Moments / Bella Blvd

It's the weekend...yay!  I hope you are able to get in some crafty time over the next few days.  Today I wanted to share my latest layout for Bella Blvd.  I was up on the blog last week showing a fun idea for getting out of a creative slump.  I have found that creating a grid design (which doesn't require a lot of thinking) makes it easier to get a page started.  I picked out my photo and the papers I wanted to use, and then I used my Shimmerz Paints to create a 4-part grid in different colors.  With this being done, I don't have to figure out where to put everything.  I can easily divide my page into four small sections and embellish each one.

Here's how my layout turned out.  I used each of the four areas as its own "mini layout."  I used circles and layered them.  I was inspired by the Fresh Market collection, which has a lot of fruit and berries and cute "sweet" sayings.  I tried to spread the color around...for instance, on the pink quadrant, I used papers that were red & orange and use embellishments that were blue and yellow.  On the green quadrant, I used all the other colors besides green.  I like to spread the colors around.  I machine stitched around each circle and added stickers and die cuts.

The best place for my title to go was the dead center.  I used a large Ciao Chipboard piece and painted it with blue acrylic paint.  I added a bunch different colored thread under it to make it stand out a little more, and I used a couple of word and phrase stickers above it.
 
This is such a cute collection..so many "sweet" things to use.  Since that berry paper was really busy, I broke it up with more solid colored embellishments.  The blue heart stands out as does the white circles and yellow flower.  If you place something really busy on top of something else really busy, it would probably get lost.

Here's another quadrant up close.  I worked in some enamel dots on each area, and they are perfect for adding small pops of color.  This area needed something blue, so in comes an enamel dot.

I decided to create an orange for this area, so I cut one on my Cameo and painted it orange.  I like the added detail this gives and continues on with the "sweet" idea.  Again, I added opposing colors with the embellishments. 

Here's one more close-up.  For my photo area, I added pop dots and thread, and I also added a cute "my main squeeze" tab.  This wasn't the best quality photo because it was literally taken in the worst lighting, on the floor of my scraproom, with the light coming from the side....but it was just too cute of a moment to not document.  Sometimes the worst photos have the best memories!

I hope this gives you some tips on getting a layout started when the ideas just aren't flowing for you.  This happens to all of us crafters!

Thanks so much for stopping in, and enjoy your weekend!