Hello, friends! I’m beyond excited to be joining Bella Blvd this month as a guest designer.
My name is Savannah O’Gwynn- I’m originally from Indiana but now l live in Florida and call it home! I have been blessed and happily married to my husband, Travis, for almost 12 years. We have a Catahoula Leopard pup named Olsen Bebo. I love to serve on the worship team with my husband, as well as cook elaborate meals for friends and family.
I’ve always been drawn to all sorts of arts and crafts. I started making cards using regular and construction paper back in high school- nothing fancy, just folded up papers with drawings. In college, I got a bit more detailed with my creations by hand cutting out each piece from colored cardstock to create images and layering them on my card bases. And then I found a craft store that introduced me to patterned papers, die cuts, stamps, inks, gems, paints, and more scrapbooking/crafty items. The rest is history! I’ve been creating custom cards since 2009, and recently have enjoyed making bible journaling entries, party decorations, and more!
I thought I would share some cards with you today (as well as some of my favorite cardmaking techniques) and some bible journaling pages later this week. In my heart, I’m a cardmaker first- I find that I can envision a card design quickly after purchasing some papers, alphas and embellishments, or even from just a stamp set. That’s exactly what happened when I received my Bella Blvd package!
Some of my favorite techniques for my projects include mixing and matching items or paper collections. I did that for my first card using Bella Blvd’s Popsicles & Pandas stickers with the Illustrated Faith’s Faith>Fear ephemera.
Another technique I love to use on my cards is layering a whole bunch of embellishments and stickers as the main element. Plus, this next card features a small Bella Blvd Popsicles & Pandas journaling card that I cut from the 12x12 Daily Details patterned paper.
Tip: another technique I like to use for my creations is to stretch my supplies. The way I’ve done that on this card is to take the sticker “leftovers” from the orange heart [Bella Blvd Popsicles & Pandas Fundamental Stickers] and fussy cut around it to create another sticker design. You can do this to pretty much any sticker image or alpha and create MORE stickers/images to use for your projects!
Here’s another card with more layering using the Bella Blvd Mom Life Ephemera. This card also highlights another favorite technique of mine: fussy cutting. I’ve fussy cut out the large blue flower from the Bella Blvd Mom Life 12x12 Daily Details paper, in addition to the sentiment.
And if you look closely... the small flowers around the bunch in the center are actually the flowers in the title line of the paper. I’ve fussy cut six of these flowers and have used them as part of the card design!
I have two more cards to share- see!?? I told you I’m a cardmaker first:) This next card features sewing/stitching as part of the main element. I knew I wanted to use that large heart from the Bella Blvd Mom’s Life 12x12 Daily Details patterned paper as my backdrop for some layered stickers. The only problem was that it needed to be a “plain” heart. So I customized it using a kraft knife cutting around the image, placing another patterned paper behind this new piece, and then stitching around the heart several times with a sewing machine and white thread. Stitching on projects can be functional (like holding these papers together) and is a great way to add dimension and detail!
That’s it for me today! I have soooooo many more ideas that I want to create using these beautiful papers and goodies! You’ll have to stop by my blog for more projects and details
Thanks so much for stopping by today and for checking out my cards! Don’t forget to join me later this week as I feature three different bible journaling entries! Be blessed <3 Savannah
If you would like to see more of my work, you can find me on
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