*** This post contains affiliate links. Full disclaimer here. **

Hello friends!

Guess what? I published another coloring book on Amazon! I know! Another one so soon? There's a method to my madness, though. I actually want to create a new book each month with a different theme. This month is hearts and lace for Valentine's Day! I love making these books, and while I know this is probably not sustainable long term, it's one of my goals for the year. I create these for the joy of it, and the fact that it is accessible to other people is a bonus. Speaking of accessibility, if you don't want to shop on Amazon or prefer a digital file, both of my books are now available as digital downloads on Etsy. I really want to foster a community around coloring, and in the spirit of that, I also have some awesome freebies to give away!

This link will take you to my Patreon, but this is a public post that is available for free. There are also some other freebies on the page if you scroll back a few posts! This post in particular is for a mini Valentine's coloring book and some adorable DIY/Color-Your-Own Valentine's Day Cards. I always loved giving and receiving those cutesy little cards for Valentine's Day. Sometimes I still buy them as an adult to use in crafts or to mail my friends cards for holidays. I hope you enjoy them, and if you color them, tag me on social media so I can see your creations! (@brkuhlman on Instagram, @artistbrkuhlman on FB, or @brkuhlman on TikTok)

In other news, I got really frustrated with trying to use Shopify to sell my art prints, so I nixed that and went a much simpler route using the payment processor I already use. It has an easier interface and looks infinitely more cohesive with this site which makes me happy. You can now find my prints and originals here or use the link in the header of this site to access the shop.

If you're interested in my surface pattern designs on products, those have also been added to the header for Redbubble and Society6. I am still on the fence about whether or not I want to keep Society6 since they don't pay out much and their options are kind of limited, but they have such interesting products! We'll see after I place an order for some of the things I am contemplating whether or not the quality makes it worth it. I use Printful for my fine art prints, and they also have options for interesting fashion that offer a very high level of customization, so that may be a thing that I tinker with in the future.

For now, my focus is mostly on surface pattern design, creating more cute printable projects, and making more digital paintings on my tablet. I have almost got it to where the art I make on my tablet looks very close to my traditional work which is the ultimate goal! What projects are you working on? Share links to the comments so I can see what you're creating!

Much love,

Note: This post contains affiliate links! See my full disclaimer for details.

This past fall and holiday season I ventured into the foray of print-on-demand (POD) products. I've dabbled with it before, but things have definitely changed over the years, and for the better! I launched my own art shop on Shopify and have been using Printful to get things going. I'm still on the fence about both the designs I have up for offer and if this is really the route I want to take with my art. I have the shop paused for a moment while I reconsider the entire concept and what art I really want to see in the world with my name attached to it.

Pictured below is a mock-up of one of my original paintings converted into a postcard! It's pretty neat to see my actual designs turned into usable products. It's definitely something I will be continuing to explore this year.

I've also been on the fence about returning to Etsy for digital downloads and smaller products, but will the markup on fees be worth it? Hard to say.

Have you had success selling art or products as digital downloads? I had been looking into using Teachable to host art classes, but I recently found out they also launched the ability for you to sell digital downloads! They allow for stand-alone products with a one-time payment and an option for payment plan pricing plus bundling options if you have multiple products. Pretty exciting stuff if you're looking to branch out on your own to focus on your own brand. This is something I'm genuinely going to be considering when launching my next digital products.

Speaking of art classes, I still have my heart set on using Skillshare for the lessons I want to teach. I have an affiliate link that will give you a 1-month free trial listed here: 1 Month Free Trial. Or if you'd rather sign up for a longer period of time, save some money with 40% off a Skillshare membership through 2/1/23. I have personally taken classes on Skillshare, and it was a very enjoyable experience.

Another service I've taken to recently is Canva! I know. I'm late to the party on this one, but it has made making logos, business cards, and marketing collateral an absolute dream! I love this app so much! I'm using it to make all sorts of graphics and beautiful things to promote my art and upcoming projects.

What projects are you working on in the New Year? Let me know in the comments!

Much love,

Hello, hello!

I live in a void between time and space, so I often forget to update my blog and social media sites. This has primarily been due to undiagnosed ADHD, burnout, and having to work too many jobs to keep things afloat among other tragedies. I am happy to report I have a good handle on most of those things and instead of working All The Jobs, All of The Time, I am actively choosing to work on my own business ventures and various creative endeavors. Most of the links are still works in progress, but I should have things up and running shortly!

Current Project List:

• Selling stock photos! I started photographing plants several years ago to build up references for my own art after I realized everyone is likely using the same images over and over from Google photos. That's not an inherently bad thing, so long as there's a creative commons license, etc, but I want my art to look unique! I now have several thousand photos of plants and flowers, and instead of letting them languish in obscurity, I thought I would share the wealth. They're not the highest resolution, so I can't submit them to places like Shutterstock, but I made my own little corner of the internet for them on Gumroad. 
• Online classes! Have you ever wanted to learn how to make art? I'm working on launching a couple of courses on Skillshare!
• Live Streaming! Come watch and hang out while I paint, craft, and generally create chaos on Twitch.
• I will also be uploading videos to YouTube and maybe a few clips to TikTok.
• My online store for jewelry is well overdue for an update, and I have a couple of other self-published projects in the works!

I hope you'll stick around for all the interesting, new things I'm working on. I can't wait to share them all with you!

Much love,

Hello, friends!

It's been ages since I've made a blog post, and it feels even longer since I last participated in a blog hop. Welcome! I can't wait to see what everyone has made. This blog hop is hosted by the lovely Lori Anderson. You can find her creations along with the full list of participants here. I was fortunate enough to end up with two partners this time around, and what they sent was absolutely lovely! My partners are Kathy Lindemer and Shaiha Williams!

They sent such beautiful, unique things my way! And were so generous. I only made two designs this time around, but my mind is still swirling with ideas for even more. I've got all my "leftovers" on my work desk still so I can keep creating.

First up is my soup from Ms. Kathy:

Such a beautiful selection! I can't wait to work with those little bits of yellow and blue. For now, I started off with the mother of pearl focal point. I knew exactly what I wanted to do as soon as I saw it. This was one of those rare instances where it came out exactly as I imagined in my mind. It gave me very little fuss. I decided on a wire-wrapped pendant with a focus on the earthy tones with a little shine from some crystals.

Next, I have my soup from my other lovely partner, Shaiha. To say that I feel spoiled by all the things I received from my two partners is a vast understatement.

So many beautiful things to choose from! I just had to play with that polymer clay pendant. It is so divine, and the colors are some of my favorite combinations. It was definitely a bit challenging to work with. Assembling the bail was the easy part. Figuring out how I want it all to lay and to balance out design was the trick. I started and stopped many times with this one, but here it is:

Thank you for stopping by, and please be sure to visit the other participants and my wonderful partners Shaiha and Kathy. They have made some really beautiful things, and I am proud to have partnered with them both.

Much love!

Ms. B

I have been making art since I was a very small child. I've also done freelance work of various sorts since I was a teenager. In 2011, after changing my business name for the umpteenth time, I finally settled on "Mixed Mayhem Studios." It was a clever play on words since I usually opt for mixed media to create art. Why settle for one medium when you can have all the things? That year is when I really felt I had my "official" start in having a "real" business. I mean, I even registered a "doing business as" name.

I did pretty well for myself at first since I was quite consistent with my work, but life has a curious habit of getting in the way. Especially when there's a day job that seems hellbent on consuming every iota of energy you can muster. Without going into too much detail, I will admit that my own health, work, and caring for family took precedence over art and making beautiful things. By 2013, nearly all of my projects had come to a screeching halt for one reason or another. My side hustle had also become a tiresome chore rather than a labor of love. 

Recently, that love has been rekindled, and I am hoping to also get back into the habit of sharing my work regularly. I had briefly started doing this again earlier this year via Instagram and Facebook, but I encountered another one of life's curve balls around March of this year. I'm not ready to share the details of that instance publically yet. It's a sensitive topic that I'm still quite moody about, and I'm trying to keep this blog post a positive one. I only mention it because I want my readers and anyone who follows my content to know why there have been such impressive instances of radio silence on my part. Long story short, I suffered a rather impressive injury in March that involved a bit of nerve damage in my right arm. Guess who is also right-handed? This gal. 

Anyhow, I have no desire to dwell on that. I still don't have as much free time as I would like, but I carve it out in little stolen moments late at night and during work breaks. It makes for a pleasant escape from the little stresses of day to day life, and thankfully I have an awesome job now that I really enjoy. One of my current most favorite things to do during those reprieves is to color. What can I say? I love vibrant colors and this whole adult coloring book trend (please never die, oh beloved trend) is the best thing since sliced bread.

My house is filled with stacks of coloring books and oh so much art supplies! It's a wonder I get anything else done. I love pens, markers, paint -- nothing is off limits! I have also always been kind of a doodler. No margin of notebook paper or blank space is safe from me. The combination of doodles + coloring also makes for interesting designs. I have enjoyed the process of creating these types of paintings and mixed media pieces so much lately that several thoughts occurred to me: This would make for an excellent starting point to start sharing my work again, and how fun would it be to create my own unique coloring book pages? Who knows, I might even publish my own coloring book one day.

Before I get ahead of myself thinking I'm the next Johanna Basford (I LOVE YOU ♥), it occurred to me that I could easily create some coloring book pages, have them printed, and share with friends. How fun would that be? I can't tell you how many weekends I've spent with friends and family just hanging out while coloring beautiful things. I love everything about it. I think that I also miss the community feel of art classes where we were all working on our own little versions of the same project. It's such a unique atmosphere that I have rarely encountered as an adult. I want to foster that feeling and sense of community, so I have set up a Patreon account to do just that.

My plan for that account is twofold: I want to share my process of how I create art step-by-step by taking my Patrons, blog followers, and other social media peeps behind the scenes. Second, I want to encourage others to partake in the joy of coloring by creating intricate coloring pages while walking you through how to color them. I am so excited about this project! I am so excited about ALL of the projects I have in the works currently, some of which have been waiting in the wings for quite some time.

In addition to all of the coloring excitement, I am also working on some special Art Abandonment projects (I love that this is a more common thing now!), revamping my jewelry store, and restarting an old, beloved game. It's a lot, but it's not something I've taken on all at once. This is the culmination of many months of tinkering, plotting, and note-taking.

I hope you'll join me whether it's here, on another social media platform, or Patreon itself. In the meantime, I'd like to share with you the very first coloring page I've created to date. This is free to download. I only ask that you link back to this blog or to my Patreon page if you post it online. It's not for resale. This is for you to enjoy. I would love to see what you create from it, so please share your work online if you can! I'm on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and all the usual places. If you'd rather not share publically, you can always email me instead. Print it out, color it Photoshop, whatever floats your boat!

Thank you to all of you have stuck around through the years! You are so appreciated!

Much love,