Meet Our Final Design Team Member - Melanie Douthit

This week we are introducing our 6th and final Design Team Member Melanie Douthit!! Her Web site is http://douthitgallery.blogspot.com Be sure to go visit her site and check out some of her gorgeous and inspiring creations.

Hello. I’m Melanie and I’m happy to be a part of The Mixed Media Monthly Challenge. I have been an artist (the kind with paint and brushes) since my teens, but I started scrapbooking in 2003 after I had my daughter. I fell in love with combining my photos with paper creations, and cardmaking. It was only natural to start combining my new love for paper with my painting, so I have been exploring the world of mixed media for the last few years. I love color, texture and the unexpected! I live in West Monroe, Louisiana with my husband, two children and my silly dachshund. I belong to two local art galleries and am active in our local arts alliance where we have art walks six times a year.

Please leave some love in the comments to welcome Melanie! She is an amazing professional artist and her creations are always inspiring!

Be sure to come back here tomorrow, June 1 to check out our first challenge!!!!

Meet Our Next Design Team Member - Lynn Kopas

This week we are introducing our 5th Design Team Member Lynn Kopas!! Her Web site is http://lynnkopas.blogspot.com Be sure to go visit her site and check out some of her amazing creations.

Hi I’m Lynn Kopas and I live in southern Massachusetts. I have been crafting since 2006. It started with a simple scrapbook album to celebrate my parent’s 50th wedding anniversary and I haven’t looked back since. Recently I discovered Mixed Media and I am in LOVE! I enjoy learning about amazing mixed media products and how they work, or don’t work together! I love finding ordinary objects and incorporating them onto a canvas, tag or art journal page. I have taught several mixed media classes and have met 

some wonderful people who share this passion. My style is still evolving but I lean towards shabby, distressed, textured and vintage. I am beyond excited to be a part of the Mixed Media Monthly Challenge Team and I hope we can inspire you to get creative mixed media style! 

Please leave some love in the comments to welcome Lynn! She is an amazing artist and her creations are always inspiring!

Be sure to join us back her next Saturday, May 31 when we will introduce our 6th and final Design Team Member. And, then check back on June 1 when we will start our first challenge!!!!

Meet Our New Design Team Members - Lalo and Lynn

We have two awesome designers to introduce this week. First up is Lalo Ik from http://naniwale.blogspot.com/

Hi world! My name is Lalo and I live in Hawaii with my husband and our three awesome boys and one pretty punky princess. If I had to describe my crafting style I would say I'm "clear with a lil' bit of funk". I try to put a twist into any project I do, but still like to keep it clear and focused. I'm a maker of everything and anything. From cards and layouts, to DIYs and 3D projects. I love mix media because of the freedom you have when creating. There's no rules or criteria, just creativity.

Our next designer is Lynn Adams from http://artsylynn.blogspot.com/

Hi, I’m Lynn, and I am addicted to all things crafty and messy. I have been scrapbooking for several years now, but my style had really evolved over time. I started out with a more traditional style, but soon discovered mixed media and fell in love.  I love that if I make a mistake, I can always add a layer of gesso over top and start over.  I mostly do art journaling and altered canvases, but I am always willing to try something new and I absolutely love getting inspiration from others. Besides my creative endeavors, I also enjoy spending time with my husband, and my two black cats. We are big nerds and love all things fantasy and board gaming!

Please leave some love in the comments to welcome Lalo and Lynn! They have so much talent in their little fingers. I am always in awe by what they can create! 

Meet Our Second Design Team Member - Rachel Kleinman

Hello! My name is Rachel Kleinman from www.rwkrafts.com. I am a wife and fur baby mommy to two dogs and one guinea pig, living in the lovely state of Connecticut. My first crafting love was scrapbooking which merged into card making and now I love playing in my art journals and painting canvases. Mixed Media is such a great way to try new techniques and styles without worrying about a perfect end result. There is no right or wrong with mixed media, and it is perfectly imperfect!

I am thrilled to see this challenge blog finally come to life. Donna and I have been brainstorming about this for so many months and now it's here! I became hooked on art journaling a couple years ago, when I was addicted to watching videos from Donna Downey and Christy Tomlinson. I was fortunate enough to take a class with Donna Downey at my local scrapbook store, and I knew at that point there was no turning back! My art journal love was here to stay.

Don't miss out on our big Unity Stamp giveaway here! Thanks for joining us!

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.