creativityUNLEASHED by traci bautista

weekend getaway: san diego

jetset weekend getaway to San Diego>>>>>>>>>>>>>

a quick hour and twenty minute flight from SFO...Tyler and I escaped for a weekend of exploring down in socal for the Giants game. We enjoyed hanging out in Downtown San Diego's Gaslamp district for a few days. From our suite at Hotel Indigo, we had a gorgeous view of Petco park and the fireworks. The ballpark and restaurants were filled with a sea of orange and black, SF Giants fans took over the city that weekend. We had great seats in the Omni Premier Club and watched the Giants take the win on Saturday. :)

As always, with my iPhone in hand, I captured snapshots of our fun weekend, walking exersions and adventures including our yummy meals. My fave breakfast was our visit to The Mission in East Village, a 5 minute walk from the hotel. Their homemade cinnamon toast is a must try. Hodad's burgers and shakes were super delish too. I'm always look for interesting textures, numbers, doors and design details...many of these make their way into my sketchbooks and journals for inspiration. On our walk to Hodad's I snapped colorful graffiti on doors, sides of trucks, electrical boxes and windows.

The images in this post were created with a mashup of iPhoneography apps. All the photos were taken with the Hipstamtic app, the photo layouts were created using PicFrame and labels. The panororamic photo of Petco Park was taken using Photosynth app, which takes multiple snapshots and stitches them together. Although, I didn't have my laptop, I could still get a little work done while on a mini holiday.

hope you enjoy a snapshot of san diego through my lens...for more of my iPhone photos follow me on Instagram @treicdesigns.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>happy jetsettin...xoxo~treiC

industrial chic + mixed media jewelry

Today my blog is the next stop on the Industrial Chic Blog Hop to celebrate the launch of my dear friend SLK's {susan lenart kazmer} new Industrial Chic website. I was invited to take part in this creative project along with a number of artists. I received a few pieces from her newest IC line, which is exclusively sold at Michaels and decided to use the chain and earrings to create a statement necklace/mixed media jewelry piece. {SLK Industrial Chic products c/o SLK}

You might have seen the twisted and torn bindings that adorn my handmade journals. Lately, I've been repurposing them to create mixed media fiber jewelry, braiding hand dyed fabrics, adding macrame & crochet with various fibers and working with leather cord. 

My handmade jewelry is asymmetrical and constructed in an organic fashion. I like to mix soft fiber with metal. As I work, I drape pieces, choose embellishments and a color palette flair tray. This lariat has a leather rope lasso tied with macrame on one end and a large metal 1.5 inch ring constructed from a 4-inch handmade torched headpin on the other end. The lariat can be worn in a number of ways {as a belt or hair jewelry}, which I'll share in an upcoming post.
To create this piece, I attached a few my twisted fiber adornments to the Industrial Chic chain. I deconstructed the IC earrings by pulling apart the metal and used the pieces as embellishments which I connected to the chain. {see the pearls and rhinestones hanging} I added twisted silk ribbon, soft leather cord and hand painted fabric pieces wrapped with wire. My new twisted & torn adornments collection will be available in my boutique soon!

check out the other fabulous projects & follow along the blog hop:

8/10  Barbe St. John

8/11  Cheryl Bodkin Waters

8/12  Cindi Bisson

8/13  Gretchen McHale

8/14  Jenny Barnett Rohrs

8/15  Kari McKnight-Holbrook

8/16  Lindsay Obermeyer

8/17  Seth Apter

8/18  Suze Weinberg

8/19  Tami Bayer

8/20  Theresa Cifali

8/21  Tracie Stivers Lampe

8/22  Traci Bautista - {you are here}

8/23  Jen Crossley

8/24  Eileen Hull

8/25  Pam Carriker

8/26  Sandy Martin

enjoy the inspiration and visit SLK's new website! xoxo~treiC

 

book signing & LIVE demo at Aaron Brothers!

My 2012 Doodles Unleashed book tour continues...join me for a LIVE demo and book signing event at Aaron Brothers in Long Beach, CA on Saturday, September 22, 2012! I am one of ten artists featured in their Artrageous campaign across the US this Fall. I'll be painting, doodling and using some of my FAVE mixed media products including Strathmore Artist Papers...come out for an afternoon of creative inspiration!

Also, as part of the Summer Road Trip, I'm giving away an original painting {pictured above} from Doodles Unleashed and a signed copy of the book to one lucky winner. Visit Summer Road Trip Sweepstakes for more details. come on the road with me to socal! hope to see you there...xoxo~treiC

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p.s. Art Journal PLAY Date workshop at my new studio is September 8! details here

 

artJOURNALING daily: AUGUST journal pages

a peek inside my early AUGUST art journal pages.

hand painted & dyed papers towels. washi tape. color studies. sketching faces. collage. paint. scribbles. my place to play and work out ideas.

what's inside your AUGUST pages? how do you use your art journal? share a link to a photo of one of your art journal pages in the comments...i'd love to see what you are working on.

#artjournalingdaily on IG>>>>>>>>>>>>>>join me in September for #artjounalingdaily on Instagram. a month of daily peeks into my art journal, colorful prompts, ideas and mini tutorials all delivered via Instagram. connect with me @treicdesigns on IG and get ready for a creative art journaling journey!! i'll post more details soon.

happy art journaling!! xoxo~treiC

art journal PLAY date at {studio 323*7}

are you ready for an ART JOURNALING play date? Join me for a day of art journaling & mixed media PLAY at my new studio! This is a 5-hour workshop that explores various background techniques including working with gesso, handmade stamps, stencils and doodling. We'll create painted collage papers, build juicy layers on the page, work with images, draw stylized faces and play with creative lettering. Most supplies included and students receive an art journaling workbook, mixed media paper kit and mark-making tool kit as part of the workshop...come play!

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art journal PLAY date

mixed media workshop with Traci Bautista

Saturday, September 8, 2012

11:00am - 4:30pm

{studio 323*7} Danville, CA

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for details & to register visit here

{exploring} point reyes seashore

Tyler and I enjoy spending our weekends exploring and taking road trips, like our day in Berkeley. A few weeks ago we ventured out to Point Reyes Seashore and Drakes Beach stopping in the cities along the way. We had lunch on the water at Drakes Cafe, a little watering hole with simple eats nothing fancy. On our way through the north bay, the weather was gorgeous, about 85 degrees. Then once we hit the beach, it fell to 55 degrees..FREEZING! hence the photo with me in a beanie & scarf..

For our weekend explorations, we pick a city on the map and start driving, actually Tyler is the one who always drives. :) With my trusty iPhone in hand I search Yelp for yummy eats, antique & thrift stores and our adventure begins. We love heading toward the beach or cities on the water, many which are about 40 minutes to an hour away from our house.

In Point Reyes station we walked through town and stopped in Ernesto's art studio, had a little snack of garlic bbq corn on the cob and shopped a few boutiques including a cute shop called Vita Collage. As always, I captured a few snapshots of interesting buildings and textures. I've always been fascinated with doors and have a photo collection of wonderful doors I find on our adventures. On our way back home, we took a detour through San Anselmo exploring more shops, enjoyed a cup of gelato and discovered a fun little art store called Doodlebug that specializes in teaching kids art classes. It's is jam-packed with art supplies, fibers and a bin full of Collage Pauge :) Also, made a quick stop at Dharma Trading, which has a huge store full of black clothes, bags, fabrics and supplies for dyeing. I've shopped in their online store for years, it was great to see all their fun art supplies in person. It was a great day of new finds and exploring!

{tips for exploration...}

document your explorations in photos.

take lots of snapshots--> textures..doors..artwork..sidewalks..plants..trees..all provide great inspiration for art journaling.

search google or yelp for local eats and shops.

be flexible and let things unfold as you go.

collect free ephemera...maps, newspapers, postcards for journal fodder.

search out things that you love or collect.

seek out artists and local art studios.

if you are a passenger, take photos during your drive. I love to see what happens when I snap action shots on my iPhone. PLEASE don't attempt to take photos if you are driving.

drive, bike or walk without a plan..take back roads you normally don't take. you'll discover so much..

pick up business cards & put them in your sketchbook or journal. take notes about the store to remind you of what you found.

write a list of words that describe your journey. the things you encounter.

take notes on the weather.

sketch the local flora, trees, plants.

look at the boutique displays for ideas for decorating your house or studio.

sit on a bench on a busy street and people watch. quickly sketch things you see.

collect driftwood, feathers & stones on the beach.

share your explorations on instagram {connect with me @treicdesigns}

be open for adventure.

do you have a favorite town you've explored recently? I'd love to hear about it :)

happy exploring...enjoy the journey! xo~T

zentangle untangled blog tour

Today my blog is the next stop on the Zentangle Untangled blog tour. I had the pleasure of meeting lovely Kass at The Creative Connection last year. I'm helping spread the word about her fun new book about doodling and meditative drawing.

Zentangle Untangled encourages you to draw through creative prompts and showcases a variety of artists colorful artwork. A few of my favorites parts of the book are the exercises about creating shapes with Zentangle, combining doodles with photography, incorporating digital into Zentangles and fun lettering examples.

Instead of a typical interview, I sent Kass a list of creative prompts to share her inspirations and passions in photos. Click each photo to see the description of the photo provided by Kass. be inspired by her images...

something Kass treasures...

Kass' favorite supplies...

photo of one of her favorite travel experiences

a photo of her studio table {I asked to show her working studio}

a photo of a shadow...

Kass' self portrait... a photo of her passion...

a photo of light... a photo of an art journal page by Kass... Zentangle Untangled is available on Amazon.

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follow along the other inspirational blog tour stops...

Zentangle Untangled Blog Hop

Monday July 23 - Kass Hall
Tuesday July 24 - Jill Berry
Wednesday July 25 - Rachel Grieg
Thursday July 26 - Sandra Strait -
Friday July 27 - Melanie Testa
Saturday July 28 - Ingrid Dijkers
Monday July 30 - Pam Garrison
Tuesday July 31 - Genevieve Crabe
Wednesday August 1 - Traci Bautista
Thursday August 2 - Fran Meneley
Friday August 3 - Jane Davenport
Saturday August 4 -Kass Hall {major prize giveaway}

Visit Kass' blog and connect with her on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter or Instagram{@kasshall}

{Zentangle Untangled c/o FW Media}

happy doodling...xo~Traci