My Obsession with Sea Life Continues!

July 28, 2015July 28, 2015 ~ CharkatTangles ~ 5 Comments

I used to have an 80 gallon salt water fish tank. I researched and obsessed on every detail before I ever put a fish in it (those little suckers are expensive!) While it was a lot of work to monitor and maintain, I really enjoyed it.

I tend to seek out aquariums wherever I travel, and I can stare at the seahorses for hours. And then, I saw a Leafy Sea Dragon (I think the first time was in Boston.) I was hooked. While I was teaching the Girl Scouts a few weeks ago, I was demonstrating a version of Flux with a curl (thanks Marie Browning,) and one of the girls said it looked like a seahorse, so I morphed one off on a side bar into a little guy.

When this weeks Diva Challenge Guest Blogger Cari Sultanik, CZT gave us the theme “Nature” for Challenge #228, I knew I had to use my new little buddy on a ZIA!

Tangled on Stonehenge in Pearl Gray with a Tombow Fudenosuke Dual Tip Brush Pen (One end is black, the other is gray…very handy,) Derwent Graphitint and Metallic pencils, and some Gelly Roll Glitter and Decorese highlights.

Teaser: The Stonehenge and Tombow products will be available soon in my new etsy (CharKatTangles) store! Mark it and check back often…I’m adding new things daily (and mostly paper!)

It’s been a busy week around the shop. I welcomed everyone in on Friday with some snacks and fun. Mike brought me flowers.

And had our first class on Saturday. We had fun with some tangles and laughs…with this result (the unfinished ones are mine!)

I also received a package from my friend Jim Hill, in Egypt. He sent me a fresh batch of hibiscus tea, and some papyrus!

I did a little practice tangling on the papyrus to see if it would work, and I think it was a grand success. Papyrus is water resistant, so the Tombow Mono Twin marker really did a nice job of covering without losing the really cool weave of the natural fibers.

I think that’s it for now. If you are in the area, be sure to check out the class list/schedule. I’m really looking forward to making more stuff with awesome people!

Stay Crazy My Friends!

Life is a Circus – All The Time!

July 23, 2015 ~ CharkatTangles ~ 6 Comments

That’s how I feel this week. Too much to look at, think about, do, go….it never ends! But isn’t that what makes it fun?

CharKat’s Creative Insanity (27309 Jefferson Ave, Suite 102, Temecula, CA 92590) officially opens for business tomorrow. I’ve put together a nice selection of classes, but alas, no one has signed up yet. I think being there and minding the shop for a bit may drive interest, but I am thinking about listing some of the classes on MeetUp and EventBrite to see which one would bring in more students.

Part of the ongoing circus this week was our annual trip to Rock Fest (in Cadott, Wisconsin.) I am still recovering from that! I did tangle while I was there, and finished a previous Diva Challenge (#224 – Tipple Monotangle.) This was one of my dyed tiles using Hibiscus Tea, but you will hear more about those when I Guest Blog the Diva in September!

This week’s Diva Challenge (#227 – Circus) comes from Guest Blogger Lee Darter, CZT, who reminisced about her families summer vacation to Florida, and the off season home of Ringling Brothers-Barnum and Bailey Circus. I love the circus. So much is always going on, so many things to see and experience that you don’t always know where to look, for fear of missing out on something. Life is like that lately. I have the attention span of a gnat!

The cacophony going on in this started with me buying a spiral maker (remember the Spirograph?) And while I have been moving things to the shop, I found the Neopiko-3 marker sets I bought several years ago at ComicCon (and they were not cheap!) They are water based, and can be used on fabric, which is why I had to have them (and subsequently forgot I bought them.) So…Fabriano Medioevalis paper in 4.75 x 4.75, and all these things going on! I love this paper. The Micron glides on it, and it takes colors so nicely.

And talking about paper, I am going to start offering paper packs of tiles in my etsy store. I have “tangle tested” lots of different papers, and have found ones that I just love to make art on, specifically Zentangle Inspired Art, or even just Zentangle on a different color or texture of paper. I will have offerings in 3.5 x 3.5, 6×6, 6×9, 12×12, and anything else that people seem to want. The Fabriano Medioevalis comes in packs of 100, so I will make them into smaller bundles (10-12) in the 4.75×4.75 and 2.5 x3.75 sizes. They have 4 deckled edges and are just so pretty! I should have those up in the next week, and will post a link.

Gotta get back to the circus that is my life…Stay Crazy My Friends!

Deadlines

July 9, 2015 ~ CharkatTangles ~ 5 Comments

I really am not very good at working on creative things under a deadline. Great ideas in my head rarely translate to the paper when I am rushed. But…I did it.

This week, I had the privilege of being included in the Cross Country Clearprint artist collaborative project. It is a pretty cool project taking place in a Clearprint Velum Journal, with artists from all over the US making art on this very unique paper. The rub for me was the one week time frame to come up with something and execute it. I used so many different techniques that I lost count, but I can tell you that the Metallic Gelly Roll pens work wonderfully on this, as do the iridescent Pan Pastels (with some matte fixative in between steps.

It just so happened that I only have 3 colors of Pan Pastels, and this week, the Diva is on vacation…so guest blogger Jen Crutchfield put out the challenge to work in 2-3 colors….so I think this fits the bill for my Diva Challenge #225. (And there really are only 3 colors…besides the black, white, and gold I tangled with: blue, red, yellow.)

Been working hard at getting the studio/shop/classroom ready to open, but got to take some time last week to work on a project with the Girl Scouts (Troop #1124) up in Lake Elsinore. These are my dedicated Zentangle students, and we had a great time working in some neat little journals I made up for them. (Journals are from a kit from Classroom Direct, the interior design is by me.)

And now, back to work. Trying to become the Queen of Social Media today with the advertising campaign for CharKat’s Creative Insanity.

I’m also putting together some cool paper samplers for the shop and my etsy store (which I started and never did anything with.) I’ve been cutting up paper and road testing it all for “tangle-ability” to see which ones come out the best. Stay tuned for that!

Stay Crazy My Friends…and hope to see some of you on the 24th!