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!

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!

Post it Holder Project!

Today I thought I'd share the directions for a fun little activity we added to Midsummer Tangle the other day.

Tangled Post it Holder

Post it holders:

·         Cardstock 3½x 8

·         1-2 tiles (our choice)

·         1 pack of post its

·         Pencil (Zentangle®are perfect size) or small gel pen

·         Coordinating scrap paper

o   2 strips each about 1½ in long x ½” wide

Score and fold in 3 ¾” from each side of your card stock

Glue the edges of your scrap paper (can use cardstock) together to make 2 loops

(fit to the size of your pencil or gel pen)

Glue to front and back of your post it holder (outside)

Attach a completed tile on the front and back (which will secure your holders)

Stick post its or other tiles inside. 

I may have made some other stuff this weekend too. 

Midsummer Tangle weekend!

Now getting ready for another great day with amazing ladies!

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!

Zentangle 101

I love Zentangle 101 classes!!!! Look at the beautiful art they created!!!!

Tile one mosaic

Our second tiles

Diving in to Tints on Tan!

So yesterday I spent part of the day working on the guitar... (pictures to come tomorrow after I do more) and then I discovered that a package I'd been waiting for had been delivered.
TWO DAYS EARLY!!!
I was so excited.
It's my Tints on Tan kit by Deckel Designs. (Seaside Edition)
OOhhh how exciting. For those of you who don't know...
Tints on Tan™ is a technique developed by Marty Deckel using Prismacolored pencils to produce soft tins of color on Renaissance tiles. The Tints on Tan "Seaside Edition" was introduced this past March at Ogunqui Tangle (A Tangle retreat in Ogunquit, ME... which I am so jealous I wasn't at by the way!)
The kit came with everything, pens, marker, colored pencils, Renaissance tiles, shells, a gorgeous mat for my finished piece (I didn't use it yet because I want to play more) and  8 pages of instructions... it was amazing.
The kits are the collaborative work of Marty Deckel and Jenny Perruzzi. Sadly, the seaside kits are all sold out but they have a fall kit in the works for th eend of August, beginning of September and I've already signed up for the notification, because I will need it.
Here is my first tile using these new techniques. I can see a few places I'd like to have done something different, but parts of it I really love.

Not too bad for a first start!
Now I think you already know that I wanted a beachy feel to the studio.

See the shells that came with??!! 

Fits right in!  I am going to have these ALL over the place, you know that right?
So that's how I spent my Saturday night.
What did you do?
Make something awesome?

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?

A bit about Tangling

So many mornings I pop up my little piece of creativity and hope that it encourages and inspires you to take a few minutes out of every day and come up with something creative, whatever that may be or mean to you. Creativity fuels creativity and adds so much to life. My little gift to you is hopefully the push that you will use YOUR gifts to enrich your life.

Today I want to talk about tangling. That's what I did this morning. I took less than 5 minutes, I sat down with my cup of tea, I focused myself and I tangled. I used the time to reflect on my day, and on my creativity challenge and how far we've come! I'm so proud of each and every one of you that has joined me on this journey.
See my little bijou? Isn't it cute? They're so perfect for morning tangling!!!

As you can tell I come to this with some art background and I've had people ask me "Why Zentangle? What is it about Zentangle that you love so much?"

As a CZT my brain kind of goes into overdrive when I hear that because there is SO MUCH I want to share with EVERYONE about it, because I've seen amazing results with literally every student I've worked with....
I like Zentangle because it let's me share.
It lets me take a few minutes  create something beautiful, while calming myself as well.. or it lets me take a couple of hours and open up a whole new world to someone who never thought they were artistic.

Trust me when I say that ANYONE can do this. Anyone.

If you are the type that tells me you draw lousy stick figures, that makes me happy because it means I am about to open a new door for you, one that you may not visit often, or that may become a new favorite destination, but one that will allow you to see that this IS something that you can do.
I love to watch someone's eyes light up when they hold their tile out at arms length for the first time and see that THEY DID THAT. They made that beautiful piece of art they are holding in their hand.

There are some that didn't love what they did at first, but they trusted and continued, or they put it aside... and yet every single one has told me that when they took it out later, they were amazed at what they had made.

Perfectionists take a bit of time to realize that this is an art that allows you to embrace the parts of you that make you unique. That yours SHOULDN'T look like mine any more than your handwriting should be a mirror of anyone else's. It should be exclusively yours and part of what makes it beautiful.

I love tangling because it lets what's in you shine out.... all while coming together piece by piece. It's like growth and life and discovery in a tile no bigger than your hand.

If you haven't tangled yet... you should. :) I'd love to share it with you. If you are far... well, let me encourage and inspire you and if you want help finding someone to teach you in your area, let me know. I can probably hook you up.

Remember. You are awesome. Whatever you make is awesome.
Trust in that.

Renaissance Tile

Super quick post today so you know I didn't forget about you!

Hope you're all having an amazing weekend filled with fun things!

Newsletter time!

Today's creativity is once again mostly the invisible kind...
I'm working on my Zentangle® newsletter.
If you would like to sign up, you can do that here NEWSLETTER SIGN UP.

It'll come out sort of monthly. LOL I say sort of because while it would be nice to send one every month I want to make sure it's worth getting.
I plan on putting some tips, step outs, some video stuff, pictures of classes, things like that.
I want it to be a newsletter that even the people that aren't local will enjoy!
Of course it will also have class listings and local events as well.

So that's what I'm working on today. It's always creative work being a CZT. I love it so much!

Tangle time!

Just getting back to the basics of tangling always leaves me feeling refreshed. I love the crisp black lines against a white tile, the shading for definition or depth, the elegance of limits.
So relaxing.

Some new tiles, nothing too complicated to kick off my weekend. I have a lot going on the next few days so I'll probably have some super short "not real posts" but I'm still here and I'm still checking in!
I did buy my new website so I'll finish redesigning that soon.  I believe the blog piece will be staying intact and just linking from there, but I'm not sure. I'll keep you posted as I go, but I'm not going anywhere!