Bella Blvd

Quick & Easy Christmas Gift Tags & Gift Card Holders

December 21, 2011 By Nancy Nally 6 Comments

At this local outpost of Santa’s workshop, the shopping may be done but frantic work is definitely still in progress on packaging and wrapping gifts. But a frazzled brain can make it hard to get those creative juices going to create those extra little touches for holiday gifts! So what can you do? I grabbed a few sheets of cardstock stickers I had on hand and created a couple of “recipes” for tag designs that could be duplicated over and over. Problem solved!

I needed two types of tags for my gifts this year: gift name tags and tags to hold gift cards. Now my personal holiday style tends towards jewel tones and lace and vintage goodness. But all of these tags were for gifts for kids under age 12, so I knew I needed something bright and colorful and fun. And sitting in my Christmas stash I found just the thing – the Christmas Wishes and Winter Wonder collections by Bella Blvd. (Thanks to Bella Blvd for supplying the editorial samples that were used in these projects.) Even if you are over 12…who can help but feel festive when faced with multi-color penguins?

The first tags I made were the gift name tags. These followed a very quick and simple formula:

The circular element is popped with foam tape for dimension. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Inspiration Tagged With: Bella Blvd, Christmas

Noteworthy | 10.6.2011

October 7, 2011 By May Flaum 2 Comments

The first Friday in October brings with it a cold change in weather here in my neck of the woods, but this first week of October has also brought some new happenings and exciting news in the scrapbooking world too. Here are this week’s noteworthy stories:

Leading off this week is Bella Blvd, who announced their first ever batch of mid-releases. A “winter wonder” line, some “miniature stickers“, and a “spring flings and Easter things” line.

These are *limited edition* mini collections, which means that once they are out of stock they are gone and will NOT be reprinted. You will want to get your hands on these, before they sell out. Call your local scrapbook stores and remind them to get their orders in, starting today. Products will start shipping out on October 24th, in just three weeks!

The release of a spring/easter line in mid-fall was surprising to me, but these days there no longer seems to be specific timelines for releasing seasonal product. Whatever the company’s reasons, the products are all bright and fun, and the classic look Bella Blvd is known for. [Read more...]

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Adobe, Bella Blvd, Julie Gillrie, My Craft Channel

Trend Watch | Fashion & Home Decor Motifs for Halloween

September 26, 2011 By Melissa Stinson 5 Comments

Fashion and home decor motifs have completely invaded Halloween, and I love it! I first noticed the trend toward sophisticated patterns in last year’s crop of Halloween lines, and this year many releases from CHA Summer 2011 have taken it to the next level with some truly stunning collections.

Newcomer Authentique kicks off our tour of eerily elegant Halloween designs with their Glowing line. Damasks and fleur de lis reflect the home decor influence in this collection, while the harlequin (diamond) pattern gives a nod to the fashion industry.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Inspiration Tagged With: Authentique Paper, Bella Blvd, Cricut, Echo Park, House of 3, Pink Paislee, Sizzix, Teresa Collins, Tim Holtz

Noteworthy | 9.16.2011

September 16, 2011 By May Flaum 13 Comments

The big happening this week is in Minnesota, where there are more of the craft industry glitterati (and ink-eratti?) gathering to teach, work at, or attend Archiver’s ScrapFest than you’ll see outside CHA. In fact, ScrapFest may arguably be the biggest consumer craft event happening in the United States this year. If you’re in the area – watch for your favorite craft personalities. Between ScrapFest and The Creative Connection event, the Twin Cities are crawling with crafters and industry leaders!

For those of us not at this weekend’s event, we have plenty to be excited about and check out. Here are this week’s noteworthy stories:

Tim Holtz announced that he has worked with Ranger on releasing a limited edition set of seasonal distress inks. The set of three fall colors (ripe persimmon, gathered twigs, and seedless preserves) will be sold together as a stacked set. [Read more...]

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Archiver's, BasicGrey, Bella Blvd, Chaudine Hellmuth, Doodlebug, Elle's Studio, Graphic45, Ranger, Scrapfest, The Creative Connection, Tim Holtz, Webster's Pages

Kit | Back To School by May

August 23, 2011 By May Flaum 10 Comments

[Editor's Note: Welcome to a new regular feature here at Scrapbook Update! Every 4-6 weeks, our creative staff will be assembling a kit to share with you, and showing you what they have done with their own design. We hope you enjoy this new feature that shares the talents of our staff in a new way.]

It’s a wonderful time of year, and I find myself so inspired to create in the little time I have carved out for myself and my scrapbooking during the days filled with school activities, soccer, and getting out of a summer lazy routine! Today I have my Back to School kit to share with you:

Red and yellow are the colors that come to mind when I think of Back to School scrapbooking, and I kept that in mind as I added additional colors and unusual twists to that classic combo in my Back to School papercrafting kit. My inspiration was to gather some papers and a few other details that I could grab and use to quickly scrapbook my September and the beginning of a new school year with ease.

I kept things simple, mixing up products from a wide variety of brands. I love the possibilities I see with these goodies! I did not intend for this to be a kit where I use products only from the kit . This kit is a foundation. I intend to build on it, to add products and details from my own stash as needed for my projects. My real goal is to use it to leap out of my summer routine and hop back into more crafting!

Here is a full list of products used to create my Back to School kit:

Patterned Paper:
Blissful – Prosperity (Authentique)
Finally Fall – Quadrants (Bella Blvd)
Finally Fall – At the Patch (Bella Blvd)
Happy Days – Bottle Caps (Echo Park)
Happy Days – Diamonds (Echo Park)
Lost & Found 2 Sunshine – Forever Classified (My Mind’s Eye)
Nantucket – Crab Cakes (Pink Paislee)
Nantucket – Oyster Bar (Pink Paislee)
Sunshine Broadcast – Kindle (Sassafrass Lass)

Cardstock:
Tim Holtz Distress Wild Honey (Core’dinations)
Tim Holtz Distress Tumbled Glass (Core’dinations)
Celtic Green Dotted Swiss (Bazzill)
Kraft (Bazzill)

Embellishments:
Family Smashpad (K&Co)
Uncommon Petite type circles alphabet stickers (Authentique)
Finally Fall Alpha + Bits Sticker Sheet (Bella Blvd)
Lost & Found 2 Rosy Ordinary brads (My Mind’s Eye)
Inkssentials Kraft tags (Ranger)

What kit is complete without “add-ons” to play with? Here’s some additional items I suggest that would coordinate well with my Back to School kit:

Jillibean Soup “Apple Cheddar Soup” collection
Buttons from My Mind’s Eye “Lost & Found 2” collection
Tim Holtz Distress products in Wild Honey, Tumbled Glass, Peeled Paint, or Brushed Corduroy
Bazzill Dotted Swiss cardstock in Mud Puddle
Ranger Perfect Pearls mist in Biscotti
Studio Calico Mister Huey mists in Pickle and Calico White

Thursday I will return to finish this back to school series with a first day of school layout! For now, I leave you with this video explaining my kit, and making suggestions for adding to it. If you have questions – please feel free to leave them here in the comments!