Zentangle®!

I've been doing Zentangle® for a little more than a year, but hadn't done it for a while and recently took 2 great classes from Jennifer Van Pelt at The Stamp Addict. Learned some new tangle patterns and got some review and a new perspective on a few that I tried to learn in the past, but was unhappy with my results. I've done some ATCs with Zentangle and talked a little bit on my ATC blog about how relaxing it is. Honestly, it is much easier than it looks!

Here are a few more of my recent Zentangles.

K.C. Willis Collage Camp!

This past Wednesday I took a fantastic class at The Urban Barn in Escondido: "Collage Camp" taught by K.C. Willis. I had a great time, learned a lot and laughed a lot. Visit her website Lipstick Ranch. The Urban Barn is a great place for a workshop like this, with a huge back room with a roll-up door big enough to drive a truck in, so it was very light and airy. KC brought lots and lots of supplies for us to use; all we needed to bring were scissors, glue and some embellishments. She also brought some kits, "KC in a box" that includes her DVDs, so I got one of those too. I'm looking forward to watching them.

Here's KC setting up before class. You can see a little bit of the fabric pile we had to choose from, and she brought lots of samples for us to look at for inspiration. In the background you can see some of the cool old furniture that The Urban Barn specializes in carrying.

KC talked about how she got started making the fabric collages and how she grew her business into the successful one she has now. She is a great storyteller; it all was quite fascinating.

Her instructions were really good. Considering I had no idea what the class was about, I was pleasantly surprised that I didn't spend any time sitting there wondering what the heck I was doing there! One thing I hadn't realized when I signed up for the class is that it involved (gasp!) using a sewing machine. But I survived with the help of KC and Christine, who's machine I used.

We started with raw canvas, attached pieces of fabric front and back, then kept adding more layers of fabric with glue and/or sewing machine. The images are on fabric using T-shirt transfer paper. All the fabrics and lace were stained to one extent or another with coffee to make them look old. She had some fantastic "birds nest" paper, some corrugated cardboard and some paper with some stiff fibers running through it. This added another interesting dimension to the layers. The most fun was giving the edges of the fabrics and also the paper a burnt look with a paint stripping gun.

Another thing she had were "clumpies", the tangled mess of threads that end up in the washing machine when washing torn fabrics. We used blobs of clumpies as part of the embellishments; very cool.

My friend Davielle was in the class too, and we happened to pick the same image to work with. Here is a picture at the end of the class showing our two projects side-by-side.

After class, Davi invited us to her lovely house where we had a nice relaxing dinner and chat. I had thought I would finish it right away after I got home, but I got somewhat stalled on the embellishments and also the quote. Indecision, indecision. When catching up on my email Thursday I noticed coupons from Michaels so on Friday I went and loaded up on stuff - Sharpie paint pens, some rub-ons, but most importantly flowers and jewelry embellishments to finish this and also in preparation for KC's class in February, a 2-day fabric book class at Urban Barn, which I'm already signed up for.

So today I had great fun finishing the project! I'm really happy with it; now I have to watch her videos to see how to prepare it to hang on the wall. I'm tempted to just grab some little nails and nail it right to the wall!

For more pictures (as usual I forgot to take enough pictures during class), see my good friend Sally's post here:

http://sillysalcreates.blogspot.com/2010/07/kc-willis-rides-again-at-urban-barn.html

And also this post from Jackie; without her efforts, the class might not have happened:

http://theartinyou.blogspot.com/2010/07/kc-has-left-buildingthank-you-very-much.html

Thanks Jackie! Thanks to Urban Barn for providing the setting. And thanks KC for a fabulous class!

Matchstick house project

Last weekend I went up to Orange County to have a get-together with some artist friends that live up there. My friend Tracy put together a little project that we could do quickly - a matchstick house. We started with little pieces of cardboard that we covered with old papers. The house part has a triangular top on it, but then there's a larger triangle piece we also covered with paper. Then we put the matchsticks on - they are from the long fireplace matches. Tracy thoughtfully had a variety of sizes already cut. Then they got torched a little with a creme brulee torch.

Here is a picture of the samples Tracy brought; they show the progression of making the house.

Then came decisions as to what to add to it - little flowers, seed pods, etc. Another friend had brought some stamps so I found a heart stamp I liked. We didn't quite have time to put all the stuff on so I brought it home with a few things I wanted to add.

Those who know me know I like to have a little color. I took Tim Holtz distress inks and added a little color in the background and on some of the sticks. Of course then I was kind of on a roll and didn't think to take intermediate pictures, but I added the things I had already planned to add and then stalled. What next? I added some bird seed in the lower right corner, but didn't know what else to add. So I started pulling out possibilities. Here is the house surrounded by things I was trying to decide from.
I decided it need just a little bling so I added the fairy charm. I had a bird's nest charm, but it looked more like spaghetti and meatballs so I added some dark brown alcohol inks and then some paint on the eggs. I like the Tim Holtz hardware & picked the circle tag that says Listen - it spoke to me more that day than Wander. Then I was still in a dilemma because I only had small heart charms and I wanted a heart on the top too. So I got out my package of PaperClay and made a little heart, stuck it in the toaster oven till it was dry and painted it with acrylic paints. Voila! I was finally done. This was a very fun project! I made it more complicated than it needed to be with the addition of the PaperClay heart, but it was still fun. Thanks Tracy, Stephanie and the others, you know who you are!

Art Book Review

Altered Surfaces: Using Acrylic Paints With Gels, Mediums, Grounds & Pastes by Chris Cozen

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
From my review on Amazon. If you are an artist interested in the enormous range of possibilities of acrylic paints, this is the book for you! Even if you are experienced with acrylics, you are guaranteed to learn new things from this book. As a part of Golden Acrylic Colors' Working Artists program, Chris Cozen has an astonishing knowledge of acrylic paint and how it behaves.


This deceptively slender volume is packed with information, while still containting enough basic information that a beginner could easily start with this book. As the title suggests, there is a lot of information about acrylic mediums and grounds (sorely lacking in many other books), including some of the new products released recently by Golden. Molding paste, crackle paste, pumice gel, fiber paste, clear tar gel and glass bead gel are just a few of the items she covers. She also describes how to achieve the look of encaustics with acrylic products, something I plan to try soon!


This is one of the best sources of information for artists interested in expanding their horizons with acrylic paints. Not a substitute for a class from this inspiring teacher, but a good reference guide and source of ideas.
View all my Goodreads reviews.

Art & Soul at Asilomar!

I'm getting excited about going to the Art & Soul "Mini" art retreat in Asilomar in April! I'm taking a 2-day nature journal class from LK Ludwig, and a class called Flourished Layers from Traci Bautista. It's going to be so much fun! I have to get busy and start making ATCs to trade - eek! It's a little scary as I don't know anyone else who's going and I don't really feel up to the level of what I see in the workshops. Actually it's really scary and intimidating! But I'm trying not to think about those feelings and concentrate on the anticipation of learning from all the other artists that will be there, and all the new friends I'll make.

I was looking at the classes for the Art & Soul in Hampton in May. I'm not going, but if I were, I don't know how I would decide on what classes to take! There are so many fantastic classes! I'm hoping I'll be able to go to the one in Oregon in the fall, but it's too early to know.

Art Unraveled in Phoenix (August 3-10) will be opening registration later this week. I'm sure I'm going to go since it's only about a 5 or 6-hour drive from here, but I'm not sure for how many days. I'd like to be there all week! Again, there are so many great classes, it's going to be hard to decide what classes to register for.

I just got LK Ludwig's book about Nature Journaling, and I plan to read through it as carefully as possible before the retreat.

Meanwhile, I had better get back to cutting paper for my class on Wednesday, or I won't be getting much sleep Tuesday night!

Art Stuff

I have too many art interests! Right now, while I love stamping still, I’ve been focusing on mixed media, with gourds as a random distraction. Some of my favorite teachers are Kelly Kilmer (mixed media magic), Chris Cozen (Golden Acrylics wizardry), Dianne Connelly (amazing gourds).

I’m also getting out my Luminarte Polished Pigments (from their Primary Elements line) for more Christmas ornaments, because I’ll be teaching an ornament class in November at The Stamp Addict (tentatively scheduled for the afternoon of Sunday, November 11). I’m sure I’ll be posting more about that in the near future as the ornaments start to take over my house!