Bella Blvd Studio Blog

Watercolor Christmas Cards

Hi everyone! Corri here today sharing a couple of quick Christmas cards using watercolor paints and some cut files.  I love how you can play with the watercolors to change the intensity of the colors and match the paper you're are working with.  

 

For my first card, I cut the Merry cut file (Silhouette) from white cardstock and then painted it with watercolors before backing it with black cardstock.  I created a black background using the offset feature in Silhouette Studio.   I picked some coordinating paper from the  Santa Squad 6 x 6 paper pad and added some epoxy snowflakes to coordinate with the snowflakes on the paper. 

 

For my second card, I created a printable by duplicating this file, removing the sentiment from two of the ornaments and adjusting the sizes to create this pretty ornament trio.  I used the watercolor paints to color the ornaments and added gold to the starts using a gel pen.    This would be a fun way to get your kids involved in card making for Christmas! 

Thanks so much for stopping by today!  

 

 

 

Blessed - Bella Blvd Digital Scrapbooking Layout

 Hi, Bella Blvd fans! It's Tya here sharing my latest digital scrapbooking layout using the simply stunning Gratitude Documented collection. 

This collection was so fun to work with and totally matched my photos which always makes me happy, lol! I am loving anything with navy blue lately! With the leaves and acorns and many phrases like "Family," "Joy" and "Blessed" (like I used above), this is a great batch of papers and icons to celebrate my favorite season of the year. I hope I have inspired you today to make a layout of your own blessings in your lives! Thank you for stopping by today and Happy Crafting! 

Gratitude Documented Digital Collection 

 

Embrace- Fall 12x12 layout

Good morning everyone!!

Sarah here today and I wanted to share a new layout with you. Is anyone else ready for fall? I sure am!! It is so hot outside, but I was so happy to see that the leaves on the trees are starting to change and I am ready to embrace that change!! I am so ready for hot cocoa, boots, sweaters and scarfs!! And the leaves changing color means that it's on the way!

I had my picture printed, pulled out the lovely Let's go on an Adventure collection by Bella Blvd, pulling papers that were green and brown. Then I pulled embellishments that were green, brown and orange. And with that color scheme, I realized that these cute little foxes would work great on this layout!

I cut my papers, laid them out and started to layer embellishments where I wanted them, tucking things here and there. I was liking the way it looked, but there was just too much white space. I left it where it was, because it was lunch time and my toddler needed her lunch so I decided to come back to it later.

So I sat her up with her coloring next to me, after lunch and yogurt. Pulled the layout back out, I decided I wanted to add some color to the background. Not only would this help the acrylic word "embrace" stand out, but it would let the whole layout pop! I pulled out my Illustrated Faith acrylic paints, pulled the orange out and out some on my acrylic block. I sprayed my cardstock with my spray bottle and then started to platter my layout with the orange pain. I even let my daughter help some. She said it looked like fun, haha!

I colored with her while I let my layout dry. Once it was dry, I started to glue down the layers and pieces that I had in the first place. She helped me put the foxes on and then started to add my stickers to her coloring book. I tucked a few more pieces, glued down the "embrace" acrylic word and it was done. I turned it over and taped a piece of paper to the back with some journaling on it, describing my feeling of happiness about fall coming and about my little helping me with my layout.

Thank you so much for stopping by to see what I created today and I hope you have a great rest of your week!!

Let's go on an Adventure collection: Boarders paper, Daily details paper, Ephemera icons, Ephemera words, Epoxy icons, Doohickey stickers, Ciao Chip icons

Acrylic words: Embrace today

Home Sweet home collection: Ciao Chip icons

Illustrated  Faith: Studio acrylic paints, Shanna's Favorites

The Best Is Yet To Come

Raise your hand if you have a stash of Washi Tape that you have been collecting (hoarding)! It's OK, I'm right here raising my hand with you! The good news is that there are so many things you can do with Washi Tape! 

On this card, I used FOUR different Washi Tapes, can you spot them? I used the black & white polka dot tape to make a background to tuck behind the sentiment. I also used a thin yellow to create the yellow/white stripes, added a strip of the teal polka dot tape and a little piece of the black & white stripes to attach the sentiment to the card. You can take a closer look below...

 

As we round out the week featuring Washi Tape, I challenge you to dig into your stash and use some on your next project! 

Home Sweet Home Collection: Pattern Paper - Welcome Home, and Daily Details.

Washi Tape:

Illustrated Faith Highlight It Washi Tape

Make Your Mark - Break Rules

Dotty

Ice Dot

You are all kinds of amazing layout

Good morning everyone!!

I'm here to share with you today a new layout using Splash Zone in a bit of a different way, along with a few other new things.

I have to say that I love the way this layout turned out. I started this back when I first knew we were getting the new collections, even posting a picture of the flower in the background. For some reason I decided to do this by hand, sewing and then cutting out. Once I got the flower cut out I did a light trace on the background and pulled out my Illustrated Faith water colors and started splattering away. I did grab a gold spray from my stash and a little shine to the flower as well. Once it was all dry, I glued down the flower and moved on to adding embellishments.

I knew where I wanted my photo, that is why I added the flower a little more to the right of the layout. I wanted the flower to show more and have all the pretty colors. I added a few layers behind my photo and quite a few tags as well to the top of it.

I added flowers here and there, even tucked under the edge of the large flower cut out I made. I added a strip to the bottom of my layout and tucked a few florals there, along with a ephemera tag, that says it doesn't get better than this.

Finishing the layout off, I grabbed some of the new Florence Alphas and Ciao Chips and made my title to the right of my photo using a few different colors.

I hope you liked this layout and I hope you come back and see what everyone else has been crafting!!

Illustrated Faith Shanna's favorite water colors

Splash Zone collection: Boarders paper, Flower garden paper, Sunny Days paper

Ciao Chips: Ephemera Icons, Ephemera words, So in love

Florence Alphas: Orange, Peep

Oh my stars collection: Gift tags

 

You Are Loved: Digital Layout with Allie!

Hi friends! Allie here from Allie Scraps. I’m so excited to be one of the new digital designers with Bella Blvd! The digital collections are so much fun to work with!

One of my all time favorite collections from Bella Blvd is the Illustrated Faith “You are Loved” collection-- so I was so excited to see it in digital form! I love all of the artsy papers and the handwritten declarations of LOVE!

For this layout, I wanted to write myself a reminder that I am LOVED UNCONDITIONALLY by my Creator-- even on the days where I feel unloveable. Because I wanted it to be something I looked at and felt happy about, I used my favorite papers and elements from the collection-- the more the merrier on the page, right? Since the line is very “artsy” and can feel busy very easily, I arranged the items I wanted to use in a grid-- and then used some digital stitching to make that grid more obvious.

For the background, I really wanted to use the multi colored painted background-- but I didn’t want it to be too busy and compete with all of the fun elements that I wanted to use. To remedy this, I just put a white layer behind the background paper and adjusted the opacity down until I had the effect I wanted! Gotta love digital for effects like this, right?!

I can't wait to see what you do with the digital collections! 

 

Bella supplies used: You Are Loved collection bundle

 

A lovely reminder

Good morning everyone!!

Sarah here this morning with a spring themed layout!

I really had fun with this layout. I did a lot of fussy cutting with papers from the Island Escape collection. I mean really, how can you not? The flowers are just so pretty!!

I started my layout by choosing a bright background and pulling out the Illustrated faith acrylic paints and dry brushing some of the white across the background. I wanted a little separation from all the flowers I knew I was going to add to the layout.

I pulled out the beautiful floral paper from the Island escape and started to fussy cut all the pretties. Once I had a the flowers out I started to lay them across the page on a diagonal. Once I had all the flowers lightly placed down, I added a few layers behind my photo and sat it where I wanted and then moved on to working on my title. I knew I was going to have a large title because I had picked it out before I even started my layout, lol. I knew what picture I was using and it was this one of my youngest daughter sitting in our front yard, enjoying the nice warm spring weather last year.

I was looking at this photo and looking at my daughter now and how much she had changed, I wanted to make sure I documented the little moments, she has grown so much, the beautiful changes that have happened, so when I found this title, I was like oh yeah this is perfect!

After adding my long title, I went back in and wanted to add some more texture to my layout so I popped some of the flowers up and adding some messy thread clusters here and there. I have a thing for the enamel dots that come along with the heart hugs, so I grabbed some of those in white and added them around my layout as well.

I was really, really happy with the way this layout turned out. The bright colors were fantastic and the flowers were great with the spring theme. I didn't want to take the chance of messing my layout up by writing on it so I flipped it over and added some of my journaling to the back of my layout. After I added my journaling on the back I flipped it back over and thought it could use a bit more, so I roughed up the bottom and top and added a little pop of a patterned paper that was in the same pink as in the flowers and tucked a few of those in there too and was done! 

I hope you enjoyed this layout and that you will visit again to see more spring inspired work from the team!

Island escape collection: ephemera, Sticky Mix cardstock stickers, Moonlit kisses paper 

Wish Big Collection: Boarders paper, Lets celebrate paper, Party animal paper

Heart Hugs: Black&White

Ciao Chips Hello there

Illustrated Faith: Acrylic paint Shanna's favorites, Homespun Hey Sugar Sugar cardstock stickers, One in a million cardstock stickers

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day Bella Blvd Fans! How would you describe your relationship with your Valentine? How does that translate to a scrapbook layout? Christine joining you today to show how I captured my marriage in a Scrapbook Layout!

For lots of people they want a legacy to leave behind.  In our house part of our legacy, is caring for each other in a loving marriage through the good and bad! So what better products to use to showcase that legacy than our Legacy products? Within our Legacy products you can find - lots of color, lots of words, and lots of versatile products!

To kick things off I picked an non-traditional piece of patterned paper for my layout - I used the front page from the Plaids & Dotty Collection. You know, the one that comes in the paper pack and has the exclusive patterned paper on the back. I cut off all the branding details and just used the plaids and dots! I loved that it had all the colors included in it and was all lined up. It made a really nice backdrop for my colorful picture!

My title was a little trickier to come up with - so many great choices available! In the end I opted for combining the acrylic "Sweet" with letter stickers from Illustrated Faith.

Seeing as I couldn't resist pulling in all the colors of the rainbow for my patterned paper, I had to follow that up with Heart Hugs in all the colors of the rainbow (and more)! I used the Heart Hugs from a variety of packages, incorporating different sizes, to create a border between my plaids and dots!

Finally I couldn't resist the chance to really dig into the Word Salad Stickers! The phrases and words within it provide so many options for ready made journaling and can work for just about any topic you can come up with! I pulled different phrases from as many colors as I could to tell our story!

I created a process video for you so that you can take a closer-up look at how I pulled together this clean & simple layout!

Thanks so much for joining me today - hope you have a wonderful Valentine's Day!

Plaids & Dotty Patterned Paper, Heart Hugs - Sentiments, Christmas, Black and White, Sunshine, Rainy Day, Pretty in Pink, Halloween

Word Salad Stickers, Wish Big - Birthday Girl Borders, Acrylic Words - Sweet & New

 

Everlasting Love - A Mixed Media Bible Journaling Page

 

Hello there, friends! If you haven't noticed yet, it's all about love at Bella this week! It seems like so long since I've created anything in my Bible, and I knew I needed to get a little messy with this one.

I began my page with a messy foundation of IF Acrylic Paint, splatters, and modeling paste. It feels so good to go crazy with some mixed media mediums in your favorite colors! If you haven't pulled out your favorite paints in a while, do yourself a favor, and brush off the dust; it will be so worth it!

After I had my background down, I began positioning some scraps and bits around on my page. I knew I wanted to use a Ciao Chip for my title, including some of the IF Tiny Alphas. I also pulled some paper scraps from my Bella stash and layered away.

I then stitched on my journaling, which I typed on a piece of wax paper; it's so imperfect and lovely, which is the way the Lord must look at me.  Especially in that I accidentally added a "d" to my "an," and I had to laugh that it was a perfect reflection of this page! I'm reminded how amazing it feels to know my Father will never relinquish His love for me, despite my imperfections.

Lastly I stitched on a ribbon on the top right with another paper scrap and added a little puffy bird. This little section serves as a cute little tab. I even tucked in a few buttons on my large cluster to give my mess even more dimension.

Thanks so much for joining me today, and I hope you find some time to dust off your mixed media mediums and have a little fun this week!

Make Your Mark "Real Deal" 12x12 Paper, Pop Quiz "Goofing Off" 12x12 Paper, IF Acrylic Paint, Ciao Chips, IF Tiny Alpha Booklet, Cute Clips, Wordfetti Booklet, Seeds of Faith Puffy Stickers

It's All About the Journaling

Hello there, friends!  Today I wanted to share with you a layout I created at the end of the year, on the cusp of a new one. I really wanted to remind myself in the coming year of all the things that bring me true happiness. Most of the time our layouts are all about photos, but they don't have to be all the time!

I knew this layout would include lots of different kinds of journaling, typed and written, so I pulled elements from my Bella stash that would be perfect for just that!  Because I needed some neutral papers to journal on, I pulled some of my favorites from the Plaids & Dotty Collection. I decided on a 4 color palette; pastel pink, magenta, teal, and black.  These are some of my absolute favorite colors, so I knew they would be a joy to create with!

I then pulled some various tags and little bits from my stash too, and I started positioning them around the page in a grid layout.  I knew I wanted to fill the entire 12x12 space.

I decided to use some Ciao Chips for my title, but I really had my heart set on black alphas for this page. So I set out to change my white Ciao Chips to black, using my black-eyed pea Illustrated Faith Ink Pad and a sponge blender. Always be sure to use your heat gun to set the ink, or let it dry overnight; otherwise, it might smear on other items.

I finished off my layout by adding all of my journaling. I wrote about each significant thing in 2018 that made me truly happy and how I wanted to bring those things into 2019. I wrote about my tornado of a toddler, about moving my body, my husband, and my cherished friends. Let this be a reminder that our journaling is just as important as our photos; in fact, I'd argue that it is more important. Sometimes a layout doesn't have to be a visual interpretation of your photo; maybe it's simply an exercise in creating something meaningful to you! In my case I wanted a visual reminder to focus my energy on things in this life that make me truly happy in the New Year.

 

 

I hope this layout inspires you to create a little something for yourself, not as a keepsake for future generations, but a visual representation of the thoughts of someone who loves to create! And remember your journaling is important! xo Lydia

 

Plaids & Dotty Collection, Wish Big Girl Chipboard Icons & Ephemera, Make Your Mark Puffy Stickers, You Are Loved Tags, IF Basics Tags, Ciao Chips, IF Black Ink Pad, Bella Bows