Doodles Unleashed!

I'm taking this fantastic FREE workshop by Traci Bautista hosted by Strathmore, called Doodles Unleashed.  I've always admired her work, and I came across this while searching for more inspiration and creativity ideas.  Anyway, I've been watching her videos and tutorials and been dying to try some of her techniques, but I don't have any money.  What's a girl to do?  Weeeellll....  

I dug out every last thing I have, and was able to finally create a piece using this tutorial, substituting with what I have, and come up with crazy alternatives.  Mind you, this is stuff I never would have tried before, but I'm really trying to open my mind up to different possibilities this year.  So far it's paid off, immensely.

At the suggestion of Traci, I took photos of my progress, and it's just so cool to see where the piece started, and where it ended up.  So, I've decided to share my progress and little tidbits of what I did throughout the creation of this piece.  Enjoy!

In true Donna Downey style, I had no idea where this page was going to go when I started it, but I just went with it.  Go with your gut, nine times out of ten, it will be fabulous.

I started with a large piece of lace laid across my journal pages.  I used two different color spray paints that I made myself.  (I put a little craft acrylic in a spray bottle and added water).  As you can see, the lace wasn't clean, it still had some paint on it from a previous project.  Oops!  :)

So, taking my lead from both Traci and Donna, I started with circles, had to add the drippage,  but I didn't have the color I wanted in acrylic, so I used my watercolors!  Yippee!

Going with the flow, I started making patterns and circles around the page, in contrasting colors.  My acrylics are cheepies, so they aren't very opaque.  This was bugging me so much because I like bold colors. 

I went in with some of my watercolor pencils to kind of accent the pink a little more, and I splatted some pink around the page.Okay, out come the sharpie markers.  I have these great translucent type Sharpies that I picked up at Staples real cheep.   Keeping in mind, to just make marks, kind of going with the flow, not over-thinking it.

Paint pens are my favorite!  I have a great purple one by Sharpie that is so awesome.  I also added in here some more watercolor pencil accents and blended with my water pen.  More happy doodling. :)

So while I create, I always have Pandora on, listening to something.  Today I was listening to my Michael Buble station and "Beyond the Sea" came on and got stuck in my head.  LOL!  Had to add it in for some fun.  The letters are some chipboard ones by ColorBok that I found on clearance.

Also, you might notice Elvis hanging out there in the bottom right corner.  I was at Target (my favorite store!) and found these cute Elvis note cards in the dollar bins.   

I added a stamp that says "to be all that is possible we must attempt the impossible. to be all that we can be we must dream of being more." (stamped with Stayzon).

Next, if you notice, I got out my trusty white paint pen by Sharpie. Added lots of highlights, making my page happier.

I finally added some black marks and accents, because the stamp was too heavy by itself. And my little posted date stamp in the bottom corner.  It's done and it makes me happy!  

And here's the final piece.  Thanks for looking!