It's Time For Bella Blvd!!

As you read this post, I am on sensory overload taking in all of the yummy new scrap goodies at CHA in sunny California! I am so glad that the rain went away before I landed and the beautiful sun is shining. I am severely jet-lagged and can't sleep, but I am having a ball. Of course at the end of my trip, I'll probably be a delirious zombie by the time I arrive back in New Jersey.

I have been DYING to show you the last of my CHA projects. I was asked by the super sweet and adorable Stephanie Hunt, owner and designer of Bella Blvd to design a few projects for the booth--I have to laugh at myself because when I read the email, I began bouncing up and down in my chair and doing that little whisper scream--I sent her a reply email with lots of "yes, yes, yes"! I can't tell you how much Bella Blvd's products excite me. I love that you can get so many different uses from the Bits A Bella sheets and now the new Billboards sheet will help you stretch your scrap dollar a little further, which is so important in this economy. If you hop on over to the blog, you'll see all the new additions their product line-up, including chipboard alphabets!!

The new lines, Man Of The House, Estate Sale, and All Inclusive, are just simply fab! I truly loved them all, but I have to say that Man of the House REALLY excited me. I love it when a company puts out a strong masculine line. How cute is the mini argyle paper?

OK, so I ended up creating a Father's Day card, a mini album, and 4 layouts. I took pictures of the booth and let me tell you...it's AMAzing--I'll post those later, though...

I created this acrylic mini album using Man of the House. Look at how wonderfully this line goes with Fall, Winter, and Christmas photos of my boys. Versatile is certainly a good word to describe this line!

I also adore the new alpha sticker font!

Next is a layout I created using Estate Sale. The pink, taupe and navy blue colors in this line makes it perfect for masculine and feminine layouts. OH my goodness, what a great combination! I have a few layouts in mind featuring my boys and I using papers from this line!

OK, now I know this may sound a little biased considering I gave birth to him, but is this not the cutest darn smile you've ever seen? I mean good gracious, now wonder he gets away with murder!

I can't tell you how quickly this page came together! The shaped stickers add the perfect sentiment! Did you notice the new dictionary printed paper? Yeah...I'm so loving that, too!!!

I popped up a few elements with foam adhesive to add some dimension.

It's so easy to create your own embellishments simply by cutting elements from the papers...another smart way to stretch a buck!

This next layout was created using All Inclusive. My mom took these photos of me on our trip to Bermuda and they're a great fit for the colors and theme.

Orange and blue is at the top of my list of favorite color combinations--the green and brown really add a nice pop factor to the papers as well!

Here's a close-up of the flower--it was originally yellow and white, but I took it apart and used orangesicle glimmer mist to change the yellow to orange and then spritzed the white petals with baby's breath shimmerz. While the petals where wet, I crumpled them and then used a heat gun to help fluff up the petals. Once dried, I added orange and stardust stickles to the edges.

I cut circles from the patterned paper and layered them for a happy, "bubbly" effect. I love how I didn't have to do anything for the title, except cut it from the billboards sheet and add stickles. I couldn't have worded it any better!

Ever since I took these pictures I have wanted to scrap them, but nothing I came across did them justice so they sat and sat on my computer. When I opened the box of Bella Goodies and saw the Man of the House line, these pictures immediately came to mind. I love that I was finally able to tell the story of Troy's first Father's Day tie!

I took apart the flower and removed the yellow petals, then spritzed it with shimmerz and added a chipboard button to the center.

I think of all the projects, this one is my favorite! My little Boo-Boo who at the time could barely talk, learned to tell me that he loved me. That feeling is just....indescribable.

I had just gotten my hands on some new smooch spritz, so of course, I had to play with it. I used hearts as a mask and lot of stitching accents. I used the yellow petals that I remove from the previous layout on this one. I cut the smaller petal into 4 hearts and stitched them together to create a mini border and scrunched the larger petal and used it to highlight one of the chipboard stickers.

I especially made this card for my basketball coach hubby...my mocha daddy. I poured over this card for like 2 hours! I ironed an SEI iron-on onto a transparency and then traced each little piece onto scrap paper and then used the scrap paper to cut each piece from the Billboards paper, just to get it customized to my liking. I think this is at the top of my list of favorite cards that I've ever made!

Thank you so much for stopping by. I hope you've enjoyed the projects and have gotten some ideas. If you're LSS doesn't carry Bella Blvd products, tell them to get on the ball because they simply ROCK!!!

The Last Of My Acrylic Album

Before I get to the acrylic albums, let me show you this cute little ornament I made today...it's the first ornament I've ever made and I'm quite proud of it. I've been following the 12 Days of Christmas ornaments on the pink paislee blog (man, those ladies are mad talented and very creative) when I saw the first ornament posted by Danielle, I thought "hey, I have a box like that", so I decided to make my own! The cool thing about this little ornament is that it doubles as a gift box...how cute is that? I used pink paislee's tinsel town line here, some prima gems, heidi swapp and bazzill flowers, and of course ribbon from savvynsassy's December Snow Bunnies kit...this is my last month on their DT, too. (sniff, sniff)

Too bad I already have the color scheme picked out for my tree, I'm really diggin' the apple green and pink...hmmm, maybe next year!

OK, so like I said, this is also my last month with My Acrylic Album. It has truly been a pleasure creating for the team for the past 11 months. When I first started with them, I had never created an acrylic album, I'd used plenty of acrylic/clear products but my first acrylic album was this one. Now I have about 11 acrylic albums under my belt (and more to come because they are ever so addictive), and a couple of acrylic plaques...I've even designed an acrylic album for the company!! How awesome is that? So for all of you out there who are still scurred to try an acrylic album, I say go for it, there is no right or wrong way to do it!

This castle album is so cute; it's part of the new releases found here. When I received this in the mail, I knew what I wanted to do with it. I am the only female in a house with 3 males and "queen of the castle" automatically came to mind!

I wish I had the opportunity to take better photos of this, but I have been getting home from work later than normal, which means it's completely dark out, which means poor photo quality, but you get the gist of it.

I used Crate Paper's Prudence line along with K&Co's intricately designed die cut paper.

This is one of my fave pics of me taken at my sister's wedding in May 2007.

The one in the green was taken this Thanksgiving...I can tell I've gained weight since returning to work, which is why I will be working it out starting January 3rd (I picked that day because it's 7 months before my 35th birthday and I want to be 25 pounds lighter by then). Shoot, I'm trying to be a hot momma...know what I mean?

The large photo was taken this summer; I love it although I look tired, but what Xander was only 3 months old at the time, so that explains it! LOL!

To create the front and back covers, I applied the brick rub-on to the inside of the covers, then sprayed with adhesive and coated with glitter. To stop the glitter from flaking off, I lightly sprayed the surface with adhesive, then lightly heat embossed.

This is MAA's butterfly album found here. I just took it apart, used my crop-a-dile to punch a second hole and created name plaques for my goddaughter, my niece, and my 2 friend's daughters for Christmas.

This is my goddaughter's, I'll post the rest later.

Thanks for taking a peek!

Glitter and Stickles and Gems...Oh My!!!

...glimmer mist, pearls, and bells, too!

Oh....looks like my time at My Acrylic Album is coming to an end (weep, weep)! December is the last month of my DT term and I've been hard at work on my last assignments. I still have another one to share, but I'm posting these 2 now. MAA has a bunch of new acrylic albums debuting Dec. 1st, so keep your eyes peeled!

OK, on to the goodies! This little cupcake looks almost good enough to eat! I cut cotton balls in half and adhered them to the cover to get the "frosted" look, then sprinkled with Pink Paislee's coconut pixee stix, red and silver glitter. I then lightly sprayed with adhesive so the cotton balls would hold form. I need this album to really stand up because it going on the road with My Acrylic Album, permanently. Yep, it's going to be on display at all of the conventions and showcases that MAA travels to, so I have to kiss this little cutie goodbye. MM donated product for this album; I received Rouge paperie and let me tell you, it couldn't be more perfect!

The photos are of the 2 little girls in my life, my goddaughter and my niece...love those girls! I used lots of bling to highlight my little sweetie pies!

I gave the cupcakes a "cherry on the top" look by layering flowers and buttons and adhering them to the tops...I also added stickles to all of the buttons.

This is one chunky album! LOL!

Now if you thought that album was bling'd out, then hold on to your hats! I used Basic Grey's Wassail line (from scrap-diner) on this album which was just perfect for achieving a "vintagey" look...I think this is my favorite mini album by far...I wish you could see it, it's gorgeous and I'm not saying that because I made it...I really love it! I can't wait until Christmas so I can fill it with photos.

I sprayed the entire front cover with adhesive and coated it with gold glitter. Can, I just tell you that I made a huge mess with this. Anyone who comes to my house for the next year will probably leave with specks of glitter on their body. I spilled the glitter all over my leather couch...what a mess. it's all over the place!

Anyway, I heat embossed the glitter so it wouldn't come off. The great thing about MAA's albums is that they are a great quality and stand up really well to heat. I then sprayed 3 pieces of lace from savvy n sassy's November Ice Storm kit with gold glimmer mist and layered them on the top of the stocking. I then stitched jingle bells on the lace.

I used lots of rub-ons and glitter alpha stickers throughout the album then hand cut the borders for the stockings.

all of the Primas were spritzed with gold glimmer mist. I added lines to the toe for journaling.

The little plastic discs (I've had these for years) were too bright white, so I spritzed them with sandy beach glimmer mist to tone down the brightness. I also added stardust stickles to the alpha stickers...told you, I bling'd this sucker out!

I added Kaiser's pearls to the Christmas trees and stickles to the trunks and flourish.

I did the same thing on this page, too. I traced the chipboard piece from the back cover to create the journaling tag here.

I used one of the cut out portions from the borders as a mask for the back cover. I placed the cutout portion in the center and then sprayed the edge of the album with adhesive, removed the mask and then coated with gold glitter, heat embossed the glitter and added rub-ons, a piece of chipboard and rhinestones.

here are some close-ups of the front cover

I added a ton of ribbon and lace, some I tied gold hearts to.

Thanks for taking a peek at my projects!