Listen to Your Heart art journal page

A few groups of my friends and I have some ongoing art challenges.
Some are new to it and some have been doing it longer than I have.
My friend Sharon came up with this challenge, the theme of this challenge was "Love" and to use "strips"

Can I say how much I love how this page turned out!!
When I look at this page, I see me!
I have always said I really don't have a specific style as I love all types of styles.
But this page has inking, and stamping, a heart, burgundy and contrast...so much of what I love!!!
I do have to point out that this page was inspired by an art canvas I had seen on Pinterest "here"

Let us start with the process.
I inked the whole page with distress ink and then stamped it with a script text in the same colour ink.
I love the subtle look to this background.

Then I did what I love to do and that is to ink the edges.
I used 3 different colours of ink to give it a old aged look.
Inking does take a lot of time to do, but it is soooo worth it.
I then added some stamping here and there.

I love how this colour pops off of the page.
This heart started out as a white piece of cardstock and I coloured it with spritzes and inks.
I also did some stamping on it with the same script stamp as well as stamping with some flowers and other odd and end stamps, and of course I inked the edges.

Here is another look at the inked edges as well as the ripped part of the page.
I added some of the same spritzed paper behind the rip for some more pop to this page.

Wondering where the strips came into this page?
I used long stamps as my strips as well as a strip of key washi tape on the top left and bottom right of the page.

I also inked where I was going to place the heart for more depth.

Here is the completed page!

Here are all of the art journal pages with this theme "Love" & "Strips"

I love how they are all so different, but using the same themes! 

And look...I did a process video!!!

If you would rather watch the video on my YouTube channel...just click on the link "HERE".


Thank you so much for visiting me on my blog today :)
I hope you all have a very Creative Day.

Tracy 💗💗💗

Happy Winter Art Journal

I wanted to play with lots of texture on one of my art journal pages, and here it is.
I adhered laces and chipboard pieces, some gauze and different types of texture pastes.
After adhering all my goodies on my page.....boy was it ugly, lol.
But I knew that was going to happen and was planning on covering it all up with gesso.
After my gesso dried, I added a bit of colour here and there :)

I love these Julie Nutting images, so stamped her on a seperate piece of paper and coloured her up with my water colour pencils.

Here is all the texture close up.
I had fun putting this page together, but so much drying time.

I have a process video on how I made this page.
If you would like to watch the video on my YouTube channel "Tracy's Treasures24"
Thank you all so much for visiting me and I hope you all have a very creative day :)

Tracy 💗💗💗

Art Journal Flip

To continue on with my catching up on my social sites, I realized I haven't shared my art journal pages.
Sure I have done some process videos on some of my pages, but other pages, I have just created without videos or photos.

This page was a fun one as I played with Dylusions paints and different techniques.
I actually did a video process on this one...you can check it out here "Live Carefree"

I love how this page turned out.
Those little rain drops were a lot of work, but well worth it.
I also have a process video on this page "Dance in the Rain"

Now for the flip through of all of my pages.
I have really enjoyed art journaling and I have also enjoyed meeting and doing challenges with those that enjoy art journaling as much as I do.
If you would rather watch the video on my YouTube channel, just click on the link "Tracy's Treasures24"

Thank you so much for visiting me today and I hope you all have a very creative day :)

Tracy💗💗💗

Art Journal "Peace on Earth"

Another art journal page :)
If you art journal or if you just enjoy looking at other's work, then you have probably seen a page similar to this on the net,  Christy Tomlinson did the first one.
I did a bit of a photo process for this page I did.

I have a huge ginormous jar of black gesso, so I wanted to use some on this page in hopes that the papers I use for the tree stand out.
I started with adding texture to my page.
I started with a napkin, doesn't matter the pattern as I was going to cover it up.
I scrunched up the napkin to give it some wrinkles or texture.
I then added some drywall mesh and embossing paste with a stencil to add even more texture.
Lastly I added the black gesso to cover it all up.
Doing this I can add texture to an other wise flat page.

Look at that texture!!!
As much as I wanted the page to be black...I still wanted to add subtle colour without taking away from the black page.

I experimented with different mediums on top of the gesso to add some colour.
I also tried different types of embossing paste to see how the snowflakes would look on the background.
As you can see some of the texture or embossing pastes took on the blue colour of the mediums I tried.

I added blue Dylusions paint to the right hand page.
See how it is still dark, yet a bit of colour comes though.
I did notice that it isn't as noticeable on the finished page though.

As much as I like the dark background...I added the snowflakes for a bit of contrast and interest.
I also printed up the lettering on pattern paper from my printer.

After adding the snowflakes, I thought the contrast was a bit to much, so added some watered down Dylusions paint with an old toothbrush and flicked it on...see the splatter :)

Now for the focal point of the page....the Christmas Tree :)
I cut stripes of Christmas pattern papers and then cut them to size to form the tree shape.
I also heat embossed red sparkly embossing powder on a plain wood star.

Now in true Christy Tomlinson style, I doodled.
I doodled around the page as well as all over the tree.
I used to be intimidated to doodle on my pages, but once I got started, I didn't want to stop, lol.

Here is the completed page again.
I am really happy with how it turned out!!!
Like I had mentioned, this type of journal page has been recreated by many art journalers and artists.
But what I haven't seen is one with a dark background like I have created.

So this is my last art journal page from 2016.
Looking forward to making a lot more in 2017!!

I hope you all have a very creative day :)

Tracy :)

Art journal challenge page for December

I had mentioned in this post "I see a wish" that my new friend and journal buddy Stephanie and I have been challenging each other to do an art journal page a month.
December's challenge was to use a Christmas song/carol on our pages as well as a border.
I chose Winter Wonderland for my title...I love that song, and around here in the winter...it really does look like a winter wonderland.
The inspiration for this page came from my Christmas cards I sent out this past Christmas.

I have been playing around with adding more texture to my pages.
Usually my pages are pretty flat, but I am having fun and like the look of the texture.
First I added some music note tissue paper and then added colour with my Faber-Castels gelatos and my Tim Holtz distress crayons.
Lastly I added some texture paste (which is like dry wall compound) with a stencil.
Being that my texture paste is light based and not a heavy based, the colour from underneath came through.

For my journaling, I used some of my letter stickers.
I had coloured the smaller stickers with my Copics as I didn't have the colour I wanted.
Now don't you just love those silver glitter stickers!!!

I used my Stampin' Up build a bird punch to make the cardinals.
The tree was a stamp, that was to tiny, so I just extended the branches with acrylic paint.
I used Aleene's True Snow to make the snow...I have had this product for over 15 yrs and was surprising shocked that it wasn't dried up, it was just like it was the day I purchased it :)
Lastly I added some which speckles with a toothbrush and watered down paint.

And here is Stephanie's page :)
She joked with me that she was going to do "Grandma got run over by a Reindeer", lol.
I think "Let it Snow" was a better choice though ;)
I love the brightness of her page and that not only did Stephanie use music note tissue paper for her background, she also used a music note stencil and added her texture paste over it.
I also like that her snowman is made with text paper.
Beautifully done Stephanie :)

Here are both of our pages together :)

I love how different our pages are :)

Our challenge for January is to use a girl image on our pages.
I know it is short notice, but join in if you would like, we would love to see your pages.

I hope you all have a very Creative day :)

Tracy :)

Crafting all Day Long

My day started with my friends Sharon and Lynne coming over and we crafted most of the day :)

Then my friend Debbie came over tonight.
She is interested in Art Journaling and asked if I could show her some things.
I consider myself still new to art journeying, so figured we could learn together :)
This is the page that we created tonight.

We started with stamping with Archival inks on our pages.
I really like the red colour.

Then we added some spritzing….always fun to spritz :)

Added some stencils to our spritzing and stamped a boarder :)

I wanted to see how water colour pencils would work directly on our background.

I was actually surprised on how well they covered.
I had told Debbie that if we didn't like the look, we could re-stamp the image on some watercolour paper and adhere her to the page.

Time for the Quote!!!

Here is Debbie's art journal page :)
I like the detail she added to her stockings!

Here is my page.
I am torn on how much I like this page.
I may play around with this page a bit more tomorrow…

I hope you all had a very creative day today….I sure did :)

Tracy :)

Unique Love Story-Art journal page

Just in the nick of Time.
Here is my February Art Journal page.
The theme for this month was Love/Valentines Day.
Considering I had a totally different plan for this page, I'm happy with how it turned out.
I should do the page I had originally planned, to see the difference.

Here is how the page started.
Well, this isn't exactly how the pages started out, because I forgot to take a photo ;)
But this is close to it, I had cleaned this heart stencil off on the pages from an early art journal page.
I figured that it was perfect for our theme for this month, so I worked it in to the page.

I spritz the page with a soft brown.
See the hearts, they still showed through…I was so happy.
I then drew out my book shape as I didn't want any of my other mediums to go past those lines.

I then cut some dry wall tape (that is the mesh hearts you see) into heart shapes.
The mesh is sticky, so they stuck to the pages, but I still added matt medium to them once they were in place.
I then added some embossing paste with the same heart stencil that I had used under the spray.
The red blob is there as I was trying to find the right colour of red paint that I wanted to use.

I didn't find the colour I wanted (even though I have a lot of reds in my paint supplies) so I used some card stock and cut a heart.
I also added some colour to the embossed hearts.

I love Pitt pens, they are just so perfect for adding my shading.

I added a bit of highlight to the main heart and shading all of the other hearts.
Here is the one side of the page fully finished.

And here is the right side fully finished.
I used Wink A Gold in copper for the very edges of the pages.

All done :)
Here is Caroline's art journal pages :)
I know I was shocked I had finished before her…first time!

I made a video on my pages :)
If you would like to watch it on my YouTube channel, just click on the link "Tracy's Treasures24"


I had my friends over today for scrapbooking.
Because it was Heather's birthday (Heather says Thank you for the Birthday wishes) I had to cancel FNS (Friday Night Scrapbooking).
So I invited my friends to come over today from 10:00am to 5:00pm.
My poor friend Denise cut her fingers on her detailed scissors.
But what is a true crafter do, but use Washi Tape to bandage her finger, teehee.

I hope you all had a very Creative Saturday :)

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 :)