Guesting with Bella Blvd. Today

I'm up over on the Bella Blvd. Blog today with some fun layouts and a peek into how I create them !!

Like most Mom's, there are many hours in a week spent waiting for kids at practices and activities, so I always make sure I have my paper pad, a pencil and my very well used mini ruler .... I am in no way an artist and must have a nice straight line so i use grid paper to sketch out ideas for future layouts and projects so that when I go into my studio i have a bit of a head start on what I want to create !!  

I have tried and tried to stray from my linear style and step outside my own box, but I somehow find myself heading back inside the box making sure everything has a measurement .... i'm learning to accept it :)

On these layouts I did 2 takes of the same sketch as I knew I wanted to use (1) 4 x 6" photo on each.  'Santa Socks' stayed pretty true to my original notes. I love the Freestyle Sophisticates as a base rather than plain cardstock and the large 'chevies' was 

perfect for this Christmasy pic. 

I cut 'santa' using my Silhouette and finished the title using some Alphas + Bits.  One of my very fave additions to the Bella collections are the 'paper pieces' packages.  They are absolutely filled with fun bits to add to any project !!  

The best part of Bella Blvd. is that you are always able to pull an embellishment or 2 from older collections to use with the new, which is what I did here with the chip tree ..... a bit of typewriter journaling and this one is complete !!

For this layout you can see that I chose to use a larger yellow patterned paper in the centre rather than the red chevies down the middle.  I also used a 4 x 6" journal card as the title and built around it, adding my typewriter journaling on top.  

This photo of Emma really sums up our summer, so I had a lot to say and my handwriting is not super so I often turn to my typewriter to help me fit all I want to say into a smaller space :)

Again, I mixed the embellishments from a few collections, raising several with 3D foam.  I find it so fun to see how your own scrapbooking evolves based around the product you're working with. Stephanie has created such fantastic bits to pretty up our projects, that sometimes I have to remind myself that I don't have to find a spot on just one layout for every single chip shape and sticker !!!

I love that one sketch can result in 2 layouts that are similar but different and will both look fantastic in an album, even if they end up side by side !!  

Head on over to the Bella Blvd. Blog and check out all the other fabulous designers' inspiration ..... 

TFL ..... Talk soon.