Laura Vegas

If you haven't heard the news, we're revealing the new Summer 2015 collections all this week over on the Bella Blvd blog. Today, we're sharing the new Clear Cut specialty paper designs and our new Tiny Text alpha stickers.

I created this layout for the catalog, to show off the new Clear Cuts transparencies. I picked one of each design to start my page. The black stars, orange hearts, and green chevies. And then picked a few patterned papers from the Fresh Market collection and the IF Whatever Is Lovely collection to coordinate.

I had the idea to do a sunburst design on the page, which is something I did a few years back on a Bella layout. When I had created that previous layout, I had created my own template from a sheet of cardstock. I simple drew a circle in the lower right corner of the page, and then used my ruler to draw the "bursts" going out to the edge of the page.

Luckily, I saved those template pieces. That's actually quite unlike me, as I love to throw things away thinking I won't need them again. Also, I'm very glad that I was smart enough to number them, so I could easily piece it all together.

I started tracing and cutting the bursts from my patterned papers, arranging them around the page in a pleasing pattern. For the Clear Cuts, I simple cut a square wider then needed, so that I could just adhere it in place, and then place my patterned paper pieces in place over them. I didn't want to have to try and cut the transparencies into the exact burst shape, since I didn't want to have to draw on them.

Once all of my bursts were in place, I machine stitched along every row and into the center of the page. I then created a "mini layout" of sorts, from the white ruled and green dotted patterned papers, to adhere over where all of the bursts met in the center.

I cut down a few border stickers (truthfully, those are mock up "stickers", which was just paper I had to cut – they'll look better as actual stickers, I promise), and layered them together to give my title somewhere to rest. I used some of the white Amorie chipboard alphas, along with a few stickers to complete my title.

Head on over to the Bella Blvd blog to check out the new Clear Cuts & Tiny Text alphas, and get in on a chance to win-it-before-you-can-buy-it!