Have you seen it already? Basically Bare just had the grand opening :) It is a brandnew manufacturer of a wonderful line of alterable albums and embellishments.You can check out the first projects of the design team here on the Basically Bare blog. I’m thrilled to be part of the team and can’t wait to work with the yummie products I just received :)

The fun little embellishments are perfect for paper crafters in every genre – scrapbooking, card making, altered art and mixed media art too! Each pack of {Basically Embellies} comes in a variety of fun materials, including:

• Premium heavy-weight chipboard

• Flexible, embossable acrylic

• Natural 100% cotton unbleached canvas

• Double-Sided Corrugated Cardboard

• Premium stiffened felt

Each of these versatile materials can be distressed and altered, inked and dyed, misted and painted to your heart’s content. The possibilities are only as endless as your creativity! Every single embellishment can become a work of art in your hands. Check them out :)

Nat

Renata Pacheco from Brazil is my last guest blogger this month. I know her now for a while and love her work!

1. What do you do to get into your creative zone?

Until a year ago, my house was always a messy. There was scrapbook stuff on the dinner table, under the table, on top of the sideboard, boxes and boxes everywhere, and I couldn’t find anything when I need.

Then I decided to do a reform, and I create a large closet for my scrap supplies – I drew it by myself, and everything fits perfectly! Now all my stuff is super organized, separated, and I know exactly where everything is, even if I’m not in front of the closet.

Since this reform, I just sit at the closet and start producing! I’m completely in love with this corner of my house! I spent most of my free time there!

2. Do you ever create hidden meanings or messages in your work?

In scrapbooking layouts, I prefer to tell the story openly. If something is more intimate, I hid the journaling. On this page, for example, I told about the period when I discovered and treated a thyroid cancer, and how the fact I’m super optimistic helped in this treatment (so I illustrated with the song Smile).

In art journal pages, then I use much more subliminal messages. It may be an element of a collage, a sentence covered with ink, a doodle or even a phrase. I made this page (later put in a frame) for a 7 years-old girl who is going through a very serious cancer treatment. In the background, I used rub-ons with the words Family, Live, Laugh and Charm – concepts that she needs to remember to feel strong and fight against the disease.

I always use an image of a buttefly (or more than one), whether in scrapbooking or art journal, symbolizing freedom, change, growth and creativity, concepts that are very important to me.

3. If your creative work were edible, what would it taste like?

That is a difficult question! Well, I guess that would be like candy, because I always try to put as much love and affection in every page I create! Even when the subject is tough, I always try to see the learning and treat the subject with tenderness.

4. What is your favorite creation? Please explain why you selected this one.

Another very difficult task! I love learning new things, I’m addicted to workshops, and each new technique I learn I want to test immediately. So my work is very eclectic, has a bit of everything. I love mixed media, but also love a romantic and super shabby layout.

5. What is your biggest creative success so far and why?

I’ve never faced scrapbooking as work; for me it has always been fun and therapy. I have another full time job (I’m a journalist and run a corporate communications agency) and use my free time to create. Therefore, I’ve never bothered to publish my work in any magazines (I never sent any page), and only recently started to post on sites like Two Peas and Scrapbook.com in order to see the comments from other scrappers on my work. But I attended the Design Team of Scrapbooking Brazil (site here in my country) and I’m currently design for a scrapbook store in Rio de Janeiro. I also have a blog with a friend called ScrapSins.

Thank you Renata.

I hope you all enjoyed this guest blogger month :)

Nat

I met Lisa two years ago when I taught in her studio in Barcelona. It was wonderful and I loved spending time with her – she made me feel welcome …plus..I think we have more in common when she even knows- LOL. I love her work so much- so see yourself.

 1. What do you do to get into your creative zone?

If I am working at home, where I have my computer and Internet, I start out by making myself a mug of tea. (I “broke-up” with coffee almost two years ago, and I really enjoy tea now). I enjoy buying different kinds of teas, so that little ritual of choosing and preparing myself a mug is the first step in getting into my creative zone. Then depending, I work on my computer or go to my studio. On the computer, sometimes I spend some time on the net, checking out my favourite artists’ sites and blogs (Scrapbook-Trends, for example! ;) which are always a great source of inspiration to help get me into my zone as well. In my studio, the physical space I create there is very important to help me get into the right space in my self for creating. So, the way things are set up and look to me is really important. For example, I have images, photos, art and other objects around my workspace that are there for a reason. Perhaps they remind me of things. Or are like little “altars”. And depending on the project, sometimes I like to have music playing. Other times I like complete silence. Sometimes I burn incense…So all of those things help. Then, once I complete a project, I usually need to do a thorough clean-up of my workspace and the studio in general. This helps me refresh my brain and “change channels” from one project to the next. When I am working on a project and get “stuck”, I usually get up and sweep the floor. There’s something about the physical action of sweeping, cleaning up all the little bits of junk on the floor and “clearing the air” that helps…and it usually helps give me ideas as well. My favourite place to get good ideas is either first thing in the morning, while I am still “half-asleep” in bed, or once I am in the shower!

2. Do you ever create hidden meanings or messages in your work?

I guess you could say there are elements in my work that wouldn’t necessarily have meaning for anyone else. I think it’s only natural. I don’t really look to create hidden messages as a rule, it’s more of my own language to myself in what I create. I have in the past chosen specific elements in some of my work that have a particular meaning for me, such as in these two layouts. They both contain lots of elements that are symbolic to me.

3. If your creative work were edible, what would it taste like?
I would guess somewhere it would have to taste chocolaty! I love chocolate, and when I need a little “pick-me up” in the studio, it’s usually chocolate. Normally truffles! A couple of years ago, I was asked to prepare a Scrapbooking project for a workshop that would appear on a local television program in Catalonia, Spain. As this program dealt mainly with gastronomy, I created a mini-album project, titled “Everything Goes Better With Chocolate”, full of typical Canadian recipes with chocolate. I used white “puff paint” on the title, which I heated with the heat gun, and it really looked like whipped cream! It was really fun to do, and looked yummy! And I did a layout a couple of years ago, just for fun, titled “Sabor a Scrap” (“A taste for Scrap”). There were two photos of me drinking a “Scrapbooking in a Bottle”. I’m not sure what it would taste like, though!

4. What is your favourite creation?

I would have to pick between two: my very first “official” layout from 2007, “Flow from her Light” is one of my favourites just because it was my first, and because of the fact that I didn’t have much for “official” Scrapbooking products or materials in Spain at that time, so I had to be more resourceful. So the “stars” that you see in that layout are actually dried cherry-tomato stems that I painted with gold glitter; the title I did by hand with white ink, simply because I didn’t own any letter stamps yet! The photo is of me, when I was about 3, and it’s special to me, so it’s a favourite one for that reason as well.

My other favourite is an encaustic painting that I did in 2008, firstly because of how it came to be: I had no idea of what I wanted to paint. I just applied the wax and then turned the canvas board 45º a few times and all of a sudden, I clearly saw the shape of a head, and an elbow and a little hand, and so the painting came from what I saw in the wax. It’s also a favourite because I feel it is symbolic of my own artistic journey, or “birth”, if you like, “into” myself as an artist. and how I have grown in the past two years since I painted it.

5. What is your biggest creative success so far and why?

Well, this year–next month to be exact–will be the second year that I have participated as an artist and author in a wonderful initiative in Barcelona, Spain that supports and promotes artist books and book arts: the “Festival of Artist Books and Small Editions” organized by the ILDE Cultural Association. I am really excited to have been invited this year to be a contributing author in their published edition of the Festival, as well as participate in the Festival’s other events, including teaching workshops, speaking at the conference and be present the day of the Festival itself to share my work with the visiting public. That feels like a big creative success to me.
However, my biggest creative success would have to be the arrival of our daughter, who is now 6 years old. Not only was the experience of being pregnant and giving birth to her one of the most important creative successes I have had in my life to date, giving birth to her was the catalyst for me eventually growing into myself as an artist. It came through her, and through my becoming a mother. So I have her to thank for that. I think I will always consider her my biggest creative success…there is nothing I could ever create that could ever compare to her.

I wanted to thank you, Nathalie for your invitation to participate in your guest blog post. It was a pleasure to be included with these other talented artists! Cheers from Barcelona!

LINK TO BLOG:

English: http://lisaemitchell.typepad.com/

Spanish: http://lisaemitchell.typepad.com/version_original/

Thank you you so much Lisa!

Nat

I met Trisha several times and we are working closley as educators for different manufacturers. She is not only super fun to be around – she is also a wonderful workshop teacher and creates awesome things :)

1. What do you do to get into your creative zone?

I am fortunate that I get to create all day everyday! But there are certain times when I need the extra push. I LOVE to set my alarm and wake up an insanely early hour in the morning (4am) and get to work in my studio bright and early. I find that I am most creative during the wee hours when the world is quiet, my family is sleeping, my phone is not ringing and Facebook is usually pretty quiet then too :)

2. Do you ever create hidden meanings or messages in your work?

I don’t often have secret meanings in my projects but I do like to HIDE photos and journaling. I often incorporate flaps and pockets so I can fit additional pieces of the story that I want to include.

3. If your creative work were edible, what would it taste like?

hmmmmmmm…. Well, my motto is LUMPS AND BUMPS are a good thing and one can never have too many
layers so I am thinking it is like a wonderful trifle. So many different flavours and textures combined together to create a pallette pleasing treat! I wish I had a photo but then we would all want to eat!!!!! LOL!

4. What is your favorite creation?

TOUGH question! Because I am constantly creating, my favourite creation is usually the NEXT one I am about to create. BUT in my studio, I often display as much as I can on the walls and shelves so I can enjoy it for awhile longer before
tucking it away.

5. What is your biggest creative success so far and why?

Teaching and designing is such a blessing to me. I am thrilled to be designing or an Endorsed Educator for My Minds’ Eye, Graphic 45, Tattered Angels, Prima, Bazzill, 7 Gypsies, Teresa Collins Designs and the list goes on!
I feel so extremely fortunate to be able to share my passion for paper crafting with ladies (and the odd gentleman;) around the globe through the numerous classes that I teach for many of the hottest manyfacturers in the industry. It was not hard for me to leave my past career of working in a medical laboratory playing with body parts and fluids all day long! I am constantly blown away with the fact that people feel that I am good enough at my craft to bring me in to teach at their stores and events… it’s such a HUGE honour! I love to travel and meet new people so it is truly a match made in heaven:D

I look forward to some of my many adventures planned for this next year including several destinations in Canada, the USA, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic and Australia! I hope to see you at an event somewhere/ sometime soon!

Please stop by my blog to visit me at www.trishaladouceur.blogspot.com

Thanks Trisha!

Nat

I haven’t met Sasha yet- but I love her style combined with her amazing way of journaling. Maybe one day we will meet :)

1. What do you do to get into your creative zone?

Usually I just put on some music and or start cleaning up my scrap space. I like to print pictures and then have them all sorted out and from there I can decide what papers I want to use. Or sometime no pictures work for me as well.

2. Do you ever create hidden meanings or messages in your work?

If I am scrapbooking about my past I usually just put it all out there. I have tried to do that in art journaling but then I figure I want people to see what I feel I want them to read it. I usually do not hide anything which for me makes me feel like I am truly being honest about what I am creating and how I feel at that moment or what is on my mind.

3. If your creative work were edible, what would it taste like?

It would taste like sour tongues. I am SO in love with it sour candy is the only way to go in my book.

4. What is your favorite creation?

My favorite creation was the first layout I did in 2011 and a layout I did in the hotel room “Simply Our Boys” when we first moved to England. Of course I had to use my favorite manufacturers and washi tape around the layout is my new love for finishing off layouts.

5. What is your biggest creative success so far and why?

My biggest success so far was guest designing for some of my favorite manufacturers like Making Memories, Jillibean Soup, Hambly Screen Prints, October Afternoon and for Pink Paislee in June. I have been published and I never ever thought I would ever see any of my work in print so that was a very humbling experience and amazing feeling all in one. Two of my favorite publications are below

Thanks Sasha :)

Nat