I hope you've all been checking out the projects for our Kerri Bradford & Bella Blvd team up! Tons of great stuff being shared. Wednesday, I shared a layout I created for Kerri's side of the team up, and today I have a few projects I created for Bella's side of the team up.
I wasn't really sure what I was going to create for layout. I'm not sure if it had anything to do with me pulling up those super old photos of Sarah from 1st grade (for the layout I shared Wednesday), but for whatever reason, I thought about these photos of her from kindergarten. It's not often I have great "fall" looking photos, so I knew these would be perfect for pairing up with Bella's Thankful collection and our older Finally Fall collection.
These photos were all on a layout already. One that I made years and years ago. The photo placement was really close to what you see here, with just one additional photo mixed in. Because these were taken in my non-digital days, and I had no desire to dig out my negatives and have reprints made, I simply pulled them off the old layout to use. I didn't do any trimming or anything. Just used them in the same sizes they already were.
After arranging the photos across the two pages, I went about picking out shapes to work with. I came across the fence, from Kerri's This & That: Autumn kit, and knew that I wanted to work that in across the bottom of the pages. Since I had that extra space next to the photos on the first page, I decided to use the fun tree shape, from Kerri's This & That: Graditute kit, to help fill up that side of the page.
I actually got so busy filling up my pages with die cuts, that I almost forgot about adding in some fun Bella embellishments. I knew I needed to add something in the top part of the tree brances, and this cute little owl seemed perfect to perch up there. I adhered the owl, along with the chipboard cloud, using pop dots.
Since the kids all had on these adorable feather headbands (not sure they're "headbands", but I'm not sure what to call them), I thought it would be fun to add some feathers to the page. Kerri has a feather kit, so I cut small feathers from several patterned papers and mixed them in with some of Bella's real feathers.
I cut the top half off a few feathers, and then used the bottom half of a few to create more feathers. If I'm being honest, I'm not a fan of trimming up the feathers too much. I like when they retain their natural shape, and I know that when I trim them (and maybe others do a better job at this), they lose their fluffyness and end up too shaped. If that even makes sense. But at the same time, I didn't want to cut up too many of my feathers, so making small feathers out of the bottoms just made good sense
For my title, I used one of Kerri's handwritten words from the Giving Thanks kit, along with the Weathered Door alphabet kit for the word "party". I cut all the die cuts for this layout from patterned papers. I've always been a huge fan of Bella's tone-on-one patterns, and the make die cutting really easy, as the patterns aren't too bold or busy.
After cutting out the handwritten "harvest", I realized it was too thin and just wasn't standing out enough. Not a problem. Did you know that you can make her handwritten words thicker? Kerri did a little tutorial a while back on how to thicken up her words, which you can see HERE. I thickened up the word and then cut it again from the same paper. Since I had the thinner word cut already, I decided to adhere it right on top of the thicker word. I think it gave it a fun look.
I also used Kerri's Family Banner kit to cut the fun banner pieces at the top of the page. I added the little cut out heart (that comes in the kit) to each piece, and cut a bunch of pieces from several different patterned papers.
I mixed in some of Bella's chipboard banner pieces as well, taken from the Finally Fall collection. The die cut banner pieces have a preforated fold at the top, so I folded them over some twine, and then added a tiny staple to hold the fold down.
I adhered all of the banner pieces down with pop dots for extra dimension.
When I cut basic shapes, I like to cut several extras at the same time. They're nice to have on hand for quick cards. I whipped up these two cards in no time at all. I already had the fall collections out, and I had lots of scraps of patterned paper. The only extra product I dug out were the flags.
I adhered the "happy fall ya'll" sticker to cardstock, and then adhered it to the card with pop dots. I used a few of the banner pieces below the sticker, adhering them with pop dots as well. I tucked a few flags in and just like that, my card was done.
I used the same basic design to start this card. A piece of my favorite grid patterned paper, misted with tan spray mist. I used a few of the extra die cut feathers for this card.
You can check out my layout over on the Bella Blvd blog today, along with even more fall themed projects, and then make sure to visit tomorrow as well, as we share the last batch of projects. Also, head over to Kerri's blog, where Nichol Magouirk is sharing her work. There are giveaways happening on both blogs as well, so make sure and watch for those!
Speaking of giveaways, I have a few giveaways of my own today. As some of you know, I taught a Bella Blvd sponsored class, all about designer tapes, at the CKU events this year. I ended up with some leftover tapes, and have been given the go-ahead to do a few giveaways. I have four sets of the 7 designer tapes you see pictured here. They are all full rolls, just taken out of the packaging for class prep.
Leave me a comment here, on this post, for a chance at winning a set of these fun tapes. I will randomly choose four winners, who will each receive a set, and will be announcing the winners by Sunday evening.
Laura Vegas 
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