Bella Blvd Studio Blog

Sketch Week | Sarah Millerhouse

I love the challenge of using a great sketch! When I first saw this sketch by Niki Rowland, I immediately thought it wasn’t my style. There was just so much white space. Once I decided I could make it my own and use beautiful patterned paper to fill up all that space, I immediately got into it. This layout ended up being one of my most favorite I’ve made, and it started with challenging me to move out of my comfort zone. 

I used the You Are My Sunshine collection for this layout. The stripes on the background the Shine Bright patterned paper that I cut apart, distressed the edges, and put in back down with the stripes in rainbow order. I love the pop of color it gives to the layout. I then added just a little mixed media on the background to subtly connect the top photo and clusters with the cluster at the bottom. I did this using white gesso and Shimmerz sprays that I applied with a brush. When it was almost dry, I added splatters of white acrylic paint behind all the areas where I knew my elements would go. 

I added my sweet photo at the top with several layers of patterned paper behind it to make it more substantial. I then added clusters on either side of the photo, like in the sketch, with the one on the right set just slightly higher.  

I added the cluster at the bottom using phrases that I distressed the edges of and pretty enamel stickers and ephemera. Everything is popped up with adhesive foam. 

I finished the layout by adding the Bella Blvd Sunshine cutfile that I cut in three layers and my strips of journaling just below that, just like in the sketch. 

I love how this layout turned out, and I hope it inspires you in some way! 

Products Used:

You Are My Sunshine: patterned paper, ephemera, enamel dots and stars

 

Birthday Bash and SCT Sketch | Gloria Parra

Hello Bella friends, happy Friday!!! It’s Gloria Parra here today with a new layout. For this one we were challenged to use as inspiration a super fun Scrapbook & Cards Today sketch, and oh how I LOVE sketches!!! They make creating so much fun and easy since you don’t have to start from scratch…I love to use sketches whenever I'm lost as what to create.

For the base of my layout, I used a 12x12 pink cardstock and trimmed the gingham white and light blue Birthday Bash patterned paper to 11,5 x 11,5 inches. 

For this layout I wanted a sunburst of color and pattern. I used two of my favorite pictures from my youngest daughters 4year birthday party. Foto my sun rays I chose the patterns that I liked most and that I thought coordinated better with my pictures. With the help of my trimmer, I created two sizes of rays, a thicker and a thinner one, that I then used as template to create all of my them in different lengths. I added stitching to some of them, this adds a different texture and I love that!

For my Sun, I used the black and white Birthday Bash text patterned paper to create my 7" circle that I then matted with a larger 7.5" circle that I cut from a light blue Bella Besties patterned paper. 

I placed my two 3x4 inch photos on my circle and added one of the 3x4 cut apart in place of the third photo on the sketch. That’s what I love about sketches, you can replace elements from it with what works for you, it’s the perfect starting point!

For my title I used the Chipboard word “Birthday Wishes" and added a subtitle with the ephemera word that says “it's party time!”. 

I love how colorful and vibrant this layout turned out, perfect for a Birthday memory! Hope you guys like it and feel inspired to create with this super fun collection and awesome sketch! 

Have an awesome weekend!

 

Love,

Gloria

 

Products I used:

Birthday Bash Collection Kit

Birthday Bash Ciao Chip

Birthday Bash Puffy Stickers

Birthday Bash Bella Pops

Birthday Bash Ephemera Words

Birthday Bash Ephemera Icons

Birthday Bash Epoxy Dots

Birthday Bash and SCT Sketch Team Up | Maree

Hi Bella friends,

I'm excited to share my layout with you today. It is a team up with Scrapbook and Cards Today Magazine. I followed an awesome sketch supplied by them, for this fun starburst layout. Also - keep an eye out for a giveaway on Friday this week, sponsored by SCT magazine!

This was the sketch from SCT magazine. I adore the details in the sketch and it made it really easy to create from!

This is what I came up with! I kept pretty true to the sketch with my photo sizes and placement but I made the circle more centralized on the page. I did this because in the new Birthday Bash collection there is a fun paper called 'Burst' that made it really easy to just cut apart and adhere to the page.

I keep the blue, greens and yellow sections for my layout. I distressed all the edges and the sewed the sections down on the page. I cut a couple of other sections from other papers to keep it in the cool tones.

Next I cut 3 circles on my Cricut and distressed all the edges. I also sewed that down, centrally on the page. I added my photos and then worked on my title. I used the Ciao Chip to create the title. I just love the font on the word 'wishes', it is so fun!

Next I created the 3 clusters of embellishments, with similar placements to the sketch. I cut up some of the stars from the 'Amazing you' paper. I think they are just so pretty!

I used some pieces from the Ephemera words package and some cute puffy stickers to finish off.

This collection is so versatile. Even though I focused on the cool colors for this layout there are so many bright colors to compliment any birthday pics you may have.

 My favorite embellishment has to be the cute candle at the end of the title though! It's adorable and the perfect complement to the layout. I hope you enjoyed seeing this layout and will give this sketch a go yourself. It was a really visually interesting layout to create.

Birthday Bash Collection

Collection Kit

Ciao Chip

Ephemera words

Puffy stickers

 

Sketch Week | Laura Alberts

Hello friends! Today I'm sharing my take on this fabulous sketch created by Allison Davis for Scrapbook & Cards Today. Loved the resemblance in this background to a chevron, so I leaned into that for my design.

I pulled out the Our Love Song collection for this sweet set of photos of my youngest at a hands-on museum. The colors in these photos were so bright and cheerful, Our Love Song was a perfect match. While the layout took on a bold and bright look overall, I love that the photos still stand out thanks to the clusters around them.

For my large title, I fussy cut the words from the Borders patterned paper and lined it up along the top edge of the chevron. Behind my photos, I tucked two tags from the Word Ephemera pack and a few lovely florals as well.

 

Underneath of my photos is a subtitle that helps connect the two photos to a linear base. I added a scalloped border sticker from the Doohickey sticker sheet to level the bottom of my photo cluster.

Each of my floral clusters began with a few larger florals from the Words Ephemera pack, then are layered with puffy stickers from the Love You More set. I especially liked these little puffy triangles which added a whimsical emphasis to the photo cluster and draws the eye straight to these fun photos!

Our Love Song Collection Kit

Bella Besties Graph & Dot - Blueberry/Bell Pepper

Our Love Song Doohickey Sticker Set

Love You More Puffy Stickers

You're My Jam Epoxy Stickers

Sketch Week | Brianna Lepper

Hey friends!  Brianna Lepper here today with a fun travel themed layout using a sketch that's from the Spring 2023 issue of SCT Magazine.  I love this sketch and I really enjoyed creating with it.  Here's my page: 

Here's the sketch: 

I haven't worked with the Time to Travel collection in a while, so I thought it would be fun to pair it with this sketch.  I pretty much followed the design of the sketch and didn't deviate too much away from it.  I started my page by trimming down my paper from the collection into strips that were about 3/4" inch thick.  Using a piece of white cardstock as my base, I adhered the strips down to match the sketch, making sure to alternate patterns and colors.  

Once the strips were all adhered down, I ran the whole page through my sewing machine a few times. Machine stitching really adds that extra something and ties everything together.  I am loving all of these patterns together!!

For my title, I used a phrase from the Ciao Chip Chipboard sticker sheet and adhered it right under my photo that I had already matted with a few scraps of paper.  

This collection has the cutest icons/elements and it was so fun to embellish this page.  I used the Ephemera Icons, Ephemera Words and the Doohickey Cardstock Stickers.  

I even added a super cute plane from the Ciao Chip Chipboard sticker sheet.  It went perfectly right on top of this map ephemera piece!

For some finishing touches, I added a few Trinket Puffy Heart Stickers in White and some of the Fruity Mix Enamel Dots.  

Thank you so much for stopping by today, I hope that I've inspired you in some way!  I hope that you'll play along and use this sketch for your next project.  It's a great one! See you next time friends!

Bella Blvd Supplies Used: 

Time To Travel Collection: 12x12 Patterned Papers, Ciao Chip Chipboard Stickers, Doohickey Stickers, Ephemera Words, Ephemera Icons; Bella Besties: Trinkets Puffy Stickers in White; Enamel Dots Fruity Mix

Sketch Week Inspired | To the Moon | Niki Rowland

Hi everyone, this is Niki @nikiclairecreates and here is a new layout and process video. I’m playing along with this month’s sketch and I’ve used the To the Moon Collection!

I used the sketch as a starting point and chose a 6x4 landscape photo to go in the big space at the top. I mounted this on to a black journaling card. I have used that wonderful constellations paper as my background.

I then decided to use the remaining pieces of the To the Moon Cut Out set. These are sets of pre-cut cut files that come with cutting templates so they can be back filled. What an amazing product these are for people without electronic cutting machines! I had already used the title on a previous layout so I was left with a cluster of stars to use.

I made three of the stars into shaker pockets, by backing them with acetate, adding a wall of foam pads around the edges of the shapes, filling them with sequins and closing them up with patterned paper. I back filled the remaining shapes normally.

Because my star cluster was quite large, it looked a bit off balance with the photo in the middle as represented by the sketch, so I moved the whole design over to the right side.  Sketches are a starting point and can be adapted to work with the supplies that you have or want to use!

I added an ephemera title ‘I love you more than all the stars in the sky’ which is such an adorable phrase!

Down at the bottom of the layout, I added a couple of label stickers. I further embellished the cluster of stars with more punched stars, chipboard stickers and cardstock stickers. I also used some enamel shapes.

I finished off with splatters of white paint. I really love how this one turned out! Process video below - enjoy!

This is my final layout of my Creative Team term with Bella Blvd. I’ve loved inspiring you over the last year with these beautiful Bella Blvd products that are so bright and fun to use. Thank you so much for having me!

Happy scrapping

Niki xx

@nikiclairecreates 

 

Products used:

To the Moon Collection: 12x12 Papers, Love You To the Moon Cut-Out, Ephemera, Chipboard Stickers, Cardstock Stickers, Enamel Shapes

Bella Besties: Freehand Graph and Dot

Other: Sequins, acetate, white acrylic paint, star punches.

Sketch Week | Tegan

Good day Bella Blvd friends! Are you loving Sketch Week?!? I know I sure am!

Here is a reminder of what this week's sketch is...

And here is my take on it using mostly the You Are My Sunshine collection! Spring is almost here and I am ready for it! 

I was more than happy to break out the sunny day embellishments! Hot air balloon and sun die cut ephemera pieces? Yes, please! 

Anyone else ready for rainbows and fireflies? Here I used more You Are My Sunshine embellishments such as the chipboard rainbow and the ephemera firefly diecut. I then decorated this cluster with puffy stickers from the Let Us Adore Him collection.

For the bottom design element I used the pretty butterfly patterned You Are My Sunshine Young and Free paper. It's one of my favorites from the collection! I then used phrase stickers from the Doohickey Sticker Sheet and some of the Bella Blvd Ice Dot Washi Tape. 

I absolutely love layouts that are full of color and Bella Blvd products help me achieve that look! I am also a huge fan of layering patterned papers like I did to anchor my photo. I am IN LOVE with that rainbow striped Sunshine Patterned Paper again from the You Are My Sunshine collection! To make the title, I used an acrylic Bella Blvd word (sweet) and white alphabet stickers from the You Are My Sunshine Doohickey Sticker Sheet. 

Thanks for joining us today! I hope I have inspired you to grab the fabulous March Sketch for your next layout! 

Bella Blvd Products Used:

You Are My Sunshine Collection: Young and Free Patterned Paper, Sunshine Patterned Paper, Doohickey Sticker Sheet, Ephemera, Chipboard Stickers

Let Us Adore Him Puffy Stickers, Hearts & Ombre Patterned Paper in Punch, Acrylic Word (New & Sweet Pack), Graph & Dot Patterned Paper in Guacamole

 

Sketch Week | Brianna Lepper

Hey friends!  Brianna here today sharing a new layout using the beautiful March Sketch designed by fellow CT Member Niki Rowland.  I love working with sketches and had so much fun creating with this one.  This week, we were free to choose any collection to work with and I chose the My Candy Girl collection.  While on vacation back in December, we had ice cream on the Santa Barbara pier and this collection was perfect to document such a great trip.  I have a process video down at the end of this post, so if you'd like to see how this page came together, make sure to check it out!

Here's this months sketch: 

The sketch has a bit of a mixed media background at the top so I took out a stencil from my stash and used it to stamp on some ink.  I smooshed a couple of ink pads to my glass mat, sprayed some water into it and dipped each stencil into the ink.  I lightly kissed the stencil to my cardstock to create a fun grid look, similar to the sketch.  I added it to the top and also added a bit to the bottom.  I trimmed off an inch from the top and side of my white cardstock and adhered it to one of the 12x12 patterned papers to create a colorful border.  

The sketch calls for a photo and embellishments at the top of the page with a smaller cluster right under it at the bottom of the page.  I matted my photo with a few patterned papers and built embellishment clusters to the left and right of it.  I took out the ice cream cone from the Sweet Girl Cut Out and backed it with some of the patterned papers.  

Here are the embellishments on the right side of my photo.  The ice cream and treats in this collection are so adorable.

I created my title using a phrase from the Ciao Chip Chipboard Stickers, Aria Alphas in Punch and the Florence Alphas in Bell Pepper.

 

I added a fun cluster on the bottom of my page using some of the border stickers from the Doohickey Cardstock Stickers as well as a few Ephemera pieces.  

As a finishing detail, I added in some of the super cute Epoxy Sprinkles stickers.  

Thank you so much for stopping by and I hope that I've inspired you in some way today.  I hope you love creating with this sketch, it's a great one!  See you in my next post friends.  

 

Bella Blvd Supplies Used: 

My Candy Girl Collection: 12x12 Patterned Papers, Doohickey Cardstock Stickers, Ciao Chipboard Stickers, Epoxy, Cute Clips, Ephemera and Cut Outs; Bella Besties: Florence Alphas in Bell Pepper and Aria Alphas in Punch.  

 

Sketch Week | Sarah K

Hello, Bella friends! It's me Sarah (@redoaklines), here on the blog, and I'm kicking off sketch week with my take on it using the Home Sweet Home collection.

As a reference, here is March's sketch (created by the talented Niki) that I used for inspiration:

Here's the layout I created with the sketch provided above:

By the looks of it, this sketch looks like it caters to only one photo! But that's the fun thing about sketches, you use it to inspire you. Instead of one photo, I felt inspire to use two. Even though I changed up the number of photos, I didn't want to stray too much from the original sketch because I love the simple look of it.

I started out by stamping a grid on the top of my layout. Then, I layered patterned papers on top of my grid. I picked out two photos, and I started creating embellishment clusters around them.

For these embellishment clusters, I used some of the die cuts from the Home Sweet Home Ephemera Icons, a tree from the Ciao Chips, and stickers from the Doohickey sticker sheet. I also added some various colored puffy star stickers to add dimension to my layout.

 

I love that Ciao Chips always come with an easy title solution. In the Home Sweet Home collection, I found that the Ciao Chip "family" works perfectly for this layout. Each piece is adhesive-backed, so you just have to peel and stick!

My embellishment cluster at the bottom of my page is very similar to the ones on top. It's a compilation of Bella Besties trinkets puffy stickers, as well as Doohickey stickers from the Home Sweet Home collection.

Ta-da! Layout complete! Hopefully, I've inspired you to create something with this sketch! How 'bout it?! I'd love to see your interpretation. It could be using Home Sweet Home or whatever you fancy. Either way, please feel free to share it with us on all of Bella's socials by tagging us! 

As always, thanks for reading and joining me today!

Until next time,

Sarah.

Bella Blvd Supplies Used:

Home Sweet Home: Patterned Papers, Ephemera Icons, Doohickey Sticker Sheet, Ciao Chips; Bella Besties: Hearts and Ombre Rainbow 12x12 Collection Kit, Trinkets Puffy Stickers

Sketch Week - Day 6 | Nathalie DeSousa

Hi there!

Nathalie with you today to continue with this week's sketch inspiration.   A sketch is an easy and fast way to put a layout together, as it works as a blueprint for your imagination.   Let's check the sketch (provided by Brianna) one more time:

I just love the shapes she has used in the sketch, and decided to shrink it for my layout, featuring To the Moon collection:

I wanted to bring the elements of the sketch as the focus of the layout, so I decided to shrink the sketch so that it fits inside a 8.5x11 white cardstock page.  This just makes anything that is inside the large circle of the page the focus of the layout, while giving me space to play with paper.

I started by cutting out a 6" circle from the top of the white cardstock, and hand stitched a small frame around it. I chose a color of embroidery floss that matches the color of my nephew's suit.   Once I was done with the stitching, I backed the space with the Daily Details paper.

I glued the entire page then to the center of the Imagine paper. I left the edge of the white paper clean so that it pops from the background, but considered adding a handstitched edge, too.  Simplicity won this time around, though!

I used two 2x3 photos (I layered pieces of paper from To The Moon collection behind them), and placed them as per the sketch.  Here, I cut a 4" circle from Little Explorer paper, and a 3.5" circle from the Out Of This World paper. I handstitched around each circle with matching embroidery floss.   I follow the sketch, and tucked the circles under the photos, then proceeded to embellish it all

I used the puffy stars, and doohickey stars and hearts from the collection to add the stars around the photos and circles.  I am using Heart Hugs to bring in more texture and tie all the clusters together.  The To the Moon Chipboard stickers had the perfect sentiment for my title.   All that was left was to add a few drops of black ink, and the journaling.

I hope this inspires you to take a chance with the sketch. You are going to be amazed at how easy your layout will come together using the sketch as inspiration!

 

XO

 

BELLA BLVD supplies:

TO THE MOON collection: Patterned paper, puffy stickers, Doohickey stickers, chipboard stickers

Heart Hugs collection: Big Boy

 

Sketch Week- Day 5 | Tegan

Good day everyone, Tegan here! I hope you all are enjoying sketch week! I know I sure am! Seeing different takes on the same sketch is so fun! I love that this sketch involves circles, which is something I sometimes forget about when I create my layouts. Here's the amazing sketch again for reference...

I have been wanting to document photos of my new recue pooch, so I pulled out the darling Cooper collection!  I stuck to the basic sketch design, but I wanted to create a fun design with the main circle. I first cut a large 8" circle into the Bella Besties Freehand Graph & Dot White Patterned Paper. I then made a rainbow striped background with 2-inch strips of Bella Besties Hearts & Ombre Patterned Papers in Orange, Pickle Juice, McIntosh, and Blueberry. I then added Puffy Heart Stickers around the design. I used the Trinkets Puffy Stickers in Orange, Pickle Juice & Guacamole, McIntosh, and Blueberry. I love that all of the Bella Blvd products coordinate so well! 

I wanted to incorporate a little more interest to my rainbow circle, so I added a piece of the dog print cut outs from the Faithful Friends Cut-Outs pack. I then backed some of the paws with the spotted Cooper Puppers Patterned Paper so it would stand out a little bit more. I love how this design turned out! I then embellished the layout with little die cut pieces from the Ephemera pack. 

I used some more Ephemera pieces to create a fast fun title and accents on the page. I then added Bella Blvd Puffy Star Stickers... an oldie but definitely still a goodie! 

I did even include the two smaller circle design elements but they got covered up by the pictures a little. But I love the little bit of pattern that they add underneath the photos. I absolutely love working with sketches.... do you?! I love them for when I get stuck or just want to try something different! What is your favorite thing about this sketch?! 

Thank you for joining us today! I hope you find some time to create a layout from this sketch. I know you will have a blast like I did! And if you have a pooch, the Cooper collection is perfect! 

Bella Blvd Products Used:

Cooper Collection: Puppers Patterned Paper, Ephemera Pack

Bella Besties Patterned Papers: Freehand Graph & Dot White, Hearts & Ombre Orange, Hearts & Ombre Pickle Juice, Hearts & Ombre McIntosh, Hearts & Ombre Blueberry

Cut-Outs: Faithful Friend

Trinkets Puffy Stickers: Orange, Pickle Juice & Guacamole, McIntosh, Blueberry