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Printmaking with Traci Bautista & a Book Giveaway

11/29/14 update - the winner is Jean, who wrote a song which impressed my grandsons. 
Thank you everyone for playing along!!!

When Traci Bautista gifted a copy of her book with me I had a feeling it would be fabulous. 

Indeed!

That girl manages to pack more ideas onto each page than you can ever imagine. It is the kind of book where you read and reread every single section because there is simply that much to absorb and because yeah, you want to try it all!! 

She sent me a pack of 'stuff' along with the book, so I could get an idea for the types of supplies she uses. Crazy stuff. Like a foam hair roller, pom poms, a square plastic mesh and an orange rubber thingamajig.  I have no idea what it is. Turns out I absolutely love it and now use it all the time.

Cause Traci is genius like that.
I thoroughly enjoyed exploring Traci's book.

Step 1, I worked on my large Gelli Plate, setting up textures.

Golden Open Acrylics are perfect for Gelli Prints and create beautiful layers. 

Painted papers and painted journal pages.

My journal spread using some 'parts' that Traci drew (see my initials!).

Traci's collection along with her book and other supplies.

I am giving away a copy of Traci's book and a set of markers plus a few of her stencils so one lucky winner will be able to play till their heart's content. To enter, please leave me a comment below - say something really clever and creative. Seriously. I haven't done this for a long time, but I used to let my grandsons pick the winners on my blog contests. And yep, I am going to do it again! Woo hooooo!! You need to enter before midnight CST 11/26/14 because this will be a Thanksgiving Day project. 

Be sure and leave me your email too, you know the drill, right?

And.........fyi.....a couple months ago, I did a Webinar using Traci's latest book as my inspiration. Traci appeared as a guest during the live broadcast and we had a lot of fun talking about art and all sorts of things. If you want to check that out, you can click HERE to download the project video. You can also click HERE to see that uber cool package that North Light put together for her book - pssssst, there is a custom stencil. 

Last, but certainly not least, check out Traci's stencils with StencilGirl Products HERE.  I am fond of all of them but have to admit that Love Collage and Tropical Floral are favorites of mine, I just *love* them. 

StencilGirl and Lesley Riley TAP Blog Hop

I met Lesley Riley for the first time at Art Unraveled a few months ago. Of course I have known of her for years, she is a name brand artist in our world, don't you think? I had heard wonderful things - her generosity as a teacher, the guidance she has offered to new artist teachers, and of course her amazing talents as an artist - and yeah, she is all of that! She has invented this cool product called TAP - Transfer Artist Paper. Maybe you have used it? I hadn't!

Truth be known, I am not really one to use Transfer products. I am kind of a 'transfer idiot.' I have managed to screw up every method of transfer that I have tried. It is pitiful. 

So here I am, a package of TAP sitting in front of me, wondering how I might make this work. I also had Dina Wakley paints on hand (just waiting for a try.) A match made in heaven, right?

I needed a greeting card. A special one, so special I was going to make it by hand and God only knows I don't do that much anymore. But this was a card for Maria and I wanted it to be something nice.

First up, I tried prepping a greeting card with a light wash of Dina's paints, a few lovely colors applied in a watery fashion. The paints are soft and creamy, the colors sheer and lovely. I had a beautiful background and printed a piece of my art on a sheet of TAP. When I attempted to iron it I realized I had printed the paper on the wrong side. 

Ahem. Fail #1.

Second try. 

I got a new card, tried printing my image again and then ironed it. Ugh, looked like crap. I had chosen an image that was way too intricate and my transfer didn't work out as I had hoped. I put too much paint on my receiving paper, thus rendering the transfer quite ineffective.

Ahem. Fail #2.

I turned the first paper over, the one where I printed on the wrong side. I decided to paint on it and selected the Trees stencil along with What's the Point from StencilGirl, creating a design with the Dina paints. I decided to transfer it to a Gelli print I had done on a map.

Yummy. When I ironed this to my receiving card, I was thrilled to end up with a clean transfer. WOW, maybe I could do transfer after all. 

I proceeded to embellish with paint and collage until I ended up with a greeting card worthy of my talented assistant, Maria. I hope she likes it!!

Today's Blog Hop List:

StencilGirl  Talk

Lesley Riley

Mary Beth Shaw

Before you go, make sure you enter to win the GIVEAWAY!!!!

ALL comments left on all posts are eligible to WIN!

One comment per post please.

Giveaway closes on Sunday, November 16th @ 11:59PM Central Time.