Adventures Await.... Art journal page

I have a few groups of friends that are into art journaling and we give out challenges to keep us motivated to try new things.

This is our 4th challenge and I was to pick the theme.

I wanted us to use a girl image and something that represents you.

Here is my take on the challenge:

I created this page during the May long weekend that my daughters and I spent at my friend Sharon's camp.
What represents me is reading and writing. I love to do both.
And I love these gorjuss girl images.

I really like the vintage look that distress inks give me.
I started with inking the pages and then stamping, also with distress ink, using a script stamp.

And to make it look even more vintage I also inked around the edges of the pages.
It is a lot of work, but so worth it for the look I wanted.

That was...until I dropped the ink pad...oops.

I made a miniature  book for my girl to hold.
It also has pages that can be flipped :)
I wanted a bigger girl and also didn't want to bring my markers on this crafty get away, so I printed up an already coloured image and enlarged it to the size I wanted.

I used the Tim Holtz typewriter die to cut out the vintage typewriter and added a pattern paper with typed words on it to the die cut piece.
The books are from my stamps that I stamped and again enlarged, and coloured with some distress inks.

Here again is my completed page.
I really like how it turned out and this does show my interests.

Here are everyone's challenge pieces who took on this challenge.
I love how they are all so different even though we all followed the same challenge.

I hope you all enjoyed a peek into my art journal and hope you all have a very creative day.

Tracy 💗💗💗

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 💗💗💗

Art Journal Page..Have yourself a Merry little Christmas

I think I have taken a long enough break and am excited to get back into crafting and blogging :)
So to start the year off right, I will share with you my Christmas Art Journal page.
This was another challenge that Caroline and I put on for each other :)
The theme for the month was Christmas and collage.
Both Caroline and I were a bit behind on this challenge…oops.

The first thing I did was glue this pretty napkin to the page.
The napkin was a bit longer than the book, so I cut it down to fit the page…I fussy cut the border where I sliced the napkin.
See how there is a darker part across the page, that is where part of the napkin overlapped…..but I will deal with that later.
I also stamped and then heat embossed (with black embossing powder) my Prima girl image on some white card stock.

I wanted to use my Copic markers to colour her hair and skin.
BUT….the alcohol from the Copic marker smeared the black embossing..grrrrr.
I didn't want to ruin my Copic markers, so I used some gelatos instead.

Because this challenge was to do some collage…I cut strips of pattern paper and collaged them to form her dress….pretty, right?!

Now for some creative changes ;)

I had to come up with a way to disguise the seam of my napkin…so what better way then to make more ;)
By doing this it takes your eye away from the main seam and gives more interest and texture to the background…especially since my background is pretty simple.

The next thing I changed up was the girl.
I thought this fun sparkly dress went better with the crisp colours of the background.
Don't worry, I used the other girl on another page :)
See the way the foiled snowflakes sparkle…..so pretty.






















Lastly comes my journaling.
I usually do my journaling on the computer and print it out…see how nice and neat this is, much neater than my handwriting.

Even though I love the crisp clean look of the pure white paper, I thought it was a bit too bright for this page.

So I inked up the paper with distress ink and then the edges to help it blend with the page. 

Isn't she festive :)

I hope you all have a very creative day :)

Tracy :)

Autumn & Rain Girls

It has been pouring the last couple of days….great days to stay inside and do a bit of journaling :)
Here are my pages (before adding my journaling) for today and yesterday.
I am trying my hand at drawing faces (again) and adding different looks to these girls.

For yesterday's girl "Autumn Girl" I stamped her hair to look like fall leaves.
I used my Blick's coloured pencils to colour in their faces.
I can't find a great flesh tone in these pencil crayons….this is more of a yellow tone :(

Because it has been raining here so much, my second girl "Rain Girl" has hair to represent rain.
I first added some Tim Holtz faded jeans distress ink for the colour of her hair, then drew in the rain drops with the same colour in Tim Holtz distress markers.
The girls eye colour is opposite of each other…meaning, Autumn has Rain's hair colour for her eyes and Rain has Autumn's.
I am really happy with how my girls turned out….even with the skin tone not being the colour I intended.

Onto My Day:
Even though it was a rainy, stay in bed kind of day….I was thinking of putting my PJ's on and watching YouTube in bed all day…but, I had to bring the red jeep to the shop.
Ashley has had the use of it for 5 yrs and now it is Heather and Kristy's time to have it.
I brought it in the shop to make sure it is up to safety standards.
I did have to get the wheel bearings replaced on the one wheel…..so got the mechanic to do the other one as well.
He said the one didn't need to be changed right away. Then asked me "It is just driven in town right?"
I thought to myself, if it was to be driven on the highway, is it not as safe ?!?
So told him to change them both….better safe than sorry when my babies are driving.

I hope you all have a very Creative Day :)

Tracy :)

Dance in the Rain..Art Journal and a video

It is a photo heavy post, but I wanted to share my process to making my art journal page.

And for an extra bonus, I made a video as well :)

What I won't do for you guys, teehee.

The prompt that Caroline and I had for this month was to use a girl image on our page.

I used this adorable stamp designed my Angie Blom called Lizzy Girl from the Angiegirl collection from Unity stamps.

I have to say, I am loving my page.

Each page I do, I like a bit more than the last :)

Ok…lets get started:
I wanted to have a border to this page and I wanted it to be a vine border, as I was going for an "April showers bring May flowers" theme.
I used Archival ink as I was planning on using my new water colour pencils.
Using Archival ink, I didn't have to worry about my stamping smearing or bleeding when the water is added.
I wanted to use mists for the background, so I made a mask of this image so the mists didn't go on my main image….I then used embossing powder and heat embossed my main image it to make sure the mists didn't bleed under my main image.

But before misting I wanted to add some texture with some background stamps.
I was trying to achieve some texture or dimension without adding bulk from papers.
By using the mask I made, I didn't have to worry about my background stamps going on my main image :)

Now to pick out my mist colours.

Time for some colour :)
Because I have heat embossed my image and made a mask for it, I don't have to worry about my mists seeping on my image.
I used this technique on my "Faceless Beauty" card.

See how crisp and clean my image stayed by using that mask and heat embossing it :)

Now to add some Rain drops.
I used a stencil and some embossing paste to make my rain drops.
I put the mask back on my image when I did the rain drops.
I know they look more like snow drops right now as the embossing paste is white….which would have worked perfectly for last week as we had snow ;)

I also coloured in the leaf border and my image with my new Inktense water colour pencils….which I have to say…I love!!!!
They blend so nicely and the part that sold me on these pencils, is that they are permanent when dry..I am going to have lots of fun with these in the future, and the colours are so Intense ;)

Now to make my snow drops into rain drops.
I need to add some colour.
I used some distress inks….what I should have done was put the stencil back on the raindrops and then inked them, as the ink also went on the background.
Which just added some more colour (which I like) but at the same time the rain drops weren't as prominent (which I didn't like).

In order to rectify that, I used my Pitt pen/marker and added a darker colour to the right side of the rain drop to add some depth.
I then used my white sharpie marker to add some highlights to the left side of the rain drops.
I have to say, I love how they turned out :)

I decided to not go with the "April Showers" them and go with this quote "Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass, but Learning to Dance in the Rain"
When I showed my daughter Heather my finished page, she said it was nice…but why isn't my girl dancing, lol.
I told her, she hasn't learned the lesson yet, lol.

How adorable is this image!
I love all images that have umbrellas.

Look at how vibrant these colours are.
I love the umbrella colour….I think it is my favourite one in the set…but then again, this is the first time using these pencils, teehee.

And the finished page!!!
I am so happy with how this one turned out :)

As I had mentioned, I made a video on my process.

I think it took longer to upload the video and this blog post then it did to make this page, lol.

If you would like to watch the video on a full screen, just click on my name "Tracy's Treasures24"

If you want to check out "Caroline's art page" just click on her name :)
Her page is so soft and pretty, like a warm summers day.

After sharing my sneak peek yesterday, Caroline suggested I enter it in "The Mixed Media Monthly Challenge".  She knows what is going on with challenges :)

I hope you all had a very Creative Day :)

Tracy :)

Thinking of You…water colour card

I had so much fun making my "Faceless Beauty" water colour card, that I wanted to make another one.
I had watched an Amy R video today and she inspired me to try to make this one with clear embossing powder.
I really like how it turned out.

Look…I made a photo tutorial :)
I used this flower from the stamp set that I received as a gift from Unity Stamps called "Have a little faith" :)
Versa mark embossing ink, clear embossing powder and some water colour paper.

After stamping my image with the Embossing ink, pouring the clear embossing powder where I had stamped and then getting the excess powder off of the paper.
Lastly I heat set the image with my heat gun.
It was hard to get a good photo of this, but when the embossing powder turns shinny like this..it is done.

Then the fun part..colouring :)
I used my Distress markers for this.
I have to mention, using water colour paper really does make a big difference in how the distress markers ink moves on this paper.

I coloured right from the marker.
I just put some colour on the bottom of the flower (as this is where I wanted the darkest of the colour to be) and them moved the colour with my water pen….you could also use a wet paint brush for this as well.

Here they are all coloured up…but they needed a bit of something.

To add even more detail.
Once the distress marker ink was dry, I used the fine tip on the marker, to add some flicking for more shading to the flowers.
Sadly, my red fine tip seemed to be dried out, even though the brush tip worked fine…its a mystery ;)
I did the same to the leaves as well.

Lastly I added some colour to the background with my Distress ink from the ink pads with my "Homemade distress ink applicators".
It took me longer to write this post, than it did to make this card.
This card took me no longer then 20 minutes to complete.

I hope you all had a very Creative Tuesday :)

Tracy :)

Faceless Beauty

I have noticed that a lot of crafters have been playing with water colours lately.
I wanted to create a water colour background, but didn't want to get too messy.
So I decided to use my sprays.
And then colour my image with Distress markers.
Here is the card I came up with.

Here is the sweet sentiment that comes with this stamp set I purchased from Unity stamps.

Oh look, I even did a bit of a tutorial.
The reason I say a bit, is because I forgot to take photos of the beginning stages ;)
What I did was first make a mask of the image on a post it note and just quickly cut around it.
I then stamped this beautiful stamp called "Faceless Beauty" by Angie Blom, on my water colour paper  with versa mark embossing ink and embossed it with black embossing powder and heat set it.
I heat embossed it, as I wasn't sure if the sprays would seep into the image if I had just used the regular ink and the mask.

The colour is off on these two photos as I am in my laundry room, using my spray box ;)
When I added my second colour of spray on my card, the nozzle was plugged.
I didn't feel like washing it out, so I just added spatters to the card….ya, I'm lazy ;)

As you can see, I didn't need to heat emboss my card, the mask would have worked just fine.

I got out my distress inks and my water pen and coloured her up.
I just love how the distress inks blend so nicely on the water paper.

I think this image is just so beautiful.
If she looks familiar to you, I have used her on "this page in my Fauxbonichi"
Can you tell I just love this stamp :)

I hope you all had a Creative Friday :)

Tracy :)