Mixed Media Flower Art and Upcycling

I love using mixed media in my art. There's just something fun about the unexpected outcome. Lately, I have been using old frames for my art as well. Upcycling!! Making something old - new again.

If you are here for the Mixed Media Monthly Challenge for June - then you are at the right place.

Our sponsor for June is Donna Downey Studio with a $50 gift certificate to their store which is good towards their classes also.

The theme this month is - A Year of Challenges. Meaning anything from the previous challenges! 

My superpower is collage and paint. lol! 

Here's my project. 

I used patterned paper on wood for the background / collage. Then I painted the lines for the flowers with black paint. I painted the background with white paint. Then I used aqua on the bottom and misted it with water and let it trip towards the top (of course I turned it upside down). It's really quite simple to do. The collage papers make the image so interesting. The frame is something we found at a thrift store. I repainted it to make it "new" again.

Want to play along and have a chance at winning?

Make sure you visit each designer's blog and leave some comment love for them... we LOVE hearing from you all!

Please follow these rules to be eligible for placements and prizes. Entries not following our rules will be deleted.

* You must use our challenge graphic in your challenge post.

* You must comment on at least 3 design team member's blogs. 

* Your post must link back to the Mixed Media Monthly Challenge post

* Add a link to your direct post, not your entire blog, a YouTube Video or a Pinterest Board

* You can combine with up to 4 other challenges. 

* No Backlinking (linking a project completed before the start date of our challenge) allowed! Any back-linked entries will be deleted.

* You can enter up to 5 times, create whatever you want, and HAVE FUN!

You have until 11:55 pm EST on June 30th to enter! 

Mixed Media Monthly Challenge - May

This is a little something I created for the Mixed Media Monthly Challenge for May. The challenge was to use stamps on your project.

Our April Sponsor is Topflight Stamps!!
Topflight Stamps, LLC is a new Art Stamp Online Store. They are a US based company that carries Rubber and Clear Stamps from different countries around the world. Check them out for unique international stamps. All US orders over $50 ship free. 

For my project, I created a collage over the wood. My hubby cuts wood to fit reclaimed frames. I loe using wood for my projects.  After I collaged the surface, I painted in my flower design and covered the background with white paint. Then I added blue and green in the sky area. The butterflies are stamps from TopFlight stamps. I stamped the images on patterned scrapbook paper, then cut them out. I also used a textured stamp from Top Flight to stamp random scratch mark in the background with deep green StayzOn ink.

If you take part in the challenge, one lucky winner will receive a $25 gift certificate to Top Flight stamps!

Here's the rules

Make sure you visit each designer's blog and leave some comment love for them... we LOVE hearing from you all!

Please follow these rules to be eligible for placements and prizes. Entries not following our rules will be deleted.

* You must use our challenge graphic in your challenge post.
* You must comment on at least 3 design team member's blogs. 

* Your post must link back to the Mixed Media Monthly Challenge post
* Add a link to your direct post, not your entire blog, a YouTube Video or a Pinterest Board
* You can combine with up to 4 other challenges. 
* No Backlinking (linking a project completed before the start date of our challenge) allowed! Any back-linked entries will be deleted.
* You can enter up to 5 times, create whatever you want, and HAVE FUN!

You have until 11:55 pm EST on May 30th to enter! 
NOTE We're closing a day early this month to make some changes to our Web site!!!

Playing around with mixed media

I love playing around with collage and painting on top of it. The results are always so surprising. I had a blast with this one. I did the papers several weeks ago and wasn't sure what it was going to be. It actually has the words "giggle, laugh and play" scattered throughout and it wasn't my intent to cover them up, but they are.

 If you are coming here from the Mixed Media Monthly Challenge Blog - Welcome! The theme this month is "Superpower" and I feel like mine is collage paintings, mainly because I love it. What is yours? If you play along, Stampers Anonymous is sponsoring the prize!

My creation for this challenge is my collage piece.

It's mixed media on wood, and framed in a reclaimed frame that I painted with a faux weather finish.

I hope you are inspired to play along with the challenge.


 Here's how to enter: 
Make sure you visit each designer's blog and leave some comment love for them... we LOVE hearing from you all! Please follow these rules to be eligible for placements and prizes. Entries not following our rules will be deleted.
* You must use our challenge graphic in your challenge post. 
* You must comment on at least 3 design team member's blogs.
* Your post must link back to the Mixed Media Monthly Challenge post 
* Add a link to your direct post, not your entire blog, a YouTube Video or a Pinterest Board
 * You can combine with up to 4 other challenges.
 * No Backlinking (linking a project completed before the start date of our challenge) allowed! Any back-linked entries will be deleted. 
* You can enter up to 5 times, create whatever you want, and HAVE FUN! 

 You have until 11:55 pm EST on April 31st to enter!

Mixed Media Sunflowers

Can you believe it's the first day of March and we are experience temperature's in the 80's in Northeast Louisiana! Two years ago we had snow. Talk about Mardi Gras Madness!!

If you are here for the March Mixed Media Monthly Challenge Blog, this month is one of my favorite's - buttons! My mom still has a tin filled with buttons that I used to play with as a child. I would sort them and line them up for hours.  Our sponsor and guest designer this month is May Flaum. Play along and one winner winner will receive a goodie box filled with an assortment of 28 Lilac Lane embellishment mixe as well as a spot in May’s next online class focusing on embellishments! How fun is that?

Here's my creation with buttons.

I used patterned scrapbook papers on birch wood, acrylic paint, and buttons!


Be sure to check out all the creations from the Design Team and enter your project at the March Mixed Media Monthly Challenge and play along.

Please follow these rules to be eligible for placements and prizes. Entries not following our rules will be deleted.

* You must use our challenge graphic in your challenge post.
* You must comment on at least 3 design team member's blogs. 
* Your post must link back to the Mixed Media Monthly Challenge post
* Add a link to your direct post, not your entire blog, a YouTube Video or a Pinterest Board
* You can combine with up to 4 other challenges. 
* No Backlinking (linking a project completed before the start date of our challenge) allowed! Any back-linked entries will be deleted.
* You can enter up to 5 times, create whatever you want, and HAVE FUN!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!!

Let the Good Times Roll

We had a whirlwind new year! We had some guest's come and visit right after New Year all the way from Minnesota, so we decided to take them to New Orleans. It was spring-like the first week in January in the French Quarter.

We strolled the quarter, ate beignets at Cafe Dumond, listened to jazz music, ate more food, and then went to see the Lion King. We even ran into some folks from back home in the lobby!

Since we were there on twelfth night, we HAD to get some king cakes. Well, we actually brought back three (from two different bakeries). What a way to ring in the New Year. The temps dropped drastically during the night, and we woke up to rainy cold weather. On our way home, we ran into sleet and ice. In fact, the airport was shut down and our guests couldn't fly home the next day, so we spent one more afternoon together and took photos of this beautiful frozen fountain.

Our guest were able to experience three of our four seasons on their short trip: spring, winter and Mardi Gras! 

If you are visiting this post for the Mixed Media Monthly Challenge - then welcome!  Our theme is "sweet inspiration".

And our sponsor this month is Stampendous! And our guest designer is Guest Designer - Fran Seiford. 

The prize for our winner this month is a $25 gift certificate.

Since our theme is "sweet inspiration", I didn't have a problem getting inspired. I have Mardi Gras on the brain. I don't know how I looked at the adorable stamp set I used and thought "Mardi Gras" (it must have been the king cake), but this is what I came up with!

The Stampendous items I used were: Spring Sparkle Embossing Powders, Dreamweaver Stencils Embossing Paste, Whisper Garden Perfectly Clear Stamps, and Thicket Metal Stencil. 

I had a blast creating something for this month's theme.

I hope you can play along. Make sure you visit each designer's blog and leave some comment love for them... we LOVE hearing from you all!

Please follow these rules to be eligible for placements and prizes. Entries not following our rules will be deleted.

* You must use our challenge graphic in your challenge post.

* You must comment on at least 3 design team member's blogs. 

* Your post must link back to the Mixed Media Monthly Challenge post

* Add a link to your direct post, not your entire blog, a YouTube Video or a Pinterest Board

* You can combine with up to 4 other challenges. 

* No Backlinking (linking a project completed before the start date of our challenge) allowed! Any back-linked entries will be deleted.

* You can enter up to 5 times, create whatever you want, and HAVE FUN!

You have until 11:55 pm EST on February 28 to enter!

January, Winter and New Art

I always get a new sense of direction with the beginning of a new year. New goals, organization and a surge of energy - only sometimes the cold dreary days that come can try to slow me down. We have had some pretty nice spring-like days during the last few weeks of December, so I'm hoping to get some things going before Louisiana gets too cold!!

The January 2017 Mixed Media Monthly Challenge theme is "Put a Stencil on It" and the sponsor is "StencilGirl", and the guest designer is Mary Beth Shaw of StencilGirl products. The prize will be a $25 gift certificate.

And the Mixed Media Monthly Challenge Design Team is welcoming a new member.  Our September Guest Designer Lynne Forsythe has joined our team. Welcome Lynne!

This theme . It fit me so perfectly because I had an order for a painting that I happened to need to finish in early December, so I used the stencils with this painting. The geometric type circles look a bit like snowflakes in the background.

I hope you can participate in our monthly challenge and be entered for the random drawing for the prize.

Here are the rules:

Make sure you visit each designer's blog and leave some comment love for them... we LOVE hearing from you all!

Please follow these rules to be eligible for placements and prizes. Entries not following our rules will be deleted.

* You must use our challenge graphic in your challenge post.
* You must comment on at least 3 design team member's blogs. 
* Your post must link back to the Mixed Media Monthly Challenge post
* Add a link to your direct post, not your entire blog, a YouTube Video or a Pinterest Board
* You can combine with up to 4 other challenges. 
* No Backlinking (linking a project completed before the start date of our challenge) allowed! Any back-linked entries will be deleted.
* You can enter up to 5 times, create whatever you want, and HAVE FUN!

You have until 11:55 pm EST on January 31st to enter!