Keeping Calm & Carrying On

Happy Birthday Lauren

This little cutie pa-tootie is officially three years old today. I'm so proud to call her my niece and my Godchild. Lauren, you bring so much joy to mine and Uncle Steve's lives and we are so thankful for your happy disposition, your curiosity and beautiful smile! We love you so much!

Little Lauren: A Bella Blvd Family Forever Layout

My newest Family Forever collection has one of my most favorite color combinations ever. Red is hard to find in scrapbooking, that perfect Macintosh red that is, and in this collection is truer than truer and paired with turquoise, navy and lime too. 

 

"Little Lauren and Uncle Steve". This little girl puts a smile on my husband's face like no one else does. He's so happy when he sees her and just get a kick out of everything she says and does. Lauren will be three years old in April. I love looking at these older photos and seeing how different she looks already. She's getting so big.

For more Family Forever ideas, visit the Family Forever Idea Gallery via Bella Blvd's Blog.

Halloween Recap 2013

While I was teaching workshops in Puerto Rico I hosted a Crop Pary where dressing up was required. Look at how cute the staff was! 

And back home little Lauren was a princess. She was so excited for Trick-or-Treat at Nana's house! She loved checking out everyone else's costumes too.

2.5 is such a fun age for Trick or Treat!

Baptized in Love: Single Page Layout

I'm really groovin' on photo enlargements lately. It has 2 great purposes for me. 1: It helps me narrow down my most favorite photo, which means I mean printing less and keeping events to either single or double page layouts. And 2: It makes scrapbooking simple with enlargements!

For the title I used my Designer Washi Tape as a background before adding my sticker alphas. Do you remember these sticker alphabets? They were my very first with Bella Blvd, and named "Carla."

A feather, a Doodlepop (Doodlebug), a Crochet Heart and rhinestone cross later, and wha-la. Finito!

October Already!?

September seriously flew by, and there's a list of things I'm excited for this month including decorating our home for the first time for Halloween/&Fall, traveling to Puerto Rico, celebrating birthdays and more! To kick off the first day of October I have this Halloween layout for you! The 12x12" single page layout includes products that I've mixed and matched between my Too Cute To Spook (2011) and new Trick or Treat Collections with Bella Blvd.

I'm simultaneously working on Lauren's first-year album. I've been creating layouts for her album as I finish mine. Making progress here, to her first Halloween when she was 6 months old. Crochet Hearts and Designer Washi Tapes are layered here to create a cluster of journaling.

Happy October. What are you looking forward to this month?

4 Months Married

Today makes four months of wedded bliss :) Married life is good. Married life is definitely work though, especially these first few months as we sort out all the details in becoming husband and wife, ownerships, name changes, tasks around the house, routines, and so much more. Thankfully we both have some great examples of husbands and wives around us to learn from.

Steven, I know we aren't together today, and I'm sorry I'm away. But we both know the cliche is true, that absence makes the heart grow fonder. Together I know we can accomplish anything, and day-by-by we become stronger and stronger as one. I love you. Happy 4 months (if there's such a thing :) lol...

First Swim: A Bella Blvd Layout

Printing a favorite photo in a super big size always makes a great impact. This photo of my brother-in-law Dan with his daughter Lauren during her first swim was just priceless so I printed it as 12x12" and it became the base of my layout.

Just a few embellishments in the negative space of the photograph is all it needed to finish it off. Crochet Hearts (Bella Blvd) and some punched paper hearts, floating up the right side of the layotu.

And some strips of Bella Blvd Designer Washi Tapes, mixed with a sticker font combination (from Doodlebug and Jillibean Soup) for my title, and wha-la!

LuLu: A Bella Blvd Sunshine & Happiness Layout

Although I don't typically post on Sundays, I've been scrapbooking all weekend and really wanted to share something scrapbook related today to cap it off.

Let's face it....sometimes you need to get pages done quickly and make some progress, instead of spending hours on just a couple page layouts, right? This k.i.s.s. feature is to inspire you to do just that. Check out this color blocking layout I created with my Sunshine & Happiness Collection.

I mixed some old with new here including new Daily Chevies Bella Pepper giant chevron (top row), and more recent Crochet Hearts too. For the layout design I simply split the 12x12" base paper into a 4x4" grid and trimmed all my photos and patterns accordingly.

Then I color blocked monochramatically within the patterns sqaures: adding Yellow embellishments to the yellow block, Blue Sienna Chip alphabets to the blue patterned block, a purple flower sticker to the purple patterned block, and so on and so forth.

Keeping the embellishments in the color-line helps make the photographs pop more. Try this on your next page if you're looking for something simple and clean!

For more Sunshine & Happiness inspiration check out the Sunshine & Happiness Idea Gallery here.

For more Crochet Hearts ideas check out the Crochet Hearts Idea Gallery here.

Christmas in August: Bella Blvd Projects

Look at that cute little face! Our niece Lauren is growing up so quickly, I just had to capture her facial expressions and excitement from last December when Steven and I gave her a stocking from St. Nick! She's full of facial expressions and is just the happiest little girl!

The layout features papers and stickers from my brand new Christmas Countdown collection (You can see the Collection Reveal here). Added some Crochet Hearts & journaling to top it off.

I definitely feel like this layout is all about the photo so I wanted to keep it as the focal point. The full supply list, along with some additional details and photographs are being featured over at Bella Blvd today on the Studio Blog.

This card I created for CHA as well. Love me some of those new Paper Pieces die-cuts!

Looking for more Christmas Countdown ideas? Click here to see the current Christmas Countdown Idea Gallery. Hope you have a great Friday. I have the day off from work today to get going on some errands necessary to officially change my last name to Smokovich, and then I'm headed to my mom and dad's lake house with my sister and bestie for a nice relaxing weekend of peace and quiet, movies, games and relaxing fun :) Happy Friday!

Remember This: A Bella Blvd Trick or Treat Layout

My new Trick or Treat collection is now shipping to stores all around the world! It's perfect for capturing and documenting little kids Halloween events. The bright colors and pop of teal make the designer in me happy :)

Seriously...she's the cutest lady bug ever, right?! Check out this layout of mine being shared over at Bella Blvd today. The photo is from my niece and God Daughter, Lauren's, very first Halloween.

I'm so excited about the new Paper Pieces die-cuts with the new collections. They have fun cut-out pieces like this circle "2DAY" one. Check out more photos and details about this layout today over at Bella Blvd. For more ideas using the new Trick or Treat collection, visit the Trick or Treat Idea Gallery here.

God Parents Layout

Sometimes it's more important to keep the memorabilia that include a ton of photographs. Keeping the church bulletin from the day Lauren (and Sarah) were baptised includes special memories including the pastor's name, hymns sung and current details about the church.

That's exactly why I matted the bulletin and used it as the main piece of the layout. I curled up the lower right corner to intrigue a page-turn and included my 2 favorite photos from the day.

This is Steven's first honor of being a God Parent and my second. It's such an privilege to be asked such an important thing. Today's reminder for you is to not forget the memorabilia. Don't hide it, instead show it off when the time is right :)

Any Minute: A Bella Blvd Layout

Slowly but surely I am plugging away at both my personal album pages of Baby Lauren's (new God Daughter) Arrival, and also her first year baby book. Instead of making duplicate pages (I get bored with the redundancy) I create different ones with the same pictures to keep my brain fresh!

This the layout I created for my album with pictures, just moments before Lauren was born. I loved the black and white and think they tell so much about the anticipation in the hospital room.

I combined the We're Expecting products with some Sophisticates patterns, alphabet stickers (High Fives) and Crochet Flowers too.

That stork is one of my favorite little illustrations. Love the curly-q tail.

For more ideas featuring my We're Expecting products, visit the We're Expecting Idea Gallery at the Bella Studio Blog!

Wedding Wednesday: Bridal Shower No. 1

This past weekend officially kicked off one of the first big events pre-wedding: The first bridal shower, hosted actually by my amazing soon-to-be Mother-in-Law, Mrs. Smokey. 

It was wonderful, pink, delicious and so much more! Here's a peek! The room was decorated so adorably, in pink streamers, banners, flowers, favors and more!

Allyson created the burlap banner that she gifted to me...I can promise you you'll be seeing that again come wedding-day!

It's so cute, right?! Thanks Allyson! This was the little area where the gifts were placed and where I opened them, the backdrop was so cute in the pictures...that I took most of them from there!

The happiness came in dozens, including these darling pre-packaging pink cupcakes! mmmm!

And these adorable favors Mrs. Smokey & Grandma put together for each of the guests! How cute are those little tuxedo bags!?

Morgie helped Mrs. Smokey plan the decorations including these adorable mason jars and flower centerpieces! The bridesmaids all helped before I arrived getting everything ready. It was so incredibly sweet of them, considering they are throwing a couple additional showers (yes, we are having three different showers...). I really wanted to keep them smaller and intimate so that I could visit with everyone and actually chat and enjoy the day! So thank you girls for all your extra help!

Jazzed up with a doily, some twine and a Bella Blvd patterned paper heart! So sweet!

So pretty, right?! Love the babies breath!

All the pink bows, wrapping and tissue paper..... so pretty!

I opened gifts (& I'm pretty sure I didn't rip or break any bows/ribbons!), including some fun off-the-registry ideas like this customized stationery!

I'm one of those brides that LOVES the wrapping details and pays attention to all that! So imagine my surprise when I found some Bella feathers on a wrapped gift...making for such a cute and textured rehearsal dinner bridal bow-bouquet!

We followed with a bunch of photos! This one is my favorite of all the girls in the wedding party...love that moment captured with little Lauren giggling!

Steven & I are so thankful to be surrounded by such loving family and friends. The shower, the details, the gifts and the company were absolutely wonderful. The day was perfect. Thank you so much for loving us, and helping us celebrate our upcoming wedding and life together. We love you all so, very much!

Welcome-A Baby Girl Layout

"Baby" Lauren (as we like to call her is almost 2 years old!) but I just can't resist these tiny little baby pictures from April 2011.

This layout features Bella's Baby Girl Collection, some Sophisticates chip alphas (Simona lowercase), and Designer Tapes in addition to Jillibean Soup's Alphabeans stickers (I just love those!) They fit perfectly inside some of Bella's Just Write Journaling Sticker pieces.

This little peanut is Steven's first neice on his side of the family, and will be our flower girl in the wedding! I can't wait for you to see her dress.....it's going to be darling! (We are actually measuring her and ordering the dress this week!)

Hope you're Wednesday is great, and that maybe you get an extra snuggle or two!

xoxo!

Wedding Wednesday: Pier Wisconsin

Happy Wednesday! I'm writing this post beforehand so I have no idea who the next President of the USA is going to be.....but I do have a vested interest in the results----just not trying to be all political around here :)  Now that's out of the way...let's move on with Wedding Wednesday. 

Before I decided on a vintage-chic style wedding theme, Steven and I scouted out several different places for our reception....Pier Wisconsin being one of them! It's a more-recent Milwaukee landmark right on the shores of Lake Michigan alongside the Milwaukee Art Museum.

 

It's beautiful, gorgeous and very modern. That's exactly why it didn't make our final cut---too modern for the theme I am going with....but, I couldn't help be so excited when we got a wedding invitation this summer hosted here!  The Bride did an amazing job...it was breathtaking, and the weather couldn't have cooperated more! Here's a couple pics I snapped that summer afternoon! 

The boys with the Groom---right outside the Photo booth which was a blast later on!

Cocktails and dancing outside on the patio with some of our favorite peeps- Dan & Sarah!

And of course my super handsome date for the night. Isn't he a stud?!