Meet Our First Design Team Member - Donna Bowman

Hi there!! I'm middle school teacher in Irmo, SC. I teach Computer Applications and I really love to teach to Photoshop and Web Page Design. I live with my two geriatric dogs Daisy, a 15 year old Border Collie Mix and Dusty, a spry 14 year old Pembroke Welsh Corgi. I've recently moved into a new home that I was lucky enough to help design. Building the house meant that I was not as active in the crafty blog world as I had been for the previous three years. But, now that I'm all settled in, I'm loving my amazing new craft room and enjoying getting back into being crafty on a regular basis.

When I started my blog I was mainly making cards. And I really love to make cards. But, I really love all things crafty. In the last two years, I've taken an interest in working with different products and mediums and currently my new passion is for mixed media. I love watching mixed media tutorials and experimenting with so many fun products and techniques. You can check out my blog at www.donnascraftyplace.com

I love how Tim Holtz always says to "Embrace Your Imperfections." I think that is precisely why I like mixed media. You can do almost anything you like on your canvas, altered item, or any projects and nothing is wrong. If something happens you don't love you can embrace it or just put another product on top of it. I find making mixed media projects to be freeing and fun. They frequently take me days and some even weeks to finish. I love adding lots of layers at my own pace. I may not know what to do with it the first day, but if I leave it alone for a few days or weeks I always come up with something I want to try or experiment with.

My crafty BFF Rachel Kleinman of www.rwkrafts.com and I have been talking about starting a challenge blog for the past six months but we weren't sure how to do something different that our crafty friends and community would like to participate in. Then, one day I was watching a mixed media video by the amazingly talented Limor Webber on You Tube when I was working out at the gym early and the idea for the Mixed Media Monthly Challenge just came to me. I texted Rachel right then and for some reason she was awake and we had a long texting session about my idea while I was on the AMT machine and that's how this challenge was born. We know what we like in a challenge and we have tried to incorporate these things into the Mixed Media Monthly Challenge.

We have worked so hard to find a super creative and talented Design Team whose projects will inspire our participants to try new things and branch out of their regular crafty comfort zone. We've also worked hard to find the best companies in the craft world to sponsor our blog each month and offer prizes that we are sure any of our players would love to win. We're having random prize winners so all participants are eligible for our amazing prizes. But, we'll still pick winners and honorable mentions based on our design team picks. Every month a different design team member will "host" the challenge and choose the "theme." And, most months, we will have an amazingly talented Guest Designer who will also bring their own mixed media point of view to our challenge.

We want to inspire you to create. We want you to think outside your normal box and try new things. We want you to encourage each other whether you are a beginner or seasoned crafty veteran. We want you to embrace your imperfections and feel free to create without boundaries. And, most of all, we want you to have fun.

I can't wait to share our first challenge with you on June 1. I'll be hosting and we have a sensational guest designer and super prize sponsor. And, ALL the participants in the first month will get a little "gift" from our generous sponsor.

Be sure to follow this blog, add our badge to your blog and follow any of our social media sites that you are active in. And, share our challenge with your crafty friends. We appreciate the amazing response we have gotten in the few days since our initial announcement. It makes us even more excited to get started in June. We welcome you and hope you will join us in our exciting new adventure.