Bella Blvd Studio Blog

June Mood Board Layout - Tegan Skwiat

I always love playing along with the Bella Blvd Mood Boards and the June Board did not disappoint! I had fun mixing and matching the Splash Zone collection, the Island Escape collection, the Squeeze the Day collection, and the Bella Besties patterned papers on this layout. I love that all the Bella Blvd collections mix and match so easily. Come take a look how I was inspired by the June Mood Board!

Isn't the June Mood Board amazing?

It has been forever since I tried mixed media on a layout, but the mood board inspired me to get out my paints again! I started out by using just aqua paint on regular white cardstock. It did buckle some from the water but once it was dry I placed it under heavy scrapbook albums so it would flatten out some. I then cut out a circular background pattern design using this painted cardstock and my electronic die cut machine. I used the Bella Besties Freehand Graph & Dot Patterned Paper in Gulf to back my cut out. I was nervous to try this technique but I love how it turned out! And the Bella Blvd Sunshine Cut File makes an adorable sun! 

I used the fun Florence Alphabet Stickers in Blueberry and a chipboard piece from the Splash Zone collection to make my title. The addition of the fruity pieces from the Squeeze the Day collection was inspired by the board as well. I don't think I would have thought to put fruit on a pool layout, but I think it totally works here!

The mood board also inspired the addition of these fun chipboard wave shapes from the Island Escape collection. I just adore these waves and I am so excited that Bella Blvd now offers a waves cut file so I can cut out more when I need them!

I had every intention of making a large solid rainbow chevron design like in the mood board above. But once I created the mainly solid background and cut out the mostly solid yellow sun, I decided that I wanted to include more colorful and patterned papers. I love how the idea morphed into something else equally amazing!

Thanks for joining me today! I hope I have inspired you to grab some of your favorite Bella Blvd collections and the June Mood Board for your next project!

Bella Besties Graph and Dot Patterned Papers: Gulf, Peep, McIntosh

Squeeze the Day Collection: Chipboard, Ephemera

Island Escape Collection: Tropical Bliss Patterned Paper, Moonlit Kisses Patterned Paper, Daily Details Patterned Paper

Bella Blvd Cut Files: Sunshine, Waves

Extras: World Salad Stickers, Florence Alphabet Stickers in Blueberry, Puffy Star Stickers

 

JUNE Mood Board Inspiration with Nathalie

Hello Bella Blvd. friends!

Nathalie with you today with a new project inspired by the awesome June Mood board. All the color and textures in the mood board brought lots of memories of Summer Vacations past at the beach.   So, i pulled a few Bella goodies and got to work.  Here is this month's moodboard

Imagine how hard it was for me not to want to do all the things in this page!  So i decided to pull a few elements for some of the squares for my page:

 

My starting point was the ombre paint stripes in the moodboard.  So i pulled my watercolor markers and a thick flat brush are recreated the watercolor stripes on heavy white cardstock.   I added a few splatters, so that they bring all the water/beach/lake feel of some of the squares in the board.

 

While the background dried, i started to work on paper layers for the picture.  I used mostly papers from the  Splash Zone and a bit of foam adhesive to add some dimension to the layers.  Since the board has lots of lines and rainbows in the page, i made sure that the paper layers reflected those elements, too.

 

 

I am a curator of beautiful paper supplies!  I pulled the ephemera and Ciao Chips from the Island Escape collection and combined it with pieces from the Splash Zone collection to create the large clusters at the corners of the picture.

 

 

The beauty of Bella Blvd collections is that the color palette.   I was able to seamlessly mix both collections in this page with ease.    I used that large sun ephemera piece to bring all the yellow on the mood board, as well as the sentiment in the center square.

 

The last detail was creating the title.   For this, i combined both the Wonky Puffy Alpha and Florence Alphabet in Ice.   Then added a few heart stickers next to the words.   I made sure to leave space at the bottom of the page where i could house my lines of journal....

 

I hope this has inspired you to pull your Bella Blvd. goodies and create a project inspired by the awesome mood board.  I cannot wait to see what you create with this inspiration!

XO

 

Bella Blvd Supplies:

ISLAND ESCAPE COLLECTION:  Ciao Chips, Ephemera, Stickers

SPLASH ZONE COLLECTION:  12x12 paper kit, Ciao Chips, Ephemera icons, Ephemera words

WONKY PUFFY ALPHA - Ice

FLORENCE ALPHABET - Ice

NSD Fun Spring Adventure Layout |Tegan

Happy National Scrapbook Day everyone! I am loving the fact that Spring has pretty much arrived where I live so I was inspired by the butterflies that will soon be fluttering around for today's layout. I used the sweet Bella Blvd Butterfly Cut File and the Island Escape to create this colorful page!

To start, I used the base image from the butterfly cut file to create a butterfly background. I resized, tilted, and overlapped the butterflies. Once I had cut out the butterfly background using white cardstock, I backed the butterflies with my favorite patterned papers from the Island Escape collection. I used the enamel dots from the Heart Hugs packs, Puffy Heart Stickers, and Word Salad phrase stickers to embellish the butterflies. 

I used the super fun Florence Alphabet Stickers and the cool Acrylic Word 'Adventure' piece to create my title. I love all of the butterflies fluttering around my photo!

I had so much fun decorating each butterfly and giving each one it's own design. 

I love each and every one of these colorful butterflies, but the floral ones might be my favorite! 

Thank you for joining me today! I hope I have inspired you to grab the Bella Blvd Butterfly cut file and your favorite Bella Blvd collection for your next layout! I hope your National Scrapbook Day is going well!

And before you go, be sure to check out our Instagram feed, because there will be a scrapbooking challenge hiding in the post of this photo!

Island Escape Collection: Moonlit Kisses Patterned Paper, Tropical Bliss Patterned Paper, Borders Patterned Paper, Good Vibes Patterned Paper, Daily Details Patterned Paper, Peace & Quiet Patterned Paper

Florence Alphabet Stickers in Bell Pepper

'Adventure' Acrylic Word

Butterfly Cut File

 

 

 

Turning Scraps into Something Fab!

Hi Bella friends, it's Tegan and I am excited to share my Scrap Bust Challenge project with you! I figured a mini album would be perfect for documenting our strawberry picking pictures and allow me to use up my bigger paper scraps. I had so much fun finding creative ways to work with the leftover stickers and tiny paper scraps too! On the cover, I used the small scraps and a border punch to create little scalloped pieces that I adhered and then stitched with embroidery floss.

I first collected paper and embellishment scraps from the Mom Life, Island Escape, Wish Big Girl, and Bug Adventure collections. My goal was to use up the Island Escape Sticker and Chipboard Sticker sheets as well as the orange Puffy Heart stickers. Mixing and matching these collections was so easy because all of the Bella Blvd collections blend so well!

I started by using the scalloped circle shape from the Bella Blvd Birthday Sayings cutfile to cut out my pages from all of my bigger scrap pieces. I then adhered them together to form the album pages. I then cut out circle shapes from more patterned paper scraps and adhered those to the middle of my scalloped circle pages. On my first page, since the square woodgrain sticker had a beach phrase on it, I layered it underneath the chipboard flowers. I then adhered my typed journaling onto some smaller scraps of patterned paper. I love the color the paper adds to the journaling!

Don't be like me at first and be afraid to cut up your extra stickers! Originally, the sticker here said There's Nothing Like a Sunset. I simply cut off the a Sunset part and created my own phrase using McIntosh color Bella Blvd Florence stickers! 

Left on the Chipboard sheet was the word SEA. Obviously, I wasn't documenting water pictures so I used the S, E, A and Bella Blvd Wonky Alpha Puffy alphabet stickers to create a fun and AWESOME (wink, wink!) word design on one of my pages! 

I loved this challenge because it made me step back and think about what fun techniques I could do with my little paper scraps. Here I fussy cut hearts out of the Mom Life Daily Details patterned paper and then hand stitched on them after adhering them to my page. I love this hand made design and the texture! 

Thanks for joining me on my scrapbusting journey today! I challenge you to dig out some of your Bella Blvd scraps and create your own fun project. I am sure you will have as much fun as I did! 

Island Escape Collection: Chipboard Icons, Sticky Mix, Borders Patterned Paper, Good Vibes Patterned Paper, Moonlit Kisses Patterned Paper, Peace and Quiet Patterned Paper, Daily Details Patterned Paper, Tropical Bliss Patterned Paper

Mom Life Collection: Houseplants Patterned Paper, Jammies All Day Patterned Paper, My Tribe Patterned Paper

Wish Big Girl Collection: Borders Patterned Paper, Daily Details Patterned Paper, Let's Celebrate Patterned Paper

Bug Explorer Collection: Nature Study Patterned Paper, Daily Details Patterned Paper

Florence Alphabet Sticker - McIntosh

Wonky Alphabet Puffy Sticker - McIntosh

Puffy Hearts - Orange Mix

Bella Blvd Birthday Sayings cut file

 

 

Sunshine and Paradise Digital Layout with Tya

Hello everyone! My name is Tya Smith and I am so happy to be sharing with you my first project as a member of the Bella Blvd Digital Scrapbooking Team. I fell in love with digital scrapbooking a few years ago and have loved learning this new avenue to get my photos and memories down on a page for my family to enjoy! It seems I am a much faster digital scrapbooker! 

Today I am pleased to share with you a layout I created using the adorable "Island Escape" digital collection!

I simply adored all the beautiful papers and elements of this collection! Aren't they so bright and striking? I had such a fun time recording one of my all-time favorite beach vacations that my family took a few years ago. I can almost feel the sand and cool ocean breezes! Now I just need a beach chair and a tropical drink! This collection is just chock full of so many wonderful tropical themed elements! I hope that I have inspired you to make a page of your own using this absolutely stunning collection! Thank you so much for stopping by today! Happy Crafting! 

Bella Supplies Needed:

Island Escape Digital Collection

Digital Scrapbooking Basics with Heather Leopard

Hi everyone. Heather Leopard is here to chat about digital scrapbooking. A few of us paper scrapbooking designers were recently asked to design a layout using the Bella Blvd Digital Designs. I was thinking, "no problem," knowing I'd just print the digital files and design a hybrid type layout.  Then my friend, Leanne, sunk her teeth in and designed her layout completely digitally. Now I'm not one to say no to a challenge so I "scrapped" my idea for a hybrid layout and started playing around with the files using Photoshop. You know what? Surprise, surprise, it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. I'll walk you through how I created this layout in hopes you too may give this a whirl.

This layout is quite simple for my typical style but I think I did pretty good for my first ever digital layout. What do you think?

Now, how about a bit of show & tell of what I learned...

Step 1: I selected 3 patterned papers, 4 borders, and acrylic sentiment, stickers and chipboard embellishments.You can see the ones I used above. I love that you can size these up and down to fit your design. I love that about digital scrapbooking.

Step 2: I opened Adobe Photoshop and I started by creating layers of background papers. I sized them so there's a 1/4" border around them. You can do this by making the background 12x12, then "transforming" the 2nd layers so it measures 11.5 x 11.5 and then the top layer will be 11 x 11. You can measure it exactly or just eyeball it.

Step 3: I knew I wanted a large photo for this layout and while I'm showing you that I created the white background frame for it first, reality is I sized my photo first and then decided it needed a white frame behind it to make it pop. It's just slightly off-center but there's a plan for that. 

You can see how it helps the photo pop against the background. It gives it a defined edge that it needs.

Step 4: Next, I grounded the photo with some borders. The three at the bottom are considered border embellishments and the top one is considered a sticker. I overlapped them a bit so their sizes wouldn't be too much the same.

Step 5 is all about the tropical flowers. We were in Hawaii afterall, so I had to add the flowers. These come in sticker or chipboard. I layered the ones on the bottom right because I wanted that one to have more substance.

Step 6 includes adding a title and a few more embellishments. The title is an acrylic word that I sized a bit larger to float in the clouds. I then added some more embellishments to the sides of the photo.

The final step is the journaling.  I managed to include the stickers as part of my journaling by writing so that the words "paradise" and "vacay" flow with my journaling. I added white rectangle strips behind the journaling so that you could read it easier.  I also added journaling at the bottom to note where we were and when.

So...I have to say digital scrapbooking is way more intimidating than it really is. I don't see myself switching to this on a regular basis because I love paper, scissors and glue but I would definitely do it again! I mean, what a great way to be creative on your next road trip, flight or just chilling by the pool.

Digital collection: Island Escape Patterned Papers, Borders, Acrylic Word, Chipboard, Ephemera, Sticky Mix

Spring Flowers Scrapbooking Layout

I don't know about you but Spring always makes me put on my happy face. Mine usually comes in the form of a smile. My youngest daughter on the other hand displays her happiness slightly differently and I just had to document it.

When I started this layout, I knew I'd have tons of outdoor Spring-like photos to choose from so I created this layout backwards. Crazy concept but it worked. I decided I wanted to create a layout with tons of Spring colored flowers so I looked through my cut file library and found this design by Paige Evans. It's great because it sets the stage for the theme of the page yet leaves plenty of space to keep the attention focused on the photo.

I chose to back the cut file with 3 different green patterned papers for the various leaf types and then used Spring colored patterned papers for the different flowers.

Once I layered the backed cut file on the background paper I noticed it wasn't popping enough off the page.  I did two things to fix this. First, I fussy cut the diamond border from a patterned paper and adhered the strips to the back of the cut out design so it would create a border.  Then I glued the cut file and applied a thick coat of white gesso to the inside it. The diamonds look like arrows pointing in toward the photo and the gesso allows everything (photo, title and sentiments) inside the square to not get lost.

Lastly I added the chipboard flowers in corners across from each other to give the page a bit of dimension. Since I only adhered the inside border of the cut file to the background I think I will also pop some of the flowers and leaves up using foam dots.

I hope this sweet girl's silly face and the fancy flowers in this layout bring a little happiness your way today.

Plaids & Dotty; Wish Big Patterned Papers: Daily Details, Party Animal, Cakes & Crowns, Let's Celebrate, Candle Parade, Borders, Caio Chip Icons, Sticky Mix Cardstock Stickers; Island Escape Patterned Papers: Borders, Daily Details, Peace & Quiet, Bonus Pattern; Mom Life Patterned Papers: Houseplants, Daily Details, My Tribe, Jammies All Day; Oh My Stars Fundamentals; Wonky Alpha Puffy Stickers

 

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

Acrylic Words: A Mini Album's Best Friend

  This week on the Bella feed, it's been all about the Acrylic Words! I've been having an absolute blast working through this 4x4 mini album, using my collection of acrylic words.  They of course belong on layouts and on my Bible pages, but I've found a new love of putting them everywhere on my mini album.

I started out my 4x4 album with a little title using the Illustrated Faith Homespun Alphas, and I represented my color palette for my album using some vintage buttons.  I love to start mini albums this way, so that I keep a cohesive color palette for the entire project.

I let this photo from a local wetlands trip be the centerpiece of the beginning of the album, because I loved this summery, yellow flower!

In mini albums I love to include little pockets for journaling.  For this particular page, I sewed the edges of the photo, so that I could slide in a tag.

For this acrylic word, I simply stitched the ends onto my plastic sheet protector.  This way I could still customize the back of the page any way I liked.




I thought I would include a little tutorial for how I created the decorative tabs for non-sheet protected items.  I simply punched my Bella papers as shown below, and then I stitched them directly onto my tags and photos!

For this acrylic word, I simply adhered it to the edge of my photo!  I love the way it makes the photo pop!


This rainbow divider was made out of a trimmed down clear-cuts!  They are amazing for mini albums because the Illustrated Faith clear-cuts are thick and sturdy!


I'm still working in this little mini album, so it's not quite finished, but I wanted to share what an asset your Bella Acrylic Words can be to any mini album.  I finished this section with a selfie, and this perfect "Smile" acrylic!

 

Thank you so much for stopping by to check out my mini album today! I really hope you got some inspiration for your next mini album, and I hope it includes some acrylic words! xo Lydia

 

Acrylic Words, IF Homespun Alphas, IF Clear Cuts, Plaids & Dotty, Bug Explorer, Mom Life, Pop Quiz, & Island Escape Papers, Bug Explorer Sticky Mix, Chipboard & Ephemera,  Cute Clips, IF Mini Hexies, Wish Big Boy Words Ephemera, IF Pen, Puffy Stars

Explore the Summer Sea | Word Salad Scrapbooking Layout

Hi everyone.  Heather Leopard is here today with a layout that takes me back to last summer, when we were able to explore the gorgeous islands of Hawaii and Maui. We were literally on an Island Escape so the Island Escape collection was PERFECT for this particular project.  

This entire layout was actually inspired by the Word Salad phrase stickers.  I started with those, choosing the colors I wanted to include in my layout, not having a photo picked out yet.  Crazy, huh? I just knew I wanted to use them. I found colors that matched the Island Escape collection, knowing that I would be able to find a photo I hadn't scrapped yet from our Hawaiian trip.

I used Illustrated Faith paint to create lines across the page but first, I had to lighten the colors up just a bit.  I simply mixed the colors with about half the original color / half white and added a bit here and there until it matched the color of the phrases practically perfectly. Once dried, I added the phrases. At this point, I decided I needed to better define the stripes. Since we were at a black sand beach and I didn't have much black in the layout, I used my black marker to create a border around each color. I did it free-hand because my perfection is imperfection. If you want perfect lines, now's the time to pull out your ruler!

So for this next step, you can choose to embellish and layer around your photo before you place the word salad stickers or after.  I chose to do this before I completely adhered the word phrases down and it's what I suggest, so that you don't accidentally cover up any of the phrases. I used two papers as layers behind the photo and then I added die cuts as well as fussy cut flowers around the photo, tucking under her and over there for dimension.

Last but not least, is the title. I discovered that the acrylic word, explore, fit perfectly in the orange box. Once that was placed, I worked the rest of my title around that.  To finish off the layout I added heart and star puffy stickers that color coordinated with the box I was placing them in.  Admittedly, I didn't leave room for journaling so I might remove one of the puffy hearts under the photo or perhaps a phrase sticker at the bottom left and add my journaling there.

Island Escape patterned paper, Island Escape Ephemera, Island Escape Chipboard Icons, Illustrated Faith Delight in the Day Happy Heart patterned paper, Ice Mix Puffy Stars, Ice Mix Puffy Hearts, Punch Mix Puffy Stars, Punch Mix Puffy Hearts, Explore & Play Acrylic Words