Coastal Wall Decor Mixed Media

Summer is never over for me, at least in my heart. I'm winding down as school starts up by making this coastal themed wall canvas.

The theme for September's Mixed Media Monthly Challenge Blog is "Rustic".

Our sponsor this month is Canvas Corp.  Since my scrapbooking days, I have loved Canvas Corp's products. (Tattered Angels, 7Gypsies, etc).

In addition to scrapbook products, they have canvases, totes, fabrics, etc! They send me a generous supply of products that are just up my alley. One of them was a 12" x 24" burlap covered canvas and some heavy weight paper that looked like worn wood. I used some of the coastal themed patterned papers, glimmer mists and paints and created this fun coastal themed wall canvas.

I loved using the glimmer mist products. I "dyed" the "paradise" tag turquoise with it so it would coordinate with my color scheme. I even used it to "paint" the sides of the canvas. So much fun. I went through my stash of "summer 2016 seashells" and found some with natural holes in them and strung them up and attached them to my canvas twine. I glued another shell on one of the tags. So many endless possibilities!!

Want to play along and have a shot at winning a prize? 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 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 September 30th to enter!

Travel and Summer

Summer is a wonderful time for traveling. My favorite place to go is to the beach - any beach, but I love Florida's Emerald coast.

The Mixed Media Monthly Challenge Blog has embraced the travel theme for this month's challenge. I found this one quite easy to do. I went with a simple beach scene. Who wouldn't want to be there now?

I found the red reclaimed frame in a thrift store and just had to have it.

The sponsor for the Mixed Media Challenge Blog this month is Lindsay Weirich. She has a HUGE You Tube Channel. She is known as The Frugal Crafter. She is offering a free spot in her new online Craftsy Class called Mix It Up Mixed Media for our winner!  She is ALSO offering a half off code to her class to all our viewers. Here is the code for the discount

Be sure to enter the challenge for a chance at her prize.

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 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 August 31 st to enter!

Summer Theme for Mixed Media Monthly Challenge Blog

If you just stumbled on this blog post - this post is about mixed media art. Every month, I post a new mixed media project in conjunction with the Mixed Media Monthly Challenge Blog, and for those that participate - there are prizes involved via a random drawing.

So - the theme for this month's mixed media project is "Summer Days".

We're SO excited to announce our July sponsor and prize! Our sponsor is the awesome online store Butterfly Reflections Ink .  They are offering an amazing mixed media prize package for our lucky random winner.

Here's my creation. It's 12" x 12" on birch wood. It's mostly patterned papers, but I also used acrylic paint, Faber Castell Big Brush Pens (India ink), waterproof black pen (Millenium or Pitt) and even cardboard.

I started out by putting various patterned papers on wood with matte medium.

Next, I cut out my shapes (water, sun, tree, van) and played around to see where I wanted everything. I had a pencil sketch of my idea, and used it for reference. The most time consuming part is choosing the papers. I outlined most of the shapes with brush pens and black fine tip ink. I toned down the beach "sand" with tan paint so the patterned paper wasn't too distracting.

I love the summer and what better "dream" to have but a retro VW van and the beach.

In order to participate in this challenge - we have the following rules

1. You must use our challenge graphic in your challenge post. 
2. You must comment on at least 3 design team members blogs
3. You may combine with up to 4 more challenges

So, get busy creating and link your image up at the July Challenge post at the Mixed Media Monthly Challenge Blog. 

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!!

June Mixed Media Monthly Challenge

It's been one year since the Mixed Media Monthly Challenge Blog started. I'm honored to have been asked to stay on as one of the designers. It's so much fun to "play" with mixed media creations, and fun to inspire others.We are celebrating our one year "birthday" with guest designers and great prizes!

For the June 2015 challenge - we are letting you choose which technique to use. Choose from any of these:

Since it's summer, I'm in the beach frame of mind. Our sponsor this month is Maya Road. I fell in love with Maya Road years ago when I was heavily involved in the paper craft industry.

Maya Road was founded in order to offer unique scrapbook embellishments to scrapbookers, and since I transitioned in to mixed media, I find their products the perfect fit. I used wooden tokens, polka dot fabric tape and some twine. The technique I used was Number 5 - ribbon, twine and fibers.

I painted the wooden token with a light coat of acrylic paint (making sure not to coat the cute image in the token). It was a perfect center for the sun. I cut the fabric tape in to slender strips to make my fence, and used the twine for the fence wire. I went through my stash of words and letters for the quote, and found some rather older beach die cuts that were perfect for the surf boards. I outlined with a black Pitt pen with a fine nib.  The surface for this is a 5.5" wood board (1.5" deep). They are the perfect size for gifts and easy to work with.

Be sure to go to the Mixed Media Monthly Challenge blog to participate in this month's challenge and read up on all the rules to qualify. Some of the rules are:
1. You must use our challenge graphic in your challenge post. 
2. You must comment on at least 3 design team members blogs
3. You may combine with up to 4 more challenges

Link up your image to the link in the main blog.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great week!

The Summer of the Sun

Or sand....

I don't want this summer to end. I have been forever spoiled by beautiful beaches and magical sunsets. 

I visited the beaches of Fort Morgan, Alabama for a few days at the end of July. If you have never sat on the beach until the sun sets, please put it on your list. Golden glows on the waters is magical.

Back at home the next week, the August art crawl was so well attended that it was mind blowing. Sugar Gallery was out of food and beverages in the first 90 minutes.

The tv station even came out.

I can't believe that summer is almost over. As I write this, our students are in their first week of school. 

And in the studio, I'm still in the coastal mind. 

Sun and sand. 

Need to find a cure.

August Mixed Media Monthly Challenge!

August is the month of the "last hurrah's" for summer. (We don't even really want to think about the fact that many schools start mid-month. (bummer).

But the team at  Mixed Media Monthly Challenge have a fun challenge for our creative folks. This monthl our challenge is to use modeling paste (molding paste) along with stencils. How fun is that. Modeling paste (Golden Paints call their brand molding paste) is so fun to use. If you aren't familiar, it's a thick creamy substance that creates a textured ground for painting, collage or sculpture. It dried opaque white, stiff and hard. What's extra cool about it is that you can add your paint with it and make it any color you want!

In my challenge, I used a paper collage background and let it dry. I wasn't sure what I was going to do as far as the image, but I left for a week on the beach. When I came back, I was still in coastal living mode, that I added Bahama Blue to the modeling paste and randomly used some stencils.  I used a palette knife to spread it out. I don't cover every single inch with the paste while using the stencil. I like the mystery of unfound edges in my application.

 I let it dry for several days (It should dry in an hour or two). I worked on another painting because I wasn't sure what I wanted to do on this piece. After about a week or so, I had a friend that wanted a beach painting for her place on the beach, and I knew just the thing.

I painted this beach bungalow on it. You can still see the texture of the paste and the patterned papers peeking through. It's much more interesting in person. I had so much fun, I'm doing a few more.

So if you are new to the Mixed Media Monthly Challenge, here is what to do - and there is a chance to win a prize! Create something (card, layout, craft, art, etc) and include modeling paste and stencils in your creation. Post a link to the image on the Mixed Media Monthly Challenge August Post (there will be a place to upload your link), and follow all the directions on your post. A random drawing will select one winner and that person will win a gift certificate from our sponsor Eclectic Paperie! 

We can't wait to see what you create! Thanks for stopping by. You have all month to create and upload your image.

My Visit to Grayton Beach

I had the wonderful opportunity to spend a week in a huge beach house on Grayton Beach. Need I say more?

It was more than a "week at the beach". My daughter went with my friend's youth group, and I tagged along to cook the meals (well, most of them) for 13 youth.  I can't say anything but what an adventure to stay for 7 nights in a three-story house with these kids. We had a craft project for a children's shelter and on another day we went to a homeless mission to cook a meal and help in their clothing shop. The youth were amazing to get to know. They helped me in the kitchen, and we had many laughs over lots of silly things.  I cried when we walked the streets of Grayton singing Hillsong United's "Oceans", while their leaders prepared a special surprise for them at the house. It was a week like no other in both mine and my daughter's life, and got closer to one another over the week as well. God never disappoints. Here are some photos that need no words.

I entertained myself while on the beach by posting "celebrity" photos on my instagram. My friend were sad when my trip was over because they were getting a kick out of the, so I will be going on another trip soon, so if you like quirky stuff, follow me and see what this busy beach girl is up to this summer.

On the drive home, I had the idea to create a painting from the "Oceans" (Where Feet May Fail) song. Here is the painting, which I named "Take Me Deeper". It's mixed media. 

I am still painting more island / beach themed art. I''m currently taking commissions until August 15 for beach themed art (or any art, but right now my mind is on salt and sea). Thanks for stopping by!