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!

Just playing with my supplies!

However you choose to create, whatever you decide to do, it should be fun. I don't even know if this is finished, but I had so much fun doing the watercolor pencil play at the bottom!
Then I went back added in some penwork, threw on some marker and said. Hmmm.. I kind of like it!
It's not my usual style, but who knows, it might not be done!

I've been so busy lately that I've been worried about hitting a creative block, so whenever it seems like it might happen I have been making a point to sit, draw and just chill.

I also am trying very hard to make time for reading. I've been neglecting my reading for pleasure a lot the last year or so and I miss it.
So with that said any book recommendations for me?
I used to read at least a book a week, can't tell you how long it's been since I've done that!

Hope your day is wonderful!

Playing with paradox

HAPPY MONDAY!!!!
I don't use paradox very often but I do like the way it turns out when I do it!

Today I have a few things to get photos of, that'll be my creative project for the day today I think!
I need to create a plan, I have so many ideas in my head that I need to organize myself to get stuff done!

What are you working on this week?

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!

Finished!

Yesterday was one of those days where it was pretty hard to get motivated to get things done and that's ok. 

Way back when I first issued the challenge I said it was ok to only do a little bit of something, to just do it. :)

So yesterday I did not get much done and I had to remind myself to give myself permission for that. 

What I did do was finish the Zendala I started over the weekend and wasn't quite happy with.

Often my students will have a tile that they stare at and voice their unhappiness with. I tell them... you know, most art ends up going through an awkward teenage stage. What I find when that happens to me, is that if I put it away and look at a picture of it (not looking directly at it though) often it will tell me what it needs.

Yesterday was a perfect example. Yesterday, I posted the picture of the Zendala I made on Saturday here. It was one of the pieces I liked the IDEA of more than the piece itself... I knew it would morph into what it was supposed to be eventually so I didn't worry too much. Yesterday as I was proofreading my post I looked at it again through the screen and it was very clear.

So that was my creativity yesterday. I took my Zendala and finished it. 

What it needed was to be much bolder than I had made it. When we made this using my lotus pattern string, we all volunteered a pattern and they were harder to make work together than we'd thought. Apparently, we all like round!
So this has one we are calling 61, Flux,, Printemps, FuGu and Ennies.

What it needed was to be much bolder than I had made it originally in order to pop.

So there weren't many changes made but the ones that were made a huge difference and now I like it. 

:)
Today will be much more creative I have a million ideas 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!

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! 

Diva challenges 175& 176

I was a couple weeks behind on these, but I'm caught up now. 

175 was to use Cruz.

The UMT's usually (Use my tangles) are always a true challenge for me, but I always learn something new.

For this one I decided to go with all grid style patterns and then use a thicker than usual line to kind of unify it. I like how it turned out, but it doesn't feel like anything special. 

The next one is 176, and was a challenge by her guest blogger, Amy. It was to "BYOB" and stain your paper with your beverage.
YAY! TEA!
So I dripped tea on it, it made some cool splashes and I liked that part all by itself! Then I tangled on it using my sepia pens and then to continue with the "something different" theme I added a quote.
One of my all time FAVORITE quotes actually.

I am in love with this one. I know it's messy and not even and I could do a much better version, but I love it. (Is it ok to be in love with your own work?)

Here it is. 

Day 19- Monotangles

Sometimes I like just working with 1 pattern. My original inspiration for this was a picture of a box of ribbon candy. It reminds me of my Gramma and that always puts a smile on my face. I found a tangle pattern that I've used in the past that looked like ribbon candy and thought I'd just go with it. Instead this reminds me of bees or mummies. I'm not sure why. Not quite what I was going for but I think it's visually interesting.

Today's art prompt...
Find inspiration in a piece of candy. I'm often inspired by candy. Some of my favorite pieces have ended up reminding me of tasty treats! If you have to eat it to be inspired, that's ok too!