Bella Blvd Studio Blog

School is cool - Chipboard focus - Emilie Chamel

Hello friends! Emilie here for another week of School is cool! As you might know from my last post, I like to take a "First day at school" photo and I also love to scrapbook it too! I love those new pictures so much that I wanted to use them again on another layout, especially when I still have on my desk this fantastic new collection by Bella BLVD.

 

 

I love this striking black and white patterned paper. I knew I wanted to use it as a background, and it definitely drove my idea to print my photos in black and white.

 

 

I don't know why, but I have a thing for apples on patterned paper... And this one is no different so I knew I would have to use it. This drove my second design decision: I knew I would go towards a very black and red layout.

 

 

I matted my photographs onto the red patterned paper and chose the red and whitewash tape to run down behind my pictures. Another strip of the apple paper helped to balance my layout and repeat this element.

As our assignment was to focus on the chipboards, I raided them to find as many elements which I felt would work best with my design. I felt that at this point bringing other primary colors would work very well so the title was chosen as well as the crayons and flowers.

A last few details such as a school building as well as the super cute converses finished off my design.

I hope that you got a few ideas on how to use the School Is Cool collection and that you will check it out at your local scrapbooking stores!

Lots of love,

Emilie

Products used:

School is cool patterned papers

School is cool chipboards

School is cool cut-outs

Bella BLVD Florence Alphabet blue

Bella BLVD Aria Alphabet red

Washi tapes

School Is Cool - Rachel O'Neal

Hi friends! I'm back with another School Is Cool layout. I mentioned before how much I loved the pennant flags that come in the Ephemera Icons pack. There are ones for each grade Kindergarten - 6th! So I thought it would be fun to go back and reprint "First Day" photos for my Carter and create a layout that had all of them on one page using those pennants. Can't believe how fast the years are flying by! Here's what I came up with:

 

 

I started with a white 12" x 12" cardstock background and used my Distress Oxide pad in Fossilized Amber to create a yellow background. While it was drying, I worked on the Smarty Pants Cut Out set that comes with this collection. It has several great titles, but I chose to go with "the Best Day ever" cut out. I actually removed the word "the" and backed the rest with the Supply List patterned paper. Each Cut Out set comes with a pattern that you can use on your paper of choice to get just the correct size for backing the cutouts. They are so easy to use. Once my background was dry, I added the cutout to the bottom of the layout with foam tape. 

 

 

Next, I took each of my photos and layered them with white cardstock, Bella Blvd Besties paper in McIntosh Graph, and also the 12" x 12" School Supplies patterned paper. Once the papers were secured, I went ahead and added them to the layout with foam tape as well. 

 

 

Now it was time to add the embellishments and those cute pennants. I wanted to be intentional about which embellishments I used for each grade. I wanted them to be grade appropriate. I love how there are a variety of choices in both the Ephemera Icons and the Ephemera Words packs. The math flash cards are a perfect example of that. There is a piece with a basic combination (9+7) and one for older grades as well (23+5). So many to choose from.

 

 

I finished the layout by stamping a little including the dates for each of the photos, and then added a few black hearts from the Florence Alpha sticker sheet. This is such a fun and special layout. I hope you like it. Here's a list of everything I used:

• 12" x 12" White Cardstock
• Distress Oxide Pad: Fossilized Amber
• Cut Outs: Smarty Pants
• 12" x 12" Supply List Pattern Paper
• 12" x 12" School Supplies Pattern Paper
• Bella Blvd Besties Graph & Dot in McIntosh
• School Is Cool Ephemera Icons
• Bella Blvd Florence hearts in black.

 

School Is Cool 3 + Photo Challenge | Ashley Neu

Hello scrappy friends! Ashley here on the Bella Blvd blog to share another school layout using the brand new and awesome School Is Cool collection! The challenge for this week is to use at least 3 photos on a layout. I used 4 photos of my two little girls getting on the school bus. It's a series of photos showing my kindergartener helping my preschooler get on the bus for the first time! It sure was adorable to watch!

 

 

I found the School Bus cut file from Bella Blvd and knew it was the perfect thing to use to document these photos! In Silhouette Studio, I used the 'release compound path' feature to break apart each piece of the cut file. I wanted to just use the basic outline of the bus along with the wheels. After cutting the bus from the Bella Besties Graph + Dot paper in the color Bell Pepper and the wheels from the Daily Details paper, I added some stitching using tone-on-tone embroidery thread. This gives so much more dimension to a very flat looking cut file!

 

 

After adhering my photos in the positions that would be the bus windows, I worked on the background scene. I grabbed the Bella Besties Graph + Dot paper in the color Guacamole and the No. 2 Pencil paper to create a grass and road border. I used a Martha Stewart punch to create the grass. I cut a small strip of the No.2 Pencil paper, using the reverse side with the words 'i love school', and sandwiched that between the 2 grass pieces. I used a piece of the Bella Bestites Hearts + Ombre paper in the color Ice and cut out a large piece to use as the sky. The paper Math Facts was so adorable and I thought they would make some very interesting-looking clouds that would be perfect for a school layout! I hand cut these and adhered them straight onto the background.

 

 

The main title of the layout is the 'Be Brave' sentiment that I created using the Be You, Be Brave Acrylic Words set. I also added the sentiment 'Back to School' using the Florence Alpha stickers in the color black as well as a school word banner from the Ephemera Words set. To embellish, I used two Epoxy Stars on the center of the wheels, a tiny school bus and 'Bus Stop' sign from the Puffy Stickers set and an 'Early Bird' sign from the Ephemera Words set. I added some stitching all the way around the layout using a white gel pen and adhered some journaling strips at the bottom of my layout along with the date! 

 

 

That's all friends! I hope you enjoyed this school bus scene layout. It was a lot of fun to make, adding the tone-on-tone stitching and creating the grass and road border! Thank you for stopping by the blog and have a wonderful day!

Supplies Used: School Is Cool collection- 12x12 Patterned Paper, Ephemera Words, Puffy Stickers, Epoxy Stars; Cut File- School Bus; Florence Alpha Stickers in Black; Bella Besties Graph + Dot papers in Bell Pepper and Guacamole; Bella Besties Hearts + Ombre paper in Ice; Be You, Be Brave Acrylic Words; White Gel Pen; Embroidery Floss

 

School is Cool | Rachel O'Neal

Hi friends! It's Rachel today! I'm here to talk about my first layout with Bella Blvd's newest collection - School Is Cool! You know what also is cool? This collection! When it arrived at my doorstep, I couldn't wait to flip through every piece of paper and pack of ephemera. Once we finished school for the day, I sat right down at my desk and started playing! For this layout, I wanted to create a black and white background so that the colors in the embellishments could really pop.

I started by making a background with my Distress Oxide pad in the color - Black Soot. My goal was to create a background similar to an old school black chalkboard. Once I did that, I set it aside to dry and started cutting up patterned paper from the collection into strips. I used different sizes and widths, but most of them around 6 inches in length. I definitely wanted the background to peak out from behind. The papers I cut into strips are: Borders, Supply List, No 2 Pencil, and Math Facts. I also threw in some Bella Besties Graph paper in white! 

 

 

Once my background was dry, I arranged the patterned paper strips on top of it and secured them to the white cardstock with foam tape. Next, I added Carter's first day of school photo. Time to start embellishing!  I have to say right away that one of my favorite pieces has to be the pennant flags with the grade on them. How cute is that?! 

 

 

For my embellishments, I started at the top left corner and worked my way across the page. I used a lot of pieces from the School Is Cool Ciao Chip, the Ephemera Icons, and the cutest puffy sticker pack. The giant title {SCHOOL} is from the Ciao Chip as well. I love how every letter of the word is a different color. I finished the layout with a little stamping and some tiny heart stickers from the Florence Alpha set.

Thank you for stopping by today! I'll be back next week with another layout using many of the same papers just in a different way! 

Products Used:

• White Cardstock
• Distress Oxide is Black Soot
• School is Cool 12" x 12" patterned papers (Borders, Supply List, No 2 Pencil. and Math Facts)
• Bella Besties Graph & Dot in White
• School Is Cool Ciao Chip
• School is Cool Ephemera Icons
• School is Cool Puffy Stickers: Ready For School
• Florence Alphas in Black (stickers hearts)

 

 

 

School Is Cool | Rachel O'Neal

 

Hello friends! I'm back again with my second School Is Cool layout! It has been so fun to play with this collection. The colors, the patterns, and so many embellishments make the possibilities endless. For this layout, I was really drawn to several of the black and white patterned papers in the collection. I decided to showcase my favorites (and throw in some yellow too) by using them in a pie shaped cut fie. You can find the cut file here. The papers I used from the collection include the 12" x 12" Borders, Daily Details, Supply List, Math Facts, and No 2 Pencil. I also choose some of my favorite Bella Besties papers from the Graph & Dot collection - I used three colors: white, black, and bell pepper. I always love how so many of Bella's products coordinate perfectly with each other.

After I used my Cricut to cut out several of the circles, I backed each one with the patterned papers and then used tape runner to adhere them to my 12" x 12" white cardstock base. I also cut out my photo to be a circle so it fit right in.

 

Around my photo, I used my go to Florence alphas in black to create my title. Now I pulled out all the embellishments to add to my layout. I used several pieces from the Ciao Chip, but my favorite pack of all is definitely the Ephemera Icons.

 

 

I finished the layout with some journaling and stamped the date. I love including journaling on my layout - even if it's just a couple sentences to leave behind my thoughts. Thank you for stopping by today. Here's my supply list:

Products Used:

Slice of Life Cut File

School Is Cool 12" x 12" Patterned Papers (Math Facts, Supply List, Daily Details, Borders, No. 2 Pencil)

Bella Besties Graph & Dot (White, Black, and Bell Pepper)

School Is Cool Ciao Chip

School Is Cool Ephemera Icons

Florence Alphas in Black

 

School Is Cool Week, Day 1 | Brianna Lepper

Hi friends! Brianna Lepper here and I'm so excited to share my first layout with y'all today using the new School Is Cool collection.  I am in love with this collection and all of the cute bits and pieces make me so happy!  Here's my page, make sure to check out my process video at the end of this post:

To start, I took the Smarty Pants Cut Out from the Smarty Pants Cut Outs pack and started backing the letters.  I chose to back a couple of them with a few different washi tapes.  I used both the Dotty and Ice Dot washi tapes and also pulled in a few patterned papers from the collection to back the remaining letters with.

I love getting creative with Cut Outs and for this one, instead of ink blending the "Smarty" portion of it, I added some black polka dots with a gel pen.  I popped the entire thing up on foam tape and worked on the next step.  

I wanted even more color on my page so I took the 12x12 Coloring patterned paper and tore about 1"inch off of both sides.  I then adhered it to a piece of textured white cardstock and stuck the cut out down in the middle of my page.  Next, I matted my photo and layered it under the bottom right of the cut out.  

There's a super cute chalkboard piece in the Ephemera Icon pack and I thought it would be fun to add my subtitle in it using the Florence Alphas in white.  I wanted it to look like it was written in chalk and even rubbed a bit of a white gelato in a few spots to make it look a bit more authentic. 

I created a few more embellishment clusters by adding more Ephemera Icons and Ephemera Words pieces.  I also incorporated a few Ciao Chip chipboard stickers as well.  

I love layering and tucking things into my clusters so I pulled in the Ready For School Puffy Stickers and the Doohickey Cardstock Stickers.  I even added a few bits of tangled thread in coordinating colors.  

Here's one final look at this colorful page: 

Thank you so much for stopping by today and I hope that I've inspired you in some way!  I had a fun time creating this page and documenting the first day of my oldest sons Senior year.  It's such a special memory and this collection was perfect for it.  I'll see you in my next post friends!

Process Video:

 

 

Bella Blvd Supplies Used:

School Is Cool Collection: 12x12 Patterned Paper, Smarty Pants Cut Outs, Puffy Stickers, Epoxy Stickers, Ephemera Words, Ephemera Icons, Doohickey Cardstock Stickers and Ciao Chip Stickers; Bella Besties: Florence Alphas in White.  

Time To Travel | Rachel O'Neal

Hi friends! It's Rachel again! I'm bringing you another super fun Time To Travel collection layout. For this layout, I had the best time using one of the Bella Blvd Cut Outs for my giant title. If you haven't used one of these yet you've got to give it a try! Using the templates that come with the set make it super easy to get that cut file look without a machine. I used the 12" x 12" patterned paper called Freeway. It's a large stripe paper which made it perfect to back each of the letters with a different color. I adhered it to the cardstock with foam tape for added dimeson. I decided to go ahead and finish my title with some black Florence alphas. It's not often I create my title first, but it worked well for this layout.

I had several photos from our boat cruise down the Missouri River that I wanted to showcase and grids are always great for that! My photos are 2" x 2". I backed them with white cardstock and then my favorite black and white stripe paper from the collection - Road Trip. I also used foam tape to put these down. Next, I pulled out the Oh My Stars tabbies and added them to the side of some of the photos.

Now it was time to embellish. I used pieces from the Ciao Chip and the Scenic Route puffy stickers from the Time To Travel collection. I also pulled out my set of Trinkets Puffy stickers and used several hearts in McIntosh, Guacamole, Bell Peppers and Blueberry. I finished the layout with some stamping.

 

 

Thanks for stopping by today! I hope you like what you see. Here's a list of all the supplies I used:

• Bella Blvd Cut Outs: I Love Travel
• 12" x 12" Time To Travel Patterned Paper (Road Trip and Freeway)
• Oh My Stars Tabbies
• Time To Travel Ciao Chip
• Florence Alphas (black)
• Scenic Route Puffy Stickers
• Trinkets Puffy Stickers (McIntosh, Guacamole, Bell Pepper, and Blueberry)

Tiny Tots 2.0 & Time to Travel week - Day 1 - Emilie Chamel

Hello friends! I hope you are enjoying this summer! Here with the school holidays, we are keeping the kids busy the best we can which means the occasional dress-up day. And who says dress-up says mummy has her camera to the ready! In this post I am showing how versatile Tiny Tots 2.0 can be, let's have a look!

I love my little Sophia in her Belle's dress. She is so cute! And I was so lucky that she agreed to play along to a photoshoot while wearing her dress. I knew I wanted to use these photos for my Tiny Tots 2.0 project. The collections has a few florals and it also has yellow, red and green papers which I knew I would want to use.

You can't think of the Beauty and the Beast without thinking of the rose. I therefor decided to create a 3D rose out of the ABC's papers. I then cut out some leaves out of the You're A Star paper to accompany the rose. To mat my photographs, I used the yellow side of the Be Brave paper. The yellow matting really helps to link the layout with the color of her dress.

I then used a Bella BLVD cut-file from the Silhouette shop to create my title. With my Cricut I was able to add an offset layer underneath the title which I cut-out of the Bella Besties Heart and Ombre in Pink. The main cut-out was made out of plain white cardstock but I re-cut the center letter from the Ombre side of the Yellow Heart and Ombre paper. This helped to repeat again the yellow from the dress.

For my background I settled on the green Heart and Ombre paper. I felt that it was best fitting for the rose to rest on. If you see my process video though you will know that this was not my first choice and after sleeping on my original idea this was changed to this beautiful green!

The finishing touch came in the shape of some ladybirds as well as some flowers to create cluster around the rose and the photograph. A few extra words to add to my title and I was happy with the final result! The date stamped above the photographs balanced the only bit of black in the shape of my subtitle.

And there it is! We are far away from a baby or toddler layout and yet I was able to use several elements from the Tiny Tots 2.0 collection. I love to use the colours of the papers to pull the story in a different direction than first intended! 

You can find my process video here: https://youtu.be/LzdCvy1z5xE

 

Products used: 

-Bella BLVD Tiny Tots 2.0 Play date paper

-Bella BLVD Tiny Tots 2.0 Be brave paper

-Bella BLVD Tiny Tots 2.0 ABC paper

-Bella BLVD Tiny Tots 2.0 You're a Star paper

-Bella BLVD Tiny Tots 2.0 Ephemeras

-Bella BLVD Tiny Tots 2.0 Chipboard stickers

-Bella BLVD Bella Besties Puffy Stickers

-Bella BLVD Florence Alphabet Black

-Bella BLVD Aria Alphabet

Time to Travel | Emilie Chamel

Hello friends! Emilie here and today we are looking at the Time to travel Collection. Specifically, I will show you how I used this travel themed collection to scrapbook about photos taken in our very own backyard, no air-miles necessary!

My first step was to choose papers which had more of a generic design. I avoided plains, tickets or anything with a very strong "travelling" imagery.

As my pictures are all about having fun in the sun, I chose to create pin-wheels with the papers I had selected. Those remind me of summer days! They also add volume to my layout which I love.

For even more fun, I used the puffy stickers as the center of my pin wheels. It was all attached together using a glue-gun to be extra sturdy.

Once those were created and added to my base, it was very easy to add extra details with florals and a Bella Pop sunshine!

The title was my next focus and although I loved the white acrylic, I knew it wouldn't stand out enough against my background and photographs. I therefore backed it with orange patterned paper to give it extra peps while still conserving what I loved about it.

To finish my layout off, I added a few splatters of black ink as well as some black heart stickers from the Florence alphabet sticker sheets.

You can view the full process video here:

 

Full list of material used:

-Time to travel collection

-Time to travel puffy stickers

-Time to travel chipboard stickers

-Bella Besties Florence alphas black

-Acrylic words "sweet"

-Bella Pops Sunny

 

 

Getting Those 4th of July Photos Created!

Hello, Bella friends, and happy Sunday! We don't normally post on Sundays, but I just wanted to share my cute page! I honestly can't believe July 4th came and went so quickly. Hope you all had a blast and are staying cool on these warm, summer days. Anyway, Sarah (@redoaklines), here hosting today's blog post.

In honor of the 4th nearly 2 weeks ago (what, is that even right?!), I wanted to share a Fireworks + Freedom layout in hopes to inspire you to get those photos printed and start creating!

Here's what I created:

I'm now just getting around to scrapping these photos of my "babies" from when they were toddlers. They wore those Statue of Liberty headbands all day. 

I started off my layout by backing my photos behind some Fireworks + Freedom patterned papers. 

I added a mix of firework bursts from the Bella Ephemera Icons and Ciao Chipboards. I scattered them on the sides of my photos to make it look like fireworks going off in the night sky. 

I added a cute pennant banner that I fussy-cut out from one of the Fireworks + Freedom patterned papers. How cute, right?! It adds that celebration look to my layout. 

I kept it simple for my title using the black Florence alphabet stickers and one star Trinket puffy sticker to the "O". Honestly, you can't go wrong with the Florence alphabet stickers! They're so versatile, and they come in every Bella Bestie color!

That's it for now! Hands up if you think this Fireworks + Freedom collection is bursting with scrappy goodness?! Me! Me! I love that this collection captures those 4th of July memories so perfectly.

Anyway, thanks for following along with me today. It's always a pleasure to be sharing my latest work with you all.

Until next time,

Sarah.

Bella Blvd Supplies Used: 

Fireworks + Freedom: Patterned Papers, Ephemera Icons, Ephemera Words, Doohickey Sticker Sheet, Ciao Chipboard Stickers. Bella Besties: Puffy Trinkets Stickers, Florence Black Alphabet Stickers.

 

Squeeze the Day: So Sweet

 

Hi friends! I got the opportunity to play around with Squeeze The Day and I love it! I know you will too! It's a berry filled collection that also includes lots of bright colors and fun patterns. I really wanted to show off a few of my favorite patterns from the 12x12" papers. I used a free cut file from Paper Issues and cut it out with each of the four papers (Fruity Hearts, So Berry Sweet, Fruit Salad, and Bananas For You). Once I cut out each one, I choose three triangles from each pattern and doodled a black edge around each one and added some stamping. Then I arranged them in a circular pattern and adhered them to my white cardstock base with foam tape.

 

I documented some pictures from our spring trip to the strawberry patch. There couldn't possibly be a more perfect collection for such an event, right?! Under my photos, I added a black cardstock scallop along with the cutest stripe scallop from the Squeeze The Day Ciao Chipboard. I embellished by adding some (chipboard) hearts!

On the top, I used more pieces of Chipboard along with the acrylic clouds. I love the beautiful blue color and the tiny heart cutout.

At the bottom I saved room for my title, and of course I used my favorite Florence Alphas in black. They go perfectly with every layout! To finish the page, I stamped a little more and added the date! 

And that's a wrap on an easy and super cute layout. Here's a list of all the supplies I used:

• White cardstock
• Squeeze The Day: 12x12" patterned papers (Fruity Hearts, So Berry Sweet, Fruit Salad, Bananas For You), Ciao Chipboard, Rainbows Acrylic Shapes.
• Bella Besties: Florence Black Alphabet Stickers