Just in time for the Holidays!

Just in time for the holidays my Countdown to Christmas coloring book is available on my etsy shop
Here
and also on my website
Here.

Sneak peek, collage. 

I'll have some hard copies available in my studio as well and if there is a call for it, in my etsy shop next weekend. 

Thanks for all the support everyone! 

Progress on the fandom sneakers

I've been working on the #onedozenfandom sneakers this morning. I find myself getting lost in these. I could work on them for hours. Which is why my post is up later than usual for the second day in a row.

I'll need to clean the grommets off but I wanted full coverage on this section.

Welcome to Night Vale and the galaxy background for Doctor Who

Galaxy and Night Vale

The other Welcome to Night Vale designs and the Supernatural Anti-possession Symbol

This shows the fade behind the symbol better, it's a dark gray to make the black pop. 

RWBY

I'm deciding on my the giveaway for this month.... any suggestions? Anything you'd really like?

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 :)

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!

Shameless Self Promotion Tuesday!

I don't know if I've shared this, because the original purpose of my blog was to keep myself creating, not to self-promote. Today I'm going to break that rule, because, well..I'm trying to get my Etsy shop really going somewhere. I don't know if any of you knew that, so I'm trying to spread the word about my shop but I don't want to be all spammy on here so I'm going to try and limit how often I talk about selling stuff. I'm always going to share my artwork, because it's what I do, and this blog is ABOUT my creative process, but I don't want to constantly be asking you to come buy things from me.

Today though, I am going to ask if you don't already, if you'd consider liking my facebook page, and if you are an etsy shopper if you would consider clicking "Favorite" on my shop. Also, if you wouldn't mind passing my link along to anyone you think would enjoy my artwork I'd really appreciate it.

I have added a few things and I hope you like them.

• Shops with more "favorites" are much more likely to get hits, hits equal sales and sales mean that I have more money to buy more art supplies which keeps me happy. 
• These kids of mine... sheesh, they are all about the eating. Did you know that a 13 year old boy can eat ENTIRE pizzas in one sitting? That makes them hard to keep in pizza so pizza money is helpful!
• I like seeing my artwork on people, or in their homes or anywhere really. It makes me happy. 

Ok, so that's that. 

Here are my links, gonna make this super easy! 

Etsy

Facebook

Instagram

Pinterest

I don't know how to use Tumblr, but my daughter is going to teach me, she said that especially my nerdy stuff needs to be on there. So, that'll be another project for another day. 

Now, I'm going to open my blog up to all of you today. Post in the comments. PLEASE!

Go ahead. Promote yourself. Tell us why you rock. Share your blog, pinterest, your instagram, your etsy, your facebook page, your twitter, your EVERYTHING! And then go look at what else has been shared, there are some amazingly creative people that visit my blog. Maybe they have something you want, maybe they will turn into a friend, maybe it's raining and your house too and you could use a fun day of looking at creations!

Spammy isn't always bad. 

I haven't forgotten about you! Template 1-Grow a Garden!

So I thought long and hard about what I wanted to do as my next challenge, I didn't want to give you an outline or a string, I didn't want to limit the type of artwork and I didn't want to be doing something that anyone else is.
 I welcome feedback on the idea and I know it seems really simplistic, future ones I'll make a little more detailed but your finished project doesn't NEED to be it can be whatever you want it to be. I hope you like this idea and concept and if you do I'll do more of these, if not, I'll come up with something else!
Please note... There are no prizes for this challenge, but I hope you'll play anyway!

So here is the template for this week.  I call it "Grow a Garden" and this is what it looks like. Please use the link, don't try and print from the pic.

Huh? Is that what you're thinking? Well... ok, a little more info for you. I don't like taking creativity away from people and everyone has their own methods, styles, etc so I wanted to give you something that would force you to incorporate something small into what you are doing while still being "you" in your artwork. So take the template, add to it, using pens, markers, paints, chalk, whatever you want and show me what you've got. Turn it any way you like, there is no right or wrong to this!
Please upload by next Friday.  I'll have mine up probably tomorrow.

OK, here's mine! It's a little chaotic, but I was kind of going for that. It's been that kind of week!

Happy Father's Day!

I finished the guitar early this morning. I'm tired. LOL

I was going to post the finished pictures and the story and everything today, but I really want him to see it first.
I was going to post a pic of the card at least, but I'd already sealed it.
I'm batting 1000 today, but hey... it's done and hopefully he'll love it.

I didn't want to wait to put up the post until later so I am going to put this here and I'll post everything I was going to post today... tomorrow.
Except this. Happy Father's Day to all the Dad's out there, especially the ones in my life.

Art prompt for today is... Family.
Do something creative with your family, or for your family.

We're halfway through the challenge! I'm proud of all of you!

Have a great day everyone!

Week 1 is over!

Remember how I said everything had to be posted by Sunday night? It's because today, my project was to give you this.


It's a showcase of the artwork submitted by everyone this past week and I really hope you enjoy it. That amount of creativity and amazing stuff was fantastic and I love to see what everyone is doing.



I tried to get everyone in here, if yours is not here for some reason, shoot me an email at whimsybykelly@gmail.com and I'll make sure to add it to next weeks when I do that one. There were a couple that lead to nowhere.


So that's my creative thing for today... my prompt for you today is to find something in there that inspired you, whatever it is and use it to create something new. If you can't get to it today, then sometime this week.

The rules remain simple.

• Create something. Doesn't matter what. Just do it.
• Post your creation 
• Put your direct link in the linkey thing
• Leave me a comment. 
• Be nice

Past due entries may be posted up until the Sunday of that week, otherwise they can't count. You can still link them but that's the cut off for the video and the contest.

Let's have fun this week!