The Illustrated Faith BW Floral Stripe was just what I had in mind when I went to make this page. I know it’s upside down…there’s a reason for that. I’m getting to it.

And the reason it’s upside down is because of this: it needed to be fussy cut and I had to know how it was to be placed. So what I did was cut around some of the flowers on that particular pattern paper. Then I trimmed out the edge of a piece of white cardstock, about 2-inches on two edges. The cardstock slipped in pretty easy. I love how those flowers peak over the edges.

Here’s that image, that blind-selfie I took at the park. It just captured my eyes. As soon as I saw it I loved it. It inspired me immediately to so many thoughts in my head about where I am right now. I knew I had to make a page that summed up a few of those themes.

After the photo was placed, it too was also slipped under some of the floral pattern, it was time to play. Grabbing She Blooms Die Cuts and some washi tape plus Enamel Hearts I just went to randomly placing embellishments, knowing I was also going to add a bit of my own journaling in places.

The embellishments were layered over some stenciled dots plus a few Date It Roller Stamp inked image. All came together in a beautiful way. A way that captured a few themes in my head. All inspired by a silly blind-selfie.

Supplies:
IF She Blooms: B&W Stripe, Cross Washi, Paper Pieces, Chipboard Icons; IF Enamel Hearts: One In A Melon; IF Basics: Just Believe Washi Tape; Ciao Chipboard: Adventure

Giveaway Time

Happy Tuesday everyone! It's been a while since we've done a giveaway here on the blog, so we've got a good one to share with you today!

  
  

We are giving away FOUR collection kits - Cute Baby Boy, Sweet Baby Girl, Sweet Sweet Spring, and Let's Go - to ONE lucky winner! 

To be entered to win, simply leave us a comment here AND make sure you're following us on the Bella Blvd Instagram as well. We will announce a randomly chosen winner Wednesday afternoon.

 

Video Monday With Becki

“Fun Happy Memories”, by Becki Adams.
{Find Becki on YouTube HERE}

I am over the moon excited to be a video contributor for Bella Blvd this year. I love creating process videos with Bella Blvd supplies.

I chose to create this layout with supplies from the She Blooms collection. I love the watercolor patterned papers and the color palette. This collection has a lot of pink, which makes it perfect for a silly, girly layout.

In this video I combine my love of patterned paper and chipboard by using LOTS of chipboard and patterned paper. I also share with you the different ways I adhere my chipboard pieces.

This isn't the most flattering photo of me. BUT, it is one of my all-time favorites. The journaling on this layout tells why. "I quickly learned that if my nieces ask to take a picture with Aunt Becki, I take a picture even if I don't have makeup on or my hair done. Then, when they say, "Let's take a silly one," You make a silly face and take more photos. Even though, this isn't the most flattering photo of me, it's one of my favorites."

Because videos are a new thing here on the Bella Blvd blog, I'd love to hear what you'd like to see in upcoming videos. Let us know in the comments.

 

Supplies:
IF She Blooms: Take Root Pink, B&W Stripe, Tiny Floral, Cross Washi, Chipboard Icons, Paper Pieces; IF Enamel Hearts: Oh My Heavens Mix; Ciao Chip Elements: Borders, Today, Family; Cute Clips: Wild Berries 

Digital Day Designs

You can view and purchase all of our available digital products in our Digital Shop, located on the Bella Blvd website.

“Baby Boy” digital layout, by Krista Lund.

This Collection is packed with the most adorable Baby Boy patterned paper and embellishments. It was hard not to use them all on my pocket page! I started by choosing my photos and placing them in the pocket page template. Next I added journaling cards. I filled in the rest of the pockets with patterned paper and then embellished. I always end creating my layout by adding shadows to make it look more realistic and not so flat.

I prefer to create clusters of embellishments throughout my layout. I resize and rotate them if necessary so they don't cover up any important details or words. Shadows help give my stacked elements a more realistic look.

I change the color of my font by using the Color Picker tool. You can see that my font color is the same color as the 2 navy blue polka dots in the patterned paper. I typically choose 2-3 colors before settling on the one that works perfectly with my layout.

Using the Clipping Mask, I can tuck these tags into my pocket. And of course, I had to layer them and add the froggy sticker. After placing all 3 of these elements on my layout where I wanted them, I selected them all and resized them so they would fit perfectly in that pocket. This is one of the things I love about digital scrapbooking- you can change or alter just about anything to make it work for your layout!

Digital Supplies:
Cute Baby Boy collection

Pinterest Inspired With Laurie

{Image credit: Pinterest}

Hi! Laurie Schmidlin here, and I'm excited to share a couple of cards with you today! Normally when I create, I just start pulling product out. I see what strikes my fancy at the moment and just start putting it all together. There are times, though, that my creativity needs a nudge (or two). That's when I turn to Pinterest! I tend to be more inspired by colors, patterns, & textures so I usually start with home decor items.

When I ran across this photo gorgeous handmade pillows I was immediately inspired!

"Grateful" card, by Laurie Schmidlin. 

I love, love, love the whimsy and bright colors on pillow with the large flowers! I pulled out papers from several different collections (Fresh market, Sweet Baby Girl, & Sweet Sweet Spring) and started hand cutting some very uneven circles in varying sizes. Before adhering them together, I roughed up all of the edges a bit so that each layer would stand out a little more.

I added a coordinating Enamel Heart to the center of each flower. For the sentiment, I chose a sticker from the Color Chaos Treasures & Text sheet and then stapled it on to a little ribbon tag.

Supplies:
Color Chaos: Treasures & Text; Fresh Market: Tutti Fruiti; Sweet Baby Girl: Borders, Sweet Safari; Sweet Sweet Spring: Easy Breezy, To Dye For, Bloomin Beauties; IF Enamel Hearts: Practice What You Peach, Black Eyed Pea, She Blooms Mix

"Love" card, by Laurie Schmidlin.

My next card was inspired by the pillow with all of the lovely ruffles! That and the gorgeous colors! I started by choosing several papers from the Illustrated Faith She Blooms collection. I die cut a large circle out of Mason Jars paper (I used the black and white polka dots on the reverse side) and used it to anchor my design. I created several ruffles by “pleating” three strips of coordinating papers.

I added a die cut heart (I used the reverse side of the Bloom Script paper) and then embellished with She Blooms Stickers, Chipboard Stickers, and Enamel Hearts.

Supplies:
IF She Blooms: Bloom Script, Tiny Floral, Floral Stripe, Take Root Pink, Mason Jars, Treasures & Text, Chipboard Icons; IF Enamel Hearts: Black Eyed Pea, Bless Her Heart Mix, Oh My Heavens Mix

Storytelling: A Peek Into Gail's Process

“Oliver Henry”, by Gail Lindner.

Today I would love to give you a look into my creative process! With 3 kids, I’m nowhere near “caught up” with my scrapbooks but that doesn’t bother me in the slightest. My philosophy has always been to scrapbook/document the memories whenever the inspiration strikes!

I was inspired by the Cute Baby Boy collection to tell a story that I hadn’t yet for my youngest - the story of his name. Once I knew that was what I wanted to create, I then searched for a photo, just any cute photo of him as a baby to accompany the story. I found one and decided to GO BIG. (Look at those cute baby toes!)

I added some layers of patterned paper behind my photo and then started to add embellishments. There was a bit of white space in my large photo as I knew I wanted to add embellishments and even my title to these spaces.

I like my layouts to also have some white space so my next step was to decide where to do my journaling without sacrificing any of it. I decided to tuck it behind my photo, which is one of my go-to tricks for adding lengthy journaling. I adhered a glassine bag in behind my photo and layers and a tab at the top so the journaling easily pulls out.

The journaling easily pulls out to read and then tucks right back in!

Another story documented and I couldn’t be happier! Even though my kids aren’t tiny babies anymore, this collection will inspire me to go back and tell those stories that I haven’t yet! Thank you Bella Blvd!

Supplies:
Cute Baby Boy: He Stole My Heart, Barely A Wink, Jungle Jammies, Borders, Treasures & Text, Paper Pieces, Chipboard Icons; Color Chaos: Orange Strandz; IF She Blooms: Bloom Script; Amorie Chipboard Alphas: White; Tiny Text Alpha Stickers: Fruit Punch; IF Enamel Hearts: She Blooms Mix; Cute Clips: Baby Boy

Bella Blvd & Illustrated Faith

Illustrated Faith Planner Spread, by Stephanie Buice. 

HI everyone! Stephanie here today sharing my most recent weekly Planner spread, and I chose to use lots of the new She Blooms collection (Look at those colors!!). I seriously love taking my bible journaling out of the pages of my bible and into other areas of my life where I see the everyday, such as my planner. I can always use the little boost of encouragement that I get whenever I see it, and it serves as a good reminder that keeps my heart on track.

One of the first things I always do when I start a spread is to go through and write down all the things I know we have going on that particular week. That way I know that all the important stuff like due dates and appointments are in there for sure, then I go in and all the other random reminders and stuff that I need.

After I get most of my writing done that’s when the fun part begins! I like to go through my scraps first to pull out any that catch my eye, doing this helps me get the most out of my sheets of patterned paper since it saves me from having to cut into an entire sheet for one or two tiny squares. Chasing my papers usually also helps me determine my color swatches for my project, so for me it’s really the easiest place to start.

After that I like to start playing around with embellishments, but I really try to not spend too much time on that part since in all reality it is just a planner spread! For these I really like to try and use products in ways that I normally wouldn’t get to on layouts, I just have fun with it mixing and matching until I like how it looks.

I also like to add little center inserts into my spreads, they just add some visual interest and to me add a more personal touch and some happy little reminders like pictures or quote cards. This week I added a few different things, I used some of the 3x4 cards from the She blooms collection adding some of the stickers from the Genesis collection. The picture that you see is a recent one of my husband and from out most recent date night, I just love it! I also added in a Blessings By Mail card and used some of the Clear Cuts as a type of Dashboard, I like that because it’s transparent you can still see the writing behind it. I finished my center inserts off by adding in some coordinating Cute Clips.

One of the most time consuming yet rewarding parts of my spread was “illustrating" my verse. I chose to use Ephesians 4:15 which in whole says this: “ Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church.” Because I didn’t have enough room for the entire verse, I choose to begin and end my verse with a suspension point  “…”. That is simply to show that there is still some of the verse left that I didn’t use. I chose this verse because I felt like it was a quick reminder and gut check for me during the week, I love surrounding myself with positive stuff like that! I chose to use lots of Tiny Text stickers and but also mixed in a few of the alphabet sets from the Genesis collection, it makes me kinda happy that Bella has the complete rainbow covered. Ha! I used one of the precision pens to outline some of the words that blended in a little too much, I added in a chipboard heart with my Book and verse.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my post toady, thanks for stopping by! Also feel free to ask any questions and I’ll do my best to answer them. Take care, Steph.

Supplies:
IF She Blooms: B&W Stripe, She Blooms, 3x4’s, Art Prints, Take Root Clear Cut, Treasures & Text, Paper Pieces, Enamel Heart Mix, Chipboard Icons, Cross Washi, Bloom Washi, Blessings By Mail; IF Whatever Is Lovely: Art Prints; Designer Tapes: Bell Pepper Stripe; Enamel Dots: Oreo Black; Enamel Doodads: Bell Pepper, Punch, Ice; Cute Clips: Baby Girl, Pretty Posh, Pretty Boy; Illustrated Faith: Precision Pen, Genesis Kit, List By Faith Kit