Strathmore Artist Papers is offering three different classes over the next few months. The first one "Doodles Unleashed: Mixed Media Techniques" with Instructor Traci Bautista was held during the month of January. Thankfully the classes were a work at your own pace. Never having done anything like this before I was pleased with the results. I used some paper doilies, rubber bands, plastic canvas squares and circles, feathers, letter stencils and craft sticks for my stencils. Since I already had some fabric spray paints I used those on my background over the stencils. Then I pulled out the acrylic paints. I must have turned the large sheet of mixed media paper around several times trying to see what secrets it held before I actually applied the acrylics. Funny I noticed the flowers first. My husband would say that's because we have over 200 various flowering plants in our yard. I say they are one of my favorites things so why fight it.

Next came the butterfly. Seriously going into this who would think a single standard size rubber band along with one large one could be a butterfly. You know it's like when you look up at the clouds and try to make different shapes out of them and yes I still do this. The feathers well they stayed feathers. They may be yellow but when I see them I think of the robins that arrive in the spring, the yellow finches in the summer that eat my false sunflowers, and the geese heading south in late fall. Inside of the football shaped area in the bottom left corner I wrote all of the different types of crafts I enjoy doing and now I can add collages to that list. This really was a fun project. Spread out over 4 days, due to time restraints, I'm happy to say it is what it is and it makes me smile. After all isn't that what life is about.