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.

Happy Friday!

I am working on a new guitar. Well, the guitar isn't new, it's used and well loved, but I'm working on customization of the guitar.

So this is the start I made the other day.

First marks. These are temporary

Then I covered it in a circular pattern, all temporary.  I forgot to take any pictures of that, and then the tangling begins

I haven't gotten very far but my hope is to have it done over the weekend.
The hardest part for me so far on this is whether to add color. 

I also have a pair of sneakers to share with you, they've been done for a while but the owner hadn't seen them yet so I waited. 

I hope you have great plans this weekend and that you make something awesome. 

Zendala

Sometimes when I tangle I hit a point in it where I just am not sure. When that happens, I put it away for a bit, sometimes overnight and then pull it out to finish it.

This one was set aside for quite sometime, what with opening the studio, etc I just didn't pick it back.
But then I did and I was able to see what it needed where I hadn't before. I'm never sure why it works that way but it always does.

I firmly believe you can't force art. It comes when it comes. I think that's why I have my fingers in so many mediums... because sometimes I'm inspired by one thing and some moments I'm inspired by others.
So the best thing for me to do is what I love. Create. Create something EVERY day.
I wish I could find where to get this, it's obviously a tshirt. I tried pretty hard to track down the originator but it wasn't come up anywhere... and I used a few different methods.
If I find it, I'll post because I plan on buying 2. One for me and one to give away here on the blog, but so far no luck.

Either way it's pretty awesome and I love it.

I hope you have a great day and that you do something fun and awesome.

Late post today...

Sometimes I get caught up in what I'm doing and things don't get posted when I want them to. Today was one of those mornings!

I put the final coat of varnish on a pair of bridal sneakers that are going out tonight or tomorrow morning (depending on drying time) and got a ton of stuff organized at the studio.

In between all of that I worked on this, which is a work in progress, but I am happy with how it's coming, I especially like the tangles in the middle. It's pretty significant in size, I was going to center the picture more but I thought the edge of the flowers gave it a bit of perspective.  I think it's about 14" across

So what are you working on today? I can't wait to see! (Can you believe we are in our 6th month!?!?!)

Mandala

I finished my mandala for the art auction.

I'm pretty happy with it, the shading looks cooler in person than it does in the pictures (which is odd, it's usually the other way around)

Today I am going to do some work in the studio, so that will be a different kind of creative. :) 

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

P.ink work in progress

This is a project I've been working on for a local charity art auction. I'm doing chalk art as well as donating for Wasted Space Tattoo Shop's Open House and Silent Art Auction. (You can find their fb here)
It benefits P.ink who's goal is to connect breast cancer survivors with tattoo artists who can provide a form of healing that no one else can. Tattoos are a personal form of expression and whether you are for or against body art you have to love an organization that helps women to celebrate and feel beautiful. They say on their page Breast Cancer doesn't have to leave the last mark and I think that's perfect and deserves support.
So I am in my own small way.

This is my pink mandala for breast cancer awareness in progress. I'll share the completed one probably next weekend when it's on display and being auctioned off. It's being dropped off tonight or tomorrow and I'll let them show it first. :)

It's really sooo pretty! I can't wait for you to see it!

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!

Valendala

I was so happy to see that Erin at The Bright Owl is back with her Zendala challenge! I combined that this week with Laura's Diva challenge  which was to make a Valentangle.
I turned mine into a Valendala

Zendala Dare #95 with Diva Dare #204-Valentangle

Perfect because yesterday I held a Valentine's day workshop, which was a lot of fun!
Class was small due to weather but we made some cool stuff.
A little card, some bijou tiles and a frame to hold the tiles!

I've also been busy working on a new pair of converse, and trying to get my pictures to look better. If anyone happens to be a great photographer I'd love some input!

It's ok to share things you are still working on!

Sometimes we have projects that take a while, well... at least I do.
If you are so inclined, please feel free to post those as your creative, it doesn't mean you aren't creative if you didn't finish!

I was thinking I might start doing some Vine videos of tangle patterns if you're interested, let me know what you think in the comments! Maybe 1 per week?
Today, it's not in Vine form but paper, I wanted to share with you my new tangle. I call it Away-sis and it was inspired by a small patch of green leafy foliage.
It looks a bit like Quandry (which is NOT at all Zen-like for me to create) but you get there in a completely different way.

Away-sis by Kelly Barone, CZT

Anyway here is my work in progress for your viewingtoday! Mandalas for my art journal.

I have a long way to go on it, but I'm pleased with where it is going.


Today's Bijouism is my favorite.

Inspire

Imagine the thought that I could inspire someone else to draw, when they absolutely knew they could not, no way, never, no how . . . even draw a straight line. Of course, you may never have to draw a straight line in the Zentangle Method, but I suppose you could if you wanted to. Sometimes, what I think is just a "so so" Zentangle creation, may awaken the artistry in another simply by just being there, at the right time. Imagine . . . me, Bijou, being (or should that be snailing?) an inspiration to someone else. C'est magnifique!

February rolls in with a bang!

No mistakes

At least not in creating Zentangle Art there aren't. I read that a mistake is "an action or judgment that is misguided or wrong." When I make a deliberate mark, how can it be wrong? How can it be misguided? It might reveal a new pattern or a new discovery, but I would never call it a "mistake."




I love the Bijouism's don't you? They really embody the core philosophy of Zentangle.

I've been working on my Mandala Magic project.

This is in progress... technically it was going to be done, but it tells me it's not. I have some other ideas what I want to do with it.
More to come on that.


These went out yesterday, forgive the chalk marks, I hadn't erased it when I took some of the pics.
They're created with a logo and I'm really happy with them overall.

I also tried to play with a photo adjusting program.
I don't know if I like it and I know I'm not very good at it.
Photography for my shop is something I really need to work on, any suggestions friends? Any good books?

Alright, so I guess that's all for now! I have a few things to get to. I missed the Diva challenge this week and a couple others so I might play catch up tomorrow.

Hope everyone is keeping busy (and warm!)

Is it spring yet?

Throwback Thursday!

Today's challenge is inspired by #Throwback Thursday.
I want you to think back to when you were a kid, what kind of creative activity did you love to do?
Was it crayons? Fingerpaints? Markers?
Did you like to play with chalk?
Today, do something to feed your inner munchkin. :)

I was inspired by the journal prompt I was given in my art journal group yesterday. We are supposed to cut snowflakes to remind us of our individuality. I am so excited by this idea... I LOVE papercutting and I live where it snows sometimes up to 8 months out of the year, so I am like a SNOW EXPERT.

I think I cut 100 snowflakes yesterday, plus it was a half day for my kids so it really felt like a kid-inspired day.

My journal is in progress, and you can't quite see what's going on in there yet (I'm using a lot of white on white which may not photograph so well) but I will share when that's done. For now...
A snowflake

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!