It’s Natalie here with my first official Basically Bare post!

For my project today I have made Christmas ornaments with some of my favorite shapes the “Happy Little Houses” I just love these houses, the possibilities are endless with them!

I also used the Chipboard Fanciful Frames II for the base of my ornament and added a ‘gear’ snowflake for more texture and fun!

I started by adding a little glue to the front of my chipboard shape and glued it to my patterned paper.

When they were dry I trimmed each one out with my x-acto knife, and sanded and distressed the edges to give finish them off.

For my ‘gear’ snowflake, I added several layers of Stampendous “Winter Wonderland” embossing powder. I focused my heat tool on a few of the edges, got them hot and dipped them into the embossing powder several times to give some texture. I found it worked better to focus on a smaller area at a time so that it stays nice and hot for the embossing powder to stick.

 I finished off the gear with a circle of patterned paper to cover up any that I may have missed with the embossing powder. I glued the snowflake gear to one of the frames using pop dots. Then it was time for the house. I used  buttons and red flowers for a wreath, added some stamping for texture and topped it off with a layer of glitter snow.

For my second ornament, I made some little bushes on either side of the house with buttons, adding more glitter for snow.

I love how these turned out and can’t wait to make more!

Hello, Veronica here, wishing you all a Happy Halloween.  Only 2 more days ’til Halloween and we are already a full bag and a half into the Halloween candy LOL.  I am off to the store tomorrow to buy more candy!

Today, I would like to share two Halloween inspired tags I created.  They both measure 4×8 1/2 and they were so much fun to make.

With my first tag I decided to make a swing panel that I attached with eyelets and ribbon.

I stamped the Haunted House using Penny Black’s “Haunted House” stamp.

For my moon, I used the Basically Bare “Celestial” shapes.  I added TH gold stickles then I added orange and black glitter.

On my second tag, I also used the Basically Bare “Celestial” shapes and Gears.  I cut the gear so that it would look like a moon.  I used Tattered Angels black spray and then I used gold rub on for my spooky moon.

Have a safe and Happy Halloween!

Veronica Johnson, Kitsnbitscraps

Supplies Used:

Basically Bare:  Gears Set II, Celestial Shapes,

Other Supplies:  My Little Yellow Bicycle “Boo-ville” collection, May Arts, Penny Black Stamp, TH glitter,  Tattered Angels mist, Fabri Tac adhesives

Hey Everyone! Rebecca here, ready to share a cool idea for the Bare Basics Gears. I had a photo of my kids standing front of an old tunnel. It had quite a bit of graffiti on the walls. To pull that detail out of the photo, I splattered different colors of paint onto some of the Bare Basics Gears.

A Bare Basics Heart was the perfect thing for my title. I love the mixture of feminine shapes and colors with this photo.

What do you think of this “graffiti-esque” technique? Will you try it?

Jen Matott here to share a fun project that I did with May Arts ribbon and Basically Bare products!

I had some of our Gears left over from a previous project and added in some of our new frames and a hat!  The dressform was so much fun to alter!!!  Here are some close ups of my Steampunk wall hanging!

The cardboard dress form from Basically Bare was altered by ripping some of the top layer off, stamped with a VersaMark pad and embossed with WOW embossing powder in Ultra Gold first.  I then did the same with Copper Regular powders.  Finally, I stamped some text

from the Rubber Cafe’s Steampunk set and embossing it with Black Glint powder.  The skirt was made with 1/2 a doily folded around and then a ruffle of May Arts 2″ Solid Stripe ribbon with a pretty bow around her middle!

Here’s the cute little black top hat from Basically Bare’s Hats & Staches set.  I just tied a piece of May Arts Faux Linen ribbon through a metal gear and glued some feathers and a stick pin in for a fun Steampunk look.

The backing board is a piece of chipboard that I covered with tissue pattern and modeling paste through a stencil of gears (Prima).  I added some Faber Castell Design Memory Craft Gelatos in Champagne. The rest of the gears were embossed with WOW Embossing powder, stamps from Rubber Cafe (Steampunk set), and metal circles and Rubber Cafe bling.

The acrylic frame is stamped with StazOn using the same stamps.  I also stamped the wing and embossed with copper power and colored the rest with Black Licorice Gelato. I added a felt key embossed in silver and some pewter brads too! The final touch was some of the May Arts ribbon looped through a book ring for hanging and attached to the back of the piece.  The bottom piece was cut with a ribbon edge for a pretty finish!

This was so fun to make and I absolutely LOVE May Arts ribbon!  It is so lush and gorgeous!  Hope you enjoyed my Steampunk wall hanging!

Hey everyone! Are you ready to see what I have done with Basically Bare and May Arts trims?

I decided to make a gift for a scrappy friend. She does so much for me and I appreciate it all. A little thank you was absolutely in order! I just happened to have the perfect thing, in need of a makeover, that had been waiting for the right moment and now was the time.

Have you ever received a heart shaped box of yummy chocolates for Valentine’s Day? Everyone loves them, right? Next year when you get one, don’t throw it away when you are done! Just gently clean out the plastic piece that held the candy, in case anything sticky happened to get on it. Then set the box aside until you need a one-of-a-kind gift.

When it is time to gift someone special, all you need to do is paint the outside of the box, or cover it with patterned paper. I used lots of painting and antiquing solutions on mine. I was going for a distressed box that would fit a “boy” theme. Set the plastic piece aside for this, you won’t be doing anything to it.

When the outside is finished and dry, you can embellish it to fit your theme. I chose Basically Bare gears, of course! They work well for masculine themes. I rolled up May Arts burlap trims and added those onto the gears for an extra punch.

Now that the box is finished, you need to add the plastic piece back inside and fill it. I put in  lots of boy embellishments in my friend’s favorite colors. Hope she likes this!

Do you like this idea, would you like to try it out? It will really work for any theme and you can fill it with anything you like. You could add buttons, flowers, ink pads, brads, small chipboard pieces, metal parts, rolls of ribbon, etc. If this is a gift for any other kind of hobbyist, just fill it with small bits of that trade. You could also refill it with small chocolates and candies or money. You end up with the perfect customized gift that will be loved. You also save something from the trash, one of my favorite things to do!

Hello, Veronica here with you today, and I have a journal to share.  I used some of the CHA Summer 2012 new release Basically Bare items!  The Hats and Staches embellies are so dang cute!  On this journal I was trying for a steam punk look so I used my Top Hat.  I also used some of the gears from the gear embellie pack.

This journal cover popped in my head the minute I saw the Top Hat and I had so much fun making this book.  As you can see by the cover I added alot of embellies and ink to give me that steampunk feel.  I also used cheesecloth, canvas and stamped elements along with the flowers and trinkets.

I love this Top Hat and I wanted to use it for my journal cover because I think it adds to the steampunk look I was going for.  I embossed my top hat with a mixture of embossing powder and I added a couple of layers to get that real bubbly look.

On the inside pages of my journal I wanted to add some dividers for my book.  I used the Gears Set II for my tabs.  All I did was cut my gears in half and just adhere them to the pages.  The gears already came in black chipboard so I used them as is.  Love how it turned out.

Thank you for stopping by, and I hope I have inspired you.  I just love using the Hats & Staches set.  I get so inspired to create with my Basically Bare embellishments, they are so much fun to use.

Basically Bare Product Used:

Hats & Staches

Gears Set II

Hey everyone! Basically Bare is swapping with Authentique this week and I am excited to show you my project! Recently I met up with a friend and her boys for lunch at a local park. The park used to be a quarry and there is a cool, supposedly haunted, tunnel located there. You just have to cross a creek to get to it. So, we dressed the kids in some proper creeking shoes and headed off to explore the darker side of this park. We got some great shots that day, some of them from my spot, standing knee-deep in dirty creek water sweating my hind end off. But hey, that is what a good scrapper does right? Anything for “the shot.”

One of my favorite pictures shows the kids leaning against the tunnel wall. I loved the dark feeling of the picture and I wanted to make it stand out. I turned to the blues and yellows of Authentique’s Curiosity collection. I glued my basic design down to the background first. Then, I poured black paint all over it. It was a little scary, and yes, I could have ended up hating the results. But actually, I think it turned out great! The paint ended up looking a bit like a tar spill. It really works with the papers and picture.

To embellish this picture, nothing could be better than Bare Basics Gears. I lightly distressed the chipboard and corrugated gears with some inks and a White Painty FX Pen from Kuretake. I also layered in a few of the acrylic gears to create depth.

Thank you for joining Basically Bare and Authentique for our swap! Stay tuned for more inspiring projects!

Welcome back for another fun layout!  Jamie here again to show you a page I created using both Basically Bare embellies and Nikki Sivils paper.

The paper was absolutely perfect for the picture of my niece that I used.  She is very much a tomboy, so the Messages Collection Kit made it very easy to create this layout.  I started by simply using a bit of masking in the bottom corner and then just tearing and layering the papers.

Next, I took three sizes of chipboard gears and painted them all the same base color.  Once the paint was dry, I ran two of them through my Cuttlebug for a bit of added texture.

The largest and smallest gears were then inked further to bring out the embossed texture.  I added a bit of ink and a button to the middle size gear to make it pop from the page.

Next up, I painted, inked and stamped the large chipboard pennants.  Then I layered on a small felt pennant, which was purposely left white for a bit of contrast.  There were a few die-cut pennant paper shapes in the Messages Collection Kit that worked beautifully on top of the felt pennants.  I simply glued just the top of the die-cut and then slightly curled the bottom.

Lastly, I added a bit of punchinella and washi tape to finish the page.

Basically Bare items used:

*Basically Embellies Chipboard Gears

*Basically Embellies Small Felt Pennants

*Basically Embellies Large Chipboard Pennants

Nikki Sivils items used:

*Messages Collection Kit

Kuretake items used:

*Zig Writer in Pure Green

Be sure to stop by Nikki Sivil’s Blog and check out all their team’s great projects!

Jen Matott here with a Father’s Day gift idea.  I had this little wooden tool box sitting around (I probably bought it for some reason) and decided that the Paper Loft papers “Dude” were perfect for a little Father’s Day gift!

I used some of the patterned papers to cover the outside of the wooden box. I traced around each side and cut them out.  Before I adhered them on, I painted the edges with a black Zip Paint pen. Using some multi-purpose craft glue, I glued them on.  I cut paper for the handle too!  The papers are so masculine in feel and I love the colors.  Using Basically Bare’s Gears in Chipboard, cardboard, acrylic, and black chipboard made this project perfectly embellished!

Here are some of the gears on the side.  I had some screw head eyelets in my stash and added those to the middle to make them look more tool-like.  I also handcut some of the gears from the papers to pop up and add on.

Using the Words and Titles sheet, I chose some of the words that might describe my husband.  These were perfect for this project!

Another view of the side of the box.  Cut acrylic gears and black chipboard!  LOVE these gears!

Finally I cut a piece for the bottom of the box. and here’s a close up of the handle wrapped in the stripped paper.

I plan to fill this little box with my hubby’s favorite candies and some golf balls!  He’s not a handy man, but he will love this box and can put all his desk tools in it when the goodies are gone.   Hope this inspired an idea for Father’s Day!

Be sure to visit the Paper Loft and see all their great lines!

Hello Fans!! DeeDee here, this time with swap partner Clearsnap!! Take the feel of mother’s day and combine it with the feeling of being a still new mama and you sort of come to my piece for today.

It feels very feminine . My form is up on a pedestal and held very high.. regal like.  She’s bold, beautiful and colorful but very strong.

I always find that the saying “If ain’t broke don’t fix it” is seriously appropriate, and I don’t know how you cover your chipboard with paper.. but here’s how I’ve always done mine:

I grabbed my Basically Bare Dress From and the glitz designs paper I wanted to use.. made sure both the chipboard and the paper were “Wrong side” up.. and traced the piece onto the paper. I didn’t mind about being exactly perfect, as long as I was drawing a little bit big instead of small! Then I cut out the paper and rubbed my chipboard down with a nice clear wet glue. Adhere paper and allow to dry! … now here’s the really good part..

I sand the edges with a green washing pad!! They’re rough enough to be similar to sand paper, but aren’t too rough as to tear the paper. My favorite crafty tip!!

Here are some close ups of the project:

I used the Basically Bare Wings in stiff felt, the yellow is a Clearsnap Cat’s Eye ink pad in Sunflower, and the glitter is Clearsnap Fool’s Gold.
The base of my sculpture is from the Basically Bare Gears set, and is piled with wooden spools, baker’s twine, vintage buttons, tulle and a rose made out of Glitz Designs paper.
The apron for my dress from is actually from the Basically Bare Small Pennants embellishment set. It’s covered in Glitz Designs paper with the same method shown above.. look at that sanded edge!!

Thanks so much for stopping by. -DeeDee

Be sure to check out what’s going on over at the Clearsnap blog as well!