Often imitated, never duplicated                     Mixed Media - artwork using more than one medium.

Friday, July 25, 2014

You Still Have Time to Play in our July "Around the House" Challenge

First of all, we would like to thank everyone for your support for our new challenge. Our gallery is filled with beautiful and inspiring mixed media creations. 

We just want to remind you that you have until midnight EST on July 31st to link up to our challenge- Around the House.



Our TWO random winners will receive a fabulous mixed media prize package from our sponsor DCWV. Our design team will also choose a winner and honorable mentions who will be able to proudly display our badge on their blogs. Winners will be announced on August 5.

Our new challenge will start Friday, August 1 and run through the month of August so be sure to check back next Friday for our new theme, sponsor, and guest designer!!

Also, did you know that we are on social media?? Here are all the places you can follow us for mixed media inspiration, techniques and challenge reminders. And, be sure to follow our blog!!

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/mixedmediamc
Twitter - https://twitter.com/mixedmediamc
YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbaaS2uV_xR-MR98X0N1upA
Instagram - mixedmediamc

We look forward to seeing your amazing "around the house" creations and having you join us for our third challenge starting August 1!

Saturday, July 5, 2014

June Winners!!!

It's finally time to announce the winners from our first challenge! Yay!! First of all, let me say that it was incredibly hard to pick only a handful of projects from all the amazing entries that we had. Our design team was literally blown away by the all the creativity and talent that we saw in our June Gallery. You guys are so inspiring to us and I know you are to each other also. I hope that you have taken the time to look through our June gallery, you won't be disappointed - I guarantee it.

So, without further ado, the winner of our first ever Mixed Media Monthly Challenge is Marianne with this stunning layout! (Marianne please grab your winners badge!)




Our Honorable Mentions are listed below (in no particular order). Please pick up your badges for your blogs:





And, finally, our random winner who will win the $25 gift certificate from Inspiration Emporium is Ellie. Please e-mail us at mixedmediamonthly@gmail.com for your gift certificate information.



Congratulations to ALL our winners. We hope you will all join us for  our July challenge where we will have a TWO random winners!!!

Tuesday, July 1, 2014

Mixed Media Monthly Challenge #2 - Around the House

Welcome to the second Mixed Media Monthly Challenge - Around the House!


Hello! This is Rachel, and I'll be your host this month! For the month of July, I am challenging you to look at your household items in a different way. Use string, paper towels, cheese cloth, or tin foil to create texture. Try 'stamping' with paper rolls, cardboard, or bubble wrap. I was browsing my utensil drawer and thought that cheese grater could make an interesting stencil! Just think outside the basic supplies and look at things in a new light! And of course HAVE FUN and use your imagination!


Our generous sponsor this month is Die Cuts With a View. This fabulous paper company has started making amazing textured papers like corrugate, burlap, canvas, even chalkboard and white board stacks! DCWV also has a great collection of stencils that any mixed media artist would want in their collection. They have supplied this unbelievable prize package for TWO random lucky winners! Package includes 1 12x12 paper pad, 4 textured 6x6 paper pads, and 12 stencils!



Now to get to the gorgeous Around the House projects! I created my tall canvas using a beautiful piece of 'junk mail' as the centerpiece...


Here is a collage of my step-by-step process, including how I used some around the house items...


#1 Shows the beautiful images I tore out of the most recent Yale Medicine Journal. #2 I adhered crinkled pieces of tin foil to my canvas. #3 Pick out some bright matching paint colors! #4 I also adhered strips of DCWV burlap paper and then painted. #5 The cut image was decoupaged onto the canvas. #6 and #7 I stamped over the image with paper tubes and bubble wrap. #8 I rolled kitchen string in decoupage and paint and wrapped it throughout the canvas.


I'll have a lot more up close photos posted on my personal blog post, but I really wanted to share this one here. The tin foil is such a great item to add. Even when it's covered in paint, the shimmer from the foil still peeks through.

Guest Designer - Jenn Shurkus


Jenn lives in New England, with her kitty Mister Harley and her boyfriend Chris. She's been papercrafting for 15 years, and has played multiple roles in the paper craft industry as an independent store manager, designer and teacher. With a degree in graphic design she is also Copic and Ranger certified. She is part of the Lawnscaping Challenge Design Team. Jenn loves to show people new and clever ideas to design their cards and projects. She has a flair for the "artsy-fartsy" without going over the top. She designs her projects in the way to inspire, but not intimidate. Jenn is eager to share her creative passions with others and encourage their artistic growth. She currently is teaching classes with Lawn Fawn, Hero Arts, Ranger and more. You can read more about her, and her handsome kitty Mister Harley and wicked cute boyfriend Chris on her blog {creative chick} http://www.shurkus.com/ . You can also follow her creative adventures on instagram and facebook.


I was lucky enough to be with Jenn while she created this stunning art journal page for our Around the House challenge. Make sure to visit her blog for more amazing tips and tricks about her process, plus a bonus Around the House page she created for us!



Now more inspiration from our amazing Design Team!

Donna 
Carved a wine cork for a stamp, cut a wine cork for flower centers, used plastic bottle top for circle stamp, added Dixie Cups to background

Lynn
used bottle caps and silicone pot holder as stamps; cardboard as a stencil

Used bottle caps, string, and even a pizza cutter

used bubble wrap, paper towel, old gift card, and CD case as applicator tools; bottle caps as stamps

used masking tape, dry wall mesh, and pieces of wood

We don't have many rules, but ask that you do follow the ones we have! 
* Mention in your post how you used Around the House items
* Your post must link back to the Mixed Media Monthly Challenge post
* Add a link to your direct post, not your entire blog
* You can enter up to 5 times, create whatever you want, and HAVE FUN!