Bella Blvd Studio Blog

Winter Themed Layout || Kelly

Hello Everyone! It's Kelly here today sharing a winter themed layout using Santa Squad and Bella Besties:

I used two different patterned papers from each collection to form the triangle background, and stitched them together before topping it with the snowflake cluster from the Winter Wonderland Cut-Outs. I popped the snowflakes up with dimensional tape so that it would stand out a little bit better from the busy background.

I backed my title with Clear Cuts Ice Stars...I thought that was pretty fitting and did give it an 'icy' feel.

Epoxy stickers are always a great way to top off any project!

Thanks for stopping by today!

Santa Squad: Blizzard, Ho Ho Ho, All Wrapped Up, DooHickey; Bella Besties Freehand Graph and Dot: Bell Pepper, Guacamole, McIntosh;  Cut-Outs: Winter Wonderland; Clear Cuts: Ice Stars; Florence Alphas: Ice; Epoxy stickers: Hearts, Christmas Mix; Matte Enamels

Scrapping the Hard Stuff - January Mood Board

When I looked at the January Mood Board it gave me an overall feeling of pensiveness or reflection.  That makes for an odd place to jump into a scrapbook layout but as I was reflecting, I knew there was one major time in our family life that I had been putting off scrapbooking: the day my son had a seizure.  I know and believe it's important to scrapbook the hard stories because, they too, are part of the whole story.  But it's generally more fun to remember the happy moments.  That said, this was one of the most significant moments in my son's life to date as well as in my life as a parent.  It had to be done.  The colors and overall feel of the mood board gave me the inspiration to move forward and tackle this project.  Let's take a look at my creation.

You might also notice that I picked up on the color scheme and design of one of the pillows in the picture and used that as my design jumping off point.

Many times when I create I have lots of layers and lots of products but for today's layout things are clean and simple!

I started with my title "There Goes My Heart" based on the lyrics of a country song.  Adding that to the white space around one of the pictures allows it to pop out a little more and not get lost in all the patterns.

I added a couple of layers of patterned papers beneath my pictures, which are also matted with patterned papers.  Using my title as inspiration I used Puffy Heart Stickers and my main embellishment.  I wanted to have those surrounding his picture but also close to the journaling to help emphasize both of those.

My journaling is really the star of the layout.  The pictures show how awful he looked but the journaling gives a glimpse into what I was feeling.  The gray background behind it is a mood setter for that moment.  A border sticker helps to separate it from the rest of the layout and allow it to pop out.

My process video will give you a glimpse at how this all came together:

 

Thanks so much for joining me today!

Bella Besties Freehand Graph & Dot,  Florence Alphabet, Let's Go On An Adventure Patterned Paper, Puffy Stickers, Fireworks & Freedom Patterned Paper

 

Mixed media scrapbooking layout: January mood board inspiration

Hi everyone.  Heather here with a mixed media scrapbooking layout inspired by the January mood board.  Let's take a look at the mood board and then I'll walk you through how it inspired my scrapbooking layout.

Look at all that wonderful goodness in those images above.  I was initially drawn to the upper left artsy image but as I looked around the board, I also felt inspired by the golds/mustards, stars and the succulents.  I then remembered a photo I have of my daughter picking leaves for our goats and it just so happened that she was wearing an outfit with the colors of the mood board.  Winning!

To get started, I applied white gesso to white cardstock. As that was drying, I turned on my favorite tv show and fussy cut flowers in the color scheme from the mood board above. 

Once the gesso was dried and flowers were cut, I mixed my Bella Blvd / Illustrated Faith acrylic paints with water to make them more fluid. I painted this mixture on in a similar fashion to the artsy image in the mood board but I didn't want to cover the entire background.  I wanted to create a diagonal effect.  Once I had the colors in the areas I wanted, I then splashed more water on the entire page. This allowed the colors to move a bit more and blend with each other. I let that sit for a few minutes and then laid a paper towel over the page to soak up the water.  This lightened the colors, which was great because it was a bit too bold but it also left a cool pattern on some of the blue areas (because I used more paint and less water on the blue color).  

I set the new colorful background aside to dry and started working on printing my photo and choosing the title and embellishments.  Once the background was dried, it was a bit wavy so to fix that I normally run it through my Minc machine but that was not available so I placed it under a teflon sheet in my heat press.  

I scattered ephemera, Caio chip and fussy cut flowers around my photo until it kind of created a frame. The combination of the chipboard with the ephemera, flowers and stickers gave it nice dimension.  I used a few foam dots there as well.

For the title, I originally planned for it to say "Nature's Best", meaning the leaves my daughter was feeding our goats but the bottom portion of the page felt empty so I added memories and it was a nice addition because "memories" are what we're creating on our farm and this is definitely a great one. Oh and I was out of "A" letters so I just used an upside down "V".  

Lastly, I added a few border strips, large Heart Hug, smaller fussy cut flowers, puffy star stickers and some enamels (glossy and matte) to round out the page. Note that I placed the pink embellishments on the pink color, blue on the blue, orange on the orange.

Hopefully you can see how the artsy image provided the foundation and how the other elements from the mood board (colors, stars, greenery) inspired me to document this great memory.  Now, I'm off to add some journaling.

Let's Go On An Adventure: Wildflower patterned paper, Ciao Chip Icons; Doohickey stickers, Ephemera Icons; Bella Besties patterned Paper; Designer Washi Tape: Dotty; Puffy Star Stickers: Cotton Candy; Enamel Hearts rainbow; Heart Hugs, Matte enamels, Acrylic Word: Memories; Wonky Alpha Puffy Stickers: Orange, Florence Alphas: Blueberry; Illustrated Faith Gratitude Documented Icons

 

Family Mood Board Inspiration Layout | Dorymar

Hi friends! Dorymar here today sharing a very inspirational layout.  As an assignment for the new year we will be using mood boards to create our projects, for this month we will use the following. 

I started by creating a gradient of watercolor spots on the left side of the background from yellow to teal, then I added some splatters.  Once I created the left side of the background, I used the same colors of the watercolor in threads to create the right side of the background.   All the colors were inspired by the Mood Board, they flow nicely through the page.

Here you can see how all of the watercolors and threads made a perfect combination with the papers included in the Bella Besties Collection Kit.

They are great for creating and matching in any project.

To incorporate the golden color presented in the Mood Board, I added some sequins between the paint splatters. As a background of the photo, I used several pieces of the Daily Details and Houseplants papers to create several layers and add dimension to the project.

I loved the result!

To finish this page, I mixed some of the embellishment clusters from the Home Sweet Home Collection to decorate closer to the picture and to create the title of this page.  

I LOVE how this turned out, though it took a bit of time to construct, it is the perfect way to document your family memories.  

I hope this inspires you to use some Mood Boards to use your scraps to create a beautiful project.

Thanks for stopping by!  Happy scrapping!

 

Bella Besties Free Hand Graph and Dots Collection Kit,

Home Sweet Home Chipboard Stickers,

Home Sweet Home Ephemera Icons, Home Sweet Home Doohickey Cardstock Stickers,

Bella Blvd Home Sweet Home 12 x 12 Double Sided Paper - Daily Details,

Bella Blvd Home Sweet Home 12 x 12 Double Sided Paper - Houseplants

 

 

 

January Mood Board

Good morning everyone!  Kat here this morning to share with you my most recent layout.  We're starting something new and every month, you'll be given a mood board to get your creative juices flowing...and this is mood board week!  I'm pretty excited because I definitely love a good mood board.  Here is this month's mood board:

The colors reminded me a lot of the "Hand in Hand" patterned paper from the Illustrated Faith All People, All Nations collection, so I did manage to work a smidge of that into my layout.  I was also very inspired by the star garland, so I used that as my main jumping off point.

I began by using the IF paints to create a brushstroke base for my photos and then die cute a bunch of stars.  I strung the stars on some coordinating embroidery floss and glued it all down...then added my photos and a few random embellishments to complete the look.  

Here's my whole layout:

I hope you're inspired by the mood board and decide to play along!  Make sure you tag us on social media, because we'd love to see how you're inspired :)

Patterned Paper: IF All People, All Nations: Hand in Hand; 6x6 Bella Besties Freehand Graphs & Dots Paper Pad; IF Studio Acrylics; Acrylic Word: Adorable; IF Cardstock Stickers: Practice What you Peach; Designer Washi Tape: Squiggle; Cute Clips: Baby Boy; Sticky Mix: Mom Life; Word Salad Stickers

Ho Ho Ho Christmas Cut-outs scrapbooking layout

Hello and Merry Christmas, everyone!  I hope you made some joyous memories this holiday season.  Now it's time to document them and Bella Blvd's Santa Squad is so festive and fun but do you know what makes it even better? The new cut-outs!  I used the Christmas Cut-Out for this layout and it made a huge impact.  Let's take a look.

I knew I wanted to use the large CHRISTMAS cut-out as the secondary star of the page after my photo.  I then designed the rest of the page around these two elements.

The great thing about these Cut-Outs is well...they are already cut-out and ready to go, and they are made from nice heavy cardstock.  I SUPER love them!

I backed each letter with different patterned paper from the 6x6 paper pad. I find the smaller patterns look better with these type of cut files for the most part. I added some enamel dots and snowflakes to each letter and then popped the entire cut-out with foam dots to add some dimension. I then added some snowflakes and ink splatters and once dried, I tucked the photo under the "T".

I love adding layers of patterned paper under my photos, and I always add a white border around the photo. These layers really help the photo stand out. Next, it called for a few embellishments and since my girls are older and the magic of Santa has changed a bit, I thought it was quite appropriate that I add the still believes ephemera.  

I still had some white space to fill on the upper left of the page so I added a border sticker and some washi. Then I added "merry" acrylic word to complete the title, Merry Christmas.  I also added a few "ho. ho. ho" chipboards. This is a Santa layout afterall!

I hope you have enjoyed this Christmas Cut-Outs scrapbooking layout and have a wonderful new year!

Santa Squad 6x6 paper pad, Doohickey, Caio Chip, Bella Besties; Designer Washi Tape: Snowflakes, Red Stripe; Cut-outs: Christmas, Little Helpers; Acrylic words: Merry; Acrylic shapes: Tree Mix; Ephemera Icons, Ephemera Words; Bella Pops; Epoxy: Hearts Christmas Mix, Squad, Snow Fun; Enamels Christmas Mix

Festive Christmas Tags Perfect for Gift Giving

Hello everyone.  Heather Leopard here with a project I had so much fun working on...festive Christmas tags perfect for gift giving. Take a look at these cuties below and then I'll walk you through how I created them.  Seriously so easy...

There's two things I especially love about these. One, these are personalized. I had the gift recipient in mind when I was creating these so I added elements that I knew that person would particularly love. Two, I got to be creative. Need I say more?

To get started, I used a tag template I had to hand cut the white tag. At the time, I had no idea I would be backing the tags so this white tag became my base. I picked Rudolph from the Caio chipboard and found this adorable reindeer games die cut so I just knew these had to become my first tag.  I then layered a die cut present with dimensional sticker presents to fill in the empty space on the tag.  As I was looking at creating a more colorful base for the next tag, I ran across the reindeer patterned paper in the 6x6" paper pad so I cut that out slightly wider than the white tag and adhered them with glue only at the top of the tag.

Next up was Mr. Gingerbread Man.  He is just too adorable with his little blue bow tie and I know someone super special who loves these guys so this one was an easy choice.  I cut a tag from blue snowflake patterned paper and backed it with red patterned paper since I am now layering these cuties. I added a strip of washi tape Christmas trees, then the gingerbread man and his cupcakes.  To fill the void above him, I added a sentiment die cut.

Last but not least is this fun tag that reminds me of an old truck filled bursting with presents. As you can see I found die cut sentiments to match each of these and this was no exception.  I found this die cut that matches the license plate perfectly. The presents are part of the dimensional sticker so this was the easiest one to assemble.  I just added the snowflake to the top and it was complete.

I can't wait to gift these to my special people but in the meantime, I hope I showed you just how easy peasy it is to create your own tags.  And once you have the idea for all the tags, you just replicate the backgrounds using the same templates and then change out the stickers with what you have in your stash.

Santa Squad: Candy Canes patterned paper, Bella Besties, 6" x 6" paper pad, Caio Chip, Ephemera Icons, Ephemera Words, Bella-Pops cardstock stickers, Christmas tree designer washi tape

12 Days of Christmas Books | Kat Benjamin

Good morning, everyone!  Kat here today to share a fun little project that I'm really excited about.  This is my daughter's first year where she kind of understands what is happening with Christmas.  She knows who Santa is and she's so excited about trees and lights and we're trying to educate her all about the reason for the season.  I also really want her to be excited about the big day, so I decided we'd do a fun little countdown to Christmas once there were 12 days left. 

I found a cute little set of books at Target that had a fun variety of all different subject matter, from the 12 Days of Christmas, to baby Jesus, to Santa's reindeer.  I wrapped each of them and put a number tag on them so we can countdown to Christmas Day.  

I broke out the Santa Squad collection to make all my tags and it coordinates so well with a bunch of other great Bella products.  I think I used a little bit of everything from my stash to create these and I had the best time!

Thanks so much for stopping by!  Does your family do anything fun to count down the days until your favorite holiday?

6x6 Paper Pad: Santa Squad; Doohickey Stickers: Santa Squad; Ciao Chip: Santa Squad; Bella Besties: Freehand Graph & Dot Pickle Juice; Clear Cuts: Hearts McIntosh; Florence Alphas: Pickle Juice, White, McIntosh, Guacamole, Ice; Designer Washi Tape: Red Stripe, Oh Christmas Tree, Snow; Ephemera Icons: Santa Squad; Ephemera Words: Santa Squad; Bella Pops: Hedge Hugs, Spread Some Cheer; Epoxy Stickers: Snow Fun; Heart Hugs: Christmas, Wild Berry; Acrylic Shapes: Gingerbreads; Enamels: Christmas Mix; Bella Bows: Guacamole

Gingerbread Garland

Hey Bella Blvd Friends! It's Leanne here today! Happy December!! It is definitely time to pull out the Christmas décor and put up the tree... unless you're like me and still waiting to find the time! LOL! But I have managed to play with some gorgeous Bella Blvd goodies and a cut file to help the days start to feel seasonal!

Bella Blvd has an awesome range of Silhouette cut files in the Design Store. I have modified the Gingerbread Couple design to make a cute paper garland. All the essential bits are there, I've just made my garland more 3D with puffy stickers and cute clips.

To create one of these paper gingerbread garlands for yourself, start by using the cut file to cut as many gingerbread couples you need. I have used the Freehand Graph & Dot patterned papers and kraft cardstock as my base.

Join the Gingerbread couples together using a hole punch where their hands meet and some festive twine.

Remove the bows carefully from the cute clips and attach as bow ties or hair accessories.

Add the puffy stickers as buttons.

Use enamel dots as the eyes (these are from heart hugs) and glue pieces of twine to the arms and legs, to recreate the piped frosting. Trim excess twine to the edge of the paper.

Finally, hang your latest Christmas décor and enjoy the season!

Thanks for visiting the blog today!

Freehand Graph & Dot: Pony, Cotton Candy; Cute Clips: Festive; Puffy Stickers: McIntosh Puffy Hearts; Heart Hugs: Halloween Heart Hugs; Enamel Hearts: Cotton Candy Doodads; Squeeze the Day: Mini Paper pad. Silhouette Design Store: Gingerbread Couple ID #307189.

Scrapbooking moments of gratitude

Hello Bella Blvd Friends! It's Leanne here today sharing a scrapbooked moment I am incredibly grateful for. Well.. in reality, it's a series of moments in time that I needed to document. The single image on my page, squeezes my heart because of the passage of time - in the blink of an eye I have moved years down the track. But for each moment I capture I am remaining grateful and look forward to the new memories to come.

My baby was four years old in this photo. That's six years ago now and before he started school. A time when we would drop off his older siblings at school and continue on with our day together. Just us. I think I am more reflective of this time with my youngest because he simply is, my youngest. We packed a lot of things into our days between 8am - 3pm. Now with him about to complete fourth grade, the differences in our days are vast.

This is why I love creating reflective layouts. It draws on our precious memories with a new perspective. Moments of gratitude are expressed in many ways. With this layout I wanted to celebrate using bright colours and movement on the page!

The scallop border trend has had a resurgence of late. I love how the half circles are depicting motion. Something most four year-old children have in common! And colour too! Rainbows of dots and graphs share a childlike innocence.

Bella Besties Freehand Graph & Dot is the perfect patterned paper choice. Scattered among the scallops I have added sticker phrases and matte enamels.

To complete my page I have left my title work simple. A single word from tiny text alpha stickers, machine stitched to the cardstock. My journaling has been added to the reverse side of the layout.

I hope I have encouraged you that it is indeed possible to look back on memories with fondness and a different perspective than being "in the moment". Often gratitude comes after the moment has passed.

Freehand Graph & Dot: Bell Pepper, Cotton Candy, Gulf, Punch, Rainbow Graph & Dot 6x6 paper pad; Word Salad stickers; Squeeze the Day: Fruity Mix Matte Enamel, Ephemera Icons; Bella Bows; Mom Life: Ephemera; Tiny Text Alphabets: Rainy Day; Epoxy Hearts.