Laura Vegas

It's a bit earlier than usual, but it's time for another monthly project sheet to be released over on the Bella Blvd blog. From here on out, I believe we'll be sharing them on the first Monday of the month. For the May project sheet, I was asked to focus on the Star Student collection. Most kids are finishing up their school years in the next month or so, so it's the perfect time to work on a school layout or two.

I started this page by die cutting a large star from the Art Journal patterned paper, using my Silhouette. I don't usually incorporate any sort of die cutting on my project sheet layouts, since I'm supposed to use basic tools that anyone and everyone would have. But you could also sketch out a large star and freehand cut it out with scissors if you don't have a die cut machine capable of creating a star that large.

I wanted to use the aqua map patterned paper, since it matched Alyssa's dress in her graduation photo, and decided to lay the Typewriter Clear Cut on top so that the map pattern wasn't super obvious. On the left side of the page, I used a strip of the yellow dotted patterned paper, with a thin strip of the white grid patterned paper separating the two sides of the page.

I thought it would be fun to use a photo of Alyssa on her very first day of high school as a freshman, and a photo of her from four years later, as a senior on graduation day. It's hard to believe she graduation from high school a little less than a year ago (end of May 2014), and she'll be finishing off her first year of college this week.

A little tip for adhering the Clear Cuts transparencies. I added little glue dots along the top and bottom of my transparency, since I knew I was going to add a border along the top and bottom of the page. The border sticker along the top and the patterned paper strip along the bottom both covered up those glue dots once adhered. I also try and figure out what larger pieces will cover the transparency (such as my photos or the star), and add some adhesive in those areas as well, since they'll get covered up.

You can download the May project sheet, complete with a full supply list and detailed instructions, featuring the Star Student collection RIGHT HERE.