best Photoshop/Elements mixed media tutorials ever

Tangie Baxter is a mixed media artist, both digital and paper. I've been a fan for several years, going to her studio in AZ last fall for a workshop that was a blast, taking online classes, buying digital goodies from her. A couple years ago I anted up for her full digital workshop and am sooo glad I did. I'd been using Photoshop and Elements for a few years and was doing ok on my own but would get terribly frustrated trying to figure out how to do cool mixed media effects by looking in books meant for photographers or other types of users.

I started at the first lesson and by the end of it had taken so many notes that I'd filled the class PDF I'd printed out and had to get more paper. I kept going, "So THAT'S how you do that!" It's really a great bunch of tutorials.

AND... they're now down to $75 for all 3 - Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced. You get 35+ videos, PDFs, elements to use in the demos, a $25 coupon to Tangie's studio etc, etc.

$75 is half price. I'm posting a plug for the class cause I know from experience that it's a great deal on excellent classes. Every digital collage I've posted in the last couple years was made using what I learned in these classes.

If you've had a hankering to learn from scratch, or get better at, Photoshop or Elements, go take a look at this great deal.

evolution of an art journal page

I like in-progress posts where I can see how an artist got from a blank sheet of paper to a finish art journal page, so thought I'd do one, because, for some reason or other, I took pics of this one along the way. The background is pale yellow with green smudgey marks from large bubble wrap.

My pages rarely have any meaning, deep or otherwise, and this one is no exception. I do not plumb the depths of my angst nor the heights of my joy when I do these. I simply cut out things that look cool or interest me for some reason, and try to make them into a whole. That said, this page is loosely inspired by an art journal page by Teesha Moore that has a winged figure on it.

Just cutting out likely elements and laying them on the page.
Her body is the upside down top to a large bottle of perfume from a magazine ad.

Rearranged them a bit, added a head piece. No gluing yet.

Changed out the left side scallops and added a building.

Changed out the wings, added 15 cents, and the square right edge.
Glued everything down at this point.

Looked bare at the top so found some more elements.

Added center circle to her head piece. Did a lot of pen work and it's done.
Somewhere along the way I stuck a piece of gluey newspaper
to it and made a mess on her face, head piece and square border. 

postcards

I haven't made a batch of postcards in a while, just for the heck of it, so last night I got a few done after dinner and as a mental bribe to myself before getting up and doing a couple days worth of dishes. Yes, I'm not proud of it but I don't do my dishes every day. My name is Leslie and I always have a sink full of dishes. Not that I truly mind washing dishes - there's just always something more fun to do instead. And for only two people, we generate a lot of dirty dishes.

Anyway, I digress.

These aren't assigned yet, so if one of them grabs you, speak up in the comments and I'll send it your way.

The background is two different deli gelli prints, flowers and words cut from magazines,
some pen work and a little shading with gel sticks.
This was a case of liking the background but being unable to decide what to do next.
I finally tried what I've read that some folks do and that is to just pick up the first thing that catches your eye and glue it down. That's how I ended up with red flowers and orange letters on a turq and lime background.
Not normally something I'd do but I like the finished product.

Background is a telephone book white pages, book text and deli gelli paper.
I've had the man cut out for a while just waiting for inspiration
and this particular background worked for him. Same with the words.
Found them while sifting thru my little box of words and phrases and they just fit.
Some pen work and shading.
Also stamped some circles with black paint and the top of my glue stick.

Background is book text. The stamp of the girl came on an envelope.
Words from my word box, a bit of deli gelli, pen work, shading, circles.
So pretty much the same recipe for all three of these
and yet they're all quite different, which is why mixed media is my fave art form!

oy... so behind

Cleaned up the studio a bit and found a pack of paper frames that I bought years ago and never used. No more of that, I'm going on a use-it-or-lose-it campaign, so I found a pic and made a post card. It's on the way to a mail art pal who shall remain nameless but will now recognize this card when it shows up in her mailbox.

The background was a fail from a painting experiment, if I remember correctly. Or might have been the newspaper I use as a table covering while I'm working. In any case, I added some more color with Distress Stain, used some Tangie grunge stamps, stamped some circles with the cardboard tube from something or other (I save pretty much every cardboard tube I come across cause they make such good stamps), did some doodling. Wa-la - art!

RR folio for Carroll

Same story as previous post, except Carroll's theme was Color. Well, what artist doesn't love that open-ended theme? I got out all the colorful mark making stuff I don't use much and went to town. This one wraps up this RR. Actually, it was really a swap but who's counting? I've sent all mine out but not received all 4 yet.

I did the front in black gesso, the added a variety of colorful shapes cut from various magazines. It's amazing how much color you can find when you just need a small piece. The flower was cut out for Laurie's but not used, and I couldn't resist adding it here, even tho it didn't fit my original plan of geometric shapes. I love the surprise of the organic shape amongst the more regular pieces. Did some pen work with white and black gel pens.

This is the center spread. I used Dyelusions spray inks and colored India and acrylic inks on it. The Dyelusions I sprayed thru several stencils, then dripped and blew other inks all over the place till it appeared balanced to me. Added "color your world" to it, plus the word "color" here and there.

I did the back last and almost had to scrap the entire folio because I was so unhappy with it. I started out with 3 water soluble sticks - Neocolor II, gelatos and oil pastels. I made marks here and there, then took water to it and made a real mess. Very bad words came out of my mouth. After it dried, I began to use only gelatos and my finger to rub them in and blend them. It began looking better and I quit when I was just barely no longer embarrassed by it. Still not thrilled, but it is colorful. I had very tender red finger pads the next morning, not quite blistered from all the rubbing. 

RR folio for Laurie

The same ladies who did the art journal round robin with me decided to do a swap where we each make one folio for everyone else. Then you can bind the folios into a book yourself, adding more or not as you like. Laurie's theme was flowers, a theme I love, so I didn't lack for inspiration.

This is the front, covered in a collage of green and aqua gelli printed deli papers. Then I stenciled over the top of it with black gesso thru a floral stencil. I'm in love with black gesso lately - it's so *black*. I've just been brushing it on and it leaves such a uniform surface - no streaks or uneven color. Then I did a lot of doodling on the black with gel pens. 

This is the center spread - as tall as the other two pictures and twice as wide. I put down the top layer of a floral paper napkin as my background, then added more flowers and butterflies from other napkins to fill in. Thought about adding a poem or quote but couldn't come up with anything I liked, so I just left it blank. Laurie can add to it if she likes.
(I had already done this spread once with magazine images and loved it but when I folded it closed the images wrinkled and lifted. I cut them down the center, thinking they'd lay flatter, but that was worse and had to rip them all off the page. Argh. So annoyed that I forgot to take a pic.)

The back cover has an acrylic paint background with a collage of images and text from two old garden books. I love pansies and was able to find enough things to make a nice layout. Did a bit of dot work with a black gel pen. 

RR folio for Peggy

Four of us are doing a round robin (RR) where we make one another one folio on whatever theme we've each chosen. Peggy's theme was Nature, which is wide open to all sorts of interpretations. It took me a while to get going on this but I just left it out on my art table and it came about over a week or so.

Front page - used a bunch of stamps (thanks, Rhonda!) that featured animals, insects or flowers, all elements of the natural world. It's amazing how many sizes postage stamps come in. Took me a while to lay them all out so that there weren't any big gaps. Doodled a bit and added a couple words.

This is the center spread. It looks smaller here but it's as tall as the other two pics and twice as wide. It's the top layer of a paper napkin that I got at the dollar store. They had a bunch of cool paper napkins the other day and I came home with 7 or 8 packs. Spent a fiddly hour taking apart all the layers of two each of the designs so I'd have some to work with and not have to stop each time I needed one. The quote is Ralph Waldo Emerson and I thought it was perfect for this. 

And this is the back. I was very pleased with this one. I knew I wanted to incorporate Mother Nature somehow and when I came across this model in her flowery dress in a Vogue or something, I knew I'd found her. I gave her a headband of flowers, cut various elements from a couple National Geos and glued it all down. Did a lot of gel pen work to liven things up. The background is acrylic and the shading was done with gelatos. 

from Linda G

Somewhere along the mail art trail I crossed paths with Linda Gibbons and we've been very informally swapping postcards back and forth for a while now. These are two recent ones from her. Thanks, Linda and I'm sure I owe you one now so it'll be going out this week!

The three images are packing tape transfers over a painted background. I love transfers cause the transparency of them allows the background to lend its own color and texture to the transferred image. I really like the minimalist black of the drawings made all the more insubstantial by being transfers.

Another neat painted background with a collaged image in the same colors. I like how the woman is easily visible but very much in tune with the paint scheme. Both cards have stitching which adds to their appeal. 

MMSA file folder swap

This was a fun one. You decorate a regular old manila file folder front and back, put some fun stuff inside, seal it shut somehow (I sewed mine), and send it off to Karen in an envelope. She's going to mail them back out. Luckily I have a wide mailbox so it'll fit no problem.

I started with a blue folder and a green one that I liberated from work. Collaged them with book text and various other old papers, then stenciled, collaged and doodled until I was happy with them. The stenciled sides are the reverse of each other cause I took my inky stencil and used it backwards on the other folder to use up the ink. Waste not, want not. Took me decades to understand what that meant. All those old expressions mystified me until I had enough life experience for them to make sense.

This is the one with the backward stencils. Used Dyelusions spray inks in blue, turq and purple.
Doodled a lot with a Scarlet Lime pen. Best pens in the world.
The solid black circles are a Bingo marker from the dollar store.

Other side of the one above. The stamp head person was a transfer failure that I couldn't bring myself to pitch, and thank goodness cause it fits the grungy feel of this project perfectly.
Gesso, gellied deli paper bits, silly bird stamp, doodles.

The original stenciled side. Bought all 3 of those in Niles last time I spent a day playing at Maria's studio.

And the back of the one just above.
Flower collaged from gelli print papers, gesso, misc bits stuck down here and there, doodles.

from Beth

My mail art pal, Beth, sent me a couple cool pieces for Christmas. I scanned them back then but never got around to posting them. They're too cool to miss so here they are, a day late and a dollar short, but marvelous nonetheless.

This is a large postcard, 5x7 or so and I love it.
The limited color range, the various collage elements,
the abc tapes, the weathered wood, the boots.
It's collage done well ad I really like it.
It's going on the wall as soon as I dig out a frame for it.

This piece is the same size but done on (I'm not sure what).
It's like a clear plastic box lid, cause there are four side
edges that you can't see. I like the muted colors,
the elements, all those curves and circles with the
hard lines of the arrow. Very cool piece and
it's already on the wall above my computer desk
where I see it every day. Thanks, Beth!

incoming postcards

I got a few great cards in the last week or so. Thanks, ladies!

From Linda G - stamped and painted background , a couple images,
some stitching,some doodles.
 Love the monochromatic feel to this one.
I tried to imagine walking around in a hat like that...

From Rosalie A - this one pushes all my buttons -
 flowers, birds, pink and green.
 Love the music behind the flowers, which I think are a paper napkin.
And she used a dimensional gel pen here and there
so it has some texture that you can't see in the pic. Cool.

From Trula R - a graphic card in lovely jewel tones.
Looks like paint over book text, a look I love, plus some accent stitching.
The circular shapes in the paint with the jagged color changes and stitching
are a good contrast. The colors glow.

MMAJRR update!

Mixed Media Art Journal Round Robin. I'm behind posting pics for this, but I just got done with the last one and will mail it home to Terrie on Tuesday. Meanwhile, here are the various spreads I've done since the last post about this. Hmmm... I know I've posted spreads but must not have tagged them correctly. Ah, found them.  Unfortunately I didn't keep track of which ones are whose so just enjoy them. Left side of spread is first, then the right.

Vintage papers collage, gesso, a circular rainbow of stamps,
gel stick edges, a couple quotes.

 

Scraped paint background, original images from
1924 ladies magazines, a bit of a story.
Sure wish I had some La-Mar Reducing Soap
so I could just wash my fat away...

Painted background, magazines images, doodles.

Painted background, magazine images, doodles.

Vintage paper collage background, various inks,
modeling paste scraped thru stencils,
gel sticks, stamped circles, printed quote.

Watercolor background, gel sticks, vintage postcard flap with
washi tape, magazine image, doodles,
hand carved 'home' stamp.

Underneath the postcard flap, another quote and
the original writing on the postcard.

ATCs from AJC swap

Susan, Katrina, Kris, Carolyn 

Here are the returns from the AJC ATC swap.

Every time I receive a large-ish batch of a given media - ATCs, postcards, whatever - I'm struck by how individual we each are as artists. The only "rule" for this swap was that the ATCs be mixed media, at least 3 techniques used. Consequently, there's everything under the sun on these cards - collage, paint, gelli printing, stamping, stenciling, drawing, lettering, stickies, stitching, embossing, glitter. You name it, it's on these somewhere. They're great! Thanks to everyone who participated, these were really fun to receive.

Artists are noted below each image, clockwise from upper left.

Sandi, Tangie, Jo, Rain

Debbie (pirate), Linda, Carol

good incoming mail

Very cool Day of the Dead card from the MMSA swap, made by Rose in OK.
Love the colors and the little dancing skeleton. 

My art friend Rhonda came over a while back and we worked on DOD cards for the swap.
She only got one done and wouldn't you know, it was one of the 3 I received!
Obviously I was meant to have this card.
I actually never saw it completely finished so it was fun to get it.

The third DOD card, this one made by Ellen in VA.
Neat colors and I like that the skull is so subtle.
And the quote is nice.

A fun card from Linda in MA, not for any swap, just for fun.
I'll send her back something good this week.