... just Laura

Bella Blvd: CHA Winter 2016 Reveal Week - Cute Clips

 

It’s CHA Winter 2016 reveal time over on the Bella Blvd blog! There are 6 new collections, along with new embellishments and a huge Illustrated Faith release. We started the reveals earlier this week, and will be continuing all the way thru Monday of next week. Today we are sharing the new Cute Clips embellishments.

I created a layout for the catalog, with a focus on the new Cute Clips. I love working on the embellishment focused layouts for the catalog, since I get to mix patterned papers and other elements from all of the new collections, rather than focusing on just a single collection. I used quite a few patterned papers from the new IF She Blooms collection, and then added a few patterned papers from the Sweet Baby Girl collection, Cute Baby Boy collection, and Sweet Sweet Spring collection.

As soon as I saw a sneak peek of the Cute Clips, I had an idea in mind for my layout. It wasn't quite like what I ended up doing, but it did involve stacked pieces of patterned paper, with the little clips added to the top of each paper. I think my original idea was to go all the way across the page with the different papers. However, once I got going, I ended up creating a stacked row of papers, three inches wide, along the left side of the page.

To the right of my layered papers, I used a strip of the floral patterned paper from the She Blooms collection, with a piece of white hearts Clear Cuts layered over the top to give it a more subtle look. The black and white large dot patterned paper is from the She Blooms collection as well.

Part of the reason I decided to make these layered papers all three inches wide, is that I used most of the black/white 3x4" cards from a sheet of patterned paper in the She Blooms collection. It was a great way to get more patterns onto the page, from a single sheet of paper. I cut several smaller pieces of my different patterned papers, keeping them all three inches wide, and then cut an additional little piece of each that I used my favorite scalloped border punch on. I folded the scalloped pieces over the top of the larger pieces, and machine stitched it in place.

I then spent way more time than was necessary arranging all of the pieces in an order that I liked. I adhered them, starting at the top of the page, layering them as I went. I made sure not to add any adhesive near the top of each piece, since I knew I would be tucking in my Cute Clips and some other label die cuts/stickers as well. Once I had the papers all layered down the page, I set out to find some coordinating label stickers and/or die cuts from the bits and pieces I had left (I didn't have all of the collections, or even full collections, for these catalog layouts). I tucked the labels, along with a coordinating clip onto most of the layers of papers.

I loved the aqua heart patterned paper from the She Blooms collection, and thought it was my best choice to add to the right side of the page, where my title would go. And for my title, I picked out a few words from our new Chip Scripts chipboard words. These words all come in plain white, and can be left as-is (which I did because they looked great as-is), or painted, inked, or altered to fit your needs.

I also picked out a few of the stickers from the She Blooms collection to add above my title, as they really tied in with my journaling. I added the pink chipboard heart from the Sweet Baby Girl collection, along with a handful of enamel dots in several colors.

I didn't have any set photos in mind when I started this layout, but quickly came across these photos of another one of my previous daycare girlies. Amanda was with me for years, was just a year younger than Sarah, and was best friends with my girls for years. She was honestly like a third daughter to me when she was younger, and I had always said that about her. Just a little over a year ago, as a freshmen in high school, she went into cardiac arrest in the classroom, where she had CPR performed on her for a half hour before EMS could get there. She came so very close to not being with us anymore, and it's a true miracle that she's alive today. While we don't see her that often these days (Sarah sees her at school), and she's not a big part of our lives anymore like she used to be, she is still a very special young lady to us all and we're so thankful that everything turned out ok for her.

Head on over to the Bella Blvd blog, HERE, to see the entire Cute Clips release, piece by piece, and to enter the drawing for a chance to win-it-before-you-can-buy-it! The randomly chosen winners for ALL of the reveal giveaways will be announced on Saturday, January 9th.

Bella Blvd: CHA Winter 2016 Reveal Week - Sweet Baby Girl & Cute Baby Boy Collections

It’s CHA Winter 2016 reveal time over on the Bella Blvd blog! There are 6 new collections, along with new embellishments and a huge Illustrated Faith release. We started the reveals yesterday, and will be continuing all the way thru Monday of next week. Today we are sharing the new Sweet Baby Girl collection and the Cute Baby Boy collection.

I worked with the Sweet Baby Girl collection for the catalog, and created the layout above. The colors of the collection made me think about these photos of a previous daycare girlie of mine, Haley. I'm pretty sure I used her photos when I worked with the older baby collection several years ago too. Seems that she's my go-to baby girl. Lol. The disadvantage of having all of my girls baby photos on film and not as easily accessible.

I wanted to incorporate several of the chipboard animals from the Chipboard Icons sheet, and decided to create four columns on the page to create sort of a block/grid design. I used one patterned paper for each column, adding my photos into three of the four columns. This helped to create several smaller blocks of patterned paper in which to arrange my title and embellishments.

I've always considered myself a B-side scrapper, as I gravitate towards the tone-on-tone patterned papers more so than the busier patterns. I chose a few of the tone-on-tone patterns for three of my columns - the pink hearts, the purple dots, and the yellow swirls. I also trimmed up some white confetti Clear Cuts transparency pieces to layer over the purple dotted patterned paper and one of the blocks of yellow swirl patterned paper.

I then added the cute little chipboard animals to a few of the blocks, and worked in a few of the Paper Pieces die cuts too. I cut up the yellow scalloped border sticker and used it above/below a few photos, and tucked in a few tab die cuts above my photos as well. The final embellishments were these adorable little bow clips, which we will officially be revealing on Thursday.

The floral patterned paper was the busier paper that I chose to work into the page, and I used a thinner strip of that for one full column. I added the darker pink scalloped border sticker along one side of the floral patterned paper and then added white and pink enamel dots to some of the flowers.

For my title, I used the "girl" chipboard letters from the Chipboard Icons sheet, and added the "sweet" chipboard word, which is from a new embellishment we'll be revealing later this week. I needed some white on the page to break things up, so I ran a piece of white textured cardstock through a woodgrain embossing folder, spritzed it with pink misting spray, and used it to hold my title.

Head on over to the Bella Blvd blog, HERE, to see the entire Sweet Baby Girl collection and the Cute Baby Boy collection, piece by piece, and to enter the drawing for a chance to win-it-before-you-can-buy-it! The randomly chosen winners for ALL of the reveal giveaways will be announced on Saturday, January 9th.

Bella Blvd: CHA Winter 2016 Reveal Week - Let's Go Collection

 

It’s CHA Winter 2016 reveal time over on the Bella Blvd blog! There are 6 new collections, along with new embellishments and a huge Illustrated Faith release. We are starting the reveals today, and will be continuing all the way thru Monday of next week. Today we are sharing the new Let's Go collection.

I created this layout for the catalog, using some photos I borrowed from my good friend Erin Terrell Clarkson. When it comes to travel photos, she always has amazing pictures. I'm extremely limited on travel photos, so I went straight to Erin. I'll be totally honest here, and tell you that I only had three patterned papers to work with for this layout, as the full collection wasn't ready at the time. There's definitely a lot of white on this page, whereas after seeing the full collection (after creating this), it's full of colorful patterned papers.

When doing catalog work, I also work with mock up products when it comes to papers and stickers. Which is why my cute little green scalloped border "sticker" wasn't quite the full twelve inches it should have been to go the full length of the page ;) I decided to use the white and grey airplane patterned paper for the main part of my page, where I knew my title and embellishments would go. I knew they would stand out the best against that paper.

I used the text patterned paper for the sides of the page, making the left side quite a bit wider than the right side. I worked the aqua airplane patterned paper into the bottom of the page, below my two photos, where I knew my journaling strips would go.

For my title, I combined the "go see do" from the chipboard icons, the "travel" die cut from the paper pieces die cut package, and the word "together" which is from one of our new chipboard sheets (coming later this week). I ended up outlining the word "together", along with some of my other die cut pieces, with a black pen to help them stand out a bit more against the white and grey patterned paper.

I really love that the paper pieces are back. The new die cut packs have a lot more designs to choose from, and they're different for each collection. Our previous paper pieces had all of the same shapes, just different colors/sayings, for each collection. I incorporated a few banner pieces, a fun tag, the word "travel", and several clouds from the package. I also worked in a few chipboard elements, with the clouds and the airplane.

Head on over to the Bella Blvd blog, HERE, to see the entire collection, piece by piece, and to enter the drawing for a chance to win-it-before-you-can-buy-it! The randomly chosen winners for ALL of the reveal giveaways will be announced on Saturday, January 9th.

Bella Blvd: Step-By-Step Project Sheet - Make It Merry Collection

It's the first Monday of the month, which means it's time for a new monthly project sheet layout to go up on the Bella Blvd blog. For this month, I was asked to focus on the Make It Merry collection. This is a smaller collection than most Bella collections, as it is meant to pair up with our Christmas Cheer collection from last year. I set out knowing that I could bring in a few other pieces if needed, but I ended up sticking to just the Make It Merry collection.

As for the handsome little boy, that's Zachary, my cousin's son and a cute kiddo that I also had the pleasure of taking care of for a few years when he was little. When I looked at this collection, these photos of him were the first ones that came to mind, and I knew they'd be perfect.

I also knew right away that I wanted to use white cardstock for the background of my page, so that the reds and greens of the patterned papers would really stand out. I just love how the black star Clear Cut transparency looked laid over the white cardstock, and it picked up the touches of black in the Santa patterned paper. I adhered the Clear Cut using glue dots along the top and bottom edges, and I also added a few glue dots to the center of the page, as I knew my photo/papers would cover that up.

I then added some strips of pattered paper and the scalloped border stickers along the top and bottom of the page, which covered up the glue dots along those edges. I machine stitched along the top and bottom as well, to really secure things.

I picked out three patterned papers - a green tone-on-tone print, a red with white triangles print, and the cute Santa print - and layered them one on top of the other, along with my photo collage. I printed my collage as a 5x7", so you could easily use a single 5x7" photo instead. I thought the little tab stickers worked really well tucked into the different layers of papers.

For my title, I used the white alpha stickers from the Treasures & Text sticker sheet, along with the red Amorie chipboard alphas. I was worried the white alpha stickers wouldn't show up that well, once I had my white background picked out. But since I partially layered them over the patterned papers, it worked out.

I love to distress the edges of my patterned papers on most of my layouts. It takes no time at all, and adds a lot of texture to the page, so the papers don't appear so "flat". I also machine stitched around the edges of each patterned paper, before adhering the entire layered piece to the center of the page.

You can download and/or print a copy of this month's project sheet, complete with a full supply list and detailed instructions, RIGHT HERE.

Bella Blvd: What's Most Important In Life Is Family

Last week, I shared the first of two layouts that I created a while back for Bella Blvd, for a special company spotlight feature at Paper Crafter's Library. That feature went up last Wednesday, and there's a giveaway that is still open, if you'd like to get in on a chance to win some of Bella's new Tiny Text alpha stickers! They'll be announcing the winner on Wednesday, this week.

For my second layout, just like the first one, I used Bella’s Family Frenzy collection, along with the new Clear Cut transparencies and Tiny Text alpha stickers. The Clear Cuts come in a wide variety of colors, as well as patterns – confetti dots, chevron, stars, and hearts – that coordinate with all of Bella’s paper collections. I’m a simple girl at heart, so my favorite Clear Cuts to use, and the ones I turn to the most, are the white patterns. 

Bella’s new Tiny Text alpha stickers, which are 12x12 sheets, come in 10 different styles – 8 sheets that contain 5 different colors in 2 fonts, 1 sheet of all white in 2 fonts, and 1 sheet of all black in 2 fonts. These tiny alpha stickers are perfect for adding subtitles to your title work, or adding additional little details to the page. 

I love to create large die cut titles, and then using tiny alpha stickers to finish out my title. So these new Tiny Text alphas are perfect for that. I love that there are so many color options to choose from, and they will coordinate with any and all of Bella's colorful collections.

The Clear Cuts also work perfectly in die cut machines. I used my Silhouette Cameo to die cut the word “family” from both patterned paper and the white heart Clear Cut, and layered them together for a really cool looking title. 

To adhere the outline of the word "family", I ran it through my Xyron so that I would be guaranteed to have a good amount of adhesive on the entire piece. I then adhered it to the transparency "family". To adhere the transparency die cut "family" to the green die cut "family", I used some mini silver brads to secure it in three different areas.

When laid over patterned papers, they help tone down the busier patterns and really stand out against the simpler tone-on-tone patterns. The floral patterned paper along the bottom of my layout isn’t necessarily that busy of a pattern, but by laying the white chevron Clear Cut transparency over it, it softens the look of it. 

I also love that floral patterned paper for fussy cutting out the flowers to embellish my projects. I'm not a huge fan of fussy cutting, but sometimes it's well worth the few extra minutes it takes.

Bella Blvd: They Are All Mine

I created two new layouts a while back for Bella Blvd, for a special company spotlight featured at Paper Crafter's Library, which went up today. Just a head's up - Bella is sponsoring a giveaway on the Paper Crafter's Library site, so you should definitely stop on by and leave a comment for a chance to win some of their new Tiny Text alpha stickers.

For this layout, I used the Family Frenzy collection, along with the new Clear Cuts transparencies and Tiny Text alpha stickers. Our newest patterns for the Clear Cuts are chevron, stars, and hearts, and I wanted to show all three of those on this layout. 

Bella is known for their great tone-on-tone patterned papers (usually found on the B sides), and they are the patterns that I turn to the most. I pulled out several patterns that coordinated with the Clear Cuts that I wanted to use. By layering the same color patterned paper and Clear Cut together, it keeps with the tone-on-tone look, and doesn’t overwhelm the page. 

I cut strips of each patterned paper and Clear Cut – the green chevron Clear Cut over the green striped patterned paper, the aqua star Clear Cut over the aqua confetti patterned paper, and the red hearts over the red dotted patterned paper. For adhering the transparencies, I try to add my adhesive to places on the Clear Cut that I know will be covered, so that the adhesive doesn’t show. I also use my sewing machine, and machine stitch around the edges to really secure them. 

I also layered the white heart Clear Cut over my white cardstock, to add even more interest to the page. I love to use white cardstock, but often feel like it looks to plain. Adding the white transparency on top gave it a whole new look. I’m also a fan of adding mist to my white cardstock, so I simply did my misting ahead of time, and then layered the Clear Cut over the top once it was dry. 

If you haven't seen the new Tiny Text alpha stickers, you should check them out. There are 10 different sheets, with one being all white and one being all black. The other 8 sheets have a mix of colors, and each sheet contains two different fonts, with three lowercase typewriter sets and two uppercase set, along with a tiny little circle alphabet in the center of the sheet.

I want to wish you all a very happy Thanksgiving tomorrow! I hope you enjoy your holiday, and time spent with family and friends. And of course, lots of turkey and mashed potatoes, which is my favorite part!

Bella Blvd: In My Heart Forever

It's time for another "Spread It Out" feature over on the Bella Blvd blog today, which means that I have a new two page layout to share with you.

I've been a home daycare provider for a little over 14 years now, and have had close to 36 kids (the 36th was actually born yesterday and will be coming here soon!) that I've taken care of throughout those years. There are actually a few more kiddos that have been in the mix, but these are my main ones.

Lately, for different reasons, I've had a lot of these kids on my mind and I felt this need to do a layout focusing on all of the little ones that I've been lucky enough to spend my days with, and to have a small part in helping to raise them during their first few years of life.

The amount of photos I needed worked out perfectly, since I love to line things up and collage photos together. I printed them all as 2x2" photos and they fit across the page in three rows of 12 (minus the one new baby, who I will add in when he gets here).

Finding all of these photos took me forever. Which is crazy, since I did THIS FRAMED PROJECT about two years ago, and I honestly would have thought I had saved all of these photos in a folder somewhere to work from. But I hadn't. So I dug around for hours on my external hard drive, looking for photos of each of these kiddos.

I arranged the photos in sets of four, so they were directly side by side and I could treat them as one "photo" when trimming them from the sheets after printing. I just had to cut some of them in half, since I had 6 kids in each row, on each page. I should have been a little more careful when trimming them, as I left a little white border along the top and bottom, and they're not all even. But they're close enough.

Once I knew where on the pages I would add my rows of photos, that left me the areas to fill with patterned paper. Since I printed all of the photos in black and white, I had way more freedom in choosing my colors for the page. I decided on a black, white, navy blue, green, and yellow color combo, and set out to find patterned papers and other elements in those colors. And I have to point this out, only because I just noticed it. That navy blue 2x2" card says "selfie", and I totally thought it said "captured". My bad. Lol.

I pulled patterned papers from the Daily Chevies, Lucky Stars, Fresh Market, and Whatever Is Lovely collections. I actually had more that I wanted to say on this layout. My original plan was to add my title along the top, and have journaling all across the green patterned paper along the center of the pages. Once I added my title to the center of the page, that didn't leave me with as much room for journaling, so I kept it short and sweet.

I went back and forth for quite a while on my title, finally settling on "In My Heart Forever". Because honestly, every single one of these kids, no matter how much or how little I see of them after they leave me, do have a special place in my heart forever. Ok, if I'm being totally honest, there are 2-3 on here that I haven't thought of since they left. Lol. But that's another story ;)

I kept the rest of the spread pretty simple, since I wanted the focus to stay on the photos, with strips of patterned papers, a few border stickers, and some simple embellishments. I used a few 2x2" cards, either taken from a sheet of patterned paper on the Candid Cards that used to come with some of the collections. I did add a few enamels at the end. But other than those few things, I didn't feel the need to add anything else to the pages.

And that one little spot in the bottom right corner is reserved for the new baby boy, born yesterday morning. Brother to the little girl two photos over. I'll just remove that little square of patterned paper and add in his photo later.

Kerri Bradford Studio & Bella Blvd Team Up: Love At Home

All this week, the designers at Bella Blvd are teaming up with Kerri Bradford's designers, to bring you projects that combine Bella's colorful collections and products with Kerri's cut files. And today, it's my turn to share the layout I created over at Kerri Bradford Studio.

Kerri's cut files and Bella Blvd's colorful collections pretty much go hand-in-hand for me, since I'm lucky enough to design for both teams. I've done quite a few layouts for both Kerri and Bella, featuring photos I've taken of my cousin and his family over the last few years, and I decided to scrap another set of photos of them for my team-up layout.

I pulled my colors from the photos themselves, and picked out some Bella patterned papers in navy blue, yellow, green, and brown. I used the confetti patterned paper as my "neutral" paper for the side of my layout where I knew I'd have my photos and title. 

I usually don't die cut all of my elements from the same patterned paper, but that's just sort of how it worked out this time as I liked the navy blue woodgrain patterned paper for most of my pieces. I die cut the circle border from Kerri's Simplicities: Best Thing Ever kit to add along the left side of page, to break up the "heaviness" of too much patterned paper on the page (if that's even a thing?).

Alongside the circle border strip, I added a strip of yellow chevron patterned paper, layered with a strip of white Confetti Clear Cut transparency on top. I have to say that the white Clear Cuts are my favorite to use, as they're so subtle when laid over any patterned paper or even white cardstock.

To adhere the transparency in place, I cut it a little wider than needed, and added the adhesive under where the confetti patterned paper and the brown border stick were going. Then I machine stitched along the sides to secure it in place.

I love the "together" tab, from the Love: Every Little Thing kit, for tucking behind photos or layers of papers. I won't lie. I often have ideas of tucking things under the edges of papers or photos, and then I often forget to do it before doing my machine stitching. Luckily it all worked out on this layout.

I went with the "love at home" title from Kerri's All In The Family kit, as we took these photo at my cousin's house. We often take their photos in other locations, so I loved the idea of adding the "home" touch to the page.

And to embellish the page, I die cut some of Kerri's Friday Freebies: Flower Power flowers (yes, she's got tons of freebies on her site!) from coordinating patterned papers and added chipboard circles or enamel dots to the centers.

Be sure to visit both the Bella Blvd blog and Kerri Bradford's blog all week long to see what their designers are up too and what they've created for our team up feature. Both sides will also be having a few giveaways this week, so keep your eye out for those as well ;)

Bella Blvd: Step-By-Step Project Sheet - Family Frenzy Collection

It's the first Monday of the month, which means there's a new monthly project sheet up on the Bella Blvd blog today. For this month's layout, I was asked to work with the Family Frenzy collection, the new Clear Cuts, and to incorporate a "home for the holiday" theme into my page and title.

Luckily, I actually had a few photos that would work for this, so that I didn't have to make something up. Lol. The girls took these selfies of themselves when Alyssa was home from college for Thanksgiving last year. I knew they would match well, since Sarah was wearing a red sweater and there's red in the collection.

I started with the "selfie" patterned paper, since these were selfies that the girls took of themselves. I printed three photos - one at 3x4, and two at 3x3 - and arranged them on a strip of the selfie patterned paper. I used the navy blue border strip from the Borders patterned paper, cut into two pieces lengthwise, and added a strip to either side of the selfie patterned paper. I did wait to adhere this entire piece until all of my other papers and Clear Cuts were in place.

For the Clear Cuts, I decided to use the white hearts transparency and the green chevron transparency. I laid a strip of the white hearts over the red patterned paper along the left edge of the page. I made these strips wider than would show on the page, so that I could add the adhesive to the part of the transparency that was behind the other patterned papers.

I cut the green striped patterned paper and the green chevron transparency to the same size, both of which were just a little wider than would show on the page. I added some small glue dots to only the sides of the transparency when adhering it to the page, knowing that the selfie photo strip and the yellow border along the right side of the page would cover the glue dots. 

I cut a larger piece of the white hearts transparency to adhere along the right side of the page. I had my green striped patterned paper pieces and the aqua "family" border strip arranged on the page, so that I knew how tall to make the transparency, adding a little bit extra so that I could hide my adhesive behind the other papers.

For the title, I wanted to incorporate more of the patterned papers and more color, so I decided to hand cut letters for part of my title. I did this recently on another layout, that I haven't shared yet, and I really liked the way it looked. Of course, it takes me forever to do, and the letters never turn out quite like I want them too. But it's still fun to try.

The way I went about this, because I most certainly cannot wing it and cut them freehand, is to sketch out my letters on a piece of tracing paper. I just played around with them until they looked ok, and were sort of the same size and looked good together. Then I cut those out, and traced them onto my patterned papers (I flipped the letters and traced them onto the backsides of my papers for most of these), and then cut out the final letters. I did add a dot to my "i" here, but that was after I had taken my photos. Kind of an afterthought on my part.

Once the patterned papers and transparencies were in place on either side of the page, I adhered my strip of photos/patterned paper in place. Then I went in and did lots of machine stitching, which also helps "adhere" the transparencies in place.

I fussy cut some of the flowers from one of the patterned papers, and used them to embellish the page, adding white enamel dots to the centers of some of them. Since I had added some black pen lines around my title letters, to help them stand out, I did the same to the fussy cut flowers, just to tie them in a bit more.

You can download the November project sheet, complete with full supply list and detailed instructions, RIGHT HERE.

Bella Blvd: Boo-Tiful

It's "Spread It Out" day over on the Bella Blvd blog today, and that means I have another new two page layout to share with you. I had it in my head that I wanted to make a Halloween layout this month, as I had come across these super old photos a few weeks back on a half done layout from years ago.

These are from back in October 2004, so a full eleven years ago. Just like THIS LAYOUT, I simply removed the photos from the previously started layout and did the best I could with them as is (since these are film photos, and not something that I can easily edit/reprint).

It's not often that I actually use typical Halloween colors when it comes to scrapping Halloween photos of the girls. And that's because it was never typical of my girls to choose costumes in typical Halloween colors. But this was one costume, a Spider Countess, that definitely worked with orange and black.

I was able to pull patterned papers and stickers from three different Bella Halloween collections - Too Cute To Spook, Trick or Treat, and Halloween Magic. I started out by die cutting a diamond background from one of the orange patterned papers, and used a piece of it on each page of the spread. I am a huge fan of using die cut backgrounds to break up the "heaviness" of too much patterned paper on the page.

I thought the "too cute to spook" text patterned paper would make a good background for the top of the pages, where I planned on putting my title and some other embellishments.

I came across the "frightfully adorable" sticker, which was the perfect size to fit across my die cut background piece. It ended up working out great, as I needed something to help organize that side of the spread. I fussy cut the spider from the Cute Cuts patterned paper and added a piece of string to the page for him to hang from.

I also fussy cut a few words from another patterned paper to add to the layout, like the "beware" seen above.

The one thing that I do miss about film photos is that you could simply have the camera set to add the date to each photo. I mean, looking at these photos now, it's extremely distracting. Lol. But it takes the thinking out of trying to remember (or having to look up) when the photos were taken.

For the title, I die cut the word "BOO" from the same orange patterned paper that I used for the diamond die cut background. I then added letter stickers to finish off my "boo-tiful" title.

I added some chipboard clouds, all taken from one of the Halloween chipboard sets, to embellish the page, along with a few other chipboard pieces and some enamel dots.

Hope everyone has a safe, and fun, and candy-filled Halloween this weekend!

Scrapbook & Cards Today: Lakeside Water Fishies

I somehow never got around to sharing this layout that I created for the Summer issue of Scrapbook & Cards Today. One of my assignments for that issue was to create a two page, summer themed layout. Easy enough. 

I knew that I wanted to incorporate the Campout collection from Bella Blvd, so I went with these photos taken years ago on a family trip to my uncle's cabin up by the river. I have scrapped them before, but not on any particular layout that I loved. So I didn't mind scrapping them again.

I believe my original plan was to arrange the 3x4" photos, along with some 3x4" pieces of patterned paper along the outside edges of the page, leaving the center part open for my title and journaling. I'm glad I changed my mind along the way, going with this design instead.

I love mixing fonts for my titles, so I went with a die cut word using my Cameo, and some chipboard alphas and letter stickers. I mentioned that my uncle cabin is on a river, right? Well, this title might lead you to believe that we were on a lake. We weren't. But the sticker I used on the second page refers to a lake, and I just figured it was easier to go with the river for my title, since I was set on using that sticker.

For the longest time, I've been printing my journaling in strips. Which I still love. But I'm finding myself printing it in smaller blocks more and more lately. I matted my journaling blocks on a tone-on-tone orange patterned paper to add more color to the page.

I wanted to keep the background of the page simple, so that my photos would stand out, but I still wanted something of interest there. So I went with my all-time favorite circle background die cut from Kerri Bradford, using a summer themed text patterned paper from a super old Bella Blvd collection. I spritzed them both with brown misting spray before adhering them to my white cardstock pages. 

I had to use the little chipboard fishies from the Campout collection. Luckily, I had several packs of the chipboard, since each one only had two fishies. I added some navy blue enamel dots for the bubbles.

When the majority of my background is white, I like to add thin pattered paper strips along the top and bottom of the page. If I'm doing a single page layout, I will often add a scalloped border sticker along with a strip of patterned paper. But when doing two page layouts, I usually pull out the scalloped border punches, and just use a second patterned paper.

If you never got a chance to check out the Summer issue of Scrapbook & Cards Today, you're not too late. You can find all of the previous issues on their website, for viewing and/or downloading.

Bella Blvd: Step-By-Step Project Sheet - Apple Pickin

It's the first Monday of the month, which means our free step-by-step monthly project sheet for October is available on the Bella Blvd blog (I also have the direct link at the end of this post). This month, I was asked to create a fall themed layout, using our orange Clear Cuts and squares in the design.

The majority of the time, I'm told a specific collection to use for every project sheet. This was the first time in ages that I wasn't given a specific collection, most likely because we didn't have a new fall collection this year. So the first thing I did was to find patterned papers from our newest collections that were fall colored, knowing I would also be using our orange Confetti Clear Cut transparency.

I pulled the green striped and red dotted patterned papers from the Family Frenzy collection. The navy blue diagonal striped patterned paper is from the Color Chaos collection. And the brown woodgrain is from last year's Hello Autumn collection.

My next challenge was to find some fall themed photos. I've always said that we don't really have a "fall" season here, like most people do. We have touches of it, sure. But it's not like I have a huge selection of photos that scream "fall". And I've pretty much scrapped all of our pumpkin patch photos from when the girls were younger. I did consider re-scrapping some, but I knew my plan involved square photos, and most of the photos I had just wouldn't work as squares.

So I went straight to someone that I knew would have some amazing photos. Designer and photographer Megan Klauer, who was also one of my Bella designers for a few years. I found these adorable photos of her kiddos from an apple picking adventure and knew they'd be perfect.

Knowing I had to incorporate squares into my page design, my immediate idea was to arrange 3x3" photos and patterned paper squares around the outside edges of the page. I also mixed in some 3x3" squares of the orange dotted Clear Cut. I used white cardstock as the base of my page, and just adhered everything onto that, letting the white show thru on the transparency.

That left me with a 6x6" spot in the middle of the page, where I could add a larger square of patterned paper to hold my title and journaling. For all of my squares of patterned paper, I distressed the edges and machine stitched around them before adhering to the page.

I used the same title idea as seen on THIS LAYOUT. Now that I looked at that layout again, after going to grab the link for it, I realized this title is pretty much exactly the same. Lol. Wasn't planned that way. I cut the orange scalloped border sticker into two smaller pieces, so that I could arrange my sticker and chipboard title letters on two "lines". And yes, technically I should add an apostrophe to "pickin", but I just didn't think about it at the time.

It was a little tricky to find embellishments for this page. I do stick to a budget of sorts for these project sheets, so I can't go using stickers from 5 different sheets to get what I need. I pulled stickers from the Family Frenzy Treasures & Text sticker sheet that would work for this fall themed layout, and would coordinate color wise.

I then added a few orange crochet hearts and some aqua enamel dots to tie in with the aqua corner stickers I used on my title piece.

You can download a copy of the October project sheet, complete with a fully supply list and detailed instructions, RIGHT HERE.

Bella Blvd: Family Photos 2015

It's "Spread It Out" day on the Bella Blvd blog today, so that means I have another two page layout to share with you. I had a few ideas for layouts rolling around in my head, and even started printing out photos for one of them. And then I totally gave up on those ideas, as time was slipping away from me.

My sister came out for a surprise visit about a month ago, and we managed to take some new family photos. She doesn't make it home that often, so we try and do the photo thing when she is here and we're all together. We didn't actually plan this time, as to what to wear, but I guess our color mix wasn't too bad.

I printed out most of my photos as 3x4", 4x4", a 4x6", and then added in a 5x5" photo just to add some height difference since I was lining all of these photos up across the page. We took these photos at the end of August, and here in my part of CA, we won't see anything resembling "fall" until late October, maybe even November. However, the Hello Autumn collection was the perfect match for our photos, as the colors we all wore were represented in the colors of the fall themed collection.

I knew that I wanted to use the beige triangle tone-on-tone patterned paper for the background of my layout. It's a subtle design, so the photos, title, and other products all stand out well against it. I lucked out, as I only had two sheets of that paper left. I added a thin navy blue woodgrain patterned paper strip along the tops and bottoms of both pages.

I happen to have plenty of sticker sheets to work with, so I was able to use two orange scalloped border stickers (one on each side of the spread). If I didn't have duplicates, I would have simply used a border punch on some patterned paper instead.

For my title, I used a mix of Blueberry Simply Simona chipboard alphas and a die cut word (from Kerri Bradford Studio) which I cut from a green leaf patterned paper. As I was looking for some embellishments, I came across these brown chipboard banner flags from a prior fall collection, and decided they would be perfect for adding the year. I used some cream number stickers to add the year.

I couldn't really find any embellishments to fill in that space on the right side of the spread, so I decided to die cut a tree, using my Silhouette and some patterned paper. I embellished the tree with some threaded buttons.

If you haven't already, stop by the Bella Blvd blog today and check out the two page layout from designer Heather Leopard. I really loved what she came up with, and it was so similar to what I was originally going to do. So it's a good thing I gave up on my previous idea ;)

 

 

Bella Blvd: Step-By-Step Project Sheet - IF Whatever Is Lovely

The September project sheet went up on the Bella Blvd blog last week, but I'm just now getting around to blogging it here. I was asked to work with the new Whatever Is Lovely collection for this month's layout, which goes hand in hand with the Illustrated Faith brand. While this collection is certainly faith based and created for religious projects and even bible journaling fans ... it can also be used for everyday layouts, which is how I wanted to show it being used.

I knew that I wanted to use part of the chevron patterned paper, with the gorgeous color combo and thick stripes. I was originally going to have my strip going across the top of the page. But the awesome white ruled pattern is the backside to the chevron pattern. With the direction I cut my strip of the chevron pattern, the ruled lines would have been going the wrong way (from how I wanted them) across the page. So I changed up my plan, and adhered the strip along the left side of the page.

I love the ruled pattern for backgrounds, and knew right away that I would use a large piece of that on this page. I didn't have my title planned when I fussy cut the "lovely" word from Praiseworthy patterned paper. I mainly picked it because it was one of the words that wasn't cut off at all, and I knew I could work it into my title.

I cut the "whatever is" from the Art Prints patterned paper, and added it right along with the "lovely" brush script word for the first part of my title. There are lots of great sayings and words on the Art Prints patterned paper, but I was aiming to stick to things that weren't necessarily faith based for this layout.

I used the white Amorie chipboard alphas and the yellow alpha stickers from the Treasures & Text sticker sheet to complete my title. I don't usually use any pen work on my layouts. Not sure why not, because I think it can look really fun. But I wanted the yellow alpha stickers to stand out a bit more, so I drew some rough pen lines around the outsides of the stickers.

I actually had this old photo of Alyssa printed and laying around, and it matched the papers so well, so I decided to go with it. Otherwise, I probably would have spent forever and a day looking for a photo for this page.

I choose a few of the other patterned papers to layer under my photo, cutting each one a bit bigger than the one before it. I machine stitched around the edges of each paper, and then layered them all together to adhere to the page.

To finish off the page, I embellished it with stickers from both the Treasures & Text sticker sheet and the Little Bits sticker sheets. Since I used a few of the star stickers, I decided to skip the enamel dots this time, and sprinkled some of the black enamel stars from the DooDads pack.

You can download the step-by-step September project sheet, complete with full supply list and detailed instructions, RIGHT HERE.

Bella Blvd: Ninth Birthday Party

Hey everyone! I've got a new layout up over on the Bella Blvd blog today. I was brainstorming for a few new features on the Bella blog as I wrote up our August schedule, and I decided to start a new one called "Spread It Out", focusing on two page layouts. I knew I would pretty much freak out my layout designers, as I know a lot of designers do not enjoy creating two page layouts. Which is why I'm committing to creating a new layout for this feature each month, and then inviting/forcing (same thing, right?) one other designer to play along with me.

I love to embrace the two page layouts, as I actually enjoy making them. I think that's because I love to incorporate tons of photos onto them, and it's a great way to document all of those things that just can't fit on a single page layout. Like birthday parties, for example. Which is why I decided to scrap photos from Sarah's 9th birthday party for my first layout.

I mentioned this on Instagram a few days ago, but I'm so used to working with just ONE collection (and being told exactly what collection) when it comes to the majority of the layouts I create for Bella. Whether it's project sheet layouts, catalog layouts, booth work ... it's more limiting and you work within the assortment of papers in that one collection.

So when I do have a layout to make, where I can really work with whatever collections I want, I get stuck. It's like I don't even know where to start in picking out my patterned papers (which is how I start all of my layouts). I have a HUGE stash of Bella papers, and it's not like one or two collections were calling out to me. I finally just pulled out a few of my paper holders, very randomly, and within just a few minutes, pulled out about 6-7 patterned papers, all from different collections. I didn't overthink it, which helped speed up the process.

When it comes to the photos, I'm pretty sure you all know by now how much I love photo collages. I'm not one to make several layouts about the same event/moment, so I really try and incorporate as many photos as I can on my layout. And when it comes to working a huge amount of photos onto a layout, photo collages are just a smart way to go. It keeps the photos contained and organized.

I used templates from Kerri Bradford Studio of course, and created two separate collages with 8 photos in each. I also printed 3 photos individually, for a total of 19 photos on my two page spread. What I'm not showing here (mostly because it wasn't totally finished), is that I also printed 10 more photos that I slipped into a 6x12" divided page protector. I'll add that right in between these two pages in the album. So my total is actually 29 photos for this spread.

I pulled out my favorite white grid patterned paper to hold my title and journaling. The overall design of this page is one that I do quite often, so I knew the basic placement of all of the elements on this page. I knew I wanted to use the Blueberry Sienna chipboard alphas for my title, and then added a die cut word and some alpha stickers to complete my title. And as always, I lost the dot to my "i", so I simply added a tiny enamel dot in it's place.

I picked out patterned papers that coordinated with the colors in the photos, and that coordinated together as well. I did little debating over where to work in each paper, as it all just sort of fell together and balanced itself out. I didn't want the layout to be super patterned paper heavy, so I die cut a circle border from the yellow patterned paper to add to each side of the spread. Just a little way to break things up, and add a little "dimension", but in a flat way. If that even makes sense?

I think this layout fits in perfectly with how I prefer to scrap. Lots of photos, lots of patterned paper, some die cutting, a title mixing chipboard/stickers/die cut words, and simple embellishments. I knew I would probably add some chipboard elements to embellish the page, and I lucked out when I pulled out a package of Hearts & Stars chipboard pieces, and found five stars that perfectly matched the colors on the page. I added a coordinating enamel dot to the center of each star.

Head on over to the Bella Blvd blog to check out what our other designer created for this new feature. And continue to watch for it once a month, as it will usually fall on the third Thursday of the month.

Summer Thoughts

I know I've been absent from blogging a lot this summer. In fact, I've only blogged 16 times in the last three and a half months. Which is pretty bad. I have no clue what my average was before that. I mean, I could go count, but I'm not THAT curious to know. I just want you to know that I am totally aware that I haven't been around as much as I might have been before.

Maybe that's because I honestly haven't scrapped that much the last few months. I've created a bunch of stuff, some of which I've already shared and a lot of which I can't share for a while. But I know that it feels like I haven't done that much lately, even though there are projects that I really do want to get done. It's that one little thing that stands in the way though. TIME.

My summer months always feel so hectic and busy. But not because we're having tons of fun, going on daytrips and vacations, and just enjoying life. It's because we're working. Well, more so Joe and I, as the girls definitely had some time to relax this summer. Although, in their defense (especially my college girl), I think they needed a decent amount of downtime after the busyness of the school year.

I've had all of these extra bodies in the house this summer. I had three summer daycare kids here with me. Although I did have one regular kiddo gone for the summer, since her mom just had a baby, and she got to hang out at home with them. I had my girls home for the summer, and most days, Sarah's boyfriend was here a lot too. Joe works nights, so he's here sleeping during the day. I'm shushing the kiddos in the morning, since the girls are still sleeping. And then I'm shushing my girls in the afternoon, while the kiddos all nap. I just don't get much done during the summer, since after working an eleven+ hour day with the kids (and squeezing my Bella job in there was well), I have no desire to do much of anything in the evenings.

I can't lie though. It's been nice to step back from scrapping in a sense this summer. I didn't worry about getting stuff done. I wasn't thinking about projects I wanted to work on. I can definitely get caught up in the things that I want to do, and not give my full attention to the things that I need to do. This summer, however, I really do feel like I just enjoyed the moment. Ok, I didn't enjoy every moment (too many little ones takes a toll on my sanity!). But I was present more than usual.

I've juggled a lot this summer, making a full time job and a part time job work, along with some freelance work here and there. We've spend several weekends doing much needed things around the house. We've been working, alongside Alyssa's dad (who honestly, did most of the work), to get Alyssa set up in an apartment across the street from the college for several weeks. And we've dealt with, and are still dealing with, the sudden loss of Alyssa's grandma from a very short battle with cancer.

I've also dropped the ball on stuff, simple because I didn't want to worry about things that didn't have to be done. Nothing of any importance, mind you. Just things that I've been pushing to the side here and there, with the "I'll do that later" mentality. I guess now is about that time.

Sarah went back to school about two weeks ago, starting her junior year of high school. Sigh. Alyssa is pretty much moved out and in her apartment now, and will be starting her sophomore year of college next Monday. Sigh. I have a two week "break" of sorts with the daycare kids. I still have four little ones here, but it's the least amount I've had all summer. I have my previous kiddo coming back in two weeks, and she's bringing her new baby brother! So that will be a big adjustment, I'm sure. Not to mention I have another daycare parent expecting a baby later this year.

Long story short. I haven't blogged as much. And I've missed it. I haven't scrapped as much. And I've missed it. I have a list of projects that I want to do, which includes some 6x8 album projects that I've been itching to start/finish. So I'm really hoping I can get back into the swing of things here, so that I'll have more to share with you all :)

*** And since I didn't even chat about the cards, as they're self explanatory, they were both made for Bella Blvd for their summer release booth at the SPC show in July. Both used the new Fresh Market collection, and you can read about them both HERE.

Bella Blvd: Forty Eight Project Sheets

Hey everyone! So, as I started working on my most recent project sheet layout (see previous post) for Bella Blvd, I got to thinking about how many of these project sheet layouts I've made. I've been with Bella for over four years now, and started doing these layouts shortly after starting the job. One a month, for the last four years as of this last one. That's 48 layouts for 48 project sheets.

It's not necessarily common knowledge, but I'm usually given a challenge for each of these layouts, along with being asked to focus on a particular collection or embellishment. I usually mention the challenge when I blog about the layout here on my personal blog. But it's not like most people would know that I had something I kept in mind when creating the pages.

You'll definitely find some of the same photos used on different layouts. This happens. Especially with holiday type collections, as my girls are older now. Take Halloween, for example. I haven't taken Halloween photos in about five to six years. My girls are also "film babies", so their younger years are all on film and not easily accessible. So I do tend to pull the same photos out a lot, as I don't have a lot to choose from. Or I borrow photos from a few friends of mine to fit what I need. I counted and eleven of these 48 layouts have photos from my friends.

I'll be honest here. Another thing that I run into is that sometimes I'm scrapping photos/stories/events that I've already scrapped. These memories are already documented and "in the books" so to speak. I think that happens a lot in the industry, whether it's something like creating these project sheet layouts, or when it come to magazine work. Every once in a while, I might actually like the new layout more than the one I created originally. But a lot of the time, these "duplicate" layouts end up in a random pile somewhere, and they may never make it into the albums. A few of these layouts have actually been taken apart, the good embellishments saved, and then the rest was tossed. I know some might cringe reading that, but it happens.

And then there are the layouts that actually do mean something to me. The ones that are documenting something for the first time, whether it's the photos or the story. There are definitely layouts within this group of 48 that I'm not fond of, but there are also quite a few that I really do love and that are permanently in the albums. And I'll leave it up to you if you'd like to try and figure out which ones are which ;)

Edited to add: If there layouts within this group that you are wanting to lift (I mention this, since I'm reading that in your comments), and you don't want to dig around for the individual project sheets, you can find all 48 projects sheets and download the ones you want RIGHT HERE. They come with a supply list and step-by-step instructions, all written by me!

Bella Blvd: Step-By-Step Project Sheet - Fresh Market

Today, over on the Bella Blvd blog, our August project sheet went up. For this month's layout, I was asked to use the brand new Fresh Market collection, circles, and Clear Cuts transparencies. The first photos that popped into my head for this layout were these adorable shots I took years ago of Miranda, a previous daycare cutie of mine. I had so many different photos to choose from, all with different facial expressions, and had to have a friend of mine help me narrow them down to just four photos.

I printed these photos on my photo printer, and basically printed two photos, which each having 2 photos side by side. That way I only had to adhere two "photos" across the page, instead of four individual photos. I didn't really notice how those two center photos combined until I was editing the photos of my layout, otherwise I probably would have swapped them around.

For the circles part of my challenge, I knew I wanted to arrange some patterned paper circles on the top half of the page, above my row of photos. To work in the Clear Cut transparency, I layered a piece of the Pickle Juice Confetti over my white cardstock background. It added more to the "circle" theme, and added some interest to my white background, without overwhelming the page.

That yellow/orange "I was made for sunny days" circle started out as a 4x4" card on the Daily Details patterned paper. I was able to cut a circle from it, without losing any of the fun image.

I usually use my old Creative Memories circle cutter when cutting circles for my projects. It's super handy, and less work than taking out my Silhouette for something as basic as circles. I cut a larger circle, from both the black/white polka dot patterned paper and white cardstock, to hold my title.

I cut a few smaller circles from the black/white polka dot patterned paper, along with a few circles from the aqua scalloped border patterned paper. I arranged them along the top of the page, and then added some pink enamel dots and some stickers.

The majority of my patterned paper strips on this page came from the Borders patterned paper sheet. The striped border along the top and bottom of the page, the aqua dotted borders above and below the photos, and the pink gingham border along the top of the page, all came from the Borders sheet. I'm a huge fan of the scalloped border stickers on the Treasures & Text sticker sheets, so I use those a ton on my pages.

And you know I had to add lots of machine stitching, right? I rarely do a layout or card without it these days. I just love how much it adds to projects, and it also helps secure everything in place, should adhesive give out down the road. For all of the circles, I did my machine stitching before adhering them to the page. Just easier when you're working with circles.

You can download our August project sheet, complete with supply list and step-by-step instructions, RIGHT HERE.

Bella Blvd: Summer 2015 Reveal - Clear Cuts & Tiny Text Alphas

If you haven't heard the news, we're revealing the new Summer 2015 collections all this week over on the Bella Blvd blog. Today, we're sharing the new Clear Cut specialty paper designs and our new Tiny Text alpha stickers.

I created this layout for the catalog, to show off the new Clear Cuts transparencies. I picked one of each design to start my page. The black stars, orange hearts, and green chevies. And then picked a few patterned papers from the Fresh Market collection and the IF Whatever Is Lovely collection to coordinate.

I had the idea to do a sunburst design on the page, which is something I did a few years back on a Bella layout. When I had created that previous layout, I had created my own template from a sheet of cardstock. I simple drew a circle in the lower right corner of the page, and then used my ruler to draw the "bursts" going out to the edge of the page.

Luckily, I saved those template pieces. That's actually quite unlike me, as I love to throw things away thinking I won't need them again. Also, I'm very glad that I was smart enough to number them, so I could easily piece it all together.

I started tracing and cutting the bursts from my patterned papers, arranging them around the page in a pleasing pattern. For the Clear Cuts, I simple cut a square wider then needed, so that I could just adhere it in place, and then place my patterned paper pieces in place over them. I didn't want to have to try and cut the transparencies into the exact burst shape, since I didn't want to have to draw on them.

Once all of my bursts were in place, I machine stitched along every row and into the center of the page. I then created a "mini layout" of sorts, from the white ruled and green dotted patterned papers, to adhere over where all of the bursts met in the center.

I cut down a few border stickers (truthfully, those are mock up "stickers", which was just paper I had to cut - they'll look better as actual stickers, I promise), and layered them together to give my title somewhere to rest. I used some of the white Amorie chipboard alphas, along with a few stickers to complete my title.

Head on over to the Bella Blvd blog to check out the new Clear Cuts & Tiny Text alphas, and get in on a chance to win-it-before-you-can-buy-it!

Bella Blvd: Summer 2015 Reveal - Family Frenzy Collection

If you missed yesterday's post, we're revealing the new Summer 2015 collections all this week over on the Bella Blvd blog. I shared a peek at the first two collections yesterday, and today I'm sharing a peek at the third new collection, Family Frenzy.

I worked with the Family Frenzy collection to create this layout for the catalog. I knew right away I wanted to use the fun floral patterned paper, and then picked out a few of the tone-on-tone patterned papers to go along with it. I love the colors in this collection!

I usually use busier patterned papers, such as the floral, in smaller amounts on my pages. I used a strip of it across the top of the page, and then arranged my tone-on-tone papers below. I used this fun blue border sticker to section off the floral paper at the top of the page.

Bella Blvd is also coming out with a new collection of Clear Cuts transparency papers (more on those tomorrow!), and I used the white Chevies Clear Cut on this layout as well. I cut a piece the same size as my red dotted patterned paper and machine stitched it directly over the top.

I just love tone-on-tone patterned papers! But I'm pretty sure you know that about me by now. I wanted to add some flowers to the rest of the page, to tie in the floral patterned paper at the top, so I took the time to fussy cut a handful of flowers to sprinkle around the page.

I love that we're seeing more navy blue added into the recent Bella collections, as it's become a new favorite color of mine. And the dotted alpha stickers on the Treasures & Text sticker sheet are so fun, as they add more pattern to the page in an easy way.

I cut one of the scalloped border stickers into smaller pieces to arrange my title on, and spritzed it with white misting spray to tone down the orange a little bit, as I didn't have a ton of orange on the page.

Head on over to the Bella Blvd blog to check out the new Family Frenzy collection, and get in on a chance to win-it-before-you-can-buy-it!

Bella Blvd: Step-By-Step Monthly Project Sheet - Color Chaos & Invisibles

Hey everyone! I finally have something new to share with you. We are now revealing our monthly project sheets on the first Monday of the month, over on the Bella Blvd blog. This month, I was asked to feature the Color Chaos collection, along with the Invisibles specialty papers. 

I was also asked to use time as the theme to my page, along with a comparison, such as the "AM vs PM" idea I used for this layout. If I was doing this layout idea completely on my own, I would have done something entirely different. Since I create these layouts with the idea that others will be recreating something similar, that usually plays into what I end up making. I was able to pull up some really old photos that I thought would work well for comparing a few things that are different in my mornings and my evenings.

When it came to which Invisible specialty paper I would use, it was an obvious choice. The "A Day At A Time" was perfect, since I was going with a daily routine theme. I knew I was only going to use a portion of it, so I cut it in half before getting started.

I used my finger to roughly add some black acrylic paint around the outside edges of the Invisible and then traced it onto a sheet of white cardstock. Once I had cut that out, I adhered the two pieces together. Adding the white cardstock behind the Invisible just helps it to stand out more, and keeps it from overwhelming the page.

I thought the white and grey star patterned paper would make a great neutral background to lay the Invisible against. Once my other patterned papers were adhered in place, I added the white scalloped border sticker and did my machine stitching. I used the black alphas from the Treasures & Text sticker sheet for my title, and lined it up along the white border sticker.

For the top "AM" part of my page, I added a piece of the yellow tone-on-tone diagonal striped paper. Yellow just seems like a morning color, right? I printed two strips of photos, one for AM and one for PM. Each had three 2x2" photos, but you could easily just print three individual photos for each section. 

I used the Amorie chipboard alphas for my "AM" and "PM", and also added an assortment of Ciao Chip Elements, like the sun and clouds.

For the bottom "PM" part of my page, I added a piece of the aqua tone-on-tone diagonal striped paper. I was originally going to use navy blue, but it was a little too dark for the page. I think aqua still worked well for an evening color, plus it matched my clouds.

Under each of the photo strips, I added a few small strips of patterned paper. Both the black days of the week paper and the paint splatter paper were 4x6" cards cut from the Daily Details patterned paper. Since my photo strips were wider than the paper strips, I couldn't mat them. So I just cut some thin strips, and tucked them under the top and bottom of each photo strip.

I added some chipboard flowers in coordinating colors, and topped each one with black enamel dots. I had to stick to just one color of enamels for this layout, but you could easily add in more color using a variety of colors of the enamels.

You can download our step-by-step project sheet, complete with a full supply list and detailed instructions, RIGHT HERE.

PageMaps: May Sketches

Earlier this month, the new May sketches were released over on the PageMaps site, and Bella Blvd was invited to be the guest manufacturer to play with the new sketches. Ten of our designers were each given a sketch and asked to create a layout based off that sketch. You can check them all out HERE, where you'll also find the sketch that my layout above is based off.

I volunteered to take on an 8.5x11" sketch, and it called for two smaller photos. I already had these photos of my cousin's cute kiddos in mind for a layout, and decided they would work well for this layout. I pulled a few patterned papers from Bella's new Simply Spring collection to use, and then realized I had the perfect embellishments for my page.

See these fun layered flowers? They were originally on THIS layout, that I created for a monthly project sheet a full three years ago, back in 2012. I was recently cleaning out some albums and pulled out a stack of layouts that I ... wait for it ... threw away. People tend to cringe when I tell them I throw layouts away. Lol. Truthfully, the layout had no special meaning to me, no journaling, and I had already scrapped the photos before. So I didn't really feel a need to keep it.

But I did feel a need to keep the layered flowers, thinking I would use them on a few cards. Well, a few of them matched this layout so well, that it just made sense to use them. And it made creating this layout so much quicker. Love when things work out like that!

Bella Blvd: Step-By-Step Monthly Project Sheet - Star Student

It's a bit earlier than usual, but it's time for another monthly project sheet to be released over on the Bella Blvd blog. From here on out, I believe we'll be sharing them on the first Monday of the month. For the May project sheet, I was asked to focus on the Star Student collection. Most kids are finishing up their school years in the next month or so, so it's the perfect time to work on a school layout or two.

I started this page by die cutting a large star from the Art Journal patterned paper, using my Silhouette. I don't usually incorporate any sort of die cutting on my project sheet layouts, since I'm supposed to use basic tools that anyone and everyone would have. But you could also sketch out a large star and freehand cut it out with scissors if you don't have a die cut machine capable of creating a star that large.

I wanted to use the aqua map patterned paper, since it matched Alyssa's dress in her graduation photo, and decided to lay the Typewriter Clear Cut on top so that the map pattern wasn't super obvious. On the left side of the page, I used a strip of the yellow dotted patterned paper, with a thin strip of the white grid patterned paper separating the two sides of the page.

I thought it would be fun to use a photo of Alyssa on her very first day of high school as a freshman, and a photo of her from four years later, as a senior on graduation day. It's hard to believe she graduation from high school a little less than a year ago (end of May 2014), and she'll be finishing off her first year of college this week.

A little tip for adhering the Clear Cuts transparencies. I added little glue dots along the top and bottom of my transparency, since I knew I was going to add a border along the top and bottom of the page. The border sticker along the top and the patterned paper strip along the bottom both covered up those glue dots once adhered. I also try and figure out what larger pieces will cover the transparency (such as my photos or the star), and add some adhesive in those areas as well, since they'll get covered up.

You can download the May project sheet, complete with a full supply list and detailed instructions, featuring the Star Student collection RIGHT HERE. 

Bella Blvd: National Scrapbook Day

Happy National Scrapbook Day!!! It's pretty cool that this hobby of ours has a special day dedicated to it each year. I know that there are a ton of sites that are doing fun and cool things today, and I wanted to mention two of those sites that I contributed too. Over on the Scrapbook & Cards Today blog, you'll find twelve straight hours of posts, with a new project and giveaways every hour on the hour. I'll have a project in there that I'll be sharing next week.

And on the Bella Blvd blog, we're doing eleven straight hours of posts, with a total of seventeen new layouts being shared from seventeen of our Creative Team members, and four giveaways spread out throughout the day. I wanted to share my layout here with you today.

I asked our designers to create "all about me" layouts, so that we could get to know them all a little better. I love asking my team to create these layouts every NSD, and seeing what they come up with.

And for me? Well, I wasn't sure what I was going to do for my layout at first. Until I was browsing in my Silhouette library for a totally different project and came across this "oh snap" title. It reminded me of a layout I started years ago, where I had die cut a similar title with my Silhouette, but never finished the layout.

The fact that the photos were already printed was a huge plus! I had originally planned on placing my three 3x4" photos across the page, and this ended up being perfect for a title that popped into my head. I used Bella's Sienna chipboard alphas to spell out "the struggle is real" (which btw, fit perfectly), and added my die cut "oh snap" directly above.

When I started this layout forever and a day ago (hence the curly hair, which I haven't had for years and miss desperately), I was going to journal about my struggle with photography. And oddly, it hasn't changed in the last few years.

You can probably just read my journaling, but basically I used to be able to take out my camera and take great photos without even thinking about it. For the last few years, I take out my camera, use all of the same settings, and end up with terrible photos. Mostly for indoors. I can do outdoor photos just fine. I tend to get frustrated and put the camera away. Seems like I never have the time (or think to make the time) to get in there and figure out what I'm doing wrong.

I kept this layout pretty simple. The grey tone-on-tone camera patterned paper made for a great background paper, and I mixed in some navy blue diagonal striped patterned paper and some black star patterned paper strips. I added the two little black enamel stars on either side of my journaling, since I had a little space on either side, and added a chipboard camera above my title.

I went back and forth on adding more to this page, and finally decided that I loved it just like it is. It's not everyday that I get to make Bella layouts that are totally for me, with no requirements or expectations. So it's nice to be able to create something that's a bit more on the simple side, but still so much my style.

Bella Blvd: Mid-Release Reveal - Riley Collection

Yesterday and today, over on the Bella Blvd blog, we are revealing our new mid-release! We have three new mini collections, and a collection of new 4x6 stickers perfect for projects of all kinds. Yesterday, we revealed the Riley and Rover collections, for cat and dog lovers. I worked with both of these to create two new layouts for the catalog. Yesterday, I shared my layout with the Rover collection, and today I want to share my layout with the Riley collection.  

I fully admit that I am NOT a cat person at all. Not. At. All. But I do know lots of family members and friends that are cat lovers, so I knew I would be able to track down a photo to work with. I quickly remembered this photo that my good friend Deneen took of her daughter Kayley and their cat Whiskers. It's a gorgeous photo and I knew it would be purrfect for this collection. See what I did there ;)

Just like on my Rover layout, I knew the tone-on-tone grey text patterned paper would be great for the background of my page. While I didn't want them to look too similar, they were great for letting the title and embellishments stand out. And I didn't really realize it when I created these two layouts, but I used the black 3x4" card on both layout, and on both of them, I matted them on patterned paper.

I'm a huge fan of scalloped borders, so I almost always gravitate towards the two different scalloped stickers on the Treasures & Text sticker sheets. I think I need full sheets of just the 12" scalloped border stickers. Lol.

I used a few small strips of different patterned papers on either side of my photo, and then added a sprinkling of embellishments to the left side of the page. A few stickers, a chipboard heart, and some enamels.

To see the full reveal, and get in on a chance to win-it-before-you-can-buy-it, head over to the Bella Blvd blog for more details!

Bella Blvd: Mid-Release Reveal - Rover Collection

Today and tomorrow, over on the Bella Blvd blog, we are revealing our new mid-release! We have three new mini collections, and a collection of new 4x6 stickers perfect for projects of all kinds. Today we are revealing the Riley and Rover collections, for cat and dog lovers. I worked with both of these to create two new layouts for the catalog, and I'll be sharing them today and tomorrow. First up, I wanted to share the Rover collection. 

I don't have a dog. In fact, we've never had pets of any kind, other than a goldfish that lived for two years and a hamster that lived for a few weeks. But my parents have always had a dog, so I pulled up these photos I took of their previous dog, Annie, several years back for this layout.

I used the grey tone-on-tone text patterned paper for my background, knowing that the other papers and my photos would stand out well against it. I cut several strips of patterned papers, as well as used a few border strips, to add to the left side of the page and along the bottom of the page.

I added some of our newer star chipboard elements to the page, in coordinating colors, along with enamel dots.

Both the green and brown Amorie chipboard alphas coordinate well with the Rover collection. I used the green alphas, along with the black alpha stickers from the Treasures & Text sticker sheet for my title.

To see the full reveal, and get in on a chance to win-it-before-you-can-buy-it, head over to the Bella Blvd blog for more details!

Bella Blvd: Step-by-Step Monthly Project Sheet - Simply Spring Collection

Today, over on the Bella Blvd blog, we're releasing the monthly project sheet for April, which features the new Simply Spring collection and our new Bella Bows. I used a few photos my cousin's cute kiddos, Zachary and Madison, as I knew they would match perfectly.

I picked out several sheets of patterned paper and cut blocks from each in varying sizes. I knew that I wanted to do 3 vertical rows of paper on the page, but I didn't want the pieces to line up exactly the same on each side.

For the center piece, I ended up using a full 12" piece of the pink woodgrain patterned paper, and then layered a 12" piece of the cloud Clear Cut transparency directly over it. I distressed the edges of all of my patterned papers, and machine stitched around the edges before adhering any of them to the page.

I adhered my two photos to the center of the page using pop dots, and then arranged my title underneath. I used the "sunshine" letters from the Chipboard Icons sheet, and then used some of the white Amorie chipboard alphas to complete my title.

I then embellished the page with lots of chipboard pieces, from several of the chipboard sheets. I used the Simply Spring chipboard icons, the WhatNots chipboard, the Symbols chipboard, and the Flowers & Clouds chipboard.

And for the first time, I used a few of the new Bella Bows. I have to be honest, I'm really not a big bow person, so I haven't used these before. But I think the white ones looked really cute on here. I also added some of our new enamel dots to finish of the page.

You can download our April project sheet, complete with supply list and detailed instructions, right HERE.

Bella Blvd: Step-By-Step Monthly Project Sheet - Clear Cuts & Instagram Photos

It's the second Tuesday of the month, which means that we have the new monthly project sheet up over on the Bella Blvd blog. For this month's layout, I was asked to create a layout using square photos from my Instagram feed and to incorporate the new Clear Cuts specialty papers onto my page.

I don't have a super impressive or pretty Instagram feed, so I wasn't really sure what I would do for this layout to be honest. I really try to do layouts that mean something to me as much as I can, so I didn't want to put something together just to put something together. Know what I mean?

A while back I had printed out all of the photos from my Instagram feed where I had used the hashtag #alyssasenioryear, with the intention of doing a layout with them. So I decided to go with these photos for this layout, although I only used about 1/3 of the original photos.

The ones I choose are a good representation of her senior year, although I did have two more that I really wanted to include. The first day of school photo and a photo from graduation. If this was a layout just for me, where I could really do whatever I wanted, I would have included them, and they would have fit into the page design perfectly. But for a project sheet, it would have been too photo heavy.

Once I knew the theme of my layout and had my photos picked out, it really helped narrow down my paper choices. Green, white, and black are our school colors, so those were a given. And I had touches of yellow in a few photos, so I tossed that in as well.

I love the green woodgrain patterned paper from the Campout collection, and used it as the background paper for my layout. I layered the white Confetti Clear Cut specialty paper right on top.

I added a little adhesive along the top and bottom of the dotted transparency, as I knew I was going to add a thin strip of the black text patterned paper along those same edges, which would cover up the adhesive.

This upper left corner was where I was originally going to put my two extra photos, which I had printed as 3x3" photos. I was going to stack them, one above the other, up to the top of the black text paper strip. By not including those photos, it allowed me some extra room for this fun sticker to hold my journaling.

I printed all of my photos as two inch squares. Actually, what I ended up doing was creating two 4x6" collages, each holding six two inch square photos. So once I had printed them and trimmed them down, I only had two "photos" to adhere. If you were to print them all individually, you would just adhered them side by side, across the page. Printing some of them together just makes it a little quicker.

I adhered them to a piece of yellow diagonal striped patterned paper from the Color Chaos collection, which I then adhered onto a piece of white grid patterned paper, from the Star Student collection. Since I knew the general area where this strip of photos would be on my page, I had also added adhesive behind this area on the dotted Clear Cut, when I adhered it to the green woodgrain paper.

For my title, I used a mix of the white Amorie chipboard alphas and the black alpha stickers from the Color Chaos collection. I had left enough room on the white grid patterned paper to add the "instagram" part of my title, and then added the "senior year" directly above it.

Then I added additional chipboard pieces, a few extra stickers, some crochet hearts, and some enamel stars. I even added some chipboard pieces to a few of the photos, where I had a little empty space to work with. It's a bit more embellishments than I would normally use, but I think it turned out to be a fun layout.

You can download the March project sheet, complete with full supply list and step-by-step instructions, RIGHT HERE.

Bella Blvd: Giggles & Dimples

I sort of forgot all about this layout of mine. I created this layout for the Bella Blvd catalog, for our Winter 2015 CHA release. This went on a catalog page that showed off the chipboard alphas, feathers, and crochet hearts. All older products, which I mixed in with our newer patterned papers, chipboard, and embellishments.

And since this was the one layout leftover from CHA that hadn't been shared on the Bella blog yet, I decided to use it for one of our Monday Morning Challenges. Incorporating crochet hearts, feathers, and chipboard elements into a layout. I asked our fabulous designer Katie Rose to play along with me, and you can see what she created HERE.

I had pulled out the photo of Sarah from a pile of leftover photos, just to use as a guide for starting the layout and figuring out the design of the page. Along the way, I decided to stick with that photo, as it's a favorite of mine and it gave me an idea for a fun title.

"Giggles & Dimples". Love it. I used a mix of the pink and brown Amorie chipboard alphas for my title, arranging it across the page in a curved, wavy fashion. I then freehand sketched out that wave on a sheet of white cardstock and cut out a piece wide enough to hold the crochet hearts.

I had already picked out the colorful circle patterned paper to use on the bottom part of the page, so I used those colors to pick out my crochet heart colors. I won't tell you how long I spent trying to arrange the hearts to my liking. I overthink things all the time!

I picked out a light pink feather and a tan feather, and tucked them behind my photo. I really do like the texture the feathers add to the page, without adding any bulk. To adhere them, I arranged them where I wanted them, and stapled the ends in place. Once I adhered my photo, it covered up those staples.

I needed to add something in the bottom corner of the page, so I picked out some of our new chipboard hearts to coordinate with the page, along with a yellow chipboard border. I thought this layout was done at one point, and was even taking the photos of it for the catalog, when I realized it needed another touch of brown. So I added the year that this photo was taken, using some brown number stickers from the Campout collection.

And finally, I added some of our new enamel dots to the center of the crochet hearts. All in coordinating colors, except for the grey heart. I had to use a white dot on that, since we don't have grey enamels.

Bella Blvd: Step-By-Step Monthly Project Sheet - Tiny Tots Collection

It's been quiet around here, hasn't it? I ran out of things to share, so I sort of disappeared. But I finally have something to share, as the February monthly project sheet went up on the Bella Blvd blog today. I had used the Tiny Tots collection for a previous project sheet layout, but that was a school themed layout.

So this time I got to use it more for it's intended purpose. Kids! I debated for a bit on whether to create a girl page or a boy page, since the collection can go in either direction. But why pick one, when you can work both onto the same layout?

I had my idea for this layout pretty quickly, and it was sort of inspired by a few older layouts of mine, seen HERE and HERE. The chipboard icons come with the words "little", "lady", and "man". So I knew they would work out great for a this page.

I basically split the page in half, using one side for the girly stuff and one side for the boyish stuff. I started by creating the base of my page, adhering a large piece of white cardstock to the polka dot patterned paper. I used a scalloped border punch on the brown tone-on-tone alphabet patterned paper to create four border strips, and adhered them around the edges of the white cardstock.

I knew exactly which daycare kiddos I would feature on this page. Miss Haley was with me for almost four years, ever since she was a itty bitty thing. So she was definitely my "little lady".

Because the chipboard icons came with only one "little", I used the white Amorie chipboard alphas on the boy side of the page. The font is very similar to the other "little", that it worked out perfectly.

And my little man had to be Nikolas! I have a few all-time favorite boys, one of whom I still watch, but Niko was definitely special to me. And he was here at the same time as Haley, so they were best buds. They go so well together on a page.

I was basically creating the guts of my page on the white cardstock in the center of the page. To split it half, I adhered a strip of yellow dotted patterned paper down the center, top to bottom. I knew I wanted to use the green scalloped border sticker on the boy side of the page, but I wanted a similar pink scalloped border on the girl side of the page.

I laid the green border sticker on my pink diagonal striped paper, upside down, and then traced the scallops with a pencil. After cutting it out with scissors, I had a scalloped border strip that matched the scallops on the green sticker.

For the girl side of the page, I picked out a 2x2" and a 2x4" card from the Daily Details patterned paper to adhere right up against the center of the page and in between the title and the photo.

For the boy side of the page, I picked out a 2x2" card and cut a 2x4" piece from one of the 4x6" cards, both from the Daily Details patterned paper. I adhered them right up against the center of the page and in between the title and the photo, to mimic the opposite side of the page.

To download our February project sheet, complete with step-by-step directions and a complete supply list, CLICK HERE.