My painting featured in the 100 Mandalas 2016 Calendar!

I'm so delighted to have my hand drawn mandala painting featured in the Month of March!  You can go here to see the calendar!  Happy Happy Day!

Origami Tangled Trees!

Super cute and fun trees you can tangle and fold for the holidays.  I used a white gel pen on the green paper.  You can find the YouTube instructions here.  Enjoy!

Tic Tac Toe

This is a very simple, yet completely fun way to use your tangling sills!  Create a Tic Tac Toe board out of card stock. This is a 6 inch square of paper with a grid drawn to fit the size circle punch I had.  I tangled around the border and then punched out some circles from contrasting color cardstock and tangled away. I used the patterns nipa and florz to tangle on my "X's and O's" punch outs.

Fun Folding!

These super fun origami butterflies were so easy to make!! You can find YouTube instructions  here
or  here. Be sure to put a small binder clip at the connection where you add glue so it holds!

Recycled Water Bottle Bangles

Go grab some clear plastic liter sized water bottles from your recycling bin and make some bangles!!  Great project for kids! Find the You Tube instructions here!  I photocopied some of my completed tiles on an 8.5 x 11 piece of paper and then sliced them down to fit the bangle!  Voila!

Confessions of a bad blogger

Even though I started blogging in 2005 I have not been as consistent as I would like.  I guess 'life happens' and I fall off the wagon.  Now, it's time to get back on the horse!  Last year we moved from Philadelphia to Ohio and I started a new position as an Assistant Professor of Gerontology at Miami University.  It's a wonderful position and we are glad to be back in the mid-west.  However, the move impacted my Zentangle teaching so I have been learning some new painting techniques and thought I would share those for some 'eye candy'.  I hope to build my business back up and offer art journaling classes in addition to zentangle.  I just wanted to say hi and let you all know I'm still here, taking one stroke at a time:).  

Completed Sketchbook Project

The Sketchbook Project is a global, crowd-sourced art project and interactive, traveling exhibition of handmade books. Their mission is to allow anyone to be able to participate in art and to create a collection of work that represents the current state of artists worldwide.

The title of my book was First Aid for the Soul and here is a sneak peak at my book that will be cataloged, digitized, and go on tour later this year.  I combined zentangle, gelatin monoprints, and the quotes that get me through the day.  It was such a rewarding experience that I encourage all of you to consider participating.  You can order your sketchbook now and it will be due 1/15/15.  I'm ready to do another one!!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year Everyone!

I received this postcard from Mary Ann Scheblein-Dawson who attended the very first CZT training class!  She used the tangles Paizel, Paushalov, Flux, Fungees, Antidots, Rain, Pokeleaf, and Bales.  I love it!  Pay particular attention to how well she shaded! 

I'm also working on my sketchbook for the Sketchbook Project that I have to send in by Jan. 15th.  Here are two pages I've almost finished! 

Ornaments!

We enjoyed painting and tangling on paper mache ornaments last night.  You can really make a statement using the white pen on black (red too, but I forgot to take a picture!).  I also tried black on silver with some added rhinestones.  Just the bling needed for the holiday season!

Retreat Success!

Our first Zentangle Retreat was a huge success!  We spent the day learning several new patterns and working on pumpkin projects!  It was a chance to relax, enjoy great company, and learn some new things. In short is was really a TREAT instead of a retreat:).  Pictures below of all the amazing work by attendees.  I'm working on plans for another retreat in February - stay tuned!

The Exhibit is Up!!

Wow - it was a monumental task, but with a lot of help we were able to display all the wonderful zentangle art at the Ludington library.  This exhibit is sponsored by the Philadelphia Calligraphers' Society. 

In the first image you'll see the display cases on the right and the framed pieces hanging on the left.  There are seven display cases and I don't have images of all of them.  If you are in the Philadelphia area please stop by to see the exhibit open now through Nov. 30th. 

Thanks so much to Rose, Colette, and Bonnie for stopping by to help and to everyone who submitted work for the exhibit!!

Ludington Library           Hours Mon.-Thurs 9am-9pm; Fri. 9am-6pm Sat. 9am-5pm; Sun 12-5pm
5 South Bryn Mawr Ave
Bryn Mawr, PA 19010

Spreading Joy!

Have you ever made something and then left it in a public space for a stranger to find?  That is the premise behind the random acts of zentangle facebook page that you can find here.  I also just met Bonnie Neubauer who paints rocks using zentangle patterns, names them, and then releases them into the world. As her tag line of her website says "spreading joy one art rock at a time".  I love this idea and plan to work on some of these to "release" soon.  They make me happy and I hope they can indeed spread some joy.

Gel Monoprinting - I'm in love!

Oh boy.  There is nothing better than new art supplies.  Today a Gelli Arts Gel Printing Plate arrived at my door and my daughter and I had a good time experimenting.  I think we're going to have a lot of fun with this one!

First you add some acrylic paint to the gel plate

 

then you use a brayer to spread it out

                                 then you draw on it using anything you can find that isn't sharp

              Then you press a piece of cardstock down onto the image and Viola!  A monoprint!

 Here is one I was had to do quickly because Mia wanted to make more.....this is addictive!