And I shall call her....Zoey! (And the official challenge details!)

I am really excited about the way this turned out. I am a huge fan of giraffes and when I saw this I instantly knew I wanted to make it patchwork. This one took me a while, but I only started it last night so it wasn't too bad!
I used my watercolor pencils to add some color, which I don't normally do...but they were perfect for this and just really had some fun with it.
My daughter and I decided it's a girl, and my son decided her name is Zoey!

Isn't she cute?! (I wish she was an actual stuffed animal!)

Ok! And now onto the next piece, my

Kelly's 30 day "Kreative" Challenge!

It starts tomorrow and runs from June 1- June 30.

I challenge you, to be creative every day for the next 30 days.

I am pushing myself this year to really make sure that I am doing something EVERY day, no matter how small and I want to see how many of you will join me!

I am hoping to have one of those cool Mr. Linkey things up and running by tomorrow but I'm struggling with it a little, so until I do, please just leave your links in the comments. 

There are only a few rules and that's to keep it simple.

Complete something every day, or as many days during the challenge as you can. 

It doesn't have to be big, or intricate. Just draw or paint, or sketch or knit or doodle or whatever it is you want to do that makes you feel creative! 

Try and link them daily, if not, then no later than Sunday night of each week and note what day it's for in your title or somewhere in your blog post or link.

Please link directly to what you want me to see, otherwise I might miss it.

Tell your friends!

There are going to be TWO prizes.

One for the person who completes the most days... and then one will be drawn randomly from the people who entered, each project is good for one entry. 

So now that I said that... what am I giving away? 

I thought I'd give away a set of my favorite micons in winners choice of black or multicolor 

and I've also decided to give away a wooden spiral art drawing set like mine, because it's gorgeous and I love it so much. 

 

So don't forget... and I hope to see you back here tomorrow for day 1! 

Na na na na na na na na....

I don't really know why, this is my Tackle it Tuesday challenge tile, and once it was done, it makes me think of Batman. Not really sure why... but I'm a huge fan of Batman so, ok.

I thought it needed a tiny bit of color so I added the red and then it called for something in the center too.. hence the heart.

The challenge this week was only patterns that started with the letter N. There aren't that many, I was expecting more.

I used a capital N and a lowercase n for my strings, you can't really tell, which is sorta cool.

My patterns were:

• Ninja Stars
• N'Zepple
• N'velope
• Navaho

Some of these were really time consuming, I didn't expect that.

Anyway, without further ado.

Na na na na na na na na.... 

Circles, circles everywhere!

The challenge posted by Laura over at I am the Diva was to use circles as your string.

Challenge accepted! 

Mine is nothing like hers, which is one of the things I love about all of these. They're all so different. When I was creating it, I thought it looked a bit like Galifreyan (I know, my nerd is showing) and then it morphed into something that reminded me of space and in the end... I'm not sure, but neither of those. Although... I see a pie for sure. 

Looking forward to seeing what everyone else did this month and I'm really excited about launching my own challenge in a few days. :)

Creative weekend.

I got some new tools this weekend and I've been having so much fun with them.
I wanted to share some of what I've been doing in the interest of beating my perfectionism as well as just to let you know how much fun I'm having... and isn't that what the whole creative thing is about? Having fun with it anyway? None of these are my "usual quality" or really anything I put any REAL effort into. And that is kind of the point of this post.

So I got 2 sets of Aqua markers, which are watercolor markers. I've not really played with any like these before, and it's been a lot of fun, but I didn't use watercolor paper so I had a lot of pilling, which kept things from going clean and the colors didn't photograph right... so there's that.

I also spent less than 10 min on each of these, cause I'm just seeing what they do. :) (I tell people all the time, just do it! Don't hesitate to post it! Just DO it!)
Neither of these is any good (can you hear my inner critic??? She's a loud mouth isn't she?) and yet I really love both of them, mostly because while I was making them I was having so much fun just PLAYING with my markers. I wasn't worried about making art, it was making itself, I was just having fun.

Earlier this weekend I posted about my spiral art set, which I just love. I've played with it ALL weekend!
And then my I did this with my spiral art set... again... just something really quick to see how it worked.
Again, not more than 10 minutes and it was after midnight when I did it!

Then our other project was creating homemade ice chalk. (and erupting ice chalk!) It's finally going to be gorgeous out and we love chalk here so we thought we'd try something new.   I didn't take many pictures because we were still experimenting... but I will share some of our creations if it worked out right.. and if it did I'll do a post on it. (NOT my creation ... and I will find where I got the idea originally to share with you as well!)
I did snap this shot as I was mixing 1 batch though. Isn't that gorgeous?

Well... What did YOU do this weekend?
I hope you are doing something great!

The rest of my day is going to be spent playing with erupting ice chalk in the driveway with the kids and then making ribeye and shrimp kebabs... YUM! so I think my art with take a backseat today, although I will probably be posting the recipe for my kebabs on my other blog if you're interested. I don't post there very often, but I try and post fairly easy, really tasty food.


In case I don't post tomorrow, Happy Memorial day.
Memorial day is... well... I'll post about that tomorrow ok?
Please remember what the day is about and take a moment at some point to remember.




Only a few days til the challenge kicks off here! Do you want the details in advance or should I post them on the 31st like I was going to?

Zendalas and my gorgeous new toy

I really like the structure of zendalas. I love the way they flow from one segment to another, the order, the stability of them. I like doing other things to, but these come together very quickly for me and I'm almost ALWAYS happy with the result.

This one makes me think of magic wands.

I'm really happy with the shading on this one, but it might be a little too busy.

Recently I was reminded of my childhood spirograph. I wished I still had it because it would be so much fun to doodle and tangle on. So I started searching to see if I could find a new one at a decent price, but the reviews weren't fantastic compared to what I remembered and I tend to be really picky.

I ended up on ebay and etsy trying to find a vintage one, only to discover that only specific pens are supposed to work in them. That wasn't a problem when I was 8, but now... i want ALL my pens to fit.

And then I found this on Etsy. It's a gorgeous, hard wood spiral art set, so... basically, a spirograph for the me who didn't like any of the other choices. I can't wait to play with it! All my pens seem to fit and it's sooooo gorgeous. The picture here and the ones on the link do NOT do it justice. 

It's a little smaller than I was expecting, but that's not a bad thing, in fact, it's perfect because storage isn't going to be a problem and for tiles or my sketchbook...  SCORE! I'm really pleased with this and I encourage you to go check out the seller. (Not affiliated in any way but very happy with the product!)

Hardwood spiral art Drawing Tool 

There are several small plastic disks as well for even more sizes. 

So that's tomorrow's project. Play with my new toy! 

Ack! It's been a week!

I have an excuse or something. LOL

No, I really don't. I've just been kind of in a funk. I did do some drawing but I didn't like it enough to even finish it, and then I got ready to start a project and kind of "artist blocked" but I think I'm ok now. 

I also spent time playing with the puppy... because LOOK AT THAT FACE!

Plus it's nice out, and I am a SUCKER for nice weather. See my liliacs? I'm working on a sketch for them... but it's not going as well as I'd like. 

And then I broke out my pens and paper again. 

First, the Diva's challenge this week was to use rain. (I'm seriously sick of rain... so I wasn't thrilled with the idea lol) but it did not seem to invoke the results of a rain dance or anything. Plus I like how it turned out. 

So here is my completed piece for Challenge 168.

Then the Tackle it Tuesday challenge was the letter M.

It did not go the way I planned at all, but it's kinda fun and different.
I used

• Meo
• Mak-Rah-Mee
• Merryweather
• Mooka

And then some daisies found their way in there all on their own. 

I posted in a few other places that I'm going to be starting a 30 day challenge in June. I really hope you'll consider participating. It should be fun and I'm going to give something away at the end. 

More details on the 31st though! I don't want to give everything away in advance!

Pretty math

I love math, I admit it, I'm kind of a math nerd in the fact that I love how math just makes sense.
You can't add 3+3 and come up with a number that it has never reached before.. unlike people.
It's been a crazy few weeks. I needed something that showed order, and here is what I have. A fractal tree. It photographed like crap and it's on the back of a napkin.. but it made me feel peaceful.

I need to practice more fractals I think.

Inspired

I find inspiration in various areas of life... in this instance, from another artist.

So the other day I saw this video.... and it looked like fun. So I watched it again... and then a third time, and then I subscribed to her videos on youtube. You should too.

And when I was done watching,  I drew this, really fast.... because her directions are GREAT! Seriously, it probably took me 10 minutes.

I just kind of thought about how she did it and realized.... I had something else in mind. So I played with it a little bit and now there is this!

Eventually I want to do another one in full color and with a lot of whimsical stuff on the flowers, but for now, drawing this made me really happy.

Where do you get your inspiration from? Or at least.. where did you find inspiration today?

All the way to L...

I've mentioned a couple times how busy the weeks have been but I also realized I forgot to wish everyone Happy Mother's day! I did get the chance to make my mom a card. Here it is. (It's ok.. .I already gave it to her so it's ok if I show you!)
I do hope everyone had a nice Mother's Day!!!

Now... On to the Tackle it Tuesday challenge!
This week's challenge was L tangles. I looked at Tangle Patterns and instantly thought "OH! There are a lot of them! I'm going to create a string with TONS of spots! And I did.  I was almost sorry I had because this took forever and the kids started begging for food.... but.... then I was glad I did because I ended up with THIS!

And I love it! I love lacing as the string and I just think it's something completely different and other than the few minutes of "what tangles am I going to still use" and "am I ever going to finish this one?I'm hungry!" thoughts I did enjoy doing it!

The tangles I used for this one were (I'll go left to right, top to bottom)

• Lacing- as my string
• Leaflet
• Lazy Eights
• LinQ
• Longwood
• Lanterns
• LilyPads
• Lichen
• Luv-A
• LoobyLoo
• LLilly
• LaBel
• Lacy
• Lines
• Lukiline
• Linked
• Lace Curtains

I didn't do much shading on the background patterns or even a lot of embellishment because it was already pretty busy, but I think shading ONLY the lacing gave it a nice depth.

Now, to figure out what to do next... Hmmmm... so many blank surfaces.

Diva Challenge 167- Punzel and Wells

WELL.....
For those that know me in person, I overuse that word. So it seems perfect that I start this post that...

Well....
This one was a very real challenge for me.
I had never even looked at Wells before, and Punzel is my kryptonite. So this was a major undertaking for me.
 I practiced a lot on my Punzel before I started, and I finally GET it, so if nothing else, I win! I still don't love it, which is funny because Chainging which is the base for it, is a favorite. Weird or what? Here is my practice. It's not pretty. LOL

I opted for one of the variations on Wells, because I loved it and thought it looked like pinwheels.
I really was liking the way it came out, but my shading didn't go QUITE right, and I think it looks a little too gray, but hey, it's done right and I mostly like it. (Perfectionist voices in my head again)

So without further ado, I'm back on track with my challenges and here is my completed Diva Challenge for the week.

More catching up and Ooohh... a Starbucks project!

So let's get to it!

2 catch up's bring me current on the Tackle it Tuesday challenege (Cheryl by Artful Creations runs this one and it's so much fun!) so I'll be ready for tomorrow!

Here is my J compilation.

I had only used one of these before, and I think I messed up a couple but I do think it was a fun one and I'm VERY proud of my circles.

• Jonqal
• Jilli
• JaJazz
• JalouiseJambalee
• Jax
• ssicup
• Jetties
• Jawz
• Jeewes
• Joy

And here is my K as well!
 I'm actually super happy with this one, I was going to go with more tangles, but as it came together I thought this was just about right!

I had only used Keeko before, but 2 are my new favorites!

• Kuke
• Kelp
• Keeko
• Krli-Q

Now what is this Starbucks thing? Well, the other day a friend told me that Starbuck was running a White Cup contest and I wanted to play since this is the type of thing I do anyway! I ended up with a half dozen plain cups and broke out my pens. My goal was to submit one every day til it ended, but you know.. time and stuff.

Here were the 3 I ended up submitting.

This one I just went freeform to get a feel for drawing on a cup. It's harder than it looks.

I think this is my favorite. It's the most detailed and Starbucks actually is adding it to their Pinterest board for the contest. 

I really liked this one too.

So there we go. I have a few others to get around to uploading, but 1 post, 5 projects. I think I'm back on track.
Hope everyone is doing good! What cool projects is everyone else working on? I really want to know!

What a week...

This week.. ugh. That's all I really want to say about it. It's actually been a couple of really hectic, very trying weeks, but I think I am back on my upswing to "normal," whatever that word is supposed to mean.

I did not get as much creating done as I'd like, but I have gotten some done, just no time for sitting down and putting them up.  So, I'll have a couple of posts with a few different projects and then I should be right back on track. ( I hope)

So to start, here are the two Diva Challenges I've missed 165 and 166. You can find out all about the Diva's weekly challenge here on her blog. 

I really liked both of these, they were both UMT's and the first one was to use Camelia which you can find here  on Anne Mark's blog. Very nice tangle!Mine isn't quite right, but it was the first time I'd tried it.
I  love how it turned out, some pieces call for completely different shading and this was one.

The next one is also a UMT, that the Diva herself, Laura Harms created. It's still unnamed, I'm going to suggest she call it NQATT because she originally referred to it as Not Quite a Tangley Thing. Maybe just NATT because I don't know how to pronounce it with that Q in there.
Anywhere here is what I came up with for that one. I struggled with my string, so I just gave my sketchbook to my incredibly talented daughter and asked her to draw me a string. I think I might do that more often!

So I'll get some more uploaded tomorrow, for tonight, I think I'm going to find some music, pull out my pencils and see what I can come up with!