Bella Blvd: Brothers

Someone asked me last week when I was going to share this particular CHA layout. How about today, Janet? Lol. Good timing, since it was up on the Bella Blvd blog yesterday.

First things first. I am well aware that there should NOT be an apostrophe in "Brothers". Was I aware of this when I adhered my letter stickers for my layout title? NO. But it was pointed out to me by a good friend. AFTER I had photographed it, and AFTER it was on it's way to the Bella office. Soooooo. I've received numerous grammer lessons on this already. Lol. I actually photoshopped the apostrophe out when posting this layout to the Bella blog yesterday, because I didn't want another lesson. But I figured I would just post the real deal here. I'm the furthest thing from perfect, and here's the proof ;)

Soooo. Now that I got that out of the way. Lol. Aren't these boys so handsome? Remember THIS LAYOUT from a few weeks ago? That was Miranda, little sister to Sam and Jeromy. Sam (the younger boy) was one of my very first daycare kids, about 10 years ago. I took these photos almost 5 years ago, so he's so much bigger now.

I created this layout to showcase Bella's stick pin flags. I laid out every pack of flags that Bella makes, including the new designs, and then set out to pick a variety of flags from those sets that would all coordinate nicely for this boyish layout.

I did have to get a bit creative. See that yellow flag? I knew I needed a touch of yellow, to tie in with my border sticker. But I wasn't finding a yellow flag that would work. But there was a yellow flag that said "Cat's Rule", and it had a pawprint on it. I figured I would just cover that up with a sticker or something.

 Funny thing was, I forgot. So I sent this layout in for the catalog, thinking I rocked it. A while later, Stephanie emailed me, saying she loved it ... BUT ... she wasn't sure how the "Cat's Rule" flag tied in. Lol. See. Just more proof that I'm far from perfect. I quickly covered it up with a piece of the border sticker, and re-photographed it. Too bad we didn't catch the apostrophe ;)

I've used this trick before, to add a bit of subtle interest to my patterned paper. I cut an extra strip of my striped paper, and then punched some half circles from the paper and from some scrap chipboard. I adhered the paper circles to the chipboard, sanded down the edges, and then adhered them across my striped paper strip, matching up the stripes. It's subtle, but still interesting.

If you're loving the new Bella collections, you'll be very happy to know that all of the product has arrived at the Bella offices, and is in the process of being packed up and shipped out to LSS's and online retailers! You'll be able to get your hands on our fun products very, very soon!

Comments

[dawn]

OMG LAURA, you are sooooo amazing and talented. I LOVE LOVE coming here and seeing all the latest and cutest layouts/cards/projects you've made. Love that I can always find lots of girly pages but have just right amount of boy pages also.
I am coming back later today to comment when I have more time.

[Laura T.]

LOVE the layout. Love when we get to see boy layouts from you. I have been loving all the Bella products.

[Janet]

Yippeee....I was waiting for this layout! So your style. First off- with the 'cats rule' and the 'brother's' wording- you know those 2 kinda go together in some form of slang somewhere in the country...ha......
Maybe you should have left both..lol!

I absolutely LOVe how you take circles from the same pattern paper and layer them. This technique of yours first caught my eye on the CK cover issue with the layout featuring a boy in the backyard with a swing. I think it may have been a Tips and Tricks issue.

And oh those glafs- I am SO gonna place an order for these. I think it will be the perfect embellishment for me. I have been looking for something other than brads- so this will fit the bill.

And is that grid paper I see? lol
Such a PERFECT layout- I love it and I love the story behind it too.!

[Janet]

that was to be 'flags' not glafs.
I have an ear infection and everything is
back-wards 2day. I have to go s.l.o.w when I type or that is what you get.

[SandraA]

Love the layout! Your imperfections are PERFECT.

[malflu]

beautiful LO. This wonderful idyll and brothers as angels :-)

[dawn]

How funny the stories are on this layout, thanks for the laugh. Glad to know that even you make little mistakes. It all looks good to me though, love all the circles, patter papers together. Those flags are the sweetest, how perfect on this page.

[Kim Thomas]

It's a gorgeous layout! Who cares about mistakes, that's what makes us human. It's our layouts, and they are perfect the way they are. My oldest daughter corrects me all the time. Oh well!!! Thank you for sharing. You are amazing. Take care. :)

[Christine Ousley]

Wow, what an amazing page, mistakes and all. So glad I'm not the only one. Photoshop is wonderful isn't it? Cracks me up about the Cats Rule one!! Love all of the interesting details on your layout, especially the chipboard and circle embellishments. Cool technique!!
Have a great day!
xoxo, Christine

[Diana Waite]

this is FANTASTIC!!

[Ruth G]

I think your mind was on the cool dimensional circle thing you've got going on with that border (which really plays well with the background circle paper!) to worry too much about punctuation or relevant content. I also wonder if it had been a long day and you were just glad to have completed something of beauty that would last! TFS everything, including your later discoveries which made me smile almost as much as your LO did!

[Sara Rossi]

I love EVERYTHING about this LO! I think for all the hard work you do during CHA the slight oops here & there are natural but we're ALL human. Lord knows I've made mistakes on LO's & often slip them into my albums as is. I've got your back my friend. People that feel the need to point out mistakes in other people's lives are just trying to avoid scrutiny in their own lives. You ROCK as ALWAYS!!

[Carla]

so gorgeous!! I love the flags and circles and YES there is human behind those pages, just like us...but cranking out dozens of projects a month ;)