Bella Blvd Studio Blog

Tell A Story Day with Nathalie

Hi there!

Nathalie with you today to celebrate National Tell A Story Day!  Well, with most of the world still sheltered-in-place, we all are missing our families.  Unfortunately for us that meant missing our niece's 12th birthday -we did celebrate on line, but it wasn't the same-.  So, i  pulled Bella Blvd Squeeze the Day collection, a few embellishments and a piece of vellum to create this page...

 

I wanted the story to be the highlight of this page (it is after all my love letter to  my 12 year old niece), so i used my computer to print it on an A4 size piece of vellum.   The b side of the Fruit Salad paper is the perfect shade of yellow for the story and the pictures to shine.  So, i trimmed the excess vellum from the story page, and glued it to the top half of the paper.

 

I printed the last three selfies that i had with my niece so that they fit within a 4x6 in shape, and decided to glue them to  a piece of Fruity Hearts paper.  I glued this to the top right corner of the vellum, and decided to start embellishing the page.

 

I used embellishments from the Squeeze the Day collection to add  a cluster to the top left corner of the pictures.   All the little chipboard flowers are the perfect size for this.  And the small felt clips just bring more of a girly look to the page.

 

Building a title was so easy to do by combining an acrylic word (Family Time collection), Florence Alphabet stickers and  Wonky Alpha puffy stickers.  I love the texture and color combination that this brings to the layout.

 

To balance the page, i trimmed that little flag from the Daily Details paper, and created a cluster with some of the florals from the Squeeze The Day collection.  In order to tie together all the clusters, elements and colors of the page, i used an Altenew die to cut butterflies from patterned paper and vellum.  These were layered together, and then attached around the clusters in the page.  A bit of hand stitching just adds a bit more texture and interest on the page.

 

I hope this inspires you to write your story and embellish it with all the beautiful Bella Blvd. products.

XO

 

 

Bella Blvd.  Supplies

Squeeze the Day collection:  Papers - Fruity Hearts, Fruit Salad, Daily Details, 6x6 paper pad;  Embellishments:  Chipboard stickers, Ephemera Icons,  Ephemera words, Epoxy Stickers.

Florence Alphabet: White

Wonky Puffy Alphabet Stickers: Punch

Acrylic Word:  Blessed

Bella Bows: Baby Girl

 

Creative Journaling | Patricia

Hello Bella Blvd Fans!  I hope you feel the same as I do in being so thankful to have a creative outlet and beautiful Bella Blvd products to play with during this difficult time.  As I looked at this Easter photo of the family together for Easter at church last year, it really struck me that our Easter service this year could very well be at home streaming a live broadcast of the service.  Those thoughts played into my creative journaling.

After applying and using a small brayer with white paint onto the Squeeze the Day Fruit Salad pattern paper, I put the dried sheet through my typewriter.  I stopped where 'HOPE' would be placed using the Wonky Alpha Puffy Stickers and 'Good' would be placed using the Blueberry Florence Stickers, then sent through my typewriter again to finish the journaling.

Applying the paint over the pattern paper, gives me a great place to add journaling with my typewriter or handwriting it.  And using the different stickers as part of my journaling, helps add color, texture and a unique way of journaling.  Notice the small hearts over the journaling from the Florence Stickers?  Well, as the first sentence says, I am not perfect, and I had two ooopsies on the typewriter, so I used the stickers to cover them up a bit, but still being able to read it.  I really love the look of adding color throughout the journaling!

I left room after the journaling to add more stickers and die cuts to combine 'Us Happy Together' using more Florence Alpha Stickers, Blueberry Mix Puffy Hearts Stickers, Heart Hugs Sticker, and a die cut from the Home Sweet Home collection.

For this right side of my Traveler's Notebook, I used Home Sweet Home House Plants pattern paper for my background.  I used the Silhouette to cut this Spring Florals JustNick Studio cut file, and backed it with the 6x6 Bella Besties papers.  I finished it off with leaves and butterfly die cuts from the Home Sweet Home collection and Fruit Mix Matte Enamels from Squeeze the Day.

I love the texture on the right with the background pattern paper against the cut file with the Bella Besties, so very Spring, light and airy.  And the left side in yellow is a complementary color to the right side, bringing in more of the blues from the photo and the right side.  Adding the white paint also adds a nice airy, soft Spring feel to my spread as well.  Hope this gives you ideas of how to get creative with your journaling with paint over pattern paper, handwriting/typing combined with stickers, and also being a little transparent behind the details of the photo.  Thank you for stopping by and hope you continue to be creative!!


 

Slice of Life Flip Book | Dorymar

Hello everyone, thanks for stopping by the Bella Blvd blog today! My name is Dorymar Perez and today I am sharing with you my first project as a 2020 Creative Team Member.  I’m so happy to be invited to be part of this wonderful team for another term. Today I present a Flip Box, this project is a mix between a box and a flipbook, to create it I used one of my favorite Bella Blvd Collection, Squeeze the Day.

For the cover, I created a slide closure for the box and decorated it with my own embellishment piece created with a mix of goodies from the collection. To cover the outside of the box, I selected the beautiful Sweet Berry Paper. 

By sliding the closure, you will find several flaps, all full of beautiful designs and wonderful pieces from the collection. I love incorporating all the pieces from the collection into my designs, but one of the pieces that I like the most is the Bella Pops, these beautiful pieces full of color and dimension are fantastic and they look beautiful wherever you put them.

You can see that this beautiful surprise box is full of pockets and flaps that open on the side and up and down. All with space for photos and journaling.

In my projects I love to incorporate threads and ribbons, I think they give a special touch to the project.

Here I used a 3x4 card to create a flap and made a closure with one of the tags included in the ephemera pack, I loved how all the elements look perfectly coordinated.

The album is very easy to create! the ephemeral packs have a ton of beautiful pieces, which are perfect to decorate every interactive surface of the mini-album.

See more details below!

I hope you have enjoyed my project and it will inspire you to create your own with this wonderful collection. I Love all the flowers, fruits, and lovely sentiments included in every piece. I was so excited to get playing and creating! I love how it turned out!

Thanks for stopping by! Happy Crafting! 

Squeeze the Day Collection, Squeeze the Day Besties, Squeeze the Day Ephemera Icons, 

Squeeze the Day Words, I Pick You Bella Pop, Dotty Washi Tape, 

Fruity Mix Matte Enamels, Epoxy Icons

 

The one with my favorite TV show | Friends

Hi everyone.  Heather here with one of my favorite things...FRIENDS!  Everyone around me knows I'm a Friends fanatic and this past year, I finally let my teenager watch it with me.  Let's just say the rest is history and now we have even more to relate to and talk about.  I love it.  

When I found out Lego had a special edition Friends set, my girl put it on her Christmas wish list.  We had a blast building it together and re-enacting our favorite scenes. Of course this was the first thing I wanted to document when I was assigned Favorite Things week - my daughter and Friends!

To create this layout, I knew I needed to recreate the famous yellow peep hole frame. Then I realized a page full of frames would be super cool. 

I pulled in various cut files from Bella Blvd and others and designed the page. To make sure everything would fit, I sized everything in my Silhouette Studio software first.

Once all the files were cut, I glued some down and stitched the others with my sewing machine. Next, I added the title.  Every episode of Friends is named with "The one with..." so I only thought it'd be appropriate to to my page title the same.

I have three photos in three yellow frames on this page. Two are from the building of the set and the third is of my daughter's completed set that now sits on her shelf in her bedroom.  We get it down occasionally and to "play" with.

I left three frames empty so I can add journaling to them.  I just need to find the right words. The great news is that when I do, I can use the inside cut-outs to make sure everything I want to say will fit in the available space.

Squeeze the Day 6x6 paper pad, Doohickey stickers, Caio Chip, ephemera icons, ephemera words, matte enamels; Heart Hugs, Bella Bows, Designer washi - red stripe, dotty, black white stripe, red hearts; Bella Besties Graph & Dot Bell Pepper


 

Sweet Sisters Scrapbooking Layout | February Mood Board

Hi everyone.  Heather Leopard here, taking on another Mood Board challenge and I especially "love" this one because it's inspired by all the fun February lovey dovey things. I chose to do a layout about my sweet girls.

So here's my layout.  Let's take a look at how the mood board inspired me.

The things that stood out to me were the X's and O's and the images in the bottom row. I'd also say the garland of hearts is what inspired the banner. 

To get started, I sketch the layout out in my Silhouette software. I like to do this to make sure everything will fit.  It really takes guesswork out of the process and helps reduce waste too.

I started out by creating the background.  I cut the pink patterned paper to 3.5" x 12". I then cut the grey graph paper to 9" x 12" and adhered the grey graph paper over the pink, so that the pink would take up 1/4" of the page measuring 3". I used the 0.5" inch to glue the papers together.  I then added a small black strip of torn patterned paper to the border and stitched over it with a sewing machine (not shown). I also added mist splatters.

Next, I placed my banner up at the top of the page and then filled in the bottom of the page with a tic tac toe grid. I cut the white squares 2.2" x 2.25" and then just trimmed different patterned papers behind it. The only exception is the red heart clear cut; I put that one on top. Then I used the Florence alphabet digital cut file to create my "i", "u" and "X"'s. I then cut "O"s  at 2.25" x 2.25" to use as frames for my photos.

I used the same Florence alphabet cut file to cut the letters for "sisters" and used the offset feature in Silhouette them to create a black border around them to help them stand out on the page. 

I added a combo of stickers, Heart Hugs, Caio Chip, Bella Bows, etc. for the banner as well as around the page and title on the left.  I hope you can see just how inspired I was with this month's mood board.  I find these mood boards help me frame up my design while still allowing my creativity to flow.

Bella Besties Graph & Dot Gulf, Graph & Dot White patterned paper; Plaids & Dotty Ice patterned paper; Clear Cuts Hearts McIntosh; Squeeze the Day Caio Chip, Doohickey stickers, Ephemera Icons, Ephemera Words; Epoxy Hearts Christmas Mix, Matte Enamels; Heart Hugs Black & White; Bella Bows; Illustrated Faith Oh My Heavens Mix; Silhouette Cut Files: Florence Alphabet

Mixed Media & Bella Cuts by Kim Watson

Friends...! Are you as excited as I am for Christmas next week??

I thought I'd get into the holiday mood by scrapping a photo of my DD from when she was young....& what better way to do it than with some of the NEW Bella Cut Outs, Santa Squad & some mixed media mayhem LOL.

This is the result.

It's Christmas by Kim Watson

I was desperate to use the super, cute, blue-snowflake paper but being so bright, I thought a mixed media 'mat', might make the layering of the other goodies easier.

This was my process:

1. White Gesso
2. Dry time
3. Lime green & Forest green glimmer mist
4. Almost dry
5. Pink, Red & Magenta color powder....spritz with water
6. Dab, mix, smoosh, swirl & get messy until it looks right
7. Dry
8. Splatter with Magenta, Gold, Forest Green inks
9. Dry
10. White splatter
11. Dry
12. Add ALL other fun bits

The resulting color-chaos is exactly what I was aiming for. 

By selecting patterned papers that worked within my a narrow color palette to back the 'gifts' Bella Cut Outs; helped diminish the business of the page. I love how the large felt bow adds great dimension & ties the blue of the background into the central cluster; as does the chipboard tree & acrylic gingerbread man. 

The title, 'Christmas', another of the NEW Bella Cut Outs, was backed in red dot paper, again to reduce the business of the overall design, yet adding much needed color punch!

The photo backed with layers of tissue paper, a tab & holly die-cut, nestles in-between the x2 Bella cuts, adding balance to the top right corner of the page. 

Magenta thread clusters help with color balance & add simple texture, for visual interest. 

Ok...so I have a secret to share.

You can clearly see the torn paper section edged in gold paint & backed with pink patterned paper, right? Well what if I were to say, it wasn't planned like that hahaha!!

Seriously, it wasn't. It was a cover job for the large, gold paint puddle that happened when I knocked a bottle of gold mist over. The paper was so wet, it tore when I was trying to mop up the paint...now bear in mind the page was 90% finished, so I wasn't about to start all over again. So the best thing to do in a situation like this, is to improvise & make it part of the design.

Voila! One interesting tear, edged in gold, with pink hearts peeking through. 

Do you know what?! 

I absolutely love the result. Sometimes happy accidents can take you by surprise & this was one of those times :D

So allow me to finish off by saying how much I love the Santa Squad & Bella Cut Outs. They are the perfect go-to supply when you can't be bothered to die-cut anything or if you don't have access to a cutting machine. I urge you to look at the other designs, you are going to want them all.

Follow the links below to the Bella online store for all the supplies I used. Have an awesome week friends...until next time. X

Santa Squad Collection ,Bella Cut Outs

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