Zentangle® Tile #10

Feeling rather whimsical!  I was going thru some stencils I had looking for an art journal moment of inspiration and instead I got a Zentangle® moment of inspiration…!  I got this set of paper stencils sold by Plaid® and there was my cute little mushroom.  A grabbed it along with an “Apprentice” Zentangle tile and this is the result of my detour inspiration.

    Tangles used:


      Bubbles  
      Hollybaugh  -  Zentangle®
      Leafvine
      Antz  -  Sandra Brandli
      Fiore – Jona Rogers
      Zig-Zag  -  Suzanne McNeil

Notes:

• I started with tracing the stencil and adding the circles and the middle of the mushroom to give a more correct shape and look.  I then used different tangles to decorate the top and middle of the mushroom; hollybaugh, Zig-Zag, and bubbles.
• The leaf vine follows.  Filled the bottom with it as if it was spreading.  They were colored in “peacock grees’ using a Prismacolor® colored pencil.
• The last touch were the ants.  I saw the steps for this tangle I have been dying to use it for a while so while creating the vine I thought this was a good place to put those cute little critters.

This tile took about 40 minutes while watching “Grimm” the TV series.  Love that show!  Well hope you like it and as always thank you for visiting and never stop searching for your creative joy!

Wonderingmindfield

Zentangle® Class

Just a quick blog regarding a Zentangle® class I took with Emily Glasson, CZT from Lowell, MA.  Emily is a charming and enthusiastic certified teacher with great talent and I had a very nice time

taking her class.  I created this two tiles during the class and it really remind me how great it is to create tangles on the official Zentangle® tile.
 
In a lot of my recent art I have been using other types of papers and I really missed working on the official tiles.  The paper is such good quality and the tiles look so sharp and smooth.  My reason for not using the officials tiles more often is that they are little bit expensive, so I use them when I want to showcase a tile.  As a beginner that does not happen often, since I am still in the practicing stage.

I like taking these classes and encourage you to at least try it once.  With the right instructor you learn and relax at the same time!  Remember, you can go to the Zentangle® website and they have listed many certified teachers from all over the world.

Have fun and find your creative joy,

WonderingMindField

Art Journal Page #12

 I’ve talked before about finding my creative joy and as I think about what to write for this blog I realize that joy can come in many forms and at different times in your life.  It does not have to be an everyday emotion but when it comes it makes an impact.  Creative joy, personal joy, etc, etc, are essentially the same and your heart feels it the same way.  For me is about trying to let my mind find calmness and balance in order to be able to appreciate what matters to me and to learn how I interact with the world. 

This page is for my daughter who is our greatest joy.  No matter what is going on in our lives, my husband and I just need to look across the hallway and look at this person and see the reason we still have a fight in us to get through life.  Yes, she is an only child and some might think that putting so much importance in one person isn’t healthy, but as a mother and father we feel that every child should be that important.  they are after all our future and my believe is that if she ever has child because she knows she is loved, she will give that child the same love, and the chain will continue on.  Isn’t it better to leave that kind of legacy?  The world has enough cruelty in it already we do not need to add to it my neglecting our children.

(This page is named Wondering Mind Field because my daughter and I love creativity.)

Project Notes:

1. Sprayed the page with turquoise watercolor paint, then using ModPodge™ glued some strips of paper from an old book.  Took some gauche paint and with some bubble wrap created the bubbles on the side of the page to create texture and balance.
2. I have some Jane Davenport Girl Profile Stencils (click link for shop) I purchased from the Crafter’s Workshop and traced the faces with a Sharpie®.  I wanted clean lines instead of paint.
3. With Mod-Podge™ I pasted some dry-wall tape strips to add texture.  This tape is my favorite and I find myself constantly reaching for it when journaling.  I also took some coordinting washi tape (love them!) and added some more layer to the page.
4. I also used a simple stencil that had a pattern of small quares and with modeling paste added even more dimension to the page. 
5. With Tim Holtz® Distressed Ink Pads, Recollections® phrases stamp, and Ranger Blue Archival Ink pad I added all the background distressed look with words.  I also used a spray water bottle to spray on to add the smudge look to the background.  i covered the faces so I would not smudge too much.
6. The faces i colored the front one with the Distressed inks and a wet brush to represent the older generation (Me) and the back one i left it clean and new looking to represent the new generation (my daughter).
7. With a black felt marker I drew the half circles on the edge (Doodling) and some mini stamps of butterflies and flowers and stamped them using Ranger® Black Archival Ink.  I outline all the doodles, flower, and butterlfies with recollections® white Opaque marker.
8. The last touch was a cut out of a antique fountain pen.
9. I sealed the entire pages with semi-gloss gell medium.

If you look at the page it has all the passions and interest my daughter and I share, which are:

• Words – representing our love of reading.
• plane (washi tape) – our love for traveling
• Pen – our obsession with pens
• The entire page – our love for art.

Thank you visintig, be safe and keep looking for your creative joy
WonderingMindField

My Little Turtle

I was creating this for my Shop and after I was done I went  to my computer and stated to compose the inside message.  After I was done I loaded my card into the printer and the cover words came out really nice, next was the inside message which also printed pretty nice, all was well until I loaded the card to print my shop name on the back of the card.

Mind you I wrote my own directions down on how to load the card in the printer so everything is aligned and printed correctly.  But I was a little distracted and read my OWN directions wrong and loaded the card the wrong way and the shop name and all the other information printed on the inside of the card!!!  All the careful work and I mess it up and have no one to blame but myself.

Anyway, I started all over and made a new card and everything was printed correctly the second time around.  But I really liked the card and did not want to throw away the one I ruined, so I took my scissors and cut the front out and framed it on a clear acrylic frame ($.89) and placed it on my shelf.  I can look at it every time I am in my craft table.  I like the words and think they are words to stride to live by.  You know what they say make lemonade out of lemons…!

How it was created?

With a stencil I traced the outline to make the card look more neat then drew a tangle on each of the section that formed the turtle.  I used a Sakura® Micron .01 – Brown pen to draw the entire design and I also used the Sakura® Clear Glaze pen to add accent to the little turtle.  The font is “papyrus” and it was also printed using brown ink.

Some of the Zentangle® patterns used:

• Bubbles
• Hollybaugh (Zentangle)
• Kaleido (S.Bartholomew)
• Crescent Moon (Zentangle)
• Chard (Linda Farmer)
• Printemps (Zentangle)
• Buttercup (S.Bartholomew)
• Knightbridge (Zentangle)

When you find find your creative joy the possibilities are endless and accidents become works or inspiration.

Have a safe day!

WonderingMindField

Bookmark Series #4

A little mixed media and a little Zentangle and voila!  This bookmark reminds me of my daughter Bianca.  That girl has the longest eye lashes this side of the family gene pool.  The child does not even need mascara.  I guess she has her dad to thank for them because she can’t thank me.

I used a stencil from Jane Davenport (6x6 Jane Girls Series Set), Prismacolor colored pencils, Sakura® glaze black pen, and some well loved tangles.

Notes:

-Trace the stencil, leaving some room for the hair.

-Colored the face with peach Prismacolor™ pencil and use a blue one for the background and eye shadow.

-I drew the hair in by keeping the strand wide in order to draw the tangles.

-I outlined the face, hair strands, and the eye with the Sakura® black Glaze pen to add a finished look and a little dimension to the face.

Overall the bookmark took me about forty minutes.  You really want to make sure the glaze pen is dry of it will smudge and ruin the dimensional effect.  This stencil is versatile and I enjoy using it.  I think I'm going to use it on a art journal page.

Stay cool and keep your creative joy!

WonderingMindField

Art Journal Page #11

I LOVE Stencils!  I while back I saw a mixed media artist using modeling paste in a lot of her journal and canvas creations and it really peaked my interest.  So I combine my love of stencils with modeling paste and this is the result!I purchased the stencil on Ebay™ from jo*s_attic and it is a 10” x 8” Tiger Stencil.  I bought it because I just love the angle and size, and let face it I could never draw this magnificent animal without a miracle.


So what did I do?

• Sprayed the page with Dylusions(® calypso teal spray ink and then with some water and Distress Stain black soot (Tim Holtz®) I darkened the pages to give the illusion of a dark night.
• I taped the stencil with painter blue tape and very carefully spread modeling paste over the stencil.  I use Blick® modeling paste brand and it worked just as good as the more expensive brands and you get more bang for your dollar.
• I took the tape out and very gently took the stencil off.  I did wait a minute or two before removing to let the paste set enough to be removed without damaging the design too much.

• Let the paste and color completely dry and then sealed the page with gel medium.

This stencil was laser cut and thin so removal was done very carefully so that I would not smudge the design.  The once thing I did not expected but loved was that because the paste was thin and the spray ink is water based the color came through the paste giving in a shading effect that I did not expected but loved. Happy accident1

This really encourage me to use more stencils on my journal and I will definitely keep modeling paste around.  Give it a try, is really nice and if you mess up just wipe it before it has a chance to to set.  It will leave residue but what the heck, it just adds texture.

Be safe and find your creative joy…
WonderingMindField

Zentangle Tile #9

I had an idea about flags (I know, weird) and this is what I came up with.  I learned this cute new tangle called Coil and wanted to try it out, so flag is the first thing that came to mind.  So while watching an episode of "The Blacklist" I created this tile.

There is a happy accident on this tile and it is "tux."  I do not know if this is similar to any other pattern but in this case it was created out of necessity.  I did not want to start all over, this was my last tangle.  I was on the earliest stages of the tangle "planateen" when I messed up the curved line.  I look at it and decided to improvise by adding some extra lines and dots and tux was born (I will write up the steps and post the tutorial on the blog soon).

This was the first time I had to tell myself to just work with what I had and not to worry too much and just enjoy the fruits of my labor.

This is a breakdown of the tangles I used for this tile.  
Be safe and keep searching for your creative joy!

WonderingMindField

Large Stencil Organizer!

I love stencils and they have come such a long way from the paper cut out I used to buy from Dover Publications.  Now there are so many artists out there creating such interesting and complex stencils and thank goodness technology is advanced enough that now they have laser cut which allows for more detailed designs.  Since I started with mixed media last year I’ve been slowly purchasing stencils and have been storing them in some plastic containers.

The problem is that some of the more thinner and detailed stencils keep getting snag with others and a couple got torn up. So I started thinking how I could take store some of the more expensive and delicate stencils more appropriately in order to protect my small investment.  I’m on a craft supply budget and can’t always replace my supplies unless I pinch and save every penny.  After all I have a mortgage and a child in college!

My Idea?  I got a $4 Scrapbook at Big Lots that is 12” by 12” which included 10 page protectors with an expandable spine.  Well as you can see in the picture it really did the trick.  In this scrapbook the protectors had blank kraft pages inside of them so I was able to store two stencils per page.  It really works for me for now, who knows as my collection keeps growing!  This idea works best for the large stencils, smaller stencils such as 6”x6” I still store on a folder but I’m still looking for another bargain for a smaller scrapbook.

Hope I have inspired you and always look for your creative joy!

WonderingMindFiled

Art Journal page #10

This is my favorite page so far and I really had a great time creating it.  A few months back I found this charming website called The Enchanted Gallery and they sell some really cool original rubber stamps with all kind of great fairy and enchanted lady stamps.  The name of the store truly reflects the products it has and the prices are reasonable.  It also has free patterns to create paper dolls that go with the stamps  Very cute and original stuff worth a look.

I was not planning anything special when started this page so I did not write the steps in detail or all the products I used, it was really spur of the moment page.  So instead I wrote some general notes on how this page came together.

Art Journal Page #10

Page Notes:

1. Paste (Mod-Podge) old music paper from book as well as some dry wall tape, half a roman clock silhouette (Tim Holtz®), modeling paste for texture, and some birch tree shapes.
2. Using Distress Stain (Tim Holtz®) Black Soot rubbed it over the pages to give it a dark night feel to it.
3. I stamped the wings and corset (stamp sheet #Aplh-115, $17.99) on card stock and cut them out.
4. Downloaded the doll sheet from the Enchanted Gallery and adjusted the size to fit the page and the rest of the look.
5. I cut out the doll image from card stock and covered with printed paper from an old book.
6. I colored the hair, wings, and corset,  I drew a skirt and covered with a coordinating pattern tissue paper.
7. Glue everything to the page using tacky glue and took a 'tea dye" Distress Ink Pad and rubbed it all over the page and then spray the page with water to add more aging to it.  The last touch was the phrase "make a magical life" sticker at the bottom of the page.

Note 1-2

Note 3

Note 4-5

Note 6

Thank you for visiting and as always be safe and keep looking for your creative joy.

WonderingMindField

My Creative Space

I have been living in my current house for a few years now, and for reasons beyond my control I haven’t been able to do a lot renovations.  I have this image of my dream home and life has gotten in the way of that dream.  This is a house in need of some care and I am hoping life gives me a  little break so I  can give the house some deserving TLC.

One thing I was able to somewhat accomplish is making some room for my mind to have a space to quite down.  I know I sound like a mental health case, but I have always liked a little solitude and I find that people now and days with all the craziness and the fast pace don't really have that.  It’s not an easy thing to find.  Lucky for me I was able to recently finish a space in my home to find my solitude and be able to just surround myself with things that bring me quiet time and creativity.

These are pictures of my creative space!  Here I get to just be inside my mind and come up with ideas, write my little blog, pay bills (not very relaxing!), and keep all my supplies.  When I am really making something is messy and chaotic but hey I know where everything is, most of the time :).  I try to keep it clean and but my daughter teases me constantly because every time I get a good deal on supplies I have to rearrange things. I do have to confess that sometimes organizing my craft room is part of the fun of having one!  Don’t you think?

The little girl on the picture is my daughter when she was 5-years-old and the drawing next to her is my design for my Etsy shop.  Of course there is no fun in your creative space unless you surround yourself with things that make you smile; Curly from the “Three Stooges” is my fun buddy and every time I look at him I can't help but smile.  I keep him in from of me for fun inspiration.

A few tips that work for me (at least for now!) are:

• Shoe rack & clips - I use them to organize embellishments I use the most. 
• Door Shoe Organizer - I keep extra glue sticks, sponges, brushes, other small things
• 6 Drawer from IKEA - It is great to keep all my wooden stamps, markers, & Zentangle® supplies.
• Recollections Carrousel - (got 65% off during Christmas season) It is great for all my most used tools, pens, and drawing supplies.
• Filing Cabinet - I keep all my card stock, stencils, as well as my household records all nicely organized and next to me for easy access.
• Drafting desk table - I got this at Amazon and love it.  I can do my Zentangle® or take me with me if I want to go outside since it has handles for portability.  It raises from the table to give me a better angle.

Anyhow, is small and not too fancy but it is my space!  Hope you have a space or your own.  Keep creating and always find joy in you art.

WonderingMindField

Art Journal Page #9

Following the inspiration with Art Journal Page #8 I decided since this page was going to be next to it to have a similar theme.  I have this seamstress dress form stamp and I really like and wanted to incorporate it in this page.

I started with a creamy acrylic yellow paint and then paste it some music paper from an old book I got at a library sale for $2.00. The next step was to decorate the dress form with the same pattern tissue I used on the other page and created a skirt with some trimmings from handmade paper.

The rest of the page was decorated with various stamps I had in order to give the page a more vintage look.  I did use bubble wrap to add the circles for texture and also used door screen material to add the strips of it to the page.  Screen material is very flexible and adds more texture without been to bulky, the same way the plaster wall tape does.

Overall the page did not turn out to bad.  I tried to make sure I did not overcrowd the page and really take my time and enjoy the process.

Take care and find your creative joy
WonderingMindField

Zentangle Tile #8

The other day I saw some art work with paisley and I thought that was the one shape I had not tried yet.  I have bed sheets with this design so how do I draw it?  Well let just say it took me a few tries.    The buggers looked a little too much like...well, somethings are best left to the imagination.  I knowwww, now I put the thought in your head.  Anyhow, I will continue to practice and hope to get better.

Some of the tangles I used are: (starting from the left)

• Double Forz (Variation) – Margaret Bremner, CZT
• Printemps - (Z)
• Leaf Vine
• In and Out – (SM)
• Bubbles
• Keiko – (Z)
• Paisley

By the way I created this tile while waiting for the clothes to dry.  Multi-tasking!  My life in a nut shell.  Take care and always look for your creative joy…

WonderingMindField

My New Art Community!

One thing I feel I'm missing from this blogging adventure of mine is the ability to see and learn from others.  I go to craft shows and art markets just so i can admire and get inspiration from other creative people.  It is really is amazing what we humans can do if we just focus our time and energy into creating some from our hearts and mind.  If we could only to do same with all the troubles in this world?!

In order for me to try to interact with other crafters and artists, I created an arts and crafts "community" at Google+.  I really like the Google format, it is more lean looking and the posts show better than it did on Facebook.

I am looking forward to seeing where this new social medium takes me.  Please go have a look, feel free to post and join.  Lets inspire each other!!!

Links Information:
WonderingMindField Arts & Crafts

Be safe,
WonderingMidndField