Happy Girls Are The Prettiest Girls / Bella Blvd

It's Friday...woo hoo!  Bring on the weekend!  I wanted to share my newest layout for Bella Blvd today.  When you begin a layout, do you start with your photo and then choose your papers or is it the other way around?  I do both, honestly.  For this one, I started with my photo.  I just love it.  It's of my daughter in a really happy and content moment.  For those of you who don't know, my girls are autistic and nonverbal.  Reese has always put her fingers in her ears when she wants to filter out all the excess noise around her.  It helps her focus and stay calm.  This photo shows how she processes her idea of peace.  She LOVES the pool, and the smile on her face shows that she is definitely in her happy place :)

So I began with the photo.  The blues in it area just gorgeous, and there is a slight pop of pink from her swim suit.  The colors and the meaning behind the photo inspired me to go really bright and happy for my colors.  I started with the Very Squarey cut file from The Cut Shoppe and cut it on this light blue checked paper from Sweet Sweet Spring.  I backed each open square with papers from various collections including She Blooms, Sweet Baby Girl, Cute Baby Boy and Whatever is Lovely.  I wanted all those yellows, pinks and blues...my favorite color combo!

I love backing cut files.  It does take some time, but it's fun for me to do this.  And the result is always worth it!  It's a great way to use up little scraps as well because this only takes small bits of paper.  I added some enamel hearts and phrase stickers and did a little machine stitching.

I mixed and matched my title using some of the Caio Chipboard, Tiny Text alphas, Treasures & Texts alphas and a piece of patterned paper I cut on my Cameo.  I love mixing fonts, colors and different alpha stickers to make titles...it just keeps it fun and interesting!  This is a quote I found on Pinterest.  There are quotes for any and everything there!

I used some gelatos to color the "HAPPY" letters.  They come white, so you can jazz them up any way you like.  I added a few enamel hearts and tangled thread over to the left.

Here's another look at all those gorgeous squares of color.  I added some more pink thread under the photo...such an easy and fast way to add interest, texture and color.

I did do some inking here under the photo and title.  I used Shimmerz to add some blue, pink and yellow "messiness" behind this photo.  I love how the blue looks like water :)  I used a scallop punch to create that green border below the title and then machine stitched through it.

I had a blast making this...I hope you got some ideas for your next project! Thanks so much for visiting me today.  Happy Weekend!