New tanglers!

I taught a Zentangle 101 yesterday (I worked on other stuff too, but I love to share what's created by my classes)

We completed 2 tiles, for a total of 7 patterns.
Here's a few in progresss

My class hard at work! I had a couple and 2 sisters in this class! Such a nice group! No one had ever tangled before they were truly new to the method!

 Look how great their tiles came out!

I love the way I can see individual personalities come through in the tiles!

I also worked some on the Tangle Troves and did a little tangling of my own yesterday!
It was a very good, if very busy day!

Hope your looking forward to a fantastic weekend!

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!

Girl time! Cards and creation!

So, I made and fell in love with these super simple, and yet adorable cards. I used some papers I had from my scrapbooking stash and some die cuts and look how cute they turned out!

The front

And opened up

The front

And opened up

Ok! So the inspiration for these was actually spending the afternoon with these lovely young ladies.

Oh wait! That's not all of them!

These 4 young artists joined me in my studio for a Zentangle 101 class and the results were awesome.

Beautiful isn't it? I love to see the finished result but I also love how excited they get!

Birthday, banner and Butterflies

I'm feeling a little tired, not even going to try to hide it. Today will be a day for mostly catching my breath and making some lists I think.

First off, I'd like to give Kudos to the Physics department of my daughters school for their creativity in designing a program that lets them spend a day at the local amusement park "for science" by giving them a packet about roller coasters to observe. :D Excellent! Making science fun should always be a thing.

Yesterday I taught an amazing group of kids to tangle for a birthday party. How much fun is that?

Looking at the mosaic of their work

Look at how AMAZING their art is! We did them on small canvases. 

Their first tangles. 

Then we made a small starry night garden. 

Everyone had fun and there were cupcakes too! 

Then afterwards, something exciting happened at the studio. 

I have signage!

You can see the colors better in this picture but it still doesn't do it justice. I'll be a better one later this week. 

Oh! These were on my timehop. :) Since they were from so long ago they never made it to my blog and I find butterflies to be AMAZING inspiration.
These were from the island of Minadano in the Philippines. Aren't they beautiful?

Today I'm going to finish a small tangle project to share with you and I'm not sure what else.
I do know I'm going to make and finish some tea. Lots of it.... but otherwise, it's kind of up in the air!

What are you doing today?

Last night's Zendala class

I have been pretty busy making lots of samples and designs to add to my Zendala collection for the class I had last night. I've posted a few but not really close up because I didn't want to give away anything for my students who might have been peeking.

Here are some of my recent pieces.

The one I struggled with the most? The teaching one. It's just too big for the paper :)

So last night I had 6 amazing ladies for this Zendala class. It was so much fun!!!
I want to show some of the work in progress of my students.. .

And completed

And now onto tile 2.... where they learned to create a Lotus mandala and then we tangled it together!

 And again... complete!

I had so much fun with this class and I'm considering putting together a Zendala series so that we can delve deeper into these in the future.

The fun part is that none of these students have taken more than 2 classes with me! Aren't they amazing? :D

Today, I'm going to drink some tea and plan out 5 pairs of sneakers that I'll be working on this weekend. The creative part of that isn't very visual, but might actually be the hardest part. :)
It's going to be so much fun! (My first pair of bridal sneakers are in this batch!!!)

So enjoy your Friday, do something awesome, make something amazing and if you've got big plans and I don't see you til Monday, have a great weekend!