Laura Vegas

I have some bittersweet news to share today. I've worked for Bella Blvd for a little over 5 years. I have managed and led 5 creative teams, with a total of 73 unique designers from all over the world making up those 5 teams (some designers were on 2-4 of the 5 teams). I've invited 55 designer to guest on the Bella blog, with 13 of those designers also serving on one of our creative teams at some point. I've put together involved reveal posts for over 50 new collections – during winter releases, summer releases, and mid releases – along with numerous embellishments releases. I've coordinated 22 newsletters, lining up contributing designers, and searching out layouts and designers from online galleries to feature as well. I've created 62 layouts for 62 monthly project sheets, complete with step-by-step instructions. I've created an additional 230+ projects (layouts, cards, and altered projects) for blog work, catalog work, and booth work for trade shows. And countless other tasks that I won't bore you with. 

And I've loved it. Every minute of it. 

That being said, I made the hard decision a few weeks ago to step down from my position as Creative Team Coordinator for Bella Blvd. It's a job that I've held for over 5 years. It was a job that became a part of my every day routine, and not a day went by that I didn't do at least one thing Bella related. It was a job that was roughly 80% computer work and behind the scenes work, managing the blog and creative team, and roughly 20% design work, creating layouts and other projects for the blog, project sheets, catalogs, and trade shows. It was a job that I was really, really good at, and quite frankly, a job that I think I rocked. It was a job that fit perfectly into my schedule, while still working a full time job as a daycare provider in my home. Basically, it was a job that I loved. 

Things change in the course of 5 years however. And sometimes, the place where you've been doesn't always remain the place you should be. There's been a lot of change at Bella, especially in the last year or two, and there's been a tremendous amount of growth, especially with the addition of the Illustrated Faith brand to Bella's family. And while that's all great – somewhere in that growth, I got lost a little. In short, I had to accept that Bella wasn't a good fit for me any longer, and it was time to say goodbye. It wasn't an easy decision by any means, and wasn't one that I wanted to make. But it was one that I knew I had to make, for myself. 

Which means that as of last week, I am no longer with Bella Blvd. They did a very sweet farewell post for me this past weekend, and I was asked to share a handful of my favorite layouts from over the years, along with answering some questions about my time there. You can read that HERE. If anyone reading here happened to have commented on that post, please know that your comments mean the world to me. I will also be sharing one last Bella layout later this week here on my blog. 

As for what's next for me? I have no idea. I've already been asked, numerous times, if I will continue to scrapbook. And the answer is a big YES! I am in no way leaving the scrapbooking world, or hanging up my trimmer (is that what one does when quitting this hobby?). I've got way too many projects to complete, projects to start, projects to brainstorm, etc. I am still designing for Kerri Bradford, which I absolutely love! And I am tossing a few ideas around in my head for what I'd like to do next.

But for the moment, I'm not moving on to anything new, or starting a new adventure anywhere. Not that I know of anyways. I will be taking the next few weeks to simply re-group and adjust to this big change. And to figure out what to focus on next. In the meantime, I've dug up some layouts created for different types of projects, that I have never shared here on my blog, and I will be sharing those over the next few weeks.