Hi Everyone! Kristin here today to share the second half of my Top 10: Chicago mini book with you. Check out the first half here.

The base of this mini-book is the Tiny Tabs album; and because this book has over 20 individual pages and transparencies, I’ve broken it up into two posts to better share the special details with you.

I kept this album very simple. I just wanted a quick showcase of my top ten moments from Chicago. Quick mini-books are my favorite way to tell a story. Just a few simple steps and you have a great book to document your favorite memories.

Tips for Quick Minibooks: 

1. Grab all your photos first.
2. Put your photos in the order you want them to appear in the book.
3. Grab a few sheets of paper (6×6 paper pads are perfect for this) an alphabet set
4. Only use a few embellishments (washi, stickers, flair, etc)
5. Batch process your book — put down your papers, then your photos, then embellish and journal at the end.

This is my favorite album from Basically Bare, it is incredibly versatile and can be used for any occasion. Come over to my blog and see the brand new project I have in the works using the Tiny Tabs album!

Supplies Used:

Basically Bare Tiny Tabs Album
Studio Calico December 6×6 paper pad
Basic Grey Number Brads
Simple Stories Sn@p Alphas
Heidi Swapp White Alphas

Elle’s Studio Day by Day tags

Freckled Fawn washi tape

Hi, Veronica here to share with you a lovely little album by Basically Bare Krafty Keepsakes  that I call ADORE.  Who says that Valentine’s Day or a Romantic Keepsake album has to be Red and Pink?

I just love the envelope pockets in this album!  I decorated the envelope pages with the Basically Bare Hearts so that I can easily pull out the tags.  There is room on the tags for lots of journaling or you can store extra photos inside the pockets!

Notice the wings that I added to the hearts.  Nothing says “LOVE” more than hearts and wings.  Is this c-u-t-e or what?

There are so many ways and techniques you can use to embellish the Basically Bare chipboard pieces.  On this dress form I decided to wrap it in ribbon.

Thank you for stopping by Basically Bare

veronica (kitsnbitscraps)

Supplies Used:

Basically Bare Album: Plain Jane “Krafty Keepsake”

Basically Bare Embellishments:  Chipboard Hearts, Chipboard Wings, Dress Me Up – Dress Form

Other Supplies:  My Mind’s Eye Lost and Found “Sunshine” collection, May Arts, Mark Richards,  Prima Flowers, Ranger “stickles”, Xyron

Hi Everyone! Kristin here today to share the first half of my Top 10: Chicago mini book with you.

The base of this mini-book is the Tiny Tabs album; because this book has over 20 individual pages and transparencies, I’ve broken it up into two posts to better share the special details with you.

My trip to Chicago was a dream come true. I was out there for the Craft and Hobby Association Trade Show and decided to spend a couple of days downtown to check out the sites and do some touristy stuff.

I had never stayed alone in a major city before, so I was a little bit nervous about being in a strange city by myself. As it turns out it was one of the best trips I’ve ever had and today I get to share some of my favorite moments with you.

Because the book has so many pages, I chose to keep the design very simple with a lot of white space and a little bit of journaling. Each photo has a numbered brad 1 through 10. I added a few extra embellishments throughout the pages just to round out the look of the book.

Thanks so much for stopping by and checking out my album. Look for the second half of the book in the upcoming weeks.

Supplies Used:
Basically Bare Tiny Tabs Album
Studio Calico December 6×6 paper pad
Basic Grey Number Brads
Simple Stories Sn@p Alphas
Heidi Swapp White Alphas

Happy December!  This week we are having a blog hop with Xyron, and so I got to use an assortment of their products for this project, and I have to say I am in L♥VE!  Their glue stick is the best one EVER … it glides on so smooth and holds so well.  Not to mention it’s shape makes it perfect for going into corners!  Here is my project for this hop …

As you probably know … doing the ‘December Daily’ journals is a huge thing these days, but I have never done one, simply because I know I would never finish one, but I love the idea of this diary styled mini album!   I am huge into making myself aware of ‘little gifts’ … you know, little intangible things that happen to brighten your day.  They can be as simple as seeing a cardinal on your feeder, the first snow of winter, your child getting a great grade at school, finding $10 in your coat pocket that you had forgotten about, or chatting with a friend from far away.  Just anything that brings a smile to your face and warms your heart.

For this diary I used the Basically Bare ‘Tiny Tabs’ mini album and Lily Bee Designs ‘Christmas Cheer’ collection of papers and stickers.  For the front cover, I used a ruler and kraft knife and cut a line just through the top layer of kraft paper from the corrugated cover, then sprayed it with a mist of water and waited for a couple of minutes.  Then I easily pulled the top layer off, revealing the corrugated cardboard.  I did leave about 1/2 inch of the top layer where the binding holes are for extra security.  Next up I cut a few triangles from the paper for a pennant, and a couple of bits of coordinating cardstock that I applied letter stickers to and ran them through the Xyron 1.5″ Create A Sticker tool.  I really love this thing for adding adhesive to chipboard, stickers that have lost their tackiness, and small bits of paper!  Then I simply applied the new stickers to the front cover.

I cut rectangles of patterned paper just smaller than each page.  The pages (not counting the binding) are approximately 3″ x 5 1/4″, so I cut the patterned paper to 2 3/4″ x 5″.  Then I adhered them to the pages and inked all the edges with brown ink.  To adhere the patterned paper to the pages, I used the Xyron Mega Runner, and I can honestly say I now have a very favorite new tape runner!  This one’s refills hold 100 feet of tape, and each refill has a little cover that is hinged and pops up to cover the end of the tip so you don’t mess up the adhesive.  And the adhesive holds great!

Then for each page I cut a piece of white card stock (Bazzill ‘Card Shoppe’) to 4 1/2″ x 2 1/4″ then trimmed the top and bottom using a decorative border punch.  I adhered these to the pages using the Xyron Glue Stick, added number stickers from the Lily Bee Design collection for 25 days.  Next I simply cut small lengths of Tim Holtz’ Idea-ology Tinsel Twine – Winter and tied it to the spiral binding.  I also punched 3 holes into the tabs on the clear acrylic sheets in the album and ran more of the Tinsel Twine through the holes and tied it on.  This added lots of color and texture to the album.

The Tiny Tabs mini is perfect for this, as it has 13 pages plus the two covers, and leaves you with enough pages for the 25 days plus a couple of pages for notes.  And if you have a few small photos that you want to add, you can do that, too!

Thank you so much for visiting today, and to Xyron for joining us in the fun blog hop!  Please check out all of the Xyron and Basically Bare Design Teams pages for lots of more crafty goodness!  Blessings, Becky

Hellow everyone!  It’s Veronica here again with an adorable mini album for all your Thanksgiving photos!  This week (Nov. 26 – 30th) the Basically Bare design team members are doing a swap with Bella Blvd.  So for my swap I decided to use the cutest Bella Blvd “Thankful” collection.

I am also using the brand new “Easel Ablum” by Basically Bare.  This album is perfect for any mini you have in mind.  The Easel album makes such a great coffee table album for all your treasured memories.  The “easy easel” bare booklets album comes with pages that are 4×6 and 5×5 so you have plenty of space to create an awesome mini.

The thing I love most about the Bella Blvd “Thankful” collection is that the line comes with a couple of different style of tag pages.  It is so easy to pick out the tag you want to use for your journaling or as a design element on your album, for example my front page.

Thank you for stopping by to visit, hope you enjoyed my mini.

Happy Scrapping,

Veronica Johnson / Kitsnbitscraps

Products Used

Basically Bare:  Bare Booklets “Easy Easel” Album BK012SML, Happy Little Houses Set, Buttons Set, Blossoms and Leaves Set

Other:  Bella Blvd. “Thankful”, xyron, clearsnap, May Arts, Ranger

Katrina here and I am so excited for the swap with Bella Blvd. today!  At first, I thought I would definitely do a layout with all that fun goodies that we received.  BUT, then I started going thru my Basically Bare stash and decided that I would do a December Monthly.  I know most people are talking about December Dailies, but I know there is no way that I would keep up with a daily album.  (Hey, at least I know my weakness!)  So, I decided to make a fun little mini out of the Tiny Tabs album and just insert a few pictures of things here and there.

I used the Christmas Wishes collection from Bella Blvd.  I love the color combos and knew that it would make a fun little mini album.  If you want to see the pages bigger, just click on the collage pictures!

All of these pictures are in order of the book, except for the first two which are the front and back pages.  This first collage includes an acrylic button from the Buttons set, a tree from the Happy Little Trees set, and an acrylic star with some silver alcohol ink over it from the Celestial Shapes set .

These pages include a spool from the Sew Vintage set and an arrow from the Arrows set.  I ran the first acrylic page thru my Cuttlebug to emboss it and then put a thin layer of Art Anthology paint in frost over it.   I then ran the second acrylic page thru with a different embossing folder, used some Clover alcohol ink on it and then mixed in some of the Art Anthology paint over it.

 This collage uses a felt tree top from the Happy Little Trees set for the snow that the cute little reindeer is standing on.  A chipboard bird and felt wing from the Birds set.  Santa is made from three of the Large Pennants.  I painted a rounded canvas pennant and a V-shaped canvas pennant in Chili Powder red (Ranger/Jenni Bowlin), leaving the points of the V so that I could paint them with black paint.  I then glued the round pennant on top of the V-shaped one and ran ribbon around to make a belt.  I cut the scallop Large Pennant and used small pieces to make “fur” on the boots were the red and black paint meet.  The acrylic page here I just left plain and decorated it front and back, but still leaving area to see thru.

In this last collage, I used the two buttons from the Buttons set to make ornaments to place on the page.  I did emboss this acrylic page, but just left it clear.  I liked the way it looked.  I loved the penguins in the paper collection from Bella Blvd. and knew I wanted to do something fun with them.  This one, I made a snow globe for him to fit in.  I used the “top” from the Up, Up and Away set as my globe.  I cut the rounded bottom part from a dress form in the Dress Form set to make the base of my globe.

Thanks for stopping by and be sure to check out all our designers postings this week for our swap with Bella Blvd.  And thank you to Bella Blvd. for the fun products to work with!

Hugs,

Katrina Hunt

Paper, Scissors and Glue

Basically Bare Supplies:  Album-Tiny Tabs    Embellishment Sets-Celestial Shapes, Sew Vintage, Buttons, Large Pennants, Up, Up & Away, Dress Forms, Arrows, Happy Little Trees

Bella Blvd. Collection:  Christmas Wishes, plus Washi Tape and Buttons

Other Supplies: Acrylic Paint (Ranger/DecoArt); Dimensional Paint (Art Anthology); Alcohol Inks (Ranger); Twine (May Arts/Stampin’ Up); Cuttlbug; Embossing Folders (Lifestyle Crafts/Sizzix/ProvoCraft); Ribbon (May Arts/My Mind’s Eye/Unknown); Mists (Studio Calico Mr. Huey’s); Bling (Recollections); Pen-Zig Millennium; Silhouette Cameo; Adhesives (Fabri-Tac/Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L/Scotch ATG); Doily (Wilton); Modeling Paste

Good morning, everyone!  I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving and that you enjoy our little get-together with Bella Blvd this week!  I have a mini album using the brand new Basically Bare Easy Easel album and the Thankful collection from Bella Blvd (which is adorable, as you are going to see!).

Instead of a normal cover, the Easy Easel album has two corrugated pages that make an easel for easy display of your album.  What a great idea, right?

The album includes 4×6 and 5×5 inch chipboard pages (there is also a larger version of the album, which I can’t wait to get started on).  I alternated the small and larger pages and used Bella and Basically Bare goodies to make a Thanksgiving centerpiece.

The first page has two little houses (made using the doors from the Basically Bare Happy Little Houses set) attached with dimensional adhesive to pop them up.  The little pin flag is also by Bella Blvd, and is too stinking cute.

I used some poly fill stuffing to add some fluffy clouds along with the ones on the cardstock.

The next page has a Happy Little (fall) Tree.  I covered the chipboard tree trunk with strips of Bella paper, and autumn-ized the canvas leaves with green, orange, and brown ink.

This next page has a great Bella sticker and another adorable pin flag, along with some burlap and velvet ribbons.

The Thankful collection includes some great stickers, including this “Fall Memories” journaling tag.  I layered it over more burlap ribbon and some suede leaves.  The acorns were cut from another sheet of the Thankful paper.

This next page uses another  journaling tag sticker, along with these “thanks” banner stickers and year label, which are also from the Thankful collection.

The stickers are  layered on top of some net ribbon and clear Gauche Alchemy Punchinella for texture on this next page.

Up next is a page with one the great Fanciful Frames shapes, which I painted white and stamped with gold ink.  I only glued the frame on three sides so that the paper can be slid out and a photo put in its place.

The last page has three Happy Little Houses and more of the great stickers that came in the Thankful collection pack.

See how that easel back holds up so well?  You have to try out both the album and these great papers!

That’s all for today!  Be sure to check out the Bella Blvd blog to see the fab projects they have for our swap all week long!

‘Til next time-

x Beth

Materials

Basically Bare:
Easy Easel album, Fanciful Frames 2, Happy Little Houses, Happy Little Trees

Bella Blvd:
Thankful paper collection and embellies

Inks/Mediums:
Ranger Distress Inks (Broken China, Gathered Twigs, Mowed Grass, Squeezed Lemonade, Wild Honey), Ranger Dylusions Spray Ink (Cut Grass, Melted Chocolate, Squeezed Orange)

Miscellaneous Embellishments:
May Arts Ribbon (White Net, Velvet Ric-rac), Poly Fill Stuffing, Punchinella by Gauche Alchemy (clear), Ribbon Studio burlap ribbon

Hi Everyone, its me again Veronica to share with you a cute album I designed using another one of my favorite albums PLAIN JANE.

The reason I chose this “Basically Bare Plain Jane – Krafty Keepsake” album is because of the envelope pages.  I thought these envelope pages would be perfect to add journaling on what you are thankful for and some extra family photos.  You could even add and a momento or two; for instance, how about the menu you served for Thanksgiving?  Or maybe even your guest list with each invitee contributing a note as to what they are thankful for this year?

On the cover I used the “Happy Little Trees” embellie.   The canvas and chipboard tree added great dimension and texture to the cover.  I spray painted my little canvas tree, and I inked the chipboard.  I used some tattered angels and a zig pen to outline the tree.

On this page I used the Basically Bare “Fanciful Frames“  chipboard embellie.  I also used “Art Anthology” gelate to paint my chipboard frame.

This is Mr. Hoot. I used the Basically Bare “Stack-a-bellies owls” set to make my 3D owl.  The owl embellies come in chipboard and felt.  I covered my chipboard and added some feet and “feathers” using a border punch.

On these pages I added some of the large “Basically Bare Pennants”.  I used all three textures for my banner.  The chipboard, canvas and also the felt.

Last but not least I used the Basically Bare “Blossoms and Leaves” set.  I actually use this set alot!  I love the different textures and depth you can achieve using this set.  In the picture above I used the canvas leaf as my element for cohesion on this album.  Those of you that know me, know that I always pick one element that I use throughout an album to get a consistent look. I spray painted each canvas leaf with Art Anthology “Fern Leaf” then I outlined the leaves with Zig Fabricolor pens.

As always it was fun making this mini and it helped me get into the mood for Fall and the upcoming Holiday season.

Hope you enjoyed my show and tell, and happy Scrapping …

Supplies Used:

Basically Bare Album: Plain Jane “Krafty Keepsake”

Basically Bare Embellishments:  Franciful Frames, Pennants, Happy Little Trees, Owls, Blossoms and Leaves

Other Supplies:  My Little Yellow Bicycle “Hello Fall” collection, May Arts, Art Anthology, Tattered Angels mist,  Buttons Galore, Zig Fabri-color fabric pens, Xyron

Jamie here with you today, and boy oh boy do I have a fun (aka super inky!) project for you today!  I have to admit that I don’t usually do much for Halloween as my favorite holiday is in December.  However, once I sat down to work on this project, I was sucked in with all the fall colors!

So let’s get started showing you how I created this wall hanging.  To start, I simply covered the corrugated Oh So Mini Album page with patterned paper and then inked the edges with black and orange.

Next, I cut a piece of 5in x 5in watercolor paper and gave it a good spritz with Tsukineko’s Goosebumps texture spray.  This does two things for the background.  First, it acts as a resist for the ink that will be added later.  Second, it also adds a really fun texture to the page.

Once the Goosebumps is dry, I started adding liquid watercolors in orange, purple, and black. I just kept adding, layering, and splattering the colors until I was happy with the effect.  Then I mounted the sheet of watercolor to black cardstock and adhered it to the album page.

Next up, I cut out a skeleton and adhered it to the page.  Then I printed the saying, inked the edges, and also adhered it to the page.

Now, on to the embellishments.  I sprayed the felt heart with black ink, then gave it a quick spritz with a glimmer spray. Lastly, I inked the stars with Sweet Melon and Grape Soda Smooch Ink.

For the finishing touches, I added a few crystals and punchinella to the bottom corner and a ribbon hanger at the top.  For a last bit of shimmer, I used a Clear Wink of Stella pen on the skeleton cutout.

Basically Bare items used:

-Bracket Oh So Mini album, corrugated page

-Celestial Shapes Set – felt cloud and chipboard stars

Kuretake items used:

-Zig Millenuim, Pure Black

-Zig Wink Of Stella, Clear

It’s with a very sad heart that I say this is my last post as part of the Basically Bare Design Team.  I have had an absolute blast working with the gals and guy on the team, and will miss everyone.  Wishing all the best for the company in the future!

Whoot Whoot, Veronica here and I am so excited to share with you my latest “Oh So Mini” album.  As you know you can mix and match the album pages.  Well I had a couple of clear acrylic pages left over from mixing and matching other albums using the “Oh So Mini” pages; and it dawned me why not sew the two clear pages together and make pockets?  That is just what I did which lead me to pull my theme of “Sew Cute” together.

I took the bracket acrylic page and laid the scallop acrylic page on top.  I did have to cut the scallop page about an inch and using my crop-a-dile make another set of holes for my rings.  I needed the top scallop page a little shorter so that I could slip tags inbetween the pages with enough room for the tag ribbons.

OK, on to the sewing part.  I again made some small holes on the top and bottom of my layered pages then using a slip stitch I went ahead and hand “sewed” them together.  I still needed to sew a divider in the middle of the layered pages so that I would have two pockets for my tags.  Rather than using my May Arts burlap ribbon, I decided to place snaps along the center.  I thought it was a cute idea since I was going with the whole sewing theme.

Below is the back side of the cover page.  You can see the snaps better on this side.  The one important thing you have to remember when working with acrylic is that of course whatever you place on the front will show up on the back.  I decided to make my tags out of the Tim Holtz “Kraft Resist” paper because of the sewing pattern.  Also I liked the whole monochromatic base color that I used throughout my album.

Below is the tabbed page that I covered with October Afternoon ”farmhouse” collection.  I used old packaging from a sewing kit that my husband’s grandmother had from the 1950′s to make a pocket for my tags.

Though out the album I added the original packages from grandma Elsie’s sewing notions.

On the Basically Bare canvas page shown, I used stazon ink and stamped a tape measurer image with my Impression Obession stamp.  Then I spritzed it with glimmer mist.  I personally like making blobs rather than an even spray.  I added some prima chipboard and flowers.

I have some standard processes I use when creating an album.  The first is to pick a standard base color the second is to pick one element and use it throughout the album.  In this “Sew Cute” album I decided to use the tape measurer image.  Notice how pretty much every page has a tape measurer image stamped on a tag or on canvas.

I love the way my Basically Bare “Dressform” chipboard turned out.  I threaded all my wood buttons and glued them on.  I really like the way this dressfrom ties into the whole sewing theme.

October Afternoon farmhouse collection came with a” Miscellany” pack, so I used their tags along with grandma’s original notion cards.

I loved designing this album and I hope that it shows.  I can’t say enough about the “Oh So Mini” albums.  Each album I make using these fabulous mix and match pages is more fun than the last. Each album is totally unique because you decide which of the pages you want in your album.

Happy Scrapping!

Supplies:

Basically Bare: Oh So Mini Album, Dress Form

Other Product Used:  October Afternoon, Prima Marketing, May Arts, Ideaology, Jenni Bowlin, 7 gypsies