creativityUNLEASHED by traci bautista

DIY party crowns

my style reMIX blog series continues with a fun and festive DIY party crowns tutorial. This is a great project to do with the kiddies or as a party craft during your holiday celebrations. The no-sew fabric crowns are made from recycled fabric, painted grocery bags and colorful embellishments. They make great photo props and party favors. This collaborative project was created with my nieces during our family art play date.

Here's what you'll need to make these one-of-a-kind crowns...

creative toolbox

• Tulip Soft Fabric Paints
• Tulip Slick Dimensional Paint or Tulip Beads in a Bottle
• Tulip Fabric Markers
• Aleene's Fabric Fusion & Peel and Stick tape
• recycled paper grocery bags
• canvas remnants and/or recycled jeans
• scissors
• misc embellishments - feathers, glue, crystal, beads, baubles, silk flowers
• string, fabric ribbon or hemp string

BASIC project instructions: I cut apart Whole Foods paper grocery bags into large pieces and they painted using Tulip Fabric Paints with Tulip Sponge Pouncer brushes and wooden blocks. I cut out feather shapes to add to the crown. Then cut apart canvas remnants for them to doodle on using Tulip Fabric Markers. The crowns were then assembled using recycled jeans, painted fabrics & papers and embellishments with Aleene's Fabric Fusion.

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watch the DIY party crowns video tutorial here...

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TODAY'S POST SPONSORED BY  ILoveTo Create

family art play date

My nieces were in town for my birthday and Thanksgiving last week. The one thing they wanted to do was paint, so of course they were excited to spend the day at my studio. We had a family art play date with my cousins, good friend Larissa and her daughter. The girls enjoyed doodling on the windows and painting with Uncle Tyler. 

In preparation for making holiday party crowns, I had the girls create large paintings on recycled Whole Foods Market grocery bags using Tulip Soft Fabric paint. I let the girls choose all their own colors and they wanted to pink and purple paint.They also doodled on canvas remnants with Tulip Fabric Markers. The day ended with a little singing, dancing and pictures in their winter hats...so adorable! We had a great day in the studio!

p.s. stay tuned for my party crown tutorial that showcases how we used all their colorful art. {*all supplies used in this post were provded by ILoveTo Create}

CYBER monday SALE

I'm having a HUGE one-day sale for CYBER MONDAY on all my online workshops and e-books!!

SAVE $10 on ALL e-books
SAVE $20 on ALL e-courses
SAVE $50 on Doodles Unleashed video kit club BUNDLE {includes 4 online workshops, my most recent 2012 workshops}
SAVE $50 on Discovering YOU creative business collage kit BUNDLE
SAVE $100 on DREAM BIG 2012 {includes DREAM BIG journal}
SAVE $100 on collage unleashed digital kit club

I began teaching mixed media {painting, art journaling, collage & book binding} and creative business online workshops in 2009. All of my previous workshops are now available for SELF-GUIDED INSTANT DOWNLOAD. There are over 270 video tutorials with hundreds of pages of colorful inspiration in 20 online workshops. All self-guided workshop content {PDF workbooks, digital collage kits & videos} will be available for INSTANT DOWNLOAD once you are granted access to the classroom.

CYBER Monday SALE is an additional savings on workshops that are already on sale. To take advantage of the CYBER Monday Sale use PROMO CODE: CYBER12 in the notes of your Paypal payment, you will be refunded the amount of the sale. Please allow 48 hours for confirmation and refund. SALE prices extended until 8pm PT {USA time} Wednesday, November 28!

VISIT here for details and view entire e-course catalog

gratitude

yesterday during a quick morning walk this is the beauty I encountered.

rich. deep. colorful AUTUMN leaves.

covered with morning dew.

light. presence. thankful.       

so thankful for....     my family.     my LOVE.     our INDIE.

for my health.     living my dreams.   

beautiful nature. {falling leaves}

rich. deep. AUTUMN leaves.

the sun shining brightly.

beauty surrounds.

i hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving

....wishing you & yours a beautiful holiday season

~xoxo..treiC

 

 

INSPIRATION party flags

As you know I celebrated my birthday last week and I wanted to add a personal touch to my party favors. I gave my guests YUMMY red velvet mini cupcakes from Cat's Cupcakery and dressed them up with inspiration party flags created from my new digital mixed media artist papers {which will launch in my digital shoppe next week} and Collage Pauge. This is a super fun tutorial and simple party decorating idea..great for any occasion.

SUPPLIES needed

• Collage Pauge Matte
• paint brush
• scissors
• DREAM BIG graffiti inspiration mixed media papers by treiC designs
• toothpicks
• foil

STEP ONE | print out INSPIRATION party flag mixed media papers using an inkjet printer

STEP TWO| cut printed papers into strips using a paper trimmer

STEP THREE | cut a triangle shape out of the edges of the flags with scissors. use the excess pieces in other papercraft projects like greeting cards, ATCs or project life.
STEP FOUR| brush Collage Pauge onto the back of the party flag cutout using a 1 inch flat brush. Place on a piece of foil to protect your workspace.

STEP FIVE| wrap glued flag around a toothpick. Collage Pauge dries quick, so work fast. IDEA: wrap the glued flags around skewers for longer flags.

STEP SIX| place all the glued flags into a small container to dry.

STEP SEVEN | Use the party flags as cupcake toppers. I placed the cupcakes inside plastic treat bags. To make sure they didn't fall over, I cut out rectangle shapes of my printable mixed media papers and taped them to the bag using Aleene's Tacky Tape Runner and added a Tacky Tape small dot to the bottom of the cupcake to attach it to the paper base.

INSPIRATION party flags are a colorful way to decorate your favors! with the holidays coming up, use this idea to decorate your holiday treats! Big hugs..xoxo~Traci

*All Tulip and Aleene's products were provided by ILoveTo Create. 

 

 

 

40 & FAB birthday celebration

I LOVE celebrating my birthday and the celebrations usually last the entire month of November! My official birthday is November 14, so I spent the first day of my 40's hanging out with Tyler and Indie...enjoying breakfast, a day of shopping and exploring in San Francisco then dinner at one of my fave Japanese restaurants. Then another bday dinner with good friends at Marica on Friday. My parents, sister, her husband and my nieces flew in from Hawaii too!

On Saturday, I kicked off my birthday weekend celebration hosting a golf tournament. It had been pouring rain, but we lucked out, the weather cleared just long enough for us to play eighteen. Tyler helped me put together a goodie box...each participant received a fun "golf survival kit" which included a few of my favorite snacks and golf goodies. I didn't get photos of everyone playing golf, but here are a few...

After golf the celebration continued with Italian food, wine and bocce ball at Camp di Bocce! I am so grateful to everyone who came to celebrate. I spent the day surrounded by my beautiful family and wonderful life-long friends. I had a FABULOUS time!! I'll have one more celebration with my Dad's side of the family during Thanksgiving...so the party continues. whoohoo!!



Thank you to all my lovely blog readers & Facebook friends for your birthday LOVE and messages! :) I truly am blessed to be doing what I love and sharing my passion for art. Thank you for your continued support, encouragement and being part of my creative journey! xo~treiC

40 and FABulous

today I celebrate 40 years of living a beautiful life!

I have been blessed to have so many wonderful memories, great years and amazing accomplishments during these past 40 years. I have grown to be the woman I am today because of the love, support and encouragement of my parents, sister, family and friends. I celebrate today and everyday!

I am grateful for so many smiles...so many memories...so much LOVE...

i am...

.free spirit.    artist.    athletic.    spontaneous.    spiritual.
.creative soul.
.social butterfly.    friend4life.    scorpio.    fashionista.
dreamer.    indie designer.  explorer. 
world traveler.
jetsetter.    visionary.    teacher.
entrepreneur.    author.

lover. passionate.

living a beautiful life.

thank you for being a part of my creative life, sharing in my stories and celebrating with me!

with love...xoxo~Traci

{holiday planning} social media

In my AUTUMN creative business camp forum I've shared a few more posts & discussions on planning for the holidays including new PDF workbooks, journal cards and tabs {photo above} for your creative business notebook. Today's ACBC holiday planning post delves into 25 ideas to jumpstart your holiday social media promotion. As you know social media can be used in many ways to promote and market your business. Here are five of the 25 ideas...

<<<<< FIVE holiday social media promotion ideas >>>>>

IDEA #1: create a Pinterest board of interesting DIY holiday ideas including holiday decor, holiday recipes or patterns. Add in a few of pins from your own site to promote your handmade holiday items. create a collaborative board and invite others to add pins.

<<<<< photos of DIY project in process>>>>>

IDEA #2: share a photo of a DIY holiday project in process on Facebook or IG. Last holiday season, I shared this photo via Instagram of my handmade pompoms and fiber crocheted garland Christmas tree decorations.

<<<<< sales promotion codes>>>>>

IDEA #3: offer special holiday sales promotion codes on all your social media outlets. TIP: provide different promo codes for each promotion so it's easier to track which promotions your audience respond to. For this promo code I used "holiday20tweet" for Twitter and "holiday20fb" for Facebook. Make sure to share the rules of your promo code in your post.

<<<<< HOLIDAY giveaways>>>>>

IDEA #4: put together a special HOLIDAY giveaway and promote in via all your social media outlets. Last year, I put together a box full of goodies of my favorite art supplies and gave it away on my blog for Thanksgiving as a thank you for all my lovely blog readers. What kind of fun giveaway can you offer your audience? think about creating different giveaways for each social media audience. Maybe a digital download for the 20th person who retweets a tweet. Experiment with different engaging ideas to interact with your audience.

<<<<< HOLIDAY blog button>>>>>

IDEA #5: design a holiday branded blog button for your holiday blog series and encourage your readers to join in the blog series by adding the blog button to their sites. Also, the branded blog button is a great image for people to use when pinning your DIY tutorials or blog series. The image below is one of the blog buttons I created for my {24} HOLIDAY inspirations blog series.

join the AUTUMN creative business CAMP forum to access the rest of the holiday social media promotions ideas, ideas for DIY tutorials, holiday planning & analysis worksheets, AUTUMN creative business camp discussions and pdf workbooks/digital downloads {see photo at top & below}. I will be hosting a LIVE stream chat in the forum too!

Join in the AUTUMN creative business camp more details & register here

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honoring all who served

from sea to shining sea....

thank you to ALL veterans who have served & continue to serve our country including my grandfathers, uncles and daddy.

we honor you today...thank you for your service.

HANDMADE holiday workshop registration open!

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HANDMADE holiday

mixed media workshops with Traci Bautista

at {studio 323*7} Danville, CA

December 1, 2012~ 11:00am - 3:00pm {paper projects + printmaking}

December 9, 2012 ~ 11:00am - 3:00pm {holiday cones}

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Add a little handmade flair to holiday gifts and spend an afternoon with me painting at my studio. In these workshops we'll explore printmaking with plexiglass, collage and creating HOLIDAY paper projects. Each session we will make handmade stamps & stencils with a holiday theme. In the December 1st session we'll focus on making hand painted papers & fabrics and turn them into colorful holiday stationary, gift tags and garland. In the December 9th session you'll have an option to create holiday cones or a mini book and gift wrap. ALL supplies included. Make it a HANDMADE holiday!

space is LIMITED...register today!! details here

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