Doodling Traci Bautista Style

I just received a copy of Traci Bautista's second book Doodles Unleashed, and immediately tried to unleash a doodle in my sketchbook. It's patterned after one of her girly doodles, page 99 to be exact. I love her style, and I loved her first book, Creativity Unleashed, which she autographed for me at CHA in 2008. I later had the chance to take a class from her at Art & Soul, and that was wonderful also. You can find out much more about treiC designs all over the web.
Here's some earlier art I made from Traci's collage sheets, and here's some of my doodles from her class.

I used simple and cheap markers from Office Depot for my doodles, but I am excited that I have a little batch of Copic markers coming from Ebay. Soon I will know why everyone raves about those markers. And honestly, I've had a couple before but they were very similar colors, so it was hard to appreciate the Copic range. And I've never used a blender with them. So it will be fun, and if I don't have the knack, I can always take a Copic class at The Queen's Ink in Savage Mill, where they are taught regularly.
Meanwhile, back to doodling...

'By the Sea' Treasures from Art & Soul

I felt like a kid on Halloween night, dumping out all of my treasures from Art & Soul Portland; arranging, rearranging, mentally cataloging and slowly putting away all that I had collected in the way of supplies, trades, purchases and finished art.

It is tradition to bring small pieces of art to swap, such as charms and artist trading cards. Charms were very popular since many A&S attendees belong to a group called Charmsters, including my hostess Michelle. I swapped enough charms to make an entire bracelet, nicely full of handmade goodness (top). A few extra charms from Michelle made their way into my pile of goodies during our 1:1 swap (second photo). I also received two lovely 4 x 4 fat book pages from her for my 2008 book. The other pics/piles are more swap receipts, ephemera collected, class supplies, purchases from the on-site store, Collage, and vintage finds from around Portland.

The bottom three photos are my background papers completed in Traci Bautista's Doodling & Letters class. The will now be cut up for ATC or other backgrounds.

Off to Art & Soul PDX and Blog-land Friends

Yes, that is one grumpy cat. The suitcase has been perpetually out for weeks and weeks. In fact, one day last week I was in four states in one day. You can see here where Larry tried to go to A&S once already. Tomorrow, I head west, instead of my usual Midwest or east, to Art and Soul, Portland. This will be my second A&S this year, having already gone to Hampton, VA in May. Yes, I liked it so much, I wanted to go to another.

But the real attraction is not only Portland itself, which I have never seen, but my dear blog friend Michelle of Hold Dear whom I have also never seen! But will. Tomorrow. We've been blog friends for well over a year, having bonded over charms and mermaids and other common interests. I don't think we can even remember who contacted whom, but we've been emailing and speaking on the telephone and have decided we are like-minded enough that a brief co-habitation is not too scary!

So, Michelle graciously invited me to stay with her and her husband Glenn, and some other art girlies, specifically Cassondra and Julie of ArtNest, will also be there.

After my cross-country flight, we're planning lots of artsy shopping and acquainting me with the Portland art community. Friday, we both have classes with internationally-acclaimed instructors. I'm taking a jewelry and beading class to make a necklace called "The Beachcomber" with Beverly of Gilbert Designs and a collage and doodling class with Traci Bautista, whom I've met a couple times before, most notably at CHA where she signed her book for me. Traci also knows a couple of my Cali art friends, Miss Vicky and Shosh, both of whom will also be at A&S.

Since Michelle lives there, she is also taking classes Wednesday and Sunday, and I can't even keep up with all she is doing. I do know one class sounds great: Junk Drawer Metalsmithing. Can't wait to see what she does.

Friday night there will be a number of authors there for book-signings, including the charming Michael DeMeng and also Kelly Rae Roberts, whose new book I absolutely love: Taking Flight. Some ZNE friends will also be there, signing books and teaching, like Miss Sally Jean and Lisa Kaus. Saturday we are hitting more vintage and artsy spots before the nearly-famous A&S vendor night. One could drop mega-bucks...or just drool a lot. All-in-all it should be a very supportive, art-filled weekend before I hop a red-eye or should I say red-eye-all-day-and-night-long flight back into my own time zone. Can't wait to post pics from the event.

Me & Larry, Heading to Art & Soul, Except Larry's Not Really Going. Shhh! Don't Tell Him!

With Art & Soul Portland http://www.artandsoulretreat.com/ just 15 days away, I knew I needed to get some swaps made. Trading little bits of art is a wonderful tradition at art retreats. I don't ever want to go empty-handed because the goodies made by other artists are such fun to receive. Some people make little bags of ephemera or supplies; some make artist trading cards (ATCs) or other small-scale art. When I went to Art & Soul Hampton in May, I took both charms and ATCs, and with A&S PDX looming so soon, I resorted to making the very same charms again. I call them Ballerina Moons. It's not hard to see why, although it is hard to see in these pictures. But after several hours to make 28 charms and already putting them in their tiny bags with Moo cards from Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/lillysoflondonish, I couldn't see unbagging them all just for a photo-opp. Hopefully, I will get some cards made as well, and I still need to get some class supplies. I am making a 'Beachcomber' necklace with Gilbert Designs http://www.gilbertdesigns.net/ and am taking a collage class with Traci Bautista, author of Collage Unleashed. You can buy her book on Amazon here http://www.amazon.com/Collage-Unleashed-Traci-Bautista/dp/1581808453/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1221365456&sr=8-1. I'm also looking forward to staying with Dear Michelle of Hold Dear http://michellegeller.typepad.com/, my firstest and bestest blog friend, who is going to show me around Portland. Looking forward to seeing Maria of Collage on Alberta http://collageonalberta.typepad.com/ again, and I just found out tonight that Shosh and Mike from Hannah Grey http://www.hannahgrey.com/ will be there, too. And, some of my new ZNE art friends, like Lisa Kaus http://lisakaus.blogspot.com/, will also be in town, especially easy since Lisa lives in Oregon. All in all, it should be like old-home art week. Fetch my umbrella. Can't wait!

Larry the Cat looks really excited, too. But, I have bad news for him. Unlike the charms, he is going to get unpacked, and soon.