Bella Blvd Studio Blog

Guest Designer | Sarah Millerhouse

Hi everyone, it's so nice to be back here with you!

When I first saw the “To the Moon” collection, my initial though was the it has limitless possibilities! I feel the same way when I look at my little man! The day he started kindergarten, I knew it was just the beginning for him. As cliché as it sounds, I want him to dream big dreams and reach for the stars. That idea is what inspired this layout!

I wanted to include as many of the amazing patterned papers as possible, so I chose my 12 favorite patterns and cut a one inch strip of each. I trimmed them to 7 inches long and used a v-shaped ribbon trim on the ends. I distressed the edges of each and organized them across the page in rainbow order on a piece of smooth white cardstock, alternating a more solid pattern with a more colorful pattern.

Once I knew how I wanted them to go, I quickly marked where they would be, snapped a picture, and put them off to the side. I used distress inks in coordinating colors above where the paper ribbons would lay as a foundation.

Because I love all the stars in this collection, I layered on texture paste through a star stencil to emphasize those. I wanted the stars to look like they were drifting skyward, so I let the texture paste extend past my inks. Once the paste dried, I put the stencil back down and used a foam ink blending tool to add a coordinating ink over the stars.

I then glued down the paper ribbons across the page. I trimmed off an inch at the top and the bottom of the white cardstock to add the blue star patterned paper. I backed my photos with two of the patterns I had already used and distressed the edges of those. I loved embellishing with the puffy sticker stars in the top left corner of the photos, cardstock stickers, chipboard, and ephemera.

I finished the layout by adding the chipboard title and journaling tag with embellishments from the collection and a few threads!

I absolutely love this collection and how it inspired me to make this sweet layout for my little man! 

August Guest Designer | Sarah Millerhouse

The “My Candy Girl” collection is full of bright and happy colors, and this spoke to me! When I saw the collection, I knew I wanted to use every single paper in some way. This layout allowed me to use many of those beautiful patterns on one page!

I started by cutting hexagons. I used the colors in my photos as a starting point for the patterns I selected. I wanted a mix of the more solid patterns and colorful patterns, and I also wanted a balance of colors. Once I selected the papers, I used my cutting machine to cut the hexagons. I then distressed the edges of each one. I love how distressed edges add texture and depth to a layout. I arranged the hexagons on the page, making sure to mix the patterns, solids, and colors. Once I had them where I wanted them, I snapped a picture, picked them up, and put them to the side.

I got busy with the background! I wanted to create a base for the hexagons. I added texture paste down the center through a stencil. I wanted a simple pattern that didn’t distract from the hexagons flowing down the page, so I went with a lined stencil. I used the photo I had taken as a guide for where my mixed media should go. Once the texture paste dried, I added inks in coordinating colors. I used the blue down the center to emphasize the water in my sweet pictures. I wanted contrasting colors to add visual interest, so I added yellow ink to the top right and pink to the bottom left, where I knew my hexagons would be.

Once that dried, I added adhesive foam to each hexagon and arranged those back down on the page, using my photo as a guide. I originally planned to have the photos in the center, but once I saw how the page looked so far, I decided I needed a large title in the center. For me, what I envision a page will look like in my mind often changes during the creative process. I think this is why I love creating so much…I never really know exactly where I’ll end up! I looked through the Bella Blvd cutfiles, and the Summertime Fun  cut file was perfect for my photos.

I cut it just big enough to nestle in and slightly overlap the hexagons, and I backed it with the pink patterned paper to bring out the pink in my photos. I added adhesive foam and put that down. Because there were so many corners and straight lines with the hexagons and mixed media, I decided to round the corners of my photos to soften the page. I backed the photos with two of the patterned papers I had already used to tie everything together.

I then got busy embellishing! There are so many fabulous embellishments in this collection, and I had a hard time choosing just a few! I used stickers and ephemera pieces around each photo, and I added a few pieces to the top of the cutfile for a layered effect. I finished by adding the banner die cut to the bottom and layering that with a few of the sprinkle dots from the collection. The finished page brings a smile to my face and feels just as happy as the day I am documenting on this layout! 

August Guest Designer | Sarah Millerhouse

I absolutely love the “To the Moon” collection! It has so many fantastic patterns and possibilities! I love the colors and themes. When I saw this collection, I knew I had to make an Astros layout. Going to watch the Astros play baseball is one of our favorite things to do as a family! The colors in this collection instantly took me to a game in my mind!

For this layout, I started with Crackling Campfire and Chipped Sapphire distress inks on the background. I knew I wanted the have my photos and embellishments run across the middle, so that’s where I focused the mixed media. Once the inks dried, I used a star stencil to layer on ink in the same colors a few shades darker.

I picked some of my favorite patterns from the collection and cut 2 in. by 2 in. squares. I distressed the edges of each square and placed those down the middle of the page.

I added the Astros logo in the center that I saved from a popcorn box at the game! I cut my photos with a circle cutter and backed those with white so they would stand out.  I used foam adhesive to pop them up at a slight angle across the page. I found circle embellishments from the collection to nestle around the photos. If I have lots of squares on a layout, I love to contrast them with circles in my embellishments and photos to soften the page.

I added die cut and chipboard stars and popped those up. I love all of the space embellishments and wanted to include a few of those as well. I used the Bella Blvd Baseball cutfile to add to the title and added a few more embellishments on and around the cutfile. On the upper left side I added a tag with a few threads and another mini-title to add some balance to the page.

I finished by adding journaling up the left side of the squares and down the right side. I love the versatility of this collection! I have scrapbooked several different types of pages with it so far, and each one is just as much fun as the next! 

August Guest Designer | Sarah Millerhouse

The You Are My Sunshine collection speaks directly to my soul! The rainbows, butterflies, colors, and patterns are nothing short of glorious! You know you’ve connected with a collection when you have visions of layout after layout every time you turn to the next patterned paper…That’s how this collection is for me!

The inspiration for this page came from the B-side of the Sunshine patterned paper. Those tiny stripes in rainbow order are where it’s at for me! I included a snippet of it in its original form up there in the upper left hand corner! I started by cutting a large heart (9.5 inches square) out of white cardstock on my die cutting machine. I then took the tiny stripes and sliced them apart, trimming off the white in between each color. This part was a little tedious but so worth it! I then used the stripes to weave across the heart. I also added in a few strips of the rainbow washi tape. To keep the colors of the washi true and bright, I adhered it to a strip of white cardstock before I added it to the woven heart. I saved the negative of the heart cutout to help me balance the strips as I was weaving. I put a little removable adhesive to hold them in place as I went, and then I put permanent adhesive as I was finished weaving each strip across.

Once I was finished weaving, I trimmed around the heart leaving about 1/4 inch of each strip hanging off the heart for added texture!

It was then time to add some splashes of coordinating inks. I used the negative of the heart again to trace where the heart would sit on my page. I went around and used water and one drop of each of the distress inks here to add the color around the heart.

I added my sweet photos of a beautiful day we spent at the park and backed them with two of the patterned papers from the collection. I also created a frame with my paper cutter out of the striped paper to pop up in front of the middle photo. I used adhesive craft foam to pop up the pictures. I used two Ciao Chip pieces for the title. The first one I used was the “hello” piece. This started out as a beautiful red, but it was a little too dark for the layout. So, I sanded it down a little, just to get some of the color off, and used the Zing! leaf embossing powder to cover the word. This turned out to be the perfect shade to match the collection!

I then used the “sunshine” word. It was already a two tone word with the yellow and orange from the collection. I used a foam ink blending tool to add a little carved pumpkin distress ink to blend the yellow and orange, and I added picked raspberry distress ink to the bottom to bring in a little of the pink from the collection!

It was then time to embellish! I tucked the sun Bella Pop behind the word hello. I added butterflies above and below the photos using fussy cut butterflies from the collection and a couple of Bella-pops!

I added a cluster in the top left corner and the bottom right corner using phrases, paper strips, and washi tape from the collection. I finished the layout by adding splatters of white acrylic paint and some glitter to the Bella-pops sun!

I hope you find some inspiration in one of the techniques I used here and that you have a beautiful weekend!

Bella Besties & Rainbow Rays | Guest Designer Sarah Millerhouse

Hello everyone! Do we ever have a special treat for you this month! We have invited Sarah Millerhouse to be our Guest Designer for the month of August! That's right! Every Saturday this month she will be sharing one of her beautiful projects with you! We can't wait for you to see her amazing work as we're sure you'll love her as much as we do!  As a matter of fact, we loved her work so much that we just had to ask her to stay... and she accepted! So not only will her guest posts this month show you her outstanding style and love of color, but we know that she will most likely become one of your favorites in no time! Welcome to the team Sarah!!

Here is a short bio from Sarah:

As a chef's wife, a mom of two amazing kids, an elementary assistant principal for 1,100 sweet students, and a catering business owner and manager, my days are very full! However, I always find the time to capture our memories through scrapbooking because it's important to me. I have been passionate about creating scrapbooks for almost twenty years, and I love it more and more as time goes on and my style evolves with the art of the times. I lost my dad at an early age, and I believe that my need to document every detail of our lives comes from that loss. He loved to take pictures and document memories, and I am so thankful for all that he captured during his time here. My hope is that the future generations of my family will be able to treasure our memories and the legacy we are creating through my scrapbooks! 

Here is her first Guest Designer post...

My favorite color is rainbow! I absolutely love that Bella Blvd has so many beautiful papers and patterns that encompass every color in the rainbow! For this layout, I used the Bella Besties collection and mixed in some patterned papers scraps from My Candy Girl and To the Moon.

I started by making the graphic pie shapes in the background. To achieve this look, I started by marking where I wanted the center of the wedges to be on the background page (7 inches from the left side and 7 inches from the top edge…I wanted it to be just off-center). As an educator, it is always fun when I can throw a little math into my layout making. I knew I wanted 12 colors, so I knew I would have 3 colors on each of the 4 sides of the paper. I used a ruler to measure and mark the segments on each side (every 4 inches). I then marked where the center of the wedges would be on each of the patterned papers (again, 7 inches from left and top) and used a ruler to trace where each segment would be on the layout.

I like things to be exact and wanted the hearts to be going the correct direction in each segment (you don’t necessarily have to do this), so I cut each pie shape out of the patterned papers in the exact spot it would be on the layout. Once I had each of the segments cut, I heavily distressed the edges of each piece using an edge distresser tool. I glued them down and rolled up the edges to create more texture.

I then cut a 6 inch circle out of scrap cardstock. I cut random size wedges out of color coordinating patterned papers from the My Candy Girl collection and the To the Moon collection. I distressed the edges of these and layered them around the circle, trying to match each color section with the background. Before I glued this down, I added some white gesso to the background around where I knew the circle would be. I also added white splatters using acrylic paint. Adding the white hues gives the layout dimension and helps draw your eye to the center of the circle. I popped up the circle using foam adhesive to add even more dimension and texture to the layout.

I added lots of embellishments from these same collections! I used the puffy and epoxy stickers and incorporated the flowers, hearts, and stars. I put them down tone on tone, and I love how this looks! Bella Blvd knows how to do color, and all the embellishments in the different collections mix and match and go together! I also added dots of glitter in each color. I then added the sweet photo of my family on a walk at sunset, rounded the corners, and embellished around it using word phrases from My Candy Girl and a few more hearts.

I finished by adding my journaling on some layered and distressed patterned papers from the collections I used! I absolutely love the finished project and so appreciate how well all the colors work together! 

 

GUEST DESIGNER: Maryám Pérez Back Again!

Hello Friends! I hope you are having a great week. This is Maryám and today I’m here to share two more projects using the wonderful Splash Zone Collection.

For my first project, I created an 8 ½” x 11” inches layout.  I don’t usually use two photos in a layout, but this time I thought it was a great opportunity to document those photos by the pool in just one layout.

I positioned the photos in the center of my page and used some of the Ciao Chip^TM Chipboard words along with some ephemera icons to create the title. To embellish my page, I fussy cut some of the cute flowers from the Flower Garden paper and put them around the page. In the end, I adhered a chipboard piece which was like a sea wave just to complete the design.

For my last project, I created something completely different, a shaker card. Who doesn’t love shaker cards?! I’m a huge fan of them and I love making them. That’s why I couldn’t resist creating one using this collection. I went ahead and pull out some sequins from my stash, choose the ones that coordinated with the Flower Garden paper and made this fun card.

This card is really simple, and you are not going to spend a lot of time on it, but I’m pretty sure everyone is going to love it!

I hope these projects have inspired you to create something new. Thank you so much Bella Blvd for having me, it’s been such an honor for me to be here at the Bella blog!

Thank you for stopping by today and hope you have a wonderful day!

Maryám

GUEST DESIGNER: Maryam Perez

Hello everyone! This is Maryám Pérez and I’m so happy to be back on the Bella BLVD blog today as the September 2019 Guest Designer. For today’s post, I’m going to be working with the super fun Splash Zone Collection.

One of my favorite things about this collection is how bright and colorful it is! I just love the fact that you can create rainbow pages super easily. Any color lovers here?! :)

For my first project, I created an 8 ½” x 11” inches layout. I started by hand stitching around the circles from the Word Jumble paper with color coordinating embroidery thread and then fussy cut each of them. Next, I put the circles, the photo, the journaling, and I added some embellishments to my page.

 

For my second the second project, I created a spread on my traveler’s notebook. If you have never tried this format before, I recommend you do it! Since it’s a smaller format, it’s much easier to create something on it, and for those of you who feel a little bit intimidated by the 12x12 layouts, this is just the perfect size.

I love the patterned papers from this collection and I really wanted to find a way to use them all, so what I did was to cut a stripes of different papers and the use paper weaving technique to create a background which I ended up cutting and put one half on one side and one in the other.

I hope you guys enjoyed these projects. If you have any questions just leave them in the comments below and I’ll be really happy to answer them.

 

Hope you have an awesome day and see you on Thursday!

Maryám

GUEST DESIGNER: Maryám Pérez Back Again!

Hello Friends! How are you today? It’s Maryám Pérez here to share two more projects using the amazing Let’s Go On an Adventure Collection!

For my first project, I have created a layout using one of the Bella Blvd cut files. The one I used is called Mountains (ID #291770) and you can find it here. What I did was cut the part of the mountain only and then add some hand stitching around it. Once I have that done, I created a kind of a scene at the top part of my layout. I wanted to recreate the background of the photo I was using so I put some trees, a sun, and some clouds.

For the title, I used one of the die-cuts that says “Going for a walk” that matched the theme of my page perfectly. In the end, I added my journaling telling the story about that day and also put some puffy stars and enamel dots.

The finished page:

 

For my second project, I created another layout, and this time I used a big panoramic photo and created a cluster of embellishments vertically. I included some stickers hearts, little felt bows, some words sticker, and in the end, added some pink ink splatters.

For the title, I used an acrylic word that says “At the lake” that went totally perfect with this photo! Seriously, this collection was perfect for each and every one of my photos!!

Here is my finished page:

 

I hope these projects have inspired you to create something new. Thank you so much Bella Blvd for having me! I really enjoyed creating with this collection. Make sure you pick up these Bella Blvd pieces so you can document your own adventures - you just plain need it!

Thank you for reading this post and I hope you have a wonderful day!

Maryám

GUEST DESIGNER: Maryam Perez

Today we are welcoming Guest Designer Maryám Pérez to the Bella Blvd team to share her gorgeous projects using some of our newest collections. We just know that you will LOVE what she came up with!

ABOUT ME: My name is Maryám Pérez and I am a 17-year-old girl who loves to scrapbook, take photos and to design. I live in Chile with my family, in a small city called Osorno. I am in my last year of high school and my current pursuit, after I finish high school, is a Bachelor’s Degree in graphic design. I’m so excited to have been invited to be the Bella Blvd Guest Designer for this month so I hope you guys like what I have created!

For today’s post, I’m going to be sharing with you two projects I have created using the beautiful Let’s Go On an Adventure Collection. I will also be back on Wednesday with some more fun projects!

So last month I had the chance to go with my school classmates to do some trekking in the mountains. It was exhausting but really fun and I took a lot of photos that were perfect to use with this collection.

For my first project, I created an 8 ½” x 11” page layout. I used two photos and fussy cut lots of flowers from the Wildflowers and Fairy Garden papers. I also made three rolled flowers to add more dimension to my page. For the title, I used one of the die-cuts that says: “so much wonder”.

Here you can see some details:

For my second project, I created a traveler’s notebook spread. I really wanted to have a full page photo so I chose one my favorite photos from the trip, printed it out, adhered it on the right side and added some die-cuts.

On the left side, I added a border sticker, as well as some more die-cuts and of course, the journaling about the photo.

Again, some more detailed pictures:

I hope you guys like these projects. If you have any questions just leave them in the comments below and I’ll be really happy to answer them.

Hope you have a wonderful day and I will "see" you again on Wednesday!

Maryám

CHRISTmas Collection Scrapbook Layout with Guest Designer Christine Meyer

Happy Monday Bella Blvd Fans!  Have you seen the latest Illustrated Faith products in your local JoAnn store? Both Advent and CHRISTmas products are setting this holiday season and they include some exclusives! They aren’t in every single location, but would love to spy if they have landed in your local store! Christine Meyer joining you today as a Guest Designer and I have been playing with these gorgeous products!!!   Let's take a look at my first creation!

I really liked the black in the CHRISTmas collection and the contrast it had with the whites, reds, and greens.  I decided to let that play a big part in my layout - using a black cardstock background!

There are SO many options to use in the CHRISTmas Collection - for this layout I opted for the Patterned Papers, Clear Cuts Pad, and Gift Tags as my primary focus.  Using my electronic cutting machine, I cut out a Christmas tree in the red patterned paper.  Then I opted to use lots of circles to mimic the look of ornaments.  My "Joy to the World" title piece was from the Clear Cuts Pad and I cut it out using a circular metal die.  It makes a really nice title and focal point! 

The gift tag pieces also made nice faux ornaments for my tree!  I backed the tree with vellum to help soften the black background and help my pictures to stand out!  Another item I used to help soften everything (and bring in more color) was the Washi Stickers! I created a process video to show how I made the whole layout - let's have a look at that!

 

Thanks so much for joining me today and be sure to share pics with us if you find this in your local Joann Fabric Store!

Supplies Used:

CHRISTmas Patterned Papers, CHRISTmas Gift Tags, CHRISTmas Clear Cuts Pad, CHRISTmas Washi Stickers