Day 31/365

We did it!
We have completed January!
Don't worry if you missed a day or two, or are just finding your way here now.
The challenge for the year is to be creative 300 out of the 365 days (That means you can miss 2 whole months and still make it!)
AND if you jump in late there will be a half year celebration too!

I promised some prizes... and prizes we shall have.

This month, I've been pretty focused on Bijou, so from all the entries 1 person will be selected to receive a set of Bijou tiles and a new micron.

The winner will be selected on Monday so make sure to get your entries in if they haven't been entered so far!


I played with my sketchbook and made some Bijou sized tangles myself.

 What's Bijou have for us today?

Enjoy the shade!
For a snail that's a double entendre (I love using my French now and then). I love hanging out in the shade beneath the ferns. I also love shading my tangles. How do I do it? That's a secret and a snail needs some secrets.





So thank you to all of you for joining me on this journey, I look forward to the next 11 months of creativity with you all!
Tell your friends, bring them too. You know creative people tend to be happier people who get more out of life. :)

Video!

It's not a demo video this time... but it's fun.
I have an etsy shop and sell some really fun custom sneakers there, so yesterday in between painting and stuff, I made this.

It's not perfect, but I'm learning and I like it, I think it's very "me" and my brand, so that makes me happy.
Plus, it's colorful for sure right?
Time for a little Bijou!

Relax

I love how my tangles look when I'm relaxed. I can tell by looking at my tangles when it's time to curl up in my shell and take a nap.


Ah naps... a snail after my own heart. :D

Hope your day is awesome Friends! Keep creating!

Busy, busy, busy! And a Thursday prompt!

I taught another great group last night and I had such a great time. VERY energizing, lots of fun, I love to spend time around creative people!
It's so much fun to see them fall in love with the Zentangle method and to see the beautiful artwork they create!

Other than my demo tiles I didn't have a lot of opportunity to put ink on paper so instead I'm going to share our mosiac. :) 

Zentangle 101- 1/28/2015

Aren't they beautiful? I love how each one is different, and done with only 4 patterns.
We used my favorite beginner patterns, Crescent moon, Tipple, Static and Flux! I like using those because they give me the opportunity to really reinforce aura, teach a little bit about shading and also how to "fix" something you didn't want to happen. I like adding Tipple because people are so often intimidated by Orbs. This class embraced the orbs!

Today I am going to do some sneaker painting (I have a couple pending orders) and I want to spend some time with my art journal and on my mandala magic.
So things will be a little more colorful in the next day or so!

That's your prompt today. Make it a COLORFUL day.
Use color in something you do today, a little splash a great big pop, a little wash....
But it's January and it's dreary and kind of gray by my house so let's brighten things up a bit!
Speaking of gray...
I hope everyone made it through the weather earlier in the week ok, and rest assured I'll be checking on your links if I haven't made it to yours yet this week. I'm a little behind in looking at everything but I do look at every single one.

Only 2 days until we've completed January. How is that even possible?!?!? Look at how creative we've been!

I'll have a giveaway to announce on Saturday and the winner for that will be announced on Monday.
I'll also be announcing the "Use your stuff" challenge winner then too so there's a few days to get in on that as well! 

Embellish

Relish the embellish! That's my slogan. I love putting an aura or two (or three) around a tangle. It's one of my favorite things to do because I always know just what to do without thinking about it and I'm always happy with the result.

Concept sketches

In the middle it turned into a reindeer somehow

When I get a new idea for my shop I usually do an initial sketch. Usually the final project ends up NOTHING like what that initial sketch looked like.
I though it might be fun to share with you my first initial sketches of something that will eventually end up as cards for my shop.
I want some Buffalo-centric items in my shop because living in Western NY there's a lot of local pride, plus people that move away tend to be nostalgic.
I just don't find Buffalo all that cute though, so that was a strauggle for me.

Kind of looks like a demented yak right?

Him I like. 

Obviously, not done, but a pretty good base.
And now I don't need to move to like Seahorse NY or anything. Although someplace seahorse or starfish like with a beach sounds LOVELY after all this cold and snow.
Ew snow.
Is it spring yet?
Spring is so beautiful. I can't wait for spring!

Beautiful and Beyond!

That's what it's all about, isn't it? There's so many beautiful patterns to inspire tangles. And when you tangle, you not only create something beautiful . . . "beyond" that, I feel great . . . and that's beyond beautiful!

Hope your day is great!

Zentangle 101

Since I was knocked out of commission yesterday, I wanted to share pictures of the mosiac my class did on Sunday today. :)
It was a great class, everyone seemed to have a great time, and look at the beautiful art they made!

I set up a spot on my display board for our mosiac and I really like doing it that way!
Here is the board I was working on last week. (See the spot?)

I love sharing Zentangle with people, it makes me really happy. 

And today's Bijouism...

Reflect

While I tangle, I often pause and look around at where I've been . . . in other words, I look at the tangle I've drawn. That's easy for me . . . I just twist around my eye stalks! I've seen humans do the same sorta thing when they hold their tile at arms' length and rotate it this way and that (every now and then) while they are tangling.



Can you believe we are almost through our first month?!?!?

Return of the headache...

Sorry for the late post, I have another headache today. Blah.
I wanted to tell you all about my amazing class yesterday and show off all their great work, but I think for today I'm going to say that I'm going to count the fact that I did make a post as my creative for the day.

It feels a little like cheating, but I made SOMETHING and that's more than I would have done if I hadn't committed to the challenge.
So here we are. :)

I did get a Bijouism for you though!

Deliberate strokes

When humans watch snails, it must look like every movement we make is deliberate. But when I'm tangling I move much more deliberately than, say, when I am foraging for food. Doing a tangle, particularly one that I know well, allows me to focus on each individual stroke. That's because I know that when the next stroke comes, I'll know just what to do then because I've learned that tangle's "recipe." Plus, a snail always leaves a trail . . . why not make it a deliberate one?

Busy, busy day for me!

I have a Zentangle 101 class today so I've got a fun and busy day ahead of me.
I hope you are enjoying your weekend!

Here is a mandala I did for my mandala magic program.

Today's post is short... I have a lot to do, but I didn't want to neglect you!

It's funny that today's Bijouism is to Slow Down. It actually stopped me in my tracks when I saw it, I took a sip of tea and decided to write just a little bit more.

I do have time to say that I am hoping you are having a great weekend! That you are taking time to be really creative and having fun while you do it. 

I am really excited about today's class.. I can just FEEL that it's going to be a good one. 

Slow down

You'd think that would be easy for a snail, right? But, as they say, "It's all relative." Even I can get ahead of myself in my head. When I'm learning a new tangle or when I make little dots (that's not easy for a snail!), I remind myself to slow down. Then I can focus and everything is much more fun. Snails like fun. Our life is a dance.

My pens have arrived!!!

For those of you that didn't know, I have been waiting for my pack of chameleon pens to arrive. They clearly said they would take 7-10 days but I'm used to prime and somehow just assumed that magically they would arrive sooner. They didn't and did in fact take a strange little detour according to tracking but that wasn't really anyone's fault.

However, they have arrived.

I was very excited. 

There's a learning curve but it's less steep than I expeccted. 

That was done... VERY quickly. 

I also created bookmarks and tile folders for my upcoming Zentangle classes and worked on some of my Bijou tiles. 

Speaking of Bijou.... today's Bijouism

Focus

I really have to focus. My eyeballs are on the ends of long stalks that I can point in all directions. My favorite tangles are spirally ones . . . maybe because I have a spiral shell. But, if I don't focus on what I'm doing, my eye stalks wrap around each other . . . and that is NOT fun. But when I just focus on the tangle I'm "drawing" it's so much more fun . . . and beautiful.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Patterns, patterns everywhere!

One of the things I love most about Zentangle is how it's really opened my eyes to so many patterns in EVERYTHING. I just never really noticed them quite the same way before.
I'm working through all my patterns and putting them in a book. So that was my creative.

I have a lot more to do but I'm getting there!


I realized I didn't put up a prompt yesterday, so today my prompt to you is create something with a pattern. Your choice from there... Just use some type of pattern.
I look forward to seeing what you do!

What's really funny.. is that I didn't look at today's Bijouism before I wrote all that. :D

Deconstruct

Ever since I heard Rick and Maria talking about all the patterns they'd see in their surroundings, I started to notice patterns more. Now that I tangle I REALLY notice them. I see how they deconstructed patterns and made them into tangles. It seems like magic because I never thought that I could recreate some of these tangles when I first saw them. Now I'm excited to find a pattern to deconstruct and turn into a tangle. After all, I do have a unique perspective down here amidst the ferns, flowers and grasses!

Moebius Syndrome Awareness

Laura Harms over at I am the Diva hosts a weekly challenge. I mentioned this earlier this week. Her challenge this week is to help raise awareness for Moebius Syndrome.

I said that I wanted it to be really special, so I was waiting til I had a little more time, but.... life is chaos sometimes. She has put up other challenges that were close to my heart that I set aside because I wanted to "Do them justice" and then sadly, never got to them.

So, although it isn't all super fancy, I wanted to participate. That's the thing about awareness... you just need to pay attention. You just start.
So I used the awareness ribbon and I used purple and I dove in.

So for Laura and her family, in honor of Artoo and other individuals, let's learn more and pass it on.

If you haven't visited Laura's blog, please do so. I am the diva. 

Today is my favorite of all the Bijouisms. 

Appreciate

Wow, this is such a big word! But it's a big idea, too. It seems like the more I appreciate something, the more things I get to appreciate! I used to take a lot of stuff for granted, like the warm springtime in Paris. But ever since I hitched that ride in Rick and Maria's luggage (it was COLD on that trip), I've treasured everything on this wonderful adventure. Now, when I'm tangling, I really focus on and appreciate each and every "stroke" I make.

Didn't feel creative at the time

Yesterday, I built upcoming Zentangle classes. That doesn't sound super creative but it really is. I have to decide what techniques, what things I'm going to teach and how, create examples (that part was done or I'd have felt more creative I think) do my write ups for each and figure out how to market them.
Today will be the part of it that at least SHOWS the creative, I'll be making my flyers and building my display board for the next couple months.
So... I think the reason it didn't FEEL creative is because I can't put a picture up that shows what I was working on.
(Although if you look at my workshops link you can see the updates!)
Because I do like to show you something I've made in my posts, here is one of the bags I made over the holidays for a Christmas order!
Isn't this fun? It was a fandom backpack based on his many interested.
Supernatural
His name in Galifreyan (Doctor Who for the non-Whovians)
Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy
Sherlock
Skyrim
Minecraft
The very top of the backpack contains a handpainted galaxy.

It was fun and it was quite the challenge. Teenage boys are often the hardest of my customers. They tend to prefer subtle a lot of the time and yet distinctive.
He liked it from what I was told.

Today's Bijouism

Admire

Before I started to tangle, I never looked at the patterns I made as I moved through life. Now I always take a moment to appreciate the beautiful art I create whenever I take time to tangle. I appreciate everything, even what Hervé (my pen pal in Paris) might think is a mistake. I've become my own best fan! Whenever he can, Rick will take a picture of my Zentangle art so I can enjoy it later . . . even after a rain storm!

I love Bijou. He reminds me of so much! Maybe I can talk him into coming to visit soon. 

I got my journal prompt for my art journal and have been watching my videos for Mandala Magic as well. It's going to be a BUSY week!

What are you creating this week?

Creativity and overthinking... - Day 20!

Wow, time flies when you are having fun huh? It's been almost 3 weeks already! Today is Jan 20th and the Mandala Magic program I am participating in officially starts today!! WOOOHOOOOO!!!

I have been working on a journal page for what feels like forever. I don't know why I obsessed about it so much, it just... 

I really liked the prompt, I kept thinking I needed to do it "right" and that it needed to be really special. Plus I think part of me was hoping that if I kept snowflakes in my page, then maybe I could avoid getting more on the ground! LOL

I forget that my page IS really special simply because it's part of me. That's part of the art journal process. I tend to overthink projects, to obsess and make myself crazy from time to time and just generally make my own life difficult. I did finish it. 

I DO love it. 

I'm happy I spent the time I did, but I think I'm going to go out of my way to NOT do that again in my journal... the overthinking I mean. 

Whatever you are creating every day, make sure you are having fun with it! :) Art is a combination of creativity and play... at least that's how I get MY art. 

Glaze pens, crystal markers, mirrors and hand lettering.
The quote says:
"Like Snowflakes, the human pattern is never cast twice,
We are uncommonly and marvelously intricate in thought and action" ~Alice Childress

Do you do that too? Make yourself obsess over things or do you find it easier to go with the flow?

For those of you that know, I'm a CZT (Certified Zentangle Teacher) and I've decided to include some of the little Bijiouisms on my daily posts, because I want to spend more time reflecting on them myself. (Bijou is a creation of Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas and you can learn more at Zentangle.com)

Bijou's thoughts about the Zentangle 
Method (and life).

Breathe

Breathing is very important to me. I breathe through my skin and through something similar to a human nose. If I get anxious, I remind myself to slow down my 
breath. I pay attention to inhaling and exhaling. It may sound simple, but it really helps me relax and focus.

Work in progress pic for me today

Normally on Monday, I post later so that I can find, read and complete the Diva challenge before I post. Today hers is a big deal. It's about Weekly Challenge #201: "Moebius Syndrome Awareness Day 2015" and I think it deserves a really focused effort. Today I have some stuff going on and just can't devote the focus to that piece that it deserves so I'm going to show you a work in progress instead and really encourage you to go check out Laura's challenge today, even if you've never done one before. It's worth it. I will share my Moebius Syndrom Awareness tile when I get it done this week. I hope to see lots of yours shared as well. Here's my snowflake picture,

 I'm still working on it... this journal page is an event I tell you!

Creative minds energize me!

I got to spend time yesterday with some amazingly creative people! I would lump it all in one post but I want to make sure I do justice to some of the cool things I talked about with each of them so I'll be posting cool things over the next couple weeks based on yesterday.

I do want to say that I feel really lucky to have spent time surrounded by so much creative genius.
If you ever get a chance to learn from either Cherryl Moote or Brenda Shaver, do it! Chris Titus is so
amazingly organized  and detail oriented that I am still in awe and Genevieve Crabbe, wow. I already downloaded evernote.. I may be nagging you and Cherryl for more lessons :)

Little bits of creativity

Working my way through my patterns, one per tile all on little Bijou tiles!

Love the way they are turning out.
They fit perfectly in sleeves designed to hold coin protectors. 

I'll add them all to a notebook eventually, for now I just like to look at them!

Use your good stuff

I have boxes and cabinets filled with things i have never used..and I can't really tell you why. Becuase I'm waiting for something I think.
No more.
I'm going to pull out all my stuff and try and use a ton of it this year, what I don't, I will either sell and buy things I love and will use or I will give away to someone who might actually love and appreciate it. :)
The other day in one of the groups I participate in, I posted something. It's been pretty popular and I'm glad that it reached the audience it has, but I want to pass it around a little more, because I think it's really very important.
I've cleaned it up a little and made a few additional notes, but pretty much, here it is.

I've seen something a lot in groups and online discussion groups lately. I want to share something with you,  not because I am a CZT (though I am) or because I want to sell you something (you have a million options for that and unless you live close to me I'd direct you to someone closer anyway) so I really have NOTHING to gain by what I am about to say.
But it's in the spirit of Zentangle so I think it belongs here.

Use the good stuff.

Don't save your good paper for the day you feel your work is "good enough" because you never will. You'll always wait until you are "a little better" or you've "perfected that tangle"
Don't practice on scraps, don't treat your work as insignificant. That makes me sad.
Use the best you can.
If that's a piece of notebook paper because that's all you have, fine... but if you have choices, find paper YOU love.
It doesn't have to be Zentangle tiles... unless those are what you love. I mean.. I ADORE them, but that's MY personal preference because it's beautiful and make me happy to just hold them in my hands.
You might love Bristol. If that's your favorite USE BRISTOL!
Find a pen that works for you. Maybe you want something refillable, maybe the smell of sharpies makes you happy, maybe you like the way Pitts flow, maybe microns work for you. Good! Use what works FOR YOU.

Part of the joy of Zentangle is the play of the ink against the paper. Microns and tiles were selected to teach with because they work nicely together, they don't smear a lot, the color is deep and rich and beautiful and it's a JOY to lay the ink down on the paper. It really is. There are a lot of tools out there that will play nicely together. Each stroke feels like an event when you are using tools you love.
Whatever your tools ARE, they should be ones that make you ENJOY what you are doing.
Coloring in shouldn't feel like a chore, it should be part of the fun. The tools you use should be selected with that in mind. It doesn't have to be expensive. You can find a sketchbook to practice in with good paper for a couple dollars. I draw almost constantly and I only go through 1 pen or so a month. I can invest a couple dollars in that.
Truly if in your heart of hearts you know you truly can't afford any pen... reach out to me.
I'm not going to just pass out hundreds of pens, but if someone wants to create art and they can't afford the $3 for a pen, I will find a way to help them get one.
If you love crayons, use crayons. But use what you love. Use your good stuff, don't save it for someday, because someday might never come.

My favorite responses to that (and there have been a lot) were the ones where people shared that they were going to do that, that they took it to heart and that it inspired them to take it outside their art as well.
Go get a glass of your favorite beverage in something beautiful that you've been saving til you had company. You and your family are certainly as good as company. :) Make dinner tonight and use your fancy plates, even if you have leftovers.

My Gram used to tell me, make each day a memory. :) I've been forgetting that myself.

In the spirit of using things you love... I have a small  carepackage of things I no longer love or need. It's a surprise box of goodies... so I'm not going to tell you what's in it... but this is a little bonus contest for the month.
(I'll give everyone til the end of Jan)
Post your entry on here, show me something using your good stuff. It doesn't even have to be a creation with your good stuff... It can be a china cup, or your favorite boots, or whatever you want.

Leave me a comment completing this sentence...
I know I'm worth using my good _____________________.

Winner will be chosen at random on Jan 31st by one of my minions. :)

Throwback Thursday!

Today's challenge is inspired by #Throwback Thursday.
I want you to think back to when you were a kid, what kind of creative activity did you love to do?
Was it crayons? Fingerpaints? Markers?
Did you like to play with chalk?
Today, do something to feed your inner munchkin. :)

I was inspired by the journal prompt I was given in my art journal group yesterday. We are supposed to cut snowflakes to remind us of our individuality. I am so excited by this idea... I LOVE papercutting and I live where it snows sometimes up to 8 months out of the year, so I am like a SNOW EXPERT.

I think I cut 100 snowflakes yesterday, plus it was a half day for my kids so it really felt like a kid-inspired day.

My journal is in progress, and you can't quite see what's going on in there yet (I'm using a lot of white on white which may not photograph so well) but I will share when that's done. For now...
A snowflake

Trying something new-ish

A few months ago I played with Vine to get an idea of how it works. (You can find the link to my Vine on my social media tab up above if you're interested) I've only uploaded a few things so far but I'm hoping to change that if Vine cooperates. :)
If not, I'll continue to do what I did yesterday, which is just create small stop motions.

Here is a demonstration of Arukas in stop motion.
This is the most recent tangle that was released at CZT seminar.

I'm keeping today's post pretty short.. I want you to go create and I have some website stuff to work on, so have a great day! Do something awesome.

Tangle on Tuesday!!!

I plan on tangling today! I just don't know what. LOL

Here's my entry to SuzyMosh Creations That's New to Me Week 2 challenge.
Our letter this week was C, now.. as a CZT one of the first things I did was make a binder of tangles, so I've tried plenty.
There are always a few that I just kind of think... eh...... I don't like that one so much and I try really hard to go back to those and give them a shot. So Suzy's challenge is perfect for me. It may not be 100% new to me, but ones I don't use will really force me to expand my horizons!
This week I selected Courant and decided to use it that day in my Tangle a day calendar. I did two variations to create a light and a dark and you know what?
Now, I suddenly LOVE this pattern.

Courant

I got distracted while working on Day 12.... but I actually like it the way it is. Whether I'll continue or not, remains to be seen. Seems a little like a cop out, but..... something about the simplicity of it is actually kind of cool. 

Flux

So anyway, I'm going to create something, besides this cup of tea and pot roast for dinner. Mmmm pot roast.

But I'm facing a bit of internet block. Not really creative block but that thing that happens when you start browsing for ideas and get so overwhelmed with ALL the things you could be doing that you end up just spending hours looking at stuff?Yeah.. that.
Kind of like when you go to look up how to fix something on youtube and find yourself lost in the puppy side of Youtube until you stagger out 4 hours later realizing that it's noon and you are still in your pajamas.

That's not just me right? 

Ok. Let's make something awesome! 

Also... does anyone have Chameleon pens? I kind of want some, and I'd love to hear opinions. I have a gift card that I've been saving for when I saw something REALLY cool, but I've seen some conflicting reviews. Something about them seems to be calling me, but I'm kind of afraid that might be a gateway drug to Copics, which I've managed to NOT remortgage my house for. Yet. 

Anyway... please feel free to let me know if you've tried them and if so, what you thought! I'm not a reviewer by any means but if I try them I'll let you know what I think. :) 

Monday Tangling!

Today is Monday.. .YAY MONDAY! (never thought I'd say that!!!! but now that I am focused on my art pretty much full time, I like Mondays!)

Today's piece of creativity was Laura Harm's 200th Diva challenge! WOW!
Use your favorite tangle to do a monotangle with no edges, your Mac and Cheese tangle shining center stage. Mmmm Mac and Cheese. I love Mac and Cheese... wait.. I'm getting distracted again.

Anyway, my go to tangle is Flux. I went back and forth between that and Cadent, which is another I use a lot but I really LOVE Flux, so I thought that would be my stand out today. I love it. :) I always love tangles that are done with Flux.

I'm going to do it in my calendar today too I think.

Do you participate in Laura's weekly challenges? If not you really should! I know she's hoping to get 200 people to participate this week in honor of her 200th challenge.
It counts here too if you post it!
If you've been waiting to try, today's a great day to do so :D

Things never go as planned

Yesterday I was feeling messy. :D
Sometimes that happens.

This is actually much more pink that it appears in photos, but instead the photos instead prompted several people to ask if I'd been making sacrifices in my studio. :D
I promise not even to the gods of pens and paper.

It was the start to the second journal project I had, which involved including a quote.
I selected instantly a quote from Neil Gaiman...

Go and make interesting mistakes.
Make amazing mistakes
make glorious and fantastic mistakes
Break Rules
Leave the world more interesting for you being here.
Make.
Good.
Art.
~Neil Gaiman

First, I love him. I think he is amazing, and second.. that quote spoke to me from somewhere deep inside, which means it's the right one.

So that was to be these pages...except it didn't feel right. I made a face and went to set it aside to think on it and dropped my journal. Ooops. I'm kind of a klutz sometimes, and it fell open, onto the pages BEHIND my watercolor creation that may have been inspired by my 12 hour criminal minds marathon.
And I made another face...
Because I saw, all along the left side of one of the pages a smear from my red watercolor. Dang it. On my nice, pretty, supposed to be CLEAN pages behind it. Ugh. Double Ugh. Now I wasn't happy with 2 things in my journal and I was only 4 page in...
And the inner monologue starts...
The little voice in my head that I like to keep locked in the closet started to say things like, "That isn't supposed to be there, take those pages out, they're not good enough, isn't this the 2nd time in 10 days you've messed up in something you are supposed to post? You keep making mistakes...."
Cool me responds back with... "Whoa there brat voice, what did you just say?"
And then I realized... I'm making a lot of mistakes ART.
With that, comes things i don't like. I once had someone tell me that all art goes through an ugly stage, an awkward, teenage, adolescent stage and that my quote was about it being ok to make mistakes.
So I came up with this. I messed the pages up a little more. Every word has something I'd have "fixed" in the past. I splattered some ink, and then I did in fact ooops again and closed the journal when I didn't mean to so it transferred.. and came up with a glorious mess.

I don't really like it, but I think I will. And whether or not I "like" it right now.. I love it.  I am going to add in pieces of art that didn't go as planned throughout the year. Things that in the past I'd have relegated to the back of a drawer or tossed in frustration. They now have a place on these pages.. the pages that give me permission to make mistakes.
That's a really nice gift to have given myself.
This art journal thing might be pretty good for me.

Developing little characters

I love to create little characters. They don't usually start out fully formed, they start as random sketches, usually while I'm on the phone or doing something else.
Over time I find myself drawing them more and more until they are infused with little personalities of their own.

In school as a child, I began drawing a puppy. I still draw him to this day. Sometimes he morphs into something else, but he shows up from time to time in my most lighthearted and comfort pieces.
See?

Drawing him feels like a visit with an old friend. 

I've been drawing these new little guys... they have started to appear more and more. I think it's time to kind of build them out a bit so I spent some time playing with them yesterday. :) They never start out as much... but I can already see their tiny little personalities emerging.
I'll be including them in a project at some point I'm sure.

I didn't do much else yesterday, it was a snowday for my kids and that meant that we hung out and watched mindless television. :) And that's ok too! Not everyday needs to be a marathon of creativity. 

Oh, one quick note, if you post on social media, if you #whimsybykelly2015 then I can find them!

Hope you have a great day today. Make something awesome!

Busy day!!!!

I had a really busy day yesterday.
I did my Tangle a Day calendar, and remembered to post pics of the ones I'd done so far.

4th Mooka, 5th-Hollibaugh, 6th-Printemps

7th-Static, 8th-

I am LOVING this calendar.. it's fun to monotangle each day, I'm trying to create 2 looks with each Tangle I use.

Yesterday I gave the prompt to turn something that was a "mistake" into something new.
I had a tile that I kept for some reason, pen explosion had trashed my idea of a mandala on it...
I saw someone post a string made by blowing ink and thought... BINGO! TRY THAT!
So I took the tile and did exactly that.
I also decided that I would fill it with tangles that I don't use as much as I should.
Here's what I came up with! It was fun and different and forced me to not plan at all.

I am still working on my class, but I have it mostly together. It's going to go on a card.

So all in all, productive day yesterday! Today I am going to work with the tangle I deconstructed so that I can share it with you tomorrow.

Thursday- that means a prompt!

Good morning friends!!!!
Yesterday I played with pine cones. I think they're fascinating but I can't paint them. I really WANT to but they never turn out right. I think they are a really cool symbol of a lot of things so it's probably something you are going to see pop up in my work here and there.
Fun fact of the day...
Did you know that pine cones close up to protect their seeds when it's going to rain? So if you are ever in the woods, wondering if it's going to rain and you see a bunch of closed pine cones, chances are you are going to get wet.

Ok, so I mentioned before that I belong to a group that is doing some art journaling which is new for me, because I've always just been a sketchbook kind of girl who keeps a diary to write in. We get prompts every week to help us on our adventure.

I am mulling over this weeks so that I know where I want to dive in.

I did pick a quote for this weeks page yesterday as well. 

“Go and make interesting mistakes, make amazing mistakes, make glorious and fantastic mistakes. Break rules. Leave the world more interesting for your being here. Make. Good. Art.” ~Neil Gaiman

I think that will be a fun one to work with, I'm fantastic at making what I initially view as mistakes, that often turn out to be exactly what I end up liking best about something! I also just mess up a lot :D

I promised that on Thursdays I would come up with a prompt for you to use if you'd like, or to not.... entirely up to you!

Today, I'd like to encourage you to find a "mistake" in your creative world and change it. Maybe it's a drawing/painting you discarded some time ago, perhaps a technique that you gave up on... a dinner you burnt several times...

Something. Whatever you thought of when you read my little prompt there, that's the thing you should think about working on today!

So, once you have your mistake, how can you turn it into something besides a frustration? Zentangle likes to say there are no mistakes... one of the hardest concepts for me to grasp when I see something on my page that I don't love, but let's embrace it and find a way to turn it into something amazing!

I have a piece of paper that I was going to make a mandala on, I don't know why I kept it because nearly my first mark, my pen exploded. 

It'll be fun to see what I can make out of that.

Something different

I have been playing with the Jamberry Nail design studio to create some fun nail wraps. I signed up to be a consultant because beta test for consultants seemed like a fabulous idea to me.... and even though it's open to everyone, I stayed on as a rep and just haven't done much with it. The fun part though is I just teamed up with another CZT (Hi Denise! Denise Henkle Owen who just started her Jamberry business) to really dig in and play with some Zentangle Inspired nail designs. So, since I got sidetracked on that, I thought I'd share with you. A lot of these are images from paint palettes, playing with watercolors,etc as I learn what I'm doing.

So, if you're interested in checking out our facebook group where we'll start posting our designs, please do! It's Tangleberry Designs!  and we're happy to have any artists that want to share designs or get some input or help on theirs or even just check out what we are doing join us. 

It's fun to step outside the box once in a while and try something completely new!