Attention all mixed media artists - brace yourself - Traci Bautista's new book Doodles Unleashed is here. The anxiously anticipated follow up to Collage Unleashed was worth the wait! As someone who has crafted alongside Traci in person many of times this book is the next best thing. The colorful pages pop with inspiration and really get your creative wheels turning. I am thrilled to be today's stop on the Doodles Unleashed blog tour!
From the first time I met Traci it was true crafty love. Traci was a guest on a show I was hosting for the DIY Network called Craft Lab when we first met. She was one of those guests that I loved the project, loved her style and after filming 120 episodes I walked away wanting to explore her version of collage, doodling and mixed media even more. I have used her papers along with her line of decoupage medium called Collage Pauge many of times to create jewelry, art, customized cupcake coozies and various other paper products. Opening up Doodles Unleashed was like being on set with Traci all over again. I had almost forgotten how much her designs and use of color get my creative juices flowing.
For those of you following along on the blog you know that one of my latest crafty endeavors is digital scrapbooking. Doodles Unleashed has a whole section on the topic and made me think of different digital options I had never considered. Traci suggests to-go doodling by using your iPhone and taking advantage of all the various applications. Talk about making your art portable. You get a great collaged look without the paint under your fingernails. Traci has a whole line of digital scrapbooking elements to download that I combined here with some of my other favorite designers like Kitschy Digitals, Minitoko, Maybe Me J and Pugly Pixel.
Traci is known for her artsy girlie meets urban style graffiti doodles. I have long been a fan of her free hand fonts. Traci walks you through typeography in Doodles Unleashed. She has prompts in the book for continuous writing, layering letters, digital lettering, using bold typeface and more. There is also a gallery of hand drawn letters in the back of the book you can use as a jumpstart to hone your own signature style.
Since having kids finding the time to do much mixed media art has been difficult. To create a beautiful piece you need layers and time to create those layers. Doodles Unleashed makes me want to try harder to find that time. Until I find the time I fully intend to download every iPhone app Traci suggests in her book and get busy doing some mobile doodling.
P.S. Thank you Traci for the shout out to my blog in the back and picture of my Crafty Curious in the Found Materials section. Whoo-hoo!
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