Laura Vegas

This month we have started a few new features over on the Bella Blvd blog. One of those is called "Project Life: Bella Style", where we ask our designers to be inspired by the Project Life concept in whatever way they choose to be. This might be keeping up actual Project Life albums, using Project Life components on regular layouts or even cards, using divided page protectors for everday layouts, etc. Today, I'm sharing my first take on the theme.

I haven't done an actual Project Life album since 2009, but I have still managed to collect a huge assortment of divided page protectors over the last few years. I have used them quite a bit in my vacation albums, sports albums, and school albums, but have only used them for actual layouts a few times. I think part of the reason I don't do it that often, even though I LOVE using them, is that then I have to plan for what will go on the backside of that divided page protector. And since I have never been one to scrap in order, I worry I'll never get around to completing that backside.

But honestly, if I wait to use all of these divided page protectors until the day I come up with an awesome plan, I will never, even use them. Because my life is too busy to sit and come up with an awesome plan. Lol. So, I have decided that if I want to use a divided page protector for a layout, I'll just do it.

The girls and I have had a few days out together recently, doing a bit of back to school shopping. I usually have a lot of wait time, as the girls are browsing, trying a million things on in the dressing room, trying to decide what they like and don't like. All that fun stuff. And I have this nervous kind of energy, where I can't just do nothing. There's only so much I can do to entertain myself, so I have taken to taking pictures with my cell phone, and Instagramming (is that a word?) them in the moment. I thought it would be fun to take some of those photos and get them on a layout.

I decided to use THIS divided page protector for my page. It's from WRMK, and it has eight 3×3" openings and a 6×12" opening. I knew I wanted to print my photos in squares, just like they've been seen on Instagram, so the 3×3" spots were perfect for those. I also used a few 3×4" cards from Bella's new Daily Details patterned papers, and simply cut two of the cards down to 3×3" to fit in alongside the photos.

I knew the 6×12" middle section would be for my title, journaling, and some embellishments. I also knew I wanted to use the ruled patterned paper from the Snapshots collection for this section, but quickly found out that the large opening was actually more like 6×12.5" or so. So I had to add an extension to make my paper wide enough to fill the space.

I cut that purple flower patterned paper and folded it in half, so that it would wrap about the side of the ruled paper. I had it in place, or so I thought, and then machine stitched it down. Then I realized I hadn't extended my paper at all, but just added a little border on one side. Opps. So I grabbed the two small scraps from the 3×4" "together" card that I had cut down to fit in the smaller square pocket, pieced them together, and used those as my extension. There's no mistakes in scrapping, right? Just happy accidents 🙂

I used a mix of older purple chipboard alphas and newer green chipboard alphas for my title. Then I pulled out the black star die cut from the Paper Pieces die cut package, added a punched circle from the purple flower patterned paper, and topped it with an older aqua flower. I finished off the page with some stickers, designer tape, and small jewels.

It was fun to mix it up a bit, and try something new, like the divided page protectors. Rather than creating a layout on one big sheet of paper, I created on lots of smaller pieces of paper and just slipped them into their pockets. I will definitely be doing this more often.