Art Journal Page….Happy New Year

Ohhh Look another art journal page.
2 this year, look at me go!!!!

If you remember from this Art Journal page, I had made 2 of these Prima girls.
I couldn't let her go to waste, so though I would use her on another art page.

This page was super fast.
First I coloured the page with black gesso….remember that huge tub I picked up from Blick's on one of our trips to the States?
I then used gold embossing powder and heat embossed these dangling streamers (actually a snowflake stamp).
I also heat embossed these wooden words in the same gold embossing powder.

I then used a gold pen to splatter some gold confetti over the page.
Lastly I added my girl to the page.
Look at all of those pretty sparkly layers to her dress :)

This page seemed just too easy, but I still like the outcome of it.

One thing I noticed with most of my art journal pages is that I stop when I could do so much more.
Its like, I like how it is turning out, and leave it at that.
Instead I should be pushing myself to go into more detail.
I will work on that this year.

I hope you all had a very creative day today :)

Tracy :)

Art Journal…Sneak Peek.

What have been doing all day you may be wondering…
I have been playing in my Art Journal, and having fun :)
Every 6 weeks or so, Caroline and I are coming up with prompts and doing a page in our art journals.
Caroline was finished hers a week ago…but I have to wait until the due date to actually do mine.
But in reality, I am not late as it isn't due until tomorrow ;)
I am editing my video at the moment, and it will take all night to upload to YouTube.
So I can share it with you all tomorrow :)

I had to take a break from my page as Heather and I went to the show to see "Home"
Yes, my adult daughter and I love cartoons :)
It was a good movie, I have quite a few chuckles…and those that know me, won't be surprised that I even shed a couple of silent tears ;)

I don't know why I don't do more pages in my art journal and only do our challenge art pages????
As I really enjoy it….maybe because I have so many fun creative projects I love to work on as well ;)

I hope you all had a very Creative day today :)

Tracy :)

Winter Warmth Art Journal page

Here is my second art journal page that Caroline and I have challenged each other with.
This months challenge theme was "Christmas/Winter"

So lets get to the details.
I adhered some pattern tissue paper to the pages.
After cutting the excess tissue off, I then sanded the edges to get them as close to the page as I could.
The red you see here is left over from last month, when I cleaned off my stencils.
I was a bit worried about this….but I just went with it.

I used Gelatos for the background colour.
Gelatos remind me of a crayon…I just coloured it on the background and then blended it together with a baby wipe.
I wanted a deep blue (as I wanted it to look like a night time sky) so I added some dark blue colour spray on here as well.
See how the red is still coming through the tissue…I'm still going to go with it.
I told myself it looks like the Northern Lights ;)

I also wanted to add some snow to my scene.
I used Gesso to paint the snow.
I then added some texture to the snow with an embossing plate that I applied gesso on and used as a stamp.
I knew as I was doing this, that I should have added another layer or so of gesso to the snowbank, but I was too excited to use the embossing plate as a stamp, lol.

I drew my whimsical house on some scratch paper and then transferred that onto some pattern paper.
Fussy cut the pieces of the house out of the pattern paper.
After adhering the house to the background, I then added snowflakes with some modelling paste and a stencil.

I printed my sentiment out on the computer and then inked the words before cutting them out.
I wasn't sure which sizing I was going to use, so printed the different sizes off at the same time.
As you can see, I made a slight mistake in my sentiment.
I didn't notice until I was totally done with the page….but I fixed it ;)
I changed it to "Winter Night" instead of "winter day".

I then used my Big Brush Pitt Pens to add shading around my elements.
This really ties the page together…I love these things :)
I also added some gesso to the tips of the snowflakes, as the embossing paste dried, it took on the colour of the background. The Gesso helped to make the snowflakes more crisp white.

I wanted to add some highlights to the hearts that are coming out of the chimney, but all of my white gell pens or markers didn't want to work, grrrrrr.
So I tried the Picket Fence distress marker and it gave them a bit of a highlight.

So there you have it my Art Journal page complete :)

I was in a bit of a fog while making this page and this video.
So excuse the dippiness and enjoy ;)
If you would rather watch the video on my YouTube channel…just click the link "Tracy's Treasures24"
I am so excited to start on my newest challenge.
I think I may give Caroline a heart attack if I finished it early…and I wouldn't want to do that, teehee.
Now go over to "Caroline's" blog and see her masterpiece to our challenge.
So much texture on her page :)

I am linking my project on "The Mixed Media Monthly Challenge #8. Something new for the New Year".
I am also linking my project up to "Paper Issues "Say it isn't Snow" challenge.
I am new to art journaling, but using Gelatos was a very first for me :)

I hope you all had a very Creative Thursday :)

Tracy :)

The Faces in my Fauxbonichi

Today was a bit of a surprise…but before we get to that, I will share with you a page, or I guess a drawing, I did in my Fauxbonichi.
If you have checked out my Fauxbonichi then you know that I am leaving a block for stamping, colouring, drawing, photos or whatever I feel I want to add for that day :)

When I first started with this book, I was going to have this blocked out area, to house  something that happened in that day.
But why limit myself ;)
So I have been drawing my little characters in these blocks instead :)
I need to get a Memento pen (this is just drawn with pencil) so I can also use my Copic markers to colour with.
I like how she turned out….but need to finish her.

Now to the bit of a surprise to my day:
Wayne had a doctors appointment this morning. As he was getting ready to go, he asked me if I needed him to pick up something from the grocery store.
I was still in bed and a bit confused.
I told him that I have to drive Kristy to work in the afternoon, so if I need something I would pick it up then.
It was his turn to be surprised as he told me would both bring Kristy to work.
Then I realized and asked him "You took the whole day off of work"
Yes he did, lol.

So we ended up watching Wayne's favourite show which is "Band of Brothers" which takes all day.
I spent the whole day catching up on emails…wow, it took me all day to attend to them.

When Wayne takes a day off of work, I spend the whole day with him. So no house cleaning, no personal time (I guess replying to emails could be viewed as personal) and no creative time.
I was going to work on my Art Journal page today.
But I have to say, spending time with my Honey watching tv and enjoying some deep fried pickles was  a pretty great day :)

I hope you all had a great day and a Creative one at that :)

Tracy :)

Pixie Girl

Remember last summer when I thought I would try my hand at drawing?
Even though I need soooo much more practice, I decided to colour up a few of the girls that I drew back then.
I didn't realize how much I have missed colouring with my Copics.

Now don't laugh, I have never claimed to be an artist, but I did have fun (but was also frustrated) drawing my girls.
This one was inspired by My Creative Bliss. I just love her girls.
I was thinking of giving this little Pixie long hair, but decided to add a fun colour instead :)

I am going to have to pick up a Momento black marker to outline my images.
The marker I used to draw her, bled when I added my Copics to it…see by her one eyebrow.
I did a test run, and it seemed to be fine until I added a couple of layers to her.
The background I coloured using my coloured pencils.

I hope you all had a very Creative Sunday :)

Tracy :)

Grateful Art Journal pages

Here is my completed art journal page :)
If you remember Caroline and I came up with a challenge to each other to do an art journal page.
We were both intimidated by all the products and techniques out there, that we both were hesitant to start on our own…I had some of my art journal products for a couple of years.
As you can tell, I am not a jump right in there type of person, teehee.

Our theme was Grateful with Autumn colours.
I knew I was going to do my family, and I love rich, deep autumn colours…but how to go about putting them together.

I started by adding some tissue paper to the pages.
The tissue paper bubbled a bit as it was drying, so I added another coat of matt medium to the top of the tissue paper, hoping it would smooth out the tissue..it didn't.

I then added some acrylic paint.
The colour was a deep burgundy colour, but because of the matt medium I added to the page, the paint seemed to lighten in colour.
So instead of it being a deep burgundy, it seemed to take on a deep pinky colour.

I added some orange and browns to the pages, working out to the edges.
But I was mad at myself for forgetting to blend the paints with a baby wipe or wet cloth as I went :(
I did not like the look of the out come at all!!
I was going to just gesso over the whole page, but thought….just work with it.

So I took a baby wipe and rubbed the heck out of the page.
Of course I knew that the paint wouldn't blend as I had painted it days before, and it was totally dry.
But what it did do was take off some of the paint.
I kind of liked the out come :)
In some spots, I rubbed it to the tissue and no paint was visible.
So I added some tea dye distress stain to the whole page to blend throughout.
Background done…time to add my elements :)

I wanted to use a photo of my family.
See scrapbooker at heart, teehee.
I printed out my photo and adhered it to the corner of my page.
I also wanted to play with some molding paste. You can use dry wall compound for this as well.
At this point I don't know what I was thinking, because what I was planning to do would never work out with how I did it, lol.
I wanted my photo to blend in with the background, and have hearts around it.
I didn't work out as planned the first time around…but that is how it goes sometimes.

To get the photo to blend in more with the background, I just smeared the hearts that I made with the stencil.
I then added some spray mist with a make up sponge.
But I still wanted hearts around our photo.
Grabbed the stencil again after the molding paste was dry and added some spray.

I also drew around the hearts as when I sprayed them, they bled a bit on the paste.
It was at this point that I forgot to keep taking photos…but I will have a video to the process at the end of my post.

You all know I love to journal, so I had to add a bit of that to my page as well.
I printed the words up on my computer on regular copy paper.
Then I cut them into strips and added 3 different distress ink colours to the papers so they would blend nicely with the background.
I forgot the "the" on the last line, so I had to re-do the last strip when the page was all completed.

This is the second page.
When I first started these pages, this page was going to hold the journaling…but I wanted to add my leaves.
I didn't use my "real" leaves that I shared in a earlier post as they didn't want to stick to the page, but they stuck to my fingers, lol.
I like the colour of these leaves. I added some shading to them as well.

Wow, this was a long post.
I hope you stuck with me through it all, lol.

Oh look, I'm not done…
I have a video to share with you on how I put these pages together in more detail :)
If you would rather watch it on my YouTube channel just click on the link "Tracy's Treasures24"

I would like to say thank you to Caroline for joining me in this challenge into art journaling, and I am looking forward to our next challenge :)
If you would like to see Carolines take on our challenge, just click on the link "Grateful Challenge"

I hope you all had a very Creative Day
I am going to spend the rest of mine eating munchies and drinking a nice glass of ice-cold Coke…and most importantly, watching a marathon of the Walking Dead :)

Tracy :)

Art Journaling…Come Learn with Me…Journals

This is the second video in my series of art journaling.
To check out my 1st post, click the link "Art Journaling"
I mentioned I was going to start with Gesso, but I figured we should start with journals, as that is the most important art supple we will need :)

There are many types of journals.
Some are coil, spiral or ring bound and some are stitched or glued in their binding.
You may think it doesn't really matter, but the more you work with each type, you will figure out with type you prefer.
The bound journals lay nice and flat. They are great for working on each page individually.
The journals that are bound by stitching or glue are great for working on two page spreads…can you tell I"m a scrapbooker ;)

Also what to look for in a journal is the type of paper that they contain.
I personally like water colour paper because the paper is quite thick and takes mediums very well.
But then again you can use thin paper or any type of paper if you treat it with Gesso first….but lets not get ahead of ourselves ;)

I made a video where I explain my findings in more detail :)
If you would rather watch my video on my YouTube channel (as my blog doesn't show the full screen) just click on the link :)   "Tracy's Treasures24"
I hope to inspire you to try art journaling, where we can all learn together :)

I hope you all had a very Creative Day :)

Tracy :)

Come Learn with Me….Art Journaling

Well it is about time.
I have finally made the decision to use my art journal products/mediums and create some art journal pages.

I have wanted to try my hand at art journaling, and I did….kind of.
I did a whole art journal.
Click on the link if you want to watch it on my YouTube channel "Tracy's Treasures24"

But in my opinion this art journal was from a scrapbookers view point.
I used a lot of pattern paper, stamps and markers…but none of the art journal supplies that most veteran art journalers use.
I have most of the supplies, but I over think things and never actually used the products that I have.

If you remember, I made a challenge with a blog friend Caroline from "Caroline's not so new hobby"
We both wanted to get into art journaling and figured what better way then to jump right in, and challenge each other ;)
Even though I am a spontaneous type of person, I wanted to learn as much as I could about these products before I took the plunge.

Then I thought, maybe we could learn together :)
So I am going to be doing some videos on what I know (even if it is limited), what I have learned and what I discovered about these different mediums.
Sounds fun doesn't it????
I hope so, and I hope you will follow along and share your knowledge on whichever mediums I am working on perfecting at the time :)

Here is a introduction video…bloopers and all ;)
If you would like to watch this video on my YouTube channel, just click on the link "Tracy's Treasures24"

I hope you all had a very Creative Monday :)

Tracy :)

What is Art

Doesn't this look like a chevron pattern?
Wayne and I are avid movie watchers and collectors.
This is just a bit of our DVD collection.
I just had to take a photo to share that you can find inspiration in anything.

I have a bit of a….not sure if I want to call it a rant, but some may consider it that.
Before I begin, I just want to say that most of the comments I receive on my YouTube and on my blog are all so positive. They put a smile on my face and warmth in my heart…they really do.
But maybe 2% of my comments are negative.
When I get a negative comment, I just brush it off.
Or sometimes I will ask the poster, what they meant by that comment. Because we all know that words typed out can be perceived differently then they were meant to be.

I received a comment on "My Copic Markers and how I store them" video.
Here was the comment:
"Wow. All these stampers on youtube and wasting money on copics. Stamping is not an art so get out of her. Stamping shows you have no artistic ability so you rely on ink and print to do something."

They went on to say how we are not artists as Di Vinci and such didn't use stamps.
We are wasting our time and money on these markers as they were meant for artists, not for us stampers.

I left a really good response, but when I went back to copy their comment and my reply they were both deleted.
I only got to copy the small part of their comment as it was still in my e-mail.
Here is my response … or at least as close as I remember replying as it was deleted as well.

"I have never claimed to be an artist for one thing.
But, Who are you to say what is art and who is an artist.
What is an artist?
Someone who can draw, paint, sculpt, quilt, work with wood or a doll maker.
Are these not artists?
How do you know I don't do some or all of these?
What about the colourists that colour the drawn images at Disney, I would consider them artists.
Have you not seen how beautiful some of these stamped images are coloured? Have you not noticed how much detail is in the shading.
On another note, who are you to judge us crafters on what we spend our money on?
I say if it gives us pleasure or joy, and no one gets hurt, all the power to us."

So my question to you, all my Crafty Friends, what do you consider to be art or an artist.

And now to give you a smile.
The wonderful life of our kitty Luna ;)

Hope you all had a crafty and artistic Day :)

Tracy :)

An Artist..I am not.

Okay…don't laugh.

I entered a swap in where I have to draw.
I know I can't draw and have stated this many times.
So why you may ask, am I in a swap that involves a talent that I don't have.
Well, I have always admired those that can draw and I love the "big eyed" girls.
I have been following Megan from "My Creative Bliss" and Ady from "Dream Dolls" for a couple of years now and can only dream to draw as good as they can.
When I was on the Face Book page Creepy Cute art (where the swap is taking place), I fell in love with all those images and I think I got a bit carried away, teehee.
They only needed one more person for the swap they were hosting and informed me that I could use a stamp…I thought I could rock this swap.

Then I started to over think the swap (as I always do) and felt bad that everyone was drawing their art and I was copping out and was going to use a stamp.
So I came to the big decision to draw my girls/images.
So here is my swap card.

I drew her first with pencil, then outlined her with black marker and then coloured her up with my Copics.
Because the swap was Creepy/Cute. I had to add a bit of creepiness to her.
So I added buttons to her eyes like Coroline ;)
I also added some washi tape to the edges.
Look I even drew a bit of her body…look at me go, lol.

This was actually the first girl I drew.

Here is her close up.
I wanted to add shine to her eyes, but my white gel pen is dried up. Those suckers dry up before I get a chance to use them :(
So I used a white pencil, but it doesn't give the same effect.

I am still having some lighting or recording problems, so I'm hoping to share my layouts tomorrow.
Just to share how important lighting is.
This is the same image as above, but I took it in a different area of the house.
Pretty big difference.

Here is a video I did on these girls that I drew :)
If you would rather watch the video on my YouTube channel just click on the link "Tracy's Treasures24"
I hope you all had a Creative Day :)

Tracy :)

Heather….my Artist

Today was spent working on organizing Heather's closet.
Now my Heather is uber organized…so much so that it is obsessive.
But she didn't want her dresser in her closet anymore.
So we moved it out.

Then we got side tracked with looking at her art work….which I may say should be framed.
We have a few of her pieces framed, but they are all so stunning.
I know I am a proud mama, but her art is amazing.
I wish she would keep it up, but hasn't drawn since finishing school.

I hope you all had a creative Wednesday.
I didn't get to be creative today as my eyes are burning. I get extremely dry eyes some days and today was one of them :(

Tracy :)