Mastering Mixed Media Challenge 2026 Classes-Part 2

 As I said before, I only chose six of the 38+ free classes in this challenge, so these are the last three I completed. All were challenging, but fun, and though they may not be exactly like I wanted them to turn out, I learned a lot and gained in confidence. The first two are in my 7 x 10" Winsor Newton 135 lb mixed media sketchbook. The dog was painted on a sheet of drawing paper, then glued to a page in the same book. The paper is relatively smooth. I do these classes as small samples to learn from in my sketchbook. I can't wait to try these with my own ideas on different paper, canvas, or board!

Kitty was inspired by a class with Nadyia Duff, called "Stick, Stack, Create", and involved sketching and painting the cat (I used her reference) onto one piece of paper, and while it was drying, cutting out tree shapes, and ground shapes, then gluing them to a separate paper for the background. It also involved sketching a house in ink onto the background, leaving it unpainted, then filling in the rest with whimsical foliage in different markers, Posca pens,  pencils, etc. I also used a bit of stenciling. The cat was glued onto the background, and I added a few more marks and things, such as the gull on his head. The house is actually my gr-grandparents old home place, which I have lived on my whole life, although in a different house. I'm not used to coloring with markers, so Kitty was a challenge, but I'm ok with it! It was a good experience and something different...

This mini double spread was inspired by Tiffany Goff Smith in her class, "The Layered Playground". I turned my sketchbook sideways and folded it in the middle to get the double page effect, and I pretty much followed her ideas for layering. I used a copied page from my Senior school annual, which happened to be my cousin's class that year, for the school pictures, a copied sample of one of my best friend's handwriting torn and glued/stapled down in a couple of places, the fabric from one of my old jackets, and a piece of silk ribbon. The ribbon and ruffle are hand stitched, then I used hot pink staples to staple them to a piece of denim from one of my shirts and the page. The pictures and handwriting are also stapled together (above). The layers are made up of a variety of ephemera and mark making with different media.

The same pages with the fabric flap lifted up on the right. Another great learning experience! I loved it! I have been following this teacher for a long time on Instagram as Southern Gals Design, but didn't know her name, until I took this class. I'm so glad I did it!

The last one is from Tamara Laporte's class, "Let's Play!", and I used her reference to sketch the dog face. It's also done in layers of watercolor, acrylic, markers, etc. Also a challenge, and I didn't quite get the perspective right for the nose to be the focal point. I also didn't get enough pinkish colors on it, and what I did get isn't showing up in the photo, but I'm proud of myself for trying, and I learned some things that might be helpful about finishing the oil portrait of my little dog that I started years ago and didn't know how to finish. We'll see!

As usual with these classes I learned and experienced a lot, both with the teachers and the other students. It's also a lot of fun to learn to be able to just let go and do what I do!

I was planning to not do any more classes right now, except the ones I bought and have waiting from a couple of years ago, but another batch of free lessons (with the option to buy and keep forever) has presented itself for nine days in July, and I couldn't resist signing up, mainly because Toni Burt is one of the teachers. I have taken a few classes with her in these sessions and love her work. These sessions are called "Make, Create, Express 2026-Art is Magic Online", also with 35+ classes/teachers. 

So, I have a month to create what I want on my own! I've already done a collage piece and I have a page where I cleaned off my acrylic paint palette, on which at least three horse heads have appeared. Going to see what I can do with that! Fun stuff! Never mind that the house has been let go until it's a disaster! 

Take care! Thank you for visiting! 

Mastering Mixed Media Challenge 2026 Classes-Part 1

 I took some of the classes offered in the Mastering Mixed Media 2026 free sessions with Tamara Laporte the first couple of weeks in May. There were a ton to choose from, and I opted not to buy the VIP package to keep them all from now on, so I watched the videos and took notes for the ones I was really interested in. I know I could have learned a lot from all the awesome teachers, but didn't have time for all of them, so I concentrated on a handful, some of which I've done twice!

I was originally going to save all the chosen ones and share them in one post, but I decided to go ahead and share what I have finished, so far. These are the first three, and I'm working on the other three.

I love Toni Burt's work, so hers is the first class I took. The class was called "Wing It" and consisted of collage, loose sketching, and mark making. I used some of my gelli plate prints and some magazine prints for the collage, and I used her technique for the face sketch in pencil.

I enjoyed doing the class with Toni so much that I did another one. This time I used one of my gelli plate prints, a print of a decorated face that I had sketched in another class, and I finger painted some black acrylic paint on my mini gelli plate and stamped it on, then I sketched a frame with sumi ink on a stick. I love her! I call it "Poker Face".

The second class I did was Brooke Henry's class on an "Intuitive Art Journal". It's an accordion folded journal, but the sections are stitched together instead of glued. I wanted to learn the stitch, but I wasn't planning on doing a larger one right away, so I made a mini blank journal to get the hang of it. The stitch was tricky, because it's made for the pages to lay flat, but after a few tries I got it. Above open, below closed.

After a few days I tackled the larger journal...

I started with two large sheets of printmaking paper (because that's what I had on hand, and it had been here for ages) and started making layers on both sides. Here's what it looked like after layers of sumi ink, watercolor, bubble wrap dots, and mini gelli plate printing.

Once it had about thirteen layers of different media on both sides, I cut both papers in two lengthwise, then folded the four strips into accordion folds, and stitched to ends together. This stitch is kind of like a blanket stitch with a twist, and it hinges the ends together, but still lets them open up and lay flat. It's also supposed to be a bit grungy. Below is what it looks like now.  7 1/2" x 4 1/2"

I wound up with three journals. I am going to add writing to the pages of the larger one at some point. I'm also going to decorate the pages of the mini one, and the one with the flap is from the leftover strip I cut off of the very large sheet of paper I started with, also to be decorated later. 

I may have  overdone it a bit with the mixed media layers, but it was a lot of fun, and I'm proud of myself for making it. I love it!

The third class was with Jenny Grant and "Layers of Play", and it was on layers of transparency, which was very challenging for me, and which I didn't accomplish.

The first layers, which I messed up on right away, because I left out a stenciling layer, which was supposed to come before the colored collage bits, but I kept on with it.

I got the ink and paint layers too thick (nothing was showing through from the other layers), so I used some citrasolve to take some of the paint back off so some of the other layers showed through. Not enough, but some, plus it gave me a lot of texture.

I kept tinkering with it and added a bit of gold stenciling on top, which is not showing up much in the photo, but I'm calling it done. Nothing like the teacher's, but I like it!

I decided to try the Jenny Grant class again. These are the first layers, and this time I used a much thinner white paint layer over those. Then I collaged the colored bits over this, but I messed up again and reversed two of the layers, but I kept on. I used different colors of acrylic inks this time in much thinner layers and let it completely dry before adding another much thinner layer of white paint (below).

I did much better on the layers underneath showing through, but still not enough. 

I took a bit of paint back off on this one, but not much, and tinkered with it until I liked it. My sponge was a bit too wet on the gold stenciling, and it's still not really transparent, but I'm ok with it. It's a learning experience, and I'm thinking about trying another one...

For now, I'm working on a project that includes sketching, collage, and a mixed media cat cutout. It's challenging and different. I have two more waiting in this session of classes.

During my creative play, life goes on. We had our last eye exams with the eye Dr. that I've been seeing for fifty-eight years Friday. He's seventy-nine, and we're happy for him, but we're going to miss him. So now, I'm not only looking for a new dentist, but also a new eye Dr., plus my P.A. found that I'm anemic and wants me to go for more tests. It is sad how much time us old people have to spend sitting in doctors' offices and dealing with doctors, bills, and meds, but it is what it is, I guess.

Anyway, I hope you're all enjoying a safe and happy holiday weekend! Don't forget to squeeze in some creative time!

Prickly Pear Blooms

 My husband has been very busy cleaning up yard damage from the last storm that came through, and a few days ago when he hauled off a load of branches, limbs, etc. down in the field, the prickly pears were blooming, so he brought me back three blooms and set them in a bowl of water for me. They are so gorgeous! Unfortunately the blooms were dead the next morning. Nothing left but the pears full of stickers...

The Last Few Days Art Melange'

 I'm a bit behind on my posting, but these are some "just for fun" pieces that I did before, and during the beginning, of doing the Mastering Mixed Media Challenge with Tamara Laporte during the first two weeks of May. Class photos of work and more about that in a later post. 

All but the girls' faces at the end are in my Winsor Newton 7"x10" 135 lb mixed media sketchbook. The girls are on some random drawing and mixed media papers.

I saw a gorgeous OLD oak tree on a television show that had branches similar to these, and I remarked to hubby how we would have loved to have had one of those in the yard when we were growing up, to climb and play among the branches. The next day I took a brush with sumi ink and tried to re-create it from memory. I liked it in black and white, but decided to add a watercolor background, which I should have done first. Anyway, it was way too bright, so I tried to tone it down by taking some off and adding colored pencils. I also took some of the ink off of the tree to make it more three dimensional, and added more colored pencil marks to it. I should have planned it out better before I started, but it's more fun to just go for it! I'm ok with it...

This abstract is very loosely based on a couple of classes in the Mastering Mixed Media Challenge classes. I collaged three or four pieces from some of my gelli plate prints onto the page, painted some black acrylic paint onto my mini gelli plate and stamped it onto the page randomly, then scribbled on it with a stick and sumi ink (because I couldn't find my India ink). The center stamp reminds me of an old dark barn stable, and I'm just now noticing an eye in the bottom corner one...

This is the second one I did inspired by Toni Burt's class in the MMM classes, only instead of a face drawing in her style, I used one of mine from a Sketchbook Revival class before, and added pieces of paper torn from my gelli plate prints and more stamping with black acrylic paint on my mini gelli plate. I finished it off with a stick and sumi ink frame. I call her "Poker Face". I love her!

Experiments with watercolors, regular and sea salt on damp paper...

More experimenting with watercolor and salt...

Another experiment with sumi ink, watercolor, and regular and sea salts...

I really had fun with this one! I printed out some of my old squiggle girl, and cat, sketches to use in this mixed media page. I started off with a paper that I had cleaned my brushes off on, added some newspaper that I had printed off my photo of trees with a bird nest, a piece of tracing paper, another piece of newsprint, the tag from a teabag, some extensions of branches with my Zig marker, sumi ink, and Micron pens, a bit of colored pencil, and probably something else that I've forgotten...

These are just faces that I practiced in Toni Burt's style, from her class in MMM challenge, on random sheets of scrap paper. I used a Stabilo pencil with a bit of water on the top two and a regular pencil on the bottom three. They might show up in some later projects! My class project is coming up in a later post.

I'm only doing a handful of the many classes in the MMM challenge, and I've done two of the projects twice now, but I have about four other projects, that I've watched the videos and took notes on, to do, so I'm saving them to share in one post later. It may be a few days!

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed looking at my art trials. Thank you for visiting, and I hope to see you in the next post! Keep making things. It's good for you!

April 27, 2026 Storm

 So, almost two weeks ago Monday and Tuesday started off with a bang. It began with bad storms moving through everywhere around us Monday night. It was storming when we went to bed, but we didn't think it was that bad, and the weather channel wasn't saying anything about tornado sightings nearby or anything. Not long after we went to sleep, we were awakened by really hard wind, rain, and hail hitting all sides of the house and windows. We jumped up and got dressed and went to our living room, but the worst was over in a few minutes, so we went back to bed.

When we got up the next morning, Tuesday, and looked out, we were in awe, and so grateful, that we, and our house, had been spared! Several trees were down across our driveway, big limbs were strewn all over the yard, leaves and twigs were plastered all over the sides of the house, the phone line was on the ground, and the highest window upstairs had been partially sucked out and was laying on the ground. Other stuff was also blown around out of place, and there will be a few days work of cutting and cleaning up, but that's all minor. God kept us and our home safe again! 

The trees across our driveway are in front of my dad's shop building, and there's one down by my parents' house. There is also a large tree down across the road going out to the farm and a bunch down by the gate opening onto the road. We haven't been out to the homeplace to check the damage. By the way the trees are twisted in two and branches torn out of the top, we are pretty sure a tornado passed over us. The telephone repair man agreed with us!

The day was spent surveying what we needed to do, hubby making a trip out of town for a piece of plywood to block the broken window before the next round of storms, fixing it after multiple trips up and down the stairs and a ladder, a lot of measuring, and me trying to hold the plywood while he sawed into it, plus the phone repair man showed up to put our telephone line back up.

We have next to no cell phone service at our house, so it took me five trys to get hold of the phone company and for the signal to hold long enough for me to tell them the problem. We were without a landline phone and internet all day, but had electricity until late evening when it went out for a couple of hours during more storms. The pictures don't really show the damage, and I don't have any of the trees down behind our house, out toward the old home place, but they are many.

Hubby's cousin picked him up to go with him to get a new weed eater out of town, because we live near a small town, we have to go out of town to the next town to get anything, and saw the damage. He showed up with his chainsaw the next morning and helped hubby cut multiple trees off of our driveway down to the main road. Very grateful he did!

So, hubby has gotten a lot of the trees, branches, etc. cut up and hauled off down in the field, despite everything else going on, but there's still a lot to be cleared, and he refuses to ask for help. I can't help, and I feel so bad, because he's not in good shape either. Just praying that he doesn't get hurt and takes it a little at a time With the Lord's help it'll get done, at least what has to be done so he can mow.

Bless his heart, he had just gotten the debris from the ice storm in February cleared up. Our driveway has taken a beating the last couple of months! But we're so thankful that our house and us were kept safe and sound. It could have been so much worse...

Anyway, that's some of what has been going on around here. I finished the free Sketchbook Revival 2026 classes that I was interested in by the time it ended, then a few days later I stumbled upon Tamara Laporte's taster sessions with thirty-eight plus classes, all free for fourteen days. So far, I've only taken three of those though, and I'm not going to buy the VIP package. I know I could learn a lot more from all the wonderful generous teachers, but I desperately need to do some house cleaning if I can, along with my daily art practice and PT exercises.

I know this was a long post, so I'll stop now and see ya in the next one! Stay safe out there!