Zentangle spiral string

Today's creative was to complete the Diva's challenge #210. I like when I get to these, especially when I get to them early and they don't get lost in the shuffle of my week. It's a great way to start my creative plans off for the week.
This morning I saw we were to use spirals as our string.. one of my favorite challenges from her.
I adore spirals and it makes me realize how far I've come, because one of my very first challenges was to use a spiral.

Here is this weeks.

And this was my "then" tile.. I don't remember which number challenge this was, but I still like this one too!

I might do another one later in the week and use some Zendala tiles to do it.

What are you working on today? How many of you spend your Mondays on the diva challenge?

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. :)

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.

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.

Day 6!!! (Is it starting to feel like a habit?)

28 days make a habit, but I find that things start to get easier for me after about a week. We're on day 6, and it's beginning to slip into my daily activity to make sure that I at least have some time carved out to be creative.
 I have a couple new sneaker orders to work on so I'll be posting pics of those in the upcoming days! I need to finish some ideas for some upcoming classes and of course my daily calendar! Today so far has just been a quick card for a friend so I can get it in the mail asap and then I'll work on my other stuff! It felt like a day for bright and cheery wishes!

What about you? What do you have on your list of things to do today?

 

Day 3, What will you make today?

I didn't get a lot of time to create yesterday so today, and I haven't yet this morning. So far the only thing I feel like making is a cup of tea!
BUT...  Today, I'm going to start on a project I'm very excited about! I'll have some work in progress shots over the next few days along with some smaller projects here and there. I wanted to get the post up for you, so I haven't been creative yet today.
At some point I also need to work on getting together my studio space. It's lacking. I haven't decided if that counts as a creative project in my own mind or not.... DECORATING it will be, but the actual pulling things together sounds more like work than creating to me.

Today seems like a good day to show you a project I just recently finished. It hasn't been "unveiled" anywhere yet, but I'm really happy with it. It was a gift that had been ordered for Christmas, 1 of 4 custom bags for the kids of a friend. She gave me a list of their likes and dislikes and basically told me to create.

They were happy with them. This one was my favorite, but I have a soft spot for Toothless anyway. :)

Now... 

I have to go clean a banjo and I'll be back with you later! 

What are you going to make today? 

#WhimsybyKelly2015 Challenge- Begin as you mean to go on

Good morning!!!! Happy New Year!

"Begin as you mean to go on...."
I don't know who said it historically... or if they even did, but probably a lot of people did, I'm sure there's a meaningful quote, but I don't need to look it up, because I know who said it to me. 

Two teachers said it to me, oddly enough not at the same time and neither was an art teacher.
Mr. Feltges taught English and Mr. Starr was my drama teacher. Both left a lasting impression.
In fact, those are some of the wisest words ever spoken to me I think. 

Set out to begin things that way you mean to continue them, let others and yourself know what your standards and expectations are, do it the way you plan on doing it RIGHT FROM THE START.
It's almost the start of a new year.
"Begin as you mean to go on... "
So while I won't be setting any actual resolutions, I will be making conscious choices, especially today and in the next couple of days or so as to how I want and expect my life to go for the next year and in general going forward. Somehow not looking at it as a resolve, but looking at the choices as a new direction makes all the difference for me.

How are you going to start the beginning of your new year? Will you begin as you mean to go on?

I plan to focus on my creativity and my positivity this year, which is one of the reasons I started this challenge. 

So, let's BEGIN.

Today is the 1st. A brand new year, a brand new start. Our brand new journey on this challenge. Thanks for joining me, and welcome! 

A few extra details that weren't in yesterday's post (I'll go in and add them as an edit so everything is in one place for reference)
Please link directly to that day's submission, not just your blog or your pinterest. Specific url makes my life much easier. :)
I added it yesterday but it bears repeating, keep it clean. I am ok with some nudity if your art calls for it, art is art but anything pornographic will be deleted. I reserve the right to decide what is porn. (I'm pretty liberal, but there may be some kids participating, let's make it comfortable for everyone)

Make friends here! Visit one another's links, take a peek at what they are creating! BE INSPIRED!

Please use #whimsybykelly2015 if you are sharing on twitter, instagram, facebook, G+ that way I can search that # and if it's visible I can find it!
You can go back and add art to a previous day ANY time you want to during the year but after that week I won't "count" it towards any monthly prizes. It's just too hard to keep track. It will still count towards any yearly prizes though and it also gives you bragging rights.

Works in progress count. Don't feel you have to finish something to be able to post it. But don't keep posting something that doesn't show progress. :)

I am going to try and put my post up every morning before 9 some days it might include my art... some days it might tell you what I'm going to do.
Some days there may be a prompt... but I only promise one prompt per week (on Thursdays) and even then it's going to be pretty vague. I am not looking to direct your art, I want to be here to encourage you to create. Look for a prompt on Thursdays.

 I don't really want to work ahead of all of you, but I'm considering working 1 day ahead so that I have something to show you. Here is something I have finished to end 2014. It's a reminder to me to focus on things that are important and it's my first ever Opus tile (10x10) which is awesome because I love working in that size, so having Zentangle® tiles in that size made me really happy.  

I have 2 brand new "New Year Projects" that I am starting today though, so I wanted to start them on the 1st, so I'll be working on these today. 

Carole Ohl's Tangle a day 2015 calendar (which you can buy here if you are interested)

and

An art journal I am working on with other CZTs. This is  a Mixed Media travelbook by Cachet. Hopefully I'll like it, I've not used it yet. :D 

Alright, Let's do this.

Your prompt? 

Begin. 

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!

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!

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! 

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!

Last week we grew gardens, this week let's build houses!

I had fun with the template I put out there for you last week and it looks like a few other people did too! YAY! That's the whole point right?
Anyway, I have a new one for you.... this time, let's BUILD A HOUSE!

It almost looks like a face.. lol. You can turn the page any way you'd like and I can't wait to see your creations!

Download the template from here.. TEMPLATE

And then come back next week and share your link in the Mr Linkey thingey.

And here's mine!

I look forward to hearing what you think about these challenges!