Neat Stuff E Course

My Journal cover

I have had such a good time for the past five weeks

taking the  Neat Stuff E-Course with

Mindy Lacefield.

Every day for five weeks there was a wonderful email surprise

in my inbox with incredible lessons, videos, 
downloads and techniques from Mindy.

She truly out did herself with this course.
I received so much to feed my inner girlie
I can't even express how much.

I just wanted to share some of the fun things we learned

in hopes that if she offers this class again

YOU WON'T MISS IT!

We created a hand sewn journal

with hot pressed watercolor paper
(something I had always wanted to learn)
painted the inside with bright acrylic colors
and we were ready to begin
our Neat Stuff adventure

We had a private Facebook Group 
where we could connect with each other
as classmates
and share all that we were creating
We learn and grow by the sharing of our work
and the comments given to one another.
Creative community was formed.

There were:
 Writing prompts on Day One

Sketching on Day Two

Painting on Day Three

Pasting on Day Four

Words on Day Five

I learned so many wonderful journaling techniques.
Mindy taught us that our sketches and our own writing
will have a beautiful parallel in our own artwork,
she is so right.

I learned to just let go and have fun!
That message keeps surfacing
wherever I am in my creative life.
Sometimes I feel as an adult artist
I put too much expectations on my work,
is it good enough, how does it compare?
I am learning to create
what pleases me now.
So I am showing you here and sharing
 a few photos of my own fun work
from Mindy's course:

I used acrylic paints, pastels, india ink, epherema,

new brush styles, stamps, washi tape, sharpie paint pens

you name it we created with it all

The last three days of lessons were filled with

inspirational things.

I learned to create my very own stamps with

a burner and some foam

we collaged and used mixed media

to create a bird

(way awesome bird I must say)
that had to be my most favorite exercise!

What a treasure I have in this journal that I will

cherish for a very long time.
Mindy even created this course Zine
that I can refer to over and over again
I can't tell you how awesome it is!

The first time I met Mindy was at

Squam By the Sea

October 2010

in the Outer Banks

and we have been friends ever since.

She is a beautiful and creative soul

who has a teaching style that is

so caring and deep

She just wants to bring out

the inner child within all of us
to learn how to let go of expectations
and enjoy the process of it all.

Thank you Mindy for a beautiful experience

I will cherish and use the techniques you

taught us so openly and willingly!

You rock my friend!