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

 Hi Everyone, Kristin here to show off one of my favorite ways to decorate a mini-book.

I like making mini-books because they are self-contained and super easy to display. I have mini-books on display throughout my house. Because these books are set out for everyone to look at; one of my favorite ways to decorate a mini is to throw everything you can at the cover. Make the cover the star of your book.

I created a multiple layered acrylic/canvas cover for this mini. The next few pictures will show you what each layer looks like when the previous layer has been lifted up.

Cover of the Book/Top Layer:

 Second Layer (top layer lifted up):

Third Layer (top two layers lifted up):

 And here are a couple of closeups of the cover with all three layers down. You can see how each layer really adds to the depth and dimension of the one underneath.

Tips for layering with acrylic pages:

• all bulky/3d embellishments should go on the top layer
• washi tape and other sheer elements work well
• stamping is also an excellent way to add texture (I stamped on the canvas in this book)
• play around with all the layers at the same time
• use repositionable adhesive until you know for sure where you want something

Here’s a look at the inside pages of the album. I kept it very simple. Little snapshots of Jeff and I over the last year with some journaling, alpha stickers, and washi tape. Because the cover of the album is my focus, the inside was quick and easy.

Thank you so much for stopping by the Basically Bare blog today. You can catch my regular blog posts at rukristin papercrafts where I’m documenting my everyday-memories in my own quirky way and inspiring others to do the same.

You can also find me on facebook, twitter, and instagram.

I’m back again today with a bunch of photos to share with you everyone. Erika Taylor here today to show you a little Boys of Summer mini album I created using the Tiny Tabs Mini Album, Happy Little Houses , Gears #2 and Celestial Shapes from Basically Bare. I wanted to create a little album filled with 3 of my favorite boys of summer. So here it is.

I dismantled the entire album and used the acrylic piece as my front page. I added alcohol inks, cheese cloth dyed with Tattered Angels glimmer mists and papers from FabScraps. I love the way that the cheese cloth looks when you ink it up.

Now for the rest of the album. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did creating it.

For the next page, I used one of the sweet houses from Happy Little Houses to add a bit of texture and layer.

The Sun is from the Celestial Shapes pack. I think this is one of my favorite Basically Bare shapes. So versatile!!

For this next page, I used one of the black chipboard gears from the Gears #2 pack and created my own ship wheel. Loving how it turned out.

The cloud is from the Celestial Shapes pack and is perfect for this little scene. I covered it with patterned paper and mounted it with Zapdots.

And finally the back page. Simple and full of texture.

These little Tiny Tabs Albums are so much fun to create with and can easily be deconstructed to create banners, ATC holders or name plate. Pick up a few with your next Basically Bare order. You are going to LOOOOOOVE them.

That’s it for me today. I’ll be back one last time tomorrow to share my final Guest Designer project for Basically Bare. Until then

Toodles

Erika Taylor

Hello there Basically Bare blog readers!!  If you’ve been following Basically  Bare either here on the blog or the Facebook page then you know all about the wonderful new products that were released at CHA.  Today, I’m sharing what I created using the Rowdy Roadster mixed media album.  I also used canvas leaves from the Bare Basics Blossoms and Leaves set, a chipboard filmstrip from the Paparazzi Embellie Set, and a chipboard and cardboard dress form from the Dress Me Up Dress forms set, and buttons in this first of my 2 part post.

I turned this album into a technique “free-for-all” displaying my favorite photos from the 52 Week Project that I participated in last year.   I painted, stamped, stickled, heat and dry embossed, and glittered until I liked the results.

I used WOW embossing powder in high gloss silver on the filmstrip and then swiped it with charcoal ink and white acrylic paint.  I dry embossed the dress form and then heat embossed it using copper WOW embossing powder and then covered the bottom with  strips of rosettes that were spritzed with silver foil glimmer mist.  I added feathers (which are really hot right now) and pearls to really “girlify” the dress form.  Before adhering the embellishments to the acrylic cover, I added a glittered flourish and swiped the back with white acrylic paint.

{click on each photo to see larger image}

I added another dress form to the inside cover.  I tore away the first layer of cardboard to reveal the ridges.  I lightly painted it with white acrylic paint and stamped it using a stamp from WOW’s Call Me Stamp set to add the script print.

I love how the different shaped pages add so much character to this album.

I painted the canvas leaf with glimmer glaze.  Once dried, I slightly curled the end to add dimension.

I created the background of this page by inking over a Tim Holtz mask and embossing with WOW powder in earth tone olive.

I ran both tags through the cuttlebug before swiping with acrylic paint and adding stickles.  I love the texture that the dry embossing adds!

Thanks for stopping by the blog today!  Stop by tomorrow to see part 2 of this album!!

Tanisha