Bella Blvd Studio Blog

Summer 2016 Reveals: Illustrated Faith - Bright & Brave Collection

Reveal week is finally here! We are so excited to be revealing our FIVE new Bella collections, THREE new Illustrated Faith collections, and a new release of Illustrated Faith basics! We will also be sharing some project inspiration, straight from the pages of our catalog, and hosting win-it-before-you-can-buy-it giveaways as well. Stephanie and her creative team have been hard at work developing these brand new products for you, and we hope that you love them as much as we do!  

Bright & Brave encourages women and young ladies to be bright in the way they live our lives, shining for Him and being brave when doing so! Allow Bright & Brave to take you on a journey of colorful adventure, expressing your faith through creativity. In addition to ten double-sided patterned papers and two embellishment papers, Bright & Brave includes coordinating cardstock stickers, washi stickers, Paper Pieces, 6x8" paper pad, Tabbies, clear stamps and Designer Clips. Plus, al new products including a 2x7" Tip-Ins paper pad with list prompts and quotes that fit perfectly in journaling Bible margins and a 6x8" Clear Cuts transparency pad with icons and patterned pages you can layer with other papers. 

  

Double Sided Patterned Paper:

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

Cardstock Stickers:

Washi Stickers:

        

Tip-Ins:

        

        

        

6x8 Paper Pad:

  

  

  

  

  

  

6x8 Clear Cuts Pad:

  

  

  

  

Paper Pieces:

Tabbies:

Designer Clips:

Clear Stamps:

Collection Kit (includes exclusive bonus pattern):

  

"My Creativity Is A Gift", by Stephanie Buice.

I’m pretty sure there’s a little something for everyone in this collection, so full of color and inspiring patterns I wanted to use them all! For my layout I started off with kind of a pie chart in the center, then created my title around it. I filled each piece of the chart with a different paper and lots of color, I placed my picture on top and embellished with the paper pieces and fundamentals. I cut some leaves for the flowers out of patented paper and sprinkled them around my page, I finished it off with some enamels and sewing.

Supplies:
IF Bright & Brave: Journaling, Artsy, 3x4’s, Typed, Count The Ways, Flower, Borders, Paper Pieces, Fundamentals, Elements, Tip Ins, Tabbies; Cute Clips: Pretty Posh; Enamel Dots: Punch, Guacamole, Bell Pepper, Ice; Enamel DooDads: Cotton Candy, Ice; IF Enamel Hearts: Black; Amorie Chipboard Alphas: White; Tiny Text: Black

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

Now here's your chance to win-it-before-you-can-buy-it! We are giving away the entire Illustrated Faith Bright & Brave collection to one lucky reader! Just leave us a comment, telling us what you love about this new collection. One comment per person please. Our randomly chosen winners for all of our reveal giveaways will be announced on Monday, July 11^th.

Summer 2016 Reveals: Alex Collection

Reveal week is finally here! We are so excited to be revealing our FIVE new Bella collections, THREE new Illustrated Faith collections, and a new release of Illustrated Faith basics! We will also be sharing some project inspiration, straight from the pages of our catalog, and hosting win-it-before-you-can-buy-it giveaways as well. Stephanie and her creative team have been hard at work developing these brand new products for you, and we hope that you love them as much as we do!  

He's in his own world of technology, gaming and tv shows. Alex might not be paying much attention to Addison these days, but he's definitely eating all the junk food he can find, turning up his headphones and group texting his guy friends. This rough and tumble collection includes four double-sided patterned papers, two embellishment papers, coordinating cardstock stickers, washi stickers, Paper Pieces, 6x8" paper pad, Tabbies and Designer Clips. 

  

Double Sided Patterned Paper:

  

  

  

  

  

  

Cardstock Stickers:

Washi Stickers:

        

6x8 Paper Pad:

  

  

  

  

  

  

Paper Pieces:

Tabbies:

Designer Clips:

Collection Kit (includes exclusive bonus pattern):

  

"Always With His Tunes", by Laura Vegas.
Photos by Kelly Goree.

I love a good boy collection, even if I don't have boys of my own! The new Alex collection has all of the colors I love, and some great patterns that I know I'll use on everyday pages as well. For this layout, I pulled all of the music-related elements from the collection. I added in small strips of the yellow and green tone-on-tone patterned papers to tie in with the colors in the headphones patterned paper and the Tabbies that I stacked along the top of the papers.

Supplies:
Alex: Turn It Up, Beast Mode, Killin It, Borders, Daily Details, Fundamentals, Paper Pieces, Tabbies; Chip Chip Scripts: Love; Tiny Text Alpha Stickers: Black, Pumpkin Spice; Enamel Dots: Blueberry, Oreo Black, Bell Pepper, Milk White, Guacamole 

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

Now here's your chance to win-it-before-you-can-buy-it! We are giving away the entire Alex collection to one lucky reader! Just leave us a comment, telling us what you love about this new collection. One comment per person please. Our randomly chosen winners for all of our reveal giveaways will be announced on Monday, July 11^th.

Summer 2016 Reveals: Addison Collection

It’s that time of the year again! Bella Blvd will be debuting EIGHT collections for summer at the Mixed Media Buying Event, presented by Sierra Pacific Crafts, in Salt Lake City, July 12^th - July 14^th. We could not be more excited to show off our new Summer Release to you!

Which means that Reveal week is finally here! Starting today and continuing thru next Thursday, we will be revealing our FIVE new Bella collections, THREE new Illustrated Faith collections, and a new release of Illustrated Faith Basics! We will also be sharing some project inspiration, straight from the pages of our catalog, and hosting win-it-before-you-can-buy-it giveaways as well. Stephanie and her creative team have been hard at work developing these brand new products for you, and we hope that you love them as much as we do!

She's the perfect age for sass and style. Addison loves technology, texting her squad and listening to her favorite playlist. Perfect for the millennial chasing her independence, causing drama and trying to find herself. This snarky and cool collection includes four double-sided patterned papers, two embellishment papers, coordinating cardstock stickers, washi stickers, Paper Pieces, 6x8" paper pad, Tabbies and Designer Clips. 

  

Double Sided Patterned Paper:

  

  

    

  

  

  

Cardstock Stickers:

Washi Stickers:

       

6x8 Paper Pad:

  

  

  

  

  

  

Paper Pieces:

Tabbies:

Designer Clips:

Collection Kit (includes exclusive bonus pattern):

  

"Hello Sassy Girl", by Laura Vegas.

I love the fun and funky colors in the new Addison collection. And while geared towards teenage girls, it's perfect for younger girls and tweens too. It was the perfect fit for these favorite photos I took of my friend's sassy young daughter, years ago. I'm also loving the new Tabbies that come with each collection. The tabs from the older sticker sheets were always pieces I turned too often, so having an entire pack of them to work with lets me use more of them on my pages!

Supplies:
Addison: Free Spirit, Curfew, Fierce, Borders, Daily Details, Fundamentals, Paper Pieces, Tabbies; Ciao Chip Scripts: Hello; Tiny Text Alpha Stickers: Black; Little Bits: Punch, Bell Pepper; Enamel Dots: Oreo Black, Milk White

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

Now here's your chance to win-it-before-you-can-buy-it! We are giving away the entire Addison collection to one lucky reader! Just leave us a comment, telling us what you love about this new collection. One comment per person please. Our randomly chosen winners for all of our reveal giveaways will be announced on Monday, July 11^th.

Summer 2016 Reveals: Sneak Peek At New Products

Tomorrow we will begin revealing our new collections and products for our Summer 2016 release! We're so excited to share everything with you. So excited, that we thought we would give you a little sneak peek into some of the brand new products you'll see within the new collections, and tell you a little bit about each of them.

6x8" Paper Pads:

Different and unique from paper pads on the market today, our pads are 6x8" sized perfectly for journals, planners and journaling Bibles! Each paper pad has 24 double-sided sheets, combining two complete sets of twelve designs. Use these adorable miniature prints and patterns for bite-sized projects like cards, banners and more.
*** Available in all new Bella Blvd and Illustrated Faith collections. 

Washi Sticker Booklets:

Why have one roll of washi with thirty feet when you can have eight pages of washi in a variety of shapes and sizes? Our washi sticker booklets give you all the translucent goodness you love about washi with plenty of added variety, with nice and flat easy-to-store packaging. Six pages of washi border strips in varied widths, plus two pages of elements including circles, hearts and more. 
*** Available in all new Bella Blvd and Illustrated Faith collections. 

Tabbies:

Bella Blvd has long included tabs as part of our sticker sheets, but for the first time ever we have made a full package of die-cut cardstock Tabbies! With a variety of office tabs, each package has 47 tabs with patterns, icons and words that will give your scrapbooking, Bible journaling, planner pages and craft projects a completely new edge. 
*** Available in all new Bella Blvd and Illustrated Faith collections. 

Designer Clips:

Our Designer Clips are made of colored, molded plastic, with fun, printed designs. We wracked our brains to give you as many crazy shapes as possible. Each package has 16 colorful clips. Enjoy adding them to the tops and sides of your pages, cards, Bibles and planners too!
*** Available in all new Bella Blvd and Illustrated Faith collections. 

Gift Tags:

It's time to stop using scraps of left-over wrapping paper for gift tags! We've made four of the most adorable tag sets you imagine. Our Gift Tags are made of heavy cardstock and come in a variety of sizes and shapes with room to write your special sentiment. Each set contains 18 coordinating tags for holidays and everyday themes, plus string to attach to your gift. Get crafty by adding these tags to layouts, pages and more. 
*** Available in select collections.

Tip-Ins:

Shanna Noel's infamous handmade tip-ins have now been developed into a product for you to easily tip-into the margins of your journaling Bible! Tip-Ins pages are a mix of list prompts and inspiring quotes to add that special faith-based art to your Bible. Create a flap with washi stickers, adhering completely into the margins, or get creative by trimming them. These 2x7" pads have two each of 12 designs. 
*** Available in all new Illustrated Faith collections. 

Clear Cuts Pads:

We had so much fun designing paper pads that we knew the Illustrated Faith community would love some 6x8" clear sheets too! These Clear Cuts pads are sized perfectly for journals, planners and journaling Bibles. Each pad has 12 transparency pages, including four sheets of icons for fussy cutting and two each of four full page designs! Get your layering and creativity going with these colorful and faith-focused designs!
*** Available in all new Illustrated Faith collections. 

 

National Camera Day With Krista

Did you know that tomorrow is National Camera Day? Since we have something very special coming up tomorrow, we decided to celebrate this fun day today instead!

“Focus”, digital layout by Krista Lund.

In honor of National Camera Day I wanted to create an All About Me layout about my passion for photography. I "cut" big blocks of patterned paper and layered them on a piece of red and white polka dot paper. I used black and white photos because the blocks of patterned paper are so bold.

I created a fun photo strip in Photoshop using the same photo 3 times. After converting my "Selfie" into a black and white, I cropped it into a square. I dragged it onto a new file and duplicated the photo two more times. I flattened the layer and then cropped it. I dragged my finished photo strip onto my layout.

I used lots of layers including embellishments, alphas, borders and buttons to create a title for my layout.

To draw attention to the upper right corner of my layout, I added a word strip and jounaling strips. I jazzed them up with a star embellishment and border. I used a staple to attach them.

Digital supplies:
Let's Go Collection

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

Creative Cards With Laurie

Hi there! Laurie here, and I've got a couple of cards to share with you today! With summer in full swing, I find myself turning to some of Bella's brighter colors and patterns. Add a little black to make all the colors really pop and you have a great summer card! Well, honestly that is card that I would love year round! Ha!

"Life Is Amazing" card, by Laurie Schmidlin.

For my first card, I chose a large butterfly die and some papers and stickers from the She Blooms and Color Chaos collections to create this layered, bold card. I die cut the butterfly from the Take Root Pink paper (from the She Blooms collection) to create a negative die cut look. I layered on some Black Chevron Designer Tape and stickers for extra texture and pops of color.

I really wanted the butterfly to stand out but not take away focus from all of the gorgeous papers so I used vellum for the die cut. I popped it up and bent the wings to give the appearance of flight. For embellishment, I added some Oreo Black Enamel Dots and an Enamel Heart (from the She Blooms Mix).

Supplies:
IF She Blooms: Take Root Pink, BW Floral Stripe, Mason Jars; Color Chaos: Treasures & Text; Designer Tape: Black Chevron; Enamel Dots: Oreo Black; IF Enamel Hearts: She Blooms Mix

"Sending My Love" card, by Laurie Schmidlin.

Working with a smaller card surface can sometimes be challenging. You have to choose which embellishments you want to use as using too many would be just, well ... too much. I decided to embrace some more white space with this card. I think the end result actually helps the little strips of colorful paper stand out more, don't you?

I chose papers from the Lucky Starz, Color Chaos, & Daily Chevies collections. I created the little paper flower by cutting out a freeform circle (that's code for a messy looking circle LOL!) and then cutting it further to look like a spiral. Starting from the center, I scrunched it together to create the flower shape and then added glue at the bottom.

Supplies:
Daily Chevies: Chevy Bell Pepper, Chevy Pickle Juice; Lucky Starz: Pickle Juice Starz, Color Crazy Starz; Color Chaos: Gulf Strandz; IF Enamel Hearts: She Blooms Mix; Enamel Dots: Bell Pepper

Bella Blvd & Illustrated Faith With Shanna

Hi there! I wanted to share some of my favorite techniques for taking your white homespun alphas and making them POP!!! 

Illustrated Faith | Rock Those White Alphas from Illustrated Faith on Vimeo.

Supplies:
Illustrated Faith: White Homespun Alpha, Bulk Pen, You Rule Bible Mat, Shanna's Favorite Acrylic Paint Set, Paint It Cards 

Video Friday With Becki

“Lovely Baby Girl”, by Becki Adams.
Visit Becki on YouTube HERE.

Hey Bella Blvd friends. I am SO excited to share another video with you! In this video I create a layout using the Sweet Baby Girl collection with a chipboard script title. I also share with you my number one tip for getting over "the fear of the blank page." This is often the biggest road block for me when I sit down to scrapbook. True to my Bella Blvd style you'll find lots of chipboard. I LOVE Bella Blvd's chipboard embellishments.

 

Thank you for stopping by the Bella Blvd blog and for watching my video. 

Supplies:
Sweet Baby Girl: Sweet Safari, Borders, Daily Details, Treasures & Text, Chipboard Icons; Cute Clips: Baby Girl; Ciao Chip Elements: Love, Borders; Illustrated Faith: Date It Roller Stamp

Spread It Out: Two Page Layouts With Laura

"Loving Life With Them By My Side", by Laura Vegas.

Hey everyone, it's Laura here with another two pager for you. For my layout this month, I thought it would be fun to incorporate an enlargement into the design. When you have a favorite photo, let it stand out on the page, by printing it big. Really big!

This photo of my two girls is one of my absolute favorite photos of them. We were out taking some senior pics of Alyssa, and Sarah was just there to tag along with us. At some point, she wanted in on some pics too, and I mostly captured photos of them being funny and goofy together. But this one photo shows their genuine love for each other. Even though Sarah's eyes are closed in this photo, I absolutely love it. I had it printed 8x12" and adhered it to the right side of the page. 

Since my photo actually had a lot of "white space" to it (meaning nothing important in part of the photo), I ended up adding some strips of patterned paper over the left side of the photo. So my 8x12" photo ended up being more of a 6.5x12" photo. 

I printed five more photos to include, all 3x4" in size. I am a huge fan of lining up photos in rows across the page, as it fits well with my linear style of scrapbooking. I'm also a huge fan of white on white backgrounds, and love to die cut white backgrounds into my pages. Adhering a die cut white background directly to my white cardstock page adds subtle interest to the page, and just the right amount of texture for this clean and semi-simple scrapper. 

For my title, I once again did a mix of die cut words, cut from patterned paper, and chipboard alphas. The Sienna chipboard alphas are by far my favorites of the Bella chipboard alphas, as once again, you guessed it ... they fit with my linear style. 

 

I printed out my journaling to run under my photos, even adding a bit of the journaling to the second page to make the design flow from page to page. I pulled my patterned papers from both the Hello Autumn collection and the older Birthday Boy collection, as I specifically set out to find good navy blues, and browns, knowing that my chipboard alphas would cover the green I needed on the page. 

And to finish off the page, I kept the embellishments simple, by adding some of the IF enamel hearts to the centers of the circles on my die cut background. If you're looking for a fun challenge for your next two pager, try incorporating an enlargement into your page design. The photo doesn't have to be as big as mine here, but it's a fun size to play with if you're up for it!

Supplies:
Hello Autumn: Gatherings, Day Dream; Birthday Boy: Streamers; Sienna Chipboard Alphas: Pickle Juice; IF Enamel Hearts: Olive You Mix, Mrs Blueberry, Hey Sugar Sugar

Oversized Titles With Missy

"Life Is Tough", by Missy Whidden.

Hey, Bella friends! Missy back with you. Have you ever tried creating an oversized title on a layout? I’ve done this a few times, and I always love how it turns out. For one, it does most of the design work for you. If your title takes up most of the page, then you only have a certain spot for your photos. It takes a lot of the guess work out it, so it winds up being an easy layout to design. Secondly, it gives you a chance to use a lot of different papers on the layout without it being too overwhelming. I love searching Pinterest for fun quotes and using fun fonts on my Cameo to cut them out. The possibilities are endless—with the quotes, the patterns, the colors and the photo placement.

I chose these black and white photos of my daughter in a serious mood. This quote seemed to fit them and what I wanted to say about them. To add contrast up next to the photos, I chose bright papers from several collections to create the title. These are all papers from  Sweet Baby Girl, Cute Baby Boy, Fresh Market, Just Add Color, Color Chaos, Illustrated Faith What is Lovely, Simply Spring and Classic Calendars. Even though a lot of the Bella papers are themed, you can get versatile looks by cutting small parts from them like this. I arranged my quote around where I wanted my photos to go, lightly adhered them to the paper and then machine stitched through them. I did a bit of gesso and watercolor work on the background to add a little interest.

Here you can see all the different patterns in the letters and the mixed media background. I went with some subtle pink watercolors just to add a bit of pink shading since the background paper is pink. I didn’t want to get too busy and distracting with the background since the quote itself is pretty busy.

To change things up and keep it interesting, I cut “you” on black cardstock in a script font. It stands out a little more that way. I added a little sticker cluster here at the bottom and added some tangled thread under it.

Some of my favorite Bella pieces are the little pieces you can work into any layout. I love the Little Bits stickers and enamel doo dads and hearts. They are the perfect little embellishments to add after you have everything adhered. They add great pops of color, too, like the cute bow on top of the photos.

These are all chipboard hearts from various collections. I wanted to represent most of the colors from the letters on this side of the photos, and these hearts were perfect. I also added a few die cuts and a vellum heart from my stash.

Here’s one more look at all those yummy letters! This font cut file is from The Cut Shoppe. It’s so awesome for showcasing these beautiful papers.

Supplies:
Sweet Baby Girl: Borders, Just A Wink, Sweet Safari, Daily Details, Pretty as a Posie, Paper Pieces, Chipboard Icons; Cute Baby Boy: He Stole My Heart, Jungle Jammies, Barely A Wink, Prince, Chipboard Icons; Fresh Market: Whole ‘Lotta Seeds, Freshly Squeezed; Just Add Color: Daily Details, Passcode, Trinkets Full Color; Little Bits: Punch, Bell Pepper, Orange, Plum, Pickle Juice, White; Color Chaos: Scallop Strandz, Orange Strandz, Gult Strandz, Treasures & Texts, Just Write Journaling Stickers; Simply Spring: Exclusive Collection Kit Bonus Pattern; Classic Calendars: Pickle Juice Calendar; IF Whatever is Lovely: Lovely, His Love Stickers; Enamel DooDads: Bell Pepper; IF Enamel Hearts: Bless Her Heart Mix, Oh My Heavens Mix; Cute Clips: Pretty Posh