Video time!

So this is my most recent creation.
I like video and I've been playing with it so that I can teach some basic techniques.

This is more about showcasing some work, but there will be more to come!

So I hope you are working on something fun and awesome.
Tomorrow's post will be very early because I am going to be participating in our local chalkfest so I won't be home in the morning, but I'll get the post made before I go!

Hardly a real post today!

I've been doing a lot of behind the scenes work but I did finally finish this one to finish up my botanical series!

I'm currently taking a webinar so today is kind of going to be a short post.
I hope you do some awesome stuff today! And have fun with it!

Ah... new students!

Yesterday, I was getting ready to leave for my class, a Zentangle 101 class and my daughter said "Have a great class Mom as I was putting things in my bag"
I smiled and said, "They're brand new! It's a 101 class! NEWBIES!!!" and was thinking about how much I love putting the pens and tiles in the hands of beginners. I love the way they light up. It makes me so happy to share this with them and all of a sudden my daughter says, "Have fun changing people's lives tonight!"
It was a little corny, and it was a little silly but it made me tear up a bit too.... because sometimes it really does change people's lives.
I took an informal survey in one of the Zentangle groups I am an admin for, asking "how has Zentangle® changed your life?" and I ended up with 8 solid pages of stories. Hundreds of people shared with me how they never felt artistic before, or how it helped them to cope with loss or pain and illness.
This is something REALLY special
So last night, I had 5 students in my class. I'm going to share with you a couple things I heard that I've heard in some variation before that really hit me last night.
"I've never shaded before"
"Oh! I like it!"
"I DREW that!"
"Shading like this doesn't stress me out"
"This was so much fun!"
"I can see myself doing this next time I <fill in the blank>."

And that is why I adore brand new classes. It's fun and exciting to teach the more varied Zentangle inspired art classes, that feeds other pieces of me... but the pen in hand of a new student is a special moment.

Here are mosaics of their beautiful work! Aren't they gorgeous?

As always people liked different patterns, felt they were better at some than others, but that's ok! That's part of what makes taking a class so much fun!

Today I have no idea what I'm going to do. I'll figure it out in a little while, but right now, I'm just kind of wishing I could teach a group of new people every day!

Handmade paper jewelry

My last batch of jewelry was very popular and because of that I made some more!

I think this set is my favorite

They're not quite done but they should be by tonight!
Hope you have a great day!

Tangles, tangles and more Zentangle art!

This morning getting my zen on with a cup of tea

I did get a better shot though...
It's not as cute with the tea but you can see the tile better

Flux, Mi2 and my pattern Brrrst

Yesterday I tangled out on the patio all afternoon. It was very relaxing.. and yay summer! These two were done using Sonya Yencer's shadow technique that she taught at Midsummer Tangle.

Pokeleaf, rixty

Mooka

And then I did this one using some of my favorite drama tangles!

Finery, Striping, Bunzo, Printemps, Marasu

Today will pretty much be spent doing some organizing and maybe a little bit more tangling. 

Goofy dinos!

Yesterday was a fun family day. So while I did do some creating, it wasn't of the traditional sort really.
My friend Elena introduced me to a fun app called Jurassiac Paint a week or so ago (it's free). Yesterday I spent some time taking a lot of pictures of the yards to use as inspiration pieces for my botanical watercolors when it hit me.
These are dinosaur habitats.
Soooooooo.........
I spent some time placing dinos in my photos.
I know. I'm a total nerd.

There were a few moments of concern when my adorable niece (who's less than 2) looked at my phone, then stared at the yard with concern. So we went on an adventure and I let her create the one in the top left corner.
The look of complete delight when she realized that it was pretend and that SHE had made it made it all worthwhile!
So some silliness but sometimes you need that and boy was it fun!

Watercolors

I struggle with watercolors, but I've been playing with my watercolor pencils a lot lately.
Here's something that will go in my sets of cards.

Today some of my pieces of Zentangle pottery go up for sale at the Glen Park art festival where my friend Sara of Goldhawk Pottery is participating. It's pretty exciting!

I hope you have a wonderful weekend and that you are doing something great.
My brother is making me my birthday dinner tonight. YAY for birthday dinner!

Do something awesome today ok?

Cross Country Clearprint project

TGIF!!! I hope you have a great weekend planned!
So today I want to tell you about this thing I did.
I signed up and was selected to participate in the Cross Country Clearprint Project.
There are 10 books out there, I got to complete a page and part of the cover and send it back for inclusion. It's pretty cool.
Anyway, this was my piece for it, I finished it this morning.

I really like the book, I didn't know if I would or not, vellum an be tricky but this was a lot of fun. It tangled differently than most of my other mediums but it didn't smudge. I look forward to playing more in my book.

Sneak peek!

This is really exciting! We were so excited that we couldn't wait, so Sara of Goldhawk Pottery took a quick shot in the kiln for me! Keep watching our pages for more! 

There will be more pics to come, and I have a ton of other things to share with you but I couldn't wait to show you!

Zentangle inspired Pottery

col·lab·o·ra·tion

kəˌlabəˈrāSH(ə)n/

noun

1. 1.

   the action of working with someone to produce or create something.

So I have been dying to share some of this with you. When you have a friend who is a very talented potter and you are looking for something cool to do, sometimes you get to collaborate on something awesome.

I have some work in progress pictures for you. The final pieces will be done sometime tomorrow so I'll probably be sharing them on Friday morning. 

But the other day my friend Sara (who is also the Captain of our Buffalo Etsy team) brought some beautiful pieces of handmade pottery from her studio Goldhawk Pottery and let me go wild.

Here are the results so far. 

It's so different than using pens, my hand is tired but it was so much fun! I had 7 pieces and then some little practice magnets too.

I wish I had taken a closer picture of this one.I used a stacked method of tangling on it and I like it a lot.

This was all one piece, I just wanted pictures of all of it.

 Simple... but fun and I love the way it turned out actually!

This piece of pottery is just gorgeous. So smooth, the lines were amazing, so we didn't want to add much to it. My favorite tangle around the rim seemed to be all it needed.

I wanted to try a few different techniques so everything is a little different. There's a learning curve, but how fun to try something brand new!

This is my favorite. I just love the way it turned out and the white almost looks like lace.

Oh, these were the practice pieces. 

So now they've been dipped in a turquoise glaze and they're back in the kiln for a 2nd firing and will be ready tomorrow.
I can't wait. I'm so excited!I feel like a little kid waiting for Christmas!

I hope you are having a great week, making awesome art and having a wonderful time doing it. I can't believe summer is flying by so fast!

Different taste

Sometimes I create something and I post it and people love it and I'm confused by it.
I may or may not love it, but for some reason, other people do.
I'm ok with it, it just confuses me! LOL
This was a perfect example.

So sometimes it's fun to do something different. I was mostly just playing with my pencils.
Do you ever do things that are out of your comfort zone?
Do you like them or does it surprise you?

Skyline series

I have been working on these for a while, and I'm very happy to say that the first is completely done and will be being made into limited edition reproductions as well as notecards. I have 52 others so far that are in my artist queue so other areas will be popping up soon if you are interested in somewhere specific shoot me a message and I'll add it.

Here are close ups of each, notice that I had to watermark them in more than one spot. I'm disappointed to say that I've had people try and pass things off as their own on more than one occasion lately.
:\ Not cool people.

See it on etsy!

See it on etsy

See it on Etsy!

See it on Etsy!

See it on Etsy!

I hope you are working on something great and I'd love to see it!

Paint with water...

Do you remember Paint with Water books?
The old ones, the good ones. The ones like these

Not the ones that they have now which are not the same at all but the ones that actually worked, that you could use to actually paint with water. I used to love them.
I have the cutest little niece in the world. Seriously, she is. And she loves, loves, loves water so I've been thinking she needs some of these books, but sadly they no longer seem to exist.

So I'm making her some.
She's only 1½ so I may have gotten a little too intricate on this one.

I'm sure she'll have fun with it anyway.. but I think she'll like this one better.

So I'll let you know how they work out, preliminary tests have gone well.

Graduation party was awesome yesterday, I'm really tired (which is why I'm later with this than planned)
I hope your weekend is as beautiful as mine is and that you are making lots of stuff!

Feeling purple!

It's graduation party weekend!
So I was happy these were done and I have NO WORK this weekend. :D

I love the way they turned out and hope the recipient does too!

What are you working on this weekend?