We had so much fun playing along with Traci that we're giving away a
super fun Tulip and Collage Pauge prize pack along with an autographed copy of Traci's new book Doodles Unleashed!
See details at the end of this post for your chance to win!
Our team had so much fun using found objects, Tulip products, and the Strathmore papers to create new name tags for our workspaces. Everyone did something totally different and cool! Here's just a few fun examples...
Here's our team busy at work!
And an example of a finished name tag! Cool, huh?
Now here's your chance to win this awesome prize pack! We're giving you 2 ways to enter!
1. Leave us a comment below telling us what you love to create. Please include your email address so we can contact you! 2. Pin one of the images from this post to Pinterest; you MUST tag them with #doodlesunleashed for your entry to count. 3. Tweet about this contest on Twitter; you MUST tag it with #doodlesunleashed for your entry to count.
Attention all mixed media artists - brace yourself - Traci Bautista's new book Doodles Unleashed is here. The anxiously anticipated follow up to Collage Unleashed was worth the wait! As someone who has crafted alongside Traci in person many of times this book is the next best thing. The colorful pages pop with inspiration and really get your creative wheels turning. I am thrilled to be today's stop on the Doodles Unleashed blog tour!
From the first time I met Traci it was true crafty love. Traci was a guest on a show I was hosting for the DIY Network called Craft Lab when we first met. She was one of those guests that I loved the project, loved her style and after filming 120 episodes I walked away wanting to explore her version of collage, doodling and mixed media even more. I have used her papers along with her line of decoupage medium called Collage Pauge many of times to create jewelry, art, customized cupcake coozies and various other paper products. Opening up Doodles Unleashed was like being on set with Traci all over again. I had almost forgotten how much her designs and use of color get my creative juices flowing.
For those of you following along on the blog you know that one of my latest crafty endeavors is digital scrapbooking. Doodles Unleashed has a whole section on the topic and made me think of different digital options I had never considered. Traci suggests to-go doodling by using your iPhone and taking advantage of all the various applications. Talk about making your art portable. You get a great collaged look without the paint under your fingernails. Traci has a whole line of digital scrapbooking elements to download that I combined here with some of my other favorite designers like Kitschy Digitals, Minitoko, Maybe Me J and Pugly Pixel.
Traci is known for her artsy girlie meets urban style graffiti doodles. I have long been a fan of her free hand fonts. Traci walks you through typeography in Doodles Unleashed. She has prompts in the book for continuous writing, layering letters, digital lettering, using bold typeface and more. There is also a gallery of hand drawn letters in the back of the book you can use as a jumpstart to hone your own signature style.
Since having kids finding the time to do much mixed media art has been difficult. To create a beautiful piece you need layers and time to create those layers. Doodles Unleashed makes me want to try harder to find that time. Until I find the time I fully intend to download every iPhone app Traci suggests in her book and get busy doing some mobile doodling.
P.S. Thank you Traci for the shout out to my blog in the back and picture of my Crafty Curious in the Found Materials section. Whoo-hoo!
Our final designer in our iLoveToCreate® Let's Create LIVE interview series with the Let's Create LIVE! Design Challengers is Traci Bautista! When you think of collage art, Traci immediately pops into your head! She brings lots of color, imagination, techniques, and artistic freedom to the art table!
As owner and creative director of treiC Designs, Traci travels the globe far and wide teaching workshops and inspiring artists of all skill levels. She specializes in and teaches handmade books, art journals, and custom textile design! She has a lot of crafty tricks up her sleeve and you can learn all about her creative techniques in her book Collage Unleashed! In addition to her busy teaching schedule, she blogs, develops digital art kits and online workshops, and sells her creations! Her online workshops include everything from doodle courses to art e-marketing courses to graffiti collage! She's also the designer of iLoveToCreate's Collage Pauge® Instant Decoupage!
Here's just a sampling of Traci's colorful artwork. Isn't it inspiring??
Traci was kind enough to tell us more about herself and what gets her creative juices going in this interview. Enjoy!
1. Your art is always so colorful! Is your home décor just as colorful? I would say my closet is more colorful. :) My personal style reflects the bold, bright and layered look of my paintings and handmade journals. My home is filled with a mix of eclectic vintage furniture, thrift store finds with bursts of color. My bedroom and living room are very subdued compared to my art. They are decorated with cool tones of chocolate, baby blue and wild grass {very light green} with accents of distressed cherry red. Much of my home is decorated with Southeast Asian art and pieces I’ve collected on my travels. One of my favorite pieces is my vintage late 1970’s Danish modern teak and ceramic tile dining table which was the kitchen table I grew up with. My art studio on the other hand definitely reflects my colorful artwork...I have five large FULL bookcases that display a plethora of my colorful FAVE art materials, books, inspiration, art collection and vintage findings. My new studio table was made from a reclaimed commercial door with a tigerwood veneer finish. A collection of my work in progress and my favorite artist’s work line the walls creating an explosion of color.
2. You teach a lot of workshops (online and in-person). How do you stay so energized and focused as a teacher? I’ve been teaching for 10 years and it’s my passion. I love sharing my techniques and inspiring others to create. I’ve had a crazy schedule the past 7 years on the road, sometimes being home only 2-5 days a month. So I make sure to spend quality time with family and friends when I’m not teaching. Personally, I make time for my yoga practice at least 4 times a week and I started doing TRX a great strength training workout..these keep me energized and in shape to lift the heavy boxes and luggages full of art supplies. :) As for energy, that’s hardly ever lacking. I’m full of ideas and wish I had more time to execute them. Staying focused when I’m teaching is easy because I am passionate about what I do, so it comes naturally.
3. You made the jump from a full-time job to a career using your art! What’s the most important piece of wisdom you would give for someone wanting to do the same? Find your passion and make a career of doing what you LOVE! Success doesn’t happen overnight but with determination, A LOT of hard work and networking mixed with a little good luck you’ll be on your way. Oh, and learning how to creatively market yourself and build your brand is key.
4. What’s the biggest collage project you’ve ever tackled? I’ve done large mural paintings. But I would have to say the biggest collage project I’ve tackled is writing two books about mixed media and collage. These are full of multiple collage projects and techniques. My new book Doodles Unleashed will be released in January 2012.
5. People get so much inspiration from you, but what other bloggers, artists, and designers are you inspired by? I take inspiration from so many avenues. I’ve always been in LOVE with fashion, so I’m super inspired by many fashion illustrators like Camilia do Rosario, Stina Pearson, Sarah Singh, Kime Buzzeli of The Moldy Doily. and Erte {he was a costume designer & fashion illustrator for Harpers Baazar in the 1920s}. I LOVE the windows at Anthropologie stores, it’s always a treat to see how their display designers mix art with fashion. Other artists and designers... anything vintage by Vera Neumann, Orla Kiely, Yellena James, Tina Givens, Jim Bradshaw, fashion stylist Jane Rotary and I can’t forget graffiti artists...Fafi & Jose Parla. Some of the blogs I love to visit for inspiration are Katie Daisy, Orly Avineri, Jeannine Peregrine, and independent fashion bloggers like The Glamourai, Late Afternoon and The Man Repeller.
We've been so lucky to work with Traci on many video projects over the past few years. Traci also creates several videos of her own! Here's a fun video showing how to digitally remix art and photos using the iPhone ArtStudio app.
Thanks so much for sharing your inspiration with us Traci!
Yesterday, we announced the exciting news that we were going to have an awesome design challenge with some of the hottest designers in blogland and the industry! Today we are so happy to announce the lineup...they are:
All this week and next we'll be sharing more indepth blog posts on each of these artists so you can learn more about them and what they love to create!
Some people are summer sun worshipers, other ghostly white people like myself tend to hide in the shade. There is no reason that your shade should be boring and lame. Customize a plain paper parasol to make all those savage tan people green with envy.
Punch Paper Some of my favorite decorative paper of all time is the wonderful collage work of Traci Bautista. I've used it to make art and jewelry so why not an umbrella. Using various size paper punches make a pile o' polka dots. You can get old school and trace coins and cups and cut them out with scissors too.
Collage Once you have as many circles as you are going to need apply the dots to your paper parasol using Collage Pauge Instant Decoupage Medium. Allow to dry completely.
Made in the Shade All that is left to do is take your umbrella out for a spin on a sunny day. Think of using fabric on a regular umbrella with a little Fabric Fusion Glue. I'm dreaming about how to make paper ball fringe to add to the edge of my parasol, any suggestions?
Tomorrow is my monthly mommy meet-up. Every month we get together, let the kiddlets frolic and eat snacks. Last month I brought a batch of cake pops and this month I thought I would go with plain old cupcakes. The cupcakes might be plain, but the custom cupcake wrappers are not.
I have made cupcake toppers a bazillion times and decided today for I Love to Create I would spice things up. It all started with my new issue of Green Craft Magazine and a project called From Trash to Treasure: Embellishments From Boxes by Lisa Guerin. Tune in Monday for a full magazine review (it's more like a book than a magazine) and a chance to win your own copy!
REDUCE, REUSE and RECYCLE Cardboard piles up around my house. Sure I recycle it like a good girl, but for my custom cupcake wrappers I thought I would revamp them. Cut your boxes open and measure to fit for your Big Shot Machine.
ADORN Decorate your boxes with scraps of paper or scrap booking paper like I did. I used a Circle punch to cut out pink circles and a smaller punch to cut out circles of photographs of all the kids in my mommy group. Using Collage Pauge I adorned my boxes. I found it was best to decoupage on the side of the box without print. Plus I kind of like seeing the print inside my cupcake wrappers.
DRY Let your boxes dry completely. Trust me on this, it will get ruined running it through your machine damp I know from experience. Being the impatient gal I am I put my boards in the oven at 175 for 30 minutes to speed the drying time.
BIG SHOT I lined my boxes up with the cutting tool on the Big Shot to be sure my pictures would show on the cupcake wrapper. The Big Shot is my new fave craft tool all you do is crank the handle and the pieces roll right through with a perfect die cut waiting for you at the end. The cupcake wrapper is one of many options they have (I already invested in flowers).
CINCH IT UP The Big Shot instructions call for using 3 small brads. 1) I did not have any brads 2) These cupcakes were going to be around little kids who love to swallow things like brads. All that being the said I decided to use a needle and hot pink embroidery thread to stitch the wrapper together. The bottom of the wrapper just has fold tabs.
CUPCAKES I made up my cupcake recipe. I wanted something pink to match my wrappers, so I invented my own Pink Lemonade Cupcakes. I bought Lemon Cake Mix and subbed in Pink Lemonade concentrate for the water amount the box called for. I added red food coloring until a pink color was achieved.
I also used a can of store bought vanilla icing and mixed in the remainder of my pink lemonade concentrate. This made it a little runny so I added powdered sugar until it was thick again. I also added red food coloring to make the icing pink.
I baked the cupcakes in some fun polka dotted cupcake liners from Bake it Pretty. All that was left to do was sprinkle with pink sugar crystals.
The cupcakes are tart, but delish and most importantly look fab. I can't wait to show all the mommy's in my group tomorrow.
Just because you don't have a Big Shot, does not mean you can't join in the fun. Draw your own design onto a cardboard box and create a custom wrapper of your very own.
Watch the below video featuring Pattiewack and Traci Bautista and see everything our cool glues can do. This video features several wonderful projects that you will want to make! Check it out!
In the blink of an eye, little girls become young women. They’re more grown up and they want a more sophisticated bedroom. Total room rehab isn’t always an option but it’s not so hard to make quick and significant changes if you’re crafty. I bought this Eiffel tower lamp at Target about eight years ago, and it’s still available online! I wasn’t terribly fond of the shade that came with it, so I purchased a plain craft paper shade that I’d always intended to embellish. Flash forward eight years...
It’s perfect for my daughter’s newly revamped room! We used white tissue paper stamped with archival ink (you need to be sure your ink is waterproof or it will bleed when it gets wet.) I got a great decoupage trick from crafty diva Pattie Wack at CHA and used Aleene’s Tacky Glue® glue stick to adhere the torn pages on the shade instead of decoupage medium which can get very messy very quickly! Here are the instructions! Bon chance!
La Tour Eiffel Lampshade Teen Craft Margot Potter for I Love to Create
1. Wipe shade off with a dry cloth to remove any dust or dirt.
2. Stamp a large sheet of white tissue paper with archival ink and the writing stamp. Add stamped flourish accents. Allow to dry. 3. Tear each stamped section leaving frayed edges. 4. Adhere paper segments to lamp using glue stick. Make sure to cover back of each sheet completely. Work from the center using your fingers to gently adhere paper to lamp and work out any wrinkles or bubbles. 5. Overlap sheets and don’t worry about any small gaps, you can go back and fill those in later with smaller paper segments.6. Spread a thin layer of decoupage medium over lamp using a foam brush. Use brush to work out wrinkles or bubbles. Don’t stress too much, texture is good! Allow to dry for several hours or overnight.7. Adhere ribbon trim to bottom and top edge of lamp using Aleene’s Fast Grab Tacky Glue. Allow to dry. 8. Adhere buttons of various sizes to shade using Jewel-It Glue. Allow to dry. C'est tres chic, n'est pas?
