Flurries

Winter in New England is always weather mystery.  We can have a mild winter or one that ranges from deep coldness to mountains of snow.  One day can be freezing cold; the next day might be 60 degrees.  One of the things I love about living in this area is the fluctuation and variety.  Our weather is creative!

Speaking of creative, I'm having so much fun creating these Lynn Mead-inspired snowflakes!  this one was done on a Renaissance tile.  I love how the shading and highlights make the flake pop.

All Dolled Up as the Guest Diva

The famous Diva asked a few CZTs to fill in and write guest posts while her darling son Artoo had eye surgery.  Fortunately he is doing well and recovering.  I know how terrified I was when my little one had surgery.  I am sending healing wishes to the whole family!

This week, I had the fortunate pleasure of writing one of the guest posts.  I hope you had fun playing along with my challenge.  You can read all about it at I am the Diva.  It was an honor to help Laura (the Diva) as well as to serve as an inspiration for tanglers around the world.  I am loving each and every piece created.  I am going through the 50 plus responses posted on the Diva's site.  It's so touching to think that my idea has inspired people around the world!

I've been tangling quite a few paper dolls to adorn a Christmas tree at the Andover Historical Society for their annual event.  Each tree is decorated to accompany an inspiration piece from the collection.  My inspiration this year was paper dolls.  I created a paper doll dress template and tangled each using different patterns.  I had a wonderful time completing these and thinking about how the patterns could mimic folds of fabric.

Here is an assortment of my tangled dresses up close as well as the finished tree.

I love the Flux skirt on this one:

 Of course I had to use my pattern YAH in one of the dresses.

 I love the feel of the Printemps-stuffed Hollibaugh in this one:

Here's the finished tree.  I wish that my top hat tree topper idea had worked.  The hat was so large that it overpowered the rest of the tree so I had to scrap it.  Then I wondered if I should have added more color to the tree through balls or ribbons.  I wanted the tree to reflect the beauty and simplicity of the Zentangle® method without being too busy.  I wanted my hand-tangled dresses to speak for themselves.  I hope I made the right choice by keeping it simple.

Here's my Renaissance doll too.  She was a lot of fun to create!

Thanks for tangling with me this week!  If you haven't shared your creation on the Diva's site, I hope you'll share it with me on Facebook, by email, or in a comment here.  I'd love to see your work.

Thanks for Supporting Tangle-A-Thon 2014

It's been a blur since Tangle-A-Thon 2014!  We had a wonderful day filled with creativity and fun all while helping others.  A lovely group of CZTs and fellow tanglers gathered to create several interesting projects together at Lowell General Hospital.

The group raised over $1,500 to benefit TeamWalk for CancerCare at Lowell General Hospital.  I was thrilled with the generous contributions that everyone made to support this event.

I would love to extend a special thank you to CZT Teresa Hathaway for her support in brainstorming projects for the special day and teaching some fun mini lessons.  Terry taught interesting border patterns and the beautiful Stella by Jana Rogers on seasonal spiders.  Check out this beauty by fellow CZT, and my former student, Suzanne Crisafi.

Tangled spider by Suzanne Crisafi, CZT

Next everyone worked on different make-and-take projects including a cute Bijou envelope and pull-out card taught by Terry.  

After lunch, I gave demonstrations of blown ink strings.

Blown ink string sample by Emily Classon, CZT

Blown ink string Renaissance tile by Emily Classon, CZT

For our final lesson of the day, we explored some patterns, including a variety of flowing or botanical ones, for some peekaboo cards.  Here are a few samples I created for the lesson:

Peekaboo card by Emily Classon, CZT

Peekaboo card by Emily Classon, CZT

I would also like to thank all of our wonderful artists and CZTs for their generous prize contributions.    We received amazing prizes from the following:

• Emily Classon, CZT, MomZenArtist
• Sandy Steen Bartholomew, CZT, Beez in the Belfry
• Sue Jacobs, CZT, Sue's Tangle Trips
• Marizaan van Beek, CZT
• Karen Izzi, CZT, The Peaceful Healer
• Cris Letourneau, CZT, Tangled Up in Art
• Genevieve Crabe, CZT, Tangle Harmony
• Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas, Zentangle®
• Chris Titus, CZT
• Sakura of America
• Kate Lamontagne, CZT, Kamala Boutique
• Terry Hathaway, CZT, Terry's Tangles
• Jean Theurkauf, CZT, Art of the Tangle
• Susan Nutting, CZT
• Wendy Brown, CZT, Let's Go Tangle
• TeamWalk for CancerCare

Thank you all for your support and for making Tangle-A-Thon 2014 such a success!

Tangled Craft Fairs

This weekend, I participated in a fun craft fair in Billerica.  It was wonderful to talk with people who had never heard about the Zentangle Method®.  It's always exciting to see eyes light up when people learn about something that might be perfect for them or for a loved one.  I enjoyed having the opportunity to talk about my passion!

Here is my pre-edited booth.  I ended up paring back before the sale opened.

Check out my next craft fair on Saturday, December 7 at First Parish UU in Chelmsford, MA.  The sale runs from 8am-2pm.  Stock up on Zentangle® supplies and gift ideas including handmade magnets and greeting cards featuring my original Zentangle® art.

The highlight of my day was having one of my students stop by specifically to find my booth.  She has been very stressed lately and hasn't tangled in ages.  She has wanted to tangle but didn't feel like she had the time.  I think that if you have the time to think about not having the time, that you probably have enough time to tangle just a bit.

I encouraged her to go home that night and start tangling a piece even if only for a few minutes.  She could work with one pattern--whichever one she likes or feels the most competent with--to eliminate decisions.  The important thing was to start.

I hoped that she could work on a piece a little bit each day even if it took three weeks to finish a tile that she hated.  It wasn't about the end result (it never is!), it was about starting, putting pen to paper, and trying to find a way to cope at this stressful time in her life.

Unless we find a way to relieve it, stress will continue to build.  It will build until we either explode or implode.

It can be hard, especially when we are busy and stressed, to make time for ourselves.  I think that is the most important time to take a break.  I know that when I am stressed, I approach my family, life, and challenges differently than when I am calm.  When I can allow myself a few minutes to breathe and to tangle, I become more focused and centered and better able to handle whatever is thrown at me next.

Taking time for yourself isn't selfish!  It's essential for getting through challenges and stressful times in life.

I wish you all a happy holiday season filled with relaxing moments just for you.  You've earned it, and your loved ones will benefit from your peace of mind.

Season for Leaves

I love autumn!  It's my favorite time of the year.  In addition to celebrating my wedding anniversary and my daughter's birthday, it's also time for stunning color-changing leaves.  I love the way the orange, red, and yellow tones look against the brown trunks and cloudy, gray-blue fall sky.  It's like the leaves are going out in a final blaze of glory before succumbing to the bleak grayness of winter.

What do the changing and falling leaves make you think or feel?

One of my favorite tangled pieces, and one that is most often discussed by others, is my autumn leaves piece using a Dreamweaver stencil.  You can read more about my inspiration and creation of this piece on a past blog post.

As the weather grows colder, and the stores become disturbingly filled with Christmas decorations and gifts, I find it difficult not to think about the ever-approaching winter.  I felt inspired to recreate my autumn trees with a wintery look to help ease into the idea of cold, snow, ice, skidding cars, slush, bulky coats, boots, slip-and-falls, and all the other things that come with my least favorite time of year.  Sure, I love Christmas and the pretty look of a snow-covered yard, but after a few days, I'm ready for spring again.  Here's my tangled tree version of winter trees:  

This time I tangled all of the low branches since winter makes it much easier to see all the bony lines when the branches aren't not obscured by lovely leaves.  I quite enjoy how skeletal and stark this piece came out.  I hope you like it too!

If you love these trees, check out my upcoming craft fairs this fall. 

'Tis the Season for Pumpkins

Well it's my favorite time of the year!  In addition to my daughter's birthday and my wedding anniversary, it's also time to celebrate crisp mornings, changing leaves, witches, and pumpkins!  I love Autumn and pretty much everything that goes along with it.

When my daughter and I recently went pumpkin picking, I was very tempted by the interesting white pumpkins in the field.  I so wanted to tangle one.  Unfortunately, they were quite large and were a bit heavy to lug home for tangling.

My little pumpkin selector found a small pumpkin for herself as well as a nice smooth pumpkin for her daddy.  When we got home, the smooth pumpkin called out for tangles.  Often when tangling a pumpkin, I'll follow the ridges or ribs on the outside filling with bands of patterns.  This pumpkin was so smooth, I treated it like a blank canvas tangling all around.  I used some of my favorite garden patterns and threw in a few regular patterns too.  I used a fine point Sharpie.  This was fun to do!

Have some seasonal fun with your tangling too.