Laura Vegas

Today is the big day! CHA officially starts today in Chicago, and I am positive that the Bella Blvd booth is looking fabulous and busy as can be. I'm kind of wishing I was there right now, but it just wasn't in the cards for me for this show. It might be different if I had paid vacation at this job of mine. But seeing that I'm self employed, I don't, and just can't afford to take a week off during the summer. So I'm at home, watching all the craziness happen though blogs, Facebook, Instagram, and whatever other places I can find it 😉

Anyways. The real reason I'm here blogging, is that starting yesterday, and continuing for 2 full weeks, we are having "Unlimited Inspiration" weeks on the Bella Blvd blog. We are sharing lots and lots of the booth projects that our design team has been hard at work creating over the last few weeks. I love when it's time to finally share them, and not keep them hidden away in my files.

Today, we are focusing on the new birthday collections. So I thought I would share one of my altered projects I made, using the Birthday Girl collection. I came across this unfinished, wooden shadow box frame at Hobby Lobby (that store is new to us in CA, and I am in love with it after one trip!), and I knew right away what I wanted to do with it. Create a fun tabletop decor item, that would be perfect for any little girls birthday party.

I painted the unfinished wood frame with white paint, focusing on all of the edges and corners that I knew my pattern paper would not cover. Then I cut strips of paper and decopauged them onto the frame using Mod Podge. I brushed an additional coat of Mod Podge over the top of the papers, to add a nice shiny finish to them.

I trimmed a TON of 1/2 inch x 12 inch strips of pattern paper, using just about every sheet from the Birthday Girl collection. I then cut each strip roughly in half, eyeballing it, since they didn't need to be perfect. I took a pencil, and one by one, I rolled each strip tightly around the pencil. After holding it in place for a few seconds, I slid the rolled piece off the pencil and then loosened it back up a bit. Kind of like you would do when curling your hair 🙂

I took the "Eat More Cake" sticker from the Just Write Journaling sticker sheet, adhered it to a scrap piece of cardstock, and added small strips of punched scalloped edges cardstock around the edges. I glued together about 8 small blocks of thick cardboard (cut from a box), and then adhered my sticker on the top and glued it in the center of the frame. This raised up the sticker, and allowed me to fill up the rest of the shadow box frame with the curled strips of pattern paper, tucking them under the sticker as well.

Make sure and visit the Bella Blvd blog for lots more inspiration from our designer today, featuring both the Birthday Boy collection and the Birthday Girl collection!