So, funny story to the making of this month's project sheet for Bella Blvd. Usually, I'm given a specific that I'm supposed to work with, and some sort of "challenge" to incorporate into the design. Well, for the July project sheet, I was told I could use whatever I wanted. Knowing that the project sheet would be going up on the blog on the 4th of July, I had plans of doing a patriotic layout of some kind.
I did my best to dig out some navy blue, red, and grey patterned paper and got started on a creative star background for the page. I had photos printed, matted on patterned paper, title done and adhere, and even did some machine stitching. And then? I threw it in the trash. I hated it, and after showing it to a friend that said "I don't love it", I decided it needed to go.
I decided to start all over, and pulled out the Fresh Market collection, thinking that would make for a great summery layout. These are actually photos from Sarah's birthday party years ago, but I pulled out photos specifically of the family members that were there that day to use on this page. I had a basic page design in mind, and knew I wanted to use small square photos, so I printed out eight photos as 2.5 x 2.5" squares.
I had this vision of doing three rows of photos, with three main patterned paper strips, and then adding borders and other thin strips of patterned paper between the rows. I also knew that I wanted to use several strips of the black and white dotted patterned paper, as it's a favorite of mine. I happen to love the fruit slice patterned papers in this collection. I'm going with "fruit slice", since the orange slice patterned paper shown above also comes in yellow (lemon slice?), and there's a strip of it in green (lime slice?) on the Borders patterned paper.
So I knew that I would use the orange and yellow fruit slice patterned papers as two of my main paper strips - the ones where my photos would go.
For my third main patterned paper strip, I decided to go with the aqua scalloped lines paper. I added in a few strips of the black and white dotted patterned paper, and a few border strips, in between each row.
I arranged my photos along my three rows of patterned paper, and then adhered them, tucking the top or bottom edge of the photos under the thin patterned paper strips. Grounding them in a sense. I used the "Summertime Fun" 3x4" card from the Daily Details patterned paper for my title.
Along with my 2.5 x 2.5" photos, I also cut out several of the 2 x 2" squares from one of the patterned papers to add into the mix as well. I machine stitched around the edges of each little card, and distressed the edges, before adhering them along with my photos.
To embellish the page, I added some white chipboard hearts, black enamel dots, and a few stickers.
You can download the July project sheet, complete with supply list and detailed instructions, RIGHT HERE.
Comments