2015 Creative Challenge!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!

Out with the old, in with the new!

I hope your 2014 was filled with wonder, happiness, joy and other great things and that the new year brings you more of the same and also a lot of opportunity to be creative! I talk about creativity a lot here on my blog, because I think the word artistry scares people. More often than not people tell me they can't draw or they aren't artistic and so often they are so very wrong. 

Last year I made a pact with myself that I was going to create 300 or more pieces of creativity. It sounded like a really big goal, until I realized something. I'm basically creative EVERY day... 300 things is just doing what I'm doing while taking over 2 months off!!!

Wait, what?

No, really. Let me say that again. I bet you do something creative every day without even realizing it. It might be a small doodle in your margin, it might be a silly song you make up in the car or something you draw for your kids. It might be making a spectacular dinner you found on Pinterest, or it might be a much larger work of art. So, why would you stop? Why not push yourself to do it a little bit more and then document it so you can see how much you really do?

My main personal focus these days is Zentangle® because of many reasons, one of which is that I can create a piece of Zentangle inspired artwork in a very short period of time, relax and really enjoy myself all at the same time.  I'm not asking you to use that method unless it's what you would like to, although you will probably see a lot of it here, you should work in whatever makes you happy. 

So how is this going to work?

Those that participated in my June challenge know that I put up a Mr Linkey thing for each post, you simply add your link to it. Please link directly to your piece of art, whether it be on your blog, your Pinterest, your Instagram, facebook is tricky and doesn't always work in the Mr Linkey so if need be you can send to me via email at whimsybykelly@gmail.com and I'll add it in for you.
Please add in the site specific url, don't just link to your pinterest or your blog, because I won't be able to find you.
Please use #whimsybykelly2015 when you post stuff, that makes it easier to find things if I'm searching

Make friends with those participating! Encourage one another too!

I am going to post 1 prompt or "challenge" per week for ideas, you are free to use it, or to not use it. You can do several variations on the same thing or not. That will most likely be on Thursdays.

Works in progress count, you don't have to finish something every day, you can post part of it, but... don't use that as an excuse to not challenge yourself either. :)

You can add art to any day throughout the year, if you miss say, March 13, but you know you did something on March 13th and finally get time to go back and post it in August, go for it! (But know that it won't count towards any monthly prizes unless it gets posted by the end of that week it just gets too hard) It will count towards your total goal!

Be nice. If you can't say something nice about someone else's art, don't say anything.

That's it I think. 

Here's MY personal goal. I am striving to create something for all 365 days.
Now, I've done a couple things here to hopefully help me suceed. I've ordered a daily calendar, which will encourage me to create a tangle every day. I've joined an art journaling group, because that's something I've always wanted to do, and I will continue to work on The Diva's weekly challenges as well.

In addition to that I'm going to keep creating, because that's where I find my happiness.

I'm not going to ask all of you to create something every day, that's asking a lot. I am going to ask if you could create something 300 times this year though and every time you do, to come share it with me. Remember, that's over 2 months of the year that you don't have to do anything! LOL
Some ideas are...

• Completed challenges (for mine or other blogs or groups you belong to)
• Practice pieces as you perfect a skill
• Gifts you make for others
• Music. :) I love to get music!
• Pictures of incredible baked goods or great meals! (YES, cooking is creativity!)
• Paintings
• Knitting
• Videos
• Sewing
• Scrapbooking
• Decorating
• Stamping
• Sketches

That's the tip of the iceberg when it comes to creativity everyone. I could list millions of ideas, but I don't want you to feel confined by what I'm asking for. Only rule is no porn. Something tasteful with some nudity would be acceptable, but please remember, I'm family friendly and kids may be participating too.

If you need help posting, please don't hesitate to ask, I'll be happy to walk you through it. If it's easier for you to post 1 time a week, then please do it that way.
I do ask that if you want your entries to "count" that you have them uploaded by each Sunday night at midnight (EST) because I will be compiling entries on Mondays.

I will make a piece of Zentangle inspired art with your name on it for everyone that completes this challenge. There will be a small prize every month for those that have participated the most each month.
And there will be a bigger prize at the end as well for the top 3 participants of the year.
Please note I am waiting on confirmation about product availability at the end of 2015 before I announce prizes. :) They WILL be fun stuff though!

Come play with me. The more you create, the more creative you get. 

Creative Challenge coming in just a couple days!

Looking to inspire yourself this coming year? I hope so! Every year resolutions get made, and discarded and this year, I hope to change that.
I am inviting you to join me in a creative journey for 2015. It sounds like a huge commitment, but honestly I'm not really going to ask you for much in the way of time, I'm asking you to commit to yourself. What would you do if your creativity had no rules?
In June I launched a 30 day challenge and that was pretty successful! I had a number of people play along and I learned some things I want to do MORE of and somethings I want to try differently.

Full details will be posted on New Years Eve, I hope you'll join me and check it out. Tell your friends to stop by, encourage them to come hang out. I hope this turns into something fun for everyone!

Art supplies, shiny stuff, Dear Santa.... sketchbooks....

I am obsessed with beautiful art supplies. I don't even necessarily need to own them, I just like to know that they exist. It makes me happy to know that incredible pieces of paper and gorgeous, luxurious pens and sticks of graphite have been crafted and that someone, somewhere is using them.
I mean, it's not that I don't want them... lol.. I just don't really need most of them.
They're wants.
I'm ok with wanting instead of needing.
I have wish lists and I know I'm a lucky enough girl that I'm probably going to get something super cool off my Christmas list just like I do every year! THANKS SANTA!!!!!
I'm curious though do you have certain art supplies you have to have?
Your go to equipment?
Is there something you've been craving that you are hoping to get this holiday season?
I love to know what people are hoping for (plus it gives me new ideas for my list too!)

One thing I don't know how to decide on this year is a sketchbook. I've joined a group that will be doing a year long sketchbook project! WOOOHOO! I KNOW!!!

Part of my new year will be working on another 300 project personal goal. I've mentioned it a few times, but I'm inviting all of you to join me in that starting in January.
I thought the sketchbook will be a good building block for that!

I'm considering the Fabriano Quadrato right now.. in a 6x6. Small enough to take everywhere... big enough for little frames. :)

Thoughts?

December is a BUSY month!

First things first... a little note about orders and cut off dates. I've been sharing this on some friends facebooks with their permission so you may have seen this before. 

It's been a busy couple weeks. I have orders going out pretty much daily and coming in that way too! Happy Happy Holidays right?!!?? It's exciting! 

Another really exciting thing is that my art was in ArtVoice this week. 

For those that aren't local to my area, ArtVoice is the local "What to do, What's going on in the area" magazine. It's fairly well read and it's pretty cool that this is a thing!
Here's a picture from that! 

In other news...
I have a Zentangle workshop next weekend. I still have space if you are interested, it includes a catered lunch and beverages, all supplies and the complete introduction to Zentangle. If you are interested you can email me at whimsybykelly@gmail.com
I have some orders to complete and some advertising to do. Tomorrow my Buffalo Etsy team is having a gift wrapping party for the gifts we have for our adopted holiday family. :) That will be a lot of fun!
I also need to decorate. I am one of those people that doesn't decorate til around the 2nd week or so of December, mostly because I don't like feeling like I want it down before Christmas gets here. I only like the decorations up for a fairly short period of time. I'm weird. :) 3 weeks is about perfect and they stay up til just after New Years.
I'd love to see pictures of everyone's decorations if you want to share!!!

Also starting January 1 I'm going to be kicking of a Creative Challenge for the entire year.
I am going to have a little giveaway every couple months and anyone that completes the challenge will get a little something from me and I think I'm going to make certificates. :)

It's a big.. a 300 or more creative challenge. All the details will go up on New Years Day, but basically the short version is you know I want all of you to keep being creative every day right? I believe that staying creative not only keeps you creative but actually inspires creativity. With that in mind...  I want you to make something 300 times. I will provide some prompts here and there, but mostly it's going to be up to you to make something and share it. 

I look forward to seeing what you do. :)

Better run. Time to get out my paints!

Ok, Web changes are up and running!

Hey! You've found your way to the new site! You can get here now simply by going to www.whimsybykelly.com
I've made some changes to the shop, there are pages above that go to various sections of the site.
You can shop, you can see classes, learn about Zentangle and connect with me on social media!
I have a newsletter sign up that asks where you heard about me or got my art so that I can add you to my map. (The map will be coming soon!!)

I'm really excited about the various things that are going on here... and with the holidays it's been VERY busy.

I did update my sneaker collage to show all of you.... which is something I've been adding to for a while. Some of these are older work, but it does showcase some of the variety.

Temporarily under construction...

My site has been a little quiet lately as I worked on doing some reorganizing. Hopefully it will be easier to navigate, will let you find anything you might be interested in and will also allow me to post workshops, and link people to my shop as well.

I appreciate your patience while things are a little dusty. You may notice I've added a gallery, as well as a page with all my social media links and a mini etsy as well as a link to my Etsy directly.

If you find anything is not working, please don't hesitate to let me know!

I am going to launch a fun new challenge on January 1st to run through the entire year and I hope you will consider participating!

It's the night before Thanksgiving and the next month promises to be pretty busy, so my posts will be sporadic until then as I work on things and with the holidays.
I wish all of you a very happy holiday season, no matter what holiday is near and dear to your heart and hope that you find yourself surrounded by love, happiness and beautiful things this season.

Go Create.
:) See you soon

In honor of Veteran's Day.

Veteran's day is a big day for me. My husband is a disabled Vet who served in Desert Storm, Desert Shield and Operation Enduring Freedom.
I wanted to take a minute to say thank you.

Thank you.

To him and to all that served today, thank you from the bottom of my heart, and to those who have loved ones who have served or are serving, thank you to YOU as well. Your sacrifices are appreciated.

I"m a CZT®. :)

It's official. I am a Certified Zentagle Teacher!

It's a big part of why I've been so quiet lately, I was getting ready and certified and stuff.


I will be making a page with classes I'll be offering and stuff soon as well as some info about Zentangle® for those that are new to it.

I just wanted to share my news!

PS.. I love Bijou Tiles and Black tiles and Renaissance tiles and oooh... something that I'm pretty sure is still a secret.

I love Fall!!!

I truly think that fall is my favorite season. The colors are beautiful and vibrant, the world seems to be doing it's very best to decorate itself and there is pumpkin and apple flavored EVERYTHING here.
We are lucky enough to have an exchange student visiting and I've gotten to spend time with some of my best friends lately which has kept me busy, but I've also been VERY busy on the creativity front.
I saw a picture of these on the internet, and was reminded that my Gram had taught me to make a version years and years ago... so here are mine.
I'm out of practice, but they're SO pretty!!

 


And then... I made this for me because I really wanted to have my stuff organized and handy and at my fingertips. I was SO happy with how it turned out and I am still just giddy when I look at it!
When I showed it on facebook, so many people wanted one I decided to make them and put them in my etsy shop. (They're only $35 and include the pens for right now if you are interested, you can check it out at www.whimsybykelly.com)
And then I promptly got a ton of orders! YAY!

I also had several orders come in for custom converse and some cute geeky earrings. :)

So, I've been busy working on all of that.

I've done a few other things including this mini-mandala

And then I got to participate in this weeks Diva Challenge 189 which was UMT Yuma. This was my first attempt at this tangle and I struggled with it a little, but I love the idea of them feeding off the leaves, so I used green to add to it. I rarely use color but it seems to fit on this one!

I'm behind one, 188, which is one that I'm actually excited to work on, it's a LGBT alliance tile and I haven't skipped it, I just was short on time last week and didn't want to rush it, so I'll get back to that asap!

In the meantime, everyone have a great week and I'll check in when I can! Now, I'm off to go have some apple crisp or a pumpkin muffin! 

A little bit of this... a little bit of that...

It's been a little of this, a little of that all week long. 

We are really lucky in that my daughter got to go to Germany last year as part of her school's German exchange program and this year, we are very happy that her "host sister" Lisa will get to come visit us. 

She arrives on Sunday. 

In addition, I will get to see some of my very best friends in the universe this weekend, so things have been busy and a little chaotic. 

I did get 5 out of 6 of a set of Christmas cards designed. I am going to redo my gingerbread guy. I don't dislike him... I just don't think he goes. 

Then I'm working on something else that I want to make sure will work before I share it with all of you, but it's a work in progress. 

I like the way some of my tangles are turning out! 

New template tomorrow. 

Stuff I've been working on this week

First, I have to say it is ABSOLUTELY gorgeous this week. Makes it hard to be productive. :)
My facebook contest ends tomorrow, so if you haven't liked my page and a post or two that's really all you have to do for a chance to win a free pair of custom Converse.

Here's my Diva Challenge...
I love how it always forces me to think outside the box.

My Powerpuff girls in progress... 

And I've been hard at work on my blocks for the Art *O* mat project. I've got about half of my 50 done now... so that's coming along nicely!

Deadpool Converse

These are a recent custom design. I knew as soon as I saw the Converse themselves that they were destined for a pair of sneakers I'd been dying to make. (This style would be AMAZING for Harley Quinn too)

These took a little longer than sneakers normally take me but I am really quite pleased with how they turned out. 

Now, I think it's time to go work with pen and paper for the rest of the day!
I need to post them in my shop too, but that can wait til later.

Hope everyone is being super productive and creative today!

Diva Challenge 186- String theory Leaves, leaves leaves!

I love fall so much. It's my favorite season. I love the warmth of summer, the promise of spring (especially after my arctic winters of endless snow) but the color and breathtaking beauty of fall make it my favorite. I love the crispness of the days that alternate with warm days that feel like presents!
I live in NY so.... I associate fall with warm cozy sweaters, new boots, POT ROAST!!!! and new school supplies, freshly sharpened pencils and blank notebooks...
So.. ALL MY FAVORITE THINGS!

Today's Diva Challenge  was leaves.
Ok.

Here's what I came up with and I had so much fun doing this. I used brown, a dark green and red from my heritage color pen set and then coordinating pencils from my inktense set.

Loved it. Might even do more of this one.

Princess and the Pea (My "Let's make the bed" template challenge!

I finished mine. If you aren't sure what template it is, you can read about it on this post.

I'm happy with it, it was fun and I was obviously inspired by one of my favorite stories from childhood. The little puppy is something that I've been drawing since 9th grade. He doesn't have a name but he's like an old friend. :)

I hope you had fun with it!

Well I feel productive! (and a new challenge template!)

Ok, I said the other day that I needed to get busy and catch up with challenges... and so I did.
I competed a bunch of the challenges put out weekly by Laura Harms over at I am the Diva (If you don't follow her or participate you totally should!)
But I was behind since.. sometime in early summer. So in the last few days I completed... not 1, 2, or even 3, but 8 of hers!
177-185
Wow. Really, she's up to 185, and now I am too! (I still haven't posted all the first ones that I went back and did, I should make that a project this fall!)

So without further babbling...
177- Truffle. I like the way this one turned out so organic. It makes me feel like I fell into Alice in Wonderland or the garden or something!

177- Use the Tangle Truffle

 178- Duotangle by the letters, using tangles with the first letters of your name.
So, K & B
Two of my favorites Krli-Q and Bales!

178-Duotangle by the letters

 179- Be like Bijou, Tiny tiles! This isn't actually a tiny tile, or "twinchie" because I don't have any. I actually ended up doing this in the corning of my Marketing homework!

                   179-Be like Bijou

 180- This is a UMT- (Use my Tangle) This one is called MacDee, and I love it, cause it's PLAID! I love PLAID!!!

180-UMT MacDee

181- Water.
I am not sure about this, but my daughter loves it. It's to use water as an inspiration. This is different than many of my other pieces but it's kinda fun and hey... COLOR!

181- Water

182- Stripes. A fun opportunity to use a bunch of tangles!

182- Stripes

183- UMT- X-Did. I don't think I "did" this one right, but I am happy with the result. It was new to me, so you know what that means right? PRACTICE!

183- UMT X-Did

184- New Tangle by Molly. I like it. I'll use it a lot, another one to practice though!

184 New Tangle by Molly

185- Duotangle Phicops & Diva Dance. Not sure about this one but it DOES have a lot of movement to it.

185- Phicops and Diva Dance

AND I'm CAUGHT UP on those!
but...
I also fell off the alphabet wagon. :( Cheryl over at Artful Creations had a cool alphabet challenge going, for Tackle it Tuesday I stopped somewhere around K I think. (I'll have to check) I want to finish that but I'm not sure when... but the fates aligned and the day before  I looked to see how behind I was... she had launched a NEW CHALLENGE! So I am throwing myself in and encourage you to do so too! This week was to use Tangles that started with S, E and P.
Here's mine.
I used Peaknuckle, which I love but never feel like I have quite perfected, Sand Swirls which is a favorite and EEZ.
I'm very happy with this one actually.

So then there's one more thing...
I've been posting challenges here and there for a while, mostly there since my 30 day (Which I WILL be running again in the future!!) but I promised you a new template for fun. So....
We "Grew a Garden"
We "Built Houses"
Now... Let's "Make the Bed"
(Can you tell I have too much housework to get done these days?)
But I think it'll be fun and I actually have something that's been in my head since I was a little girl and read the Princess and the pea for mine.

So here's your template.

I know they don't look like much but it's really the prompt and giving you a few things to work around to make it a challenge... so, what are you waiting for?

DOWNLOAD IT HERE
Please play along and you can share too!

Christmas cards, already?

I've been working on Christmas cards lately,I know it seems so early but if I don't get them started they won't get done!  Because it seems so early I'm not going to post what they look like yet!!!  I'm already hearing about Christmas in stores. Eeek.
How soon do you start on your holiday stuff? Either for gifts, or sales if you sell or decorating? I really wanted to be further on them, but I'm still all about Halloween so I'm struggling to get over that creative block!

I'm usually working on about 12 different things, so here are a few work in progress shots of what things look like here and sadly very little completed work the past few days!

I'm working on another block for my AIC project as practice and soon I'll be working on my first batch of 50!
It's painted and ready to go, I should have it done in a day or so. You know if I get to pull out my pens today! I actually LOVE this stage, the block has been painted and edged in black and is basically a completely blank canvas. It's really the complete definition of possibility to me.

Here are a pair of Deadpool Converse I'm working on, they're still in the pretty early stages.

I did finish a new vine video. Turn off the sound, I'm still learning.. and what I learned on this one is oops... turn off your music while you're doing stop motion. Ugh, it's pretty disjointed and I haven't figured out if you can edit sound on Vine yet. 

I did some tangling...

I got my welcome package for my CZT certifcation, and have been planning some ideas for that! I'll be official in November!

And while this isn't art related it's pretty cool. This is a fact finding mission for the family tree project my cousin is working on. I just started helping her with it, it's very cool. I love vintage pictures!

I'm missing challenges. Both the ones I like to participate in, and the ones I was posting myself. 

I promise to get one up here on Friday this week. I even know what it will be and I am going to make time to catch up on some of the other challenges out there too.

Have a great week everyone if I don't see you before then!