December 2015 – CharKat's Creative Insanity

Whew…pardon my absence…it has been a hectic last couple of weeks.

I have managed to get the January schedule up, so classes are posted. Changing a few things up, so check it out!

I did miss Diva #247, but I will go back and make it up this week, like I usually do. I started on #167, and have not missed one, but they have occasionally been late.

I did, however, kill two birds this week with Diva #248. I needed a gift for my brother and sister-in-law, and they really don’t want anything, so I made them a cool dreamcatcher. I am framing it tonite, and will have it in the mail on Tuesday. Better late than never, the Gift of Zentangle! It is about 8 x 10, on Charcoal paper. Microns, Silver Gelly Roll, and Prismacolor Premier Pencils.

I have not been completely slacking this past 2 weeks. I did this neat mandala in my purse journal at church, week before last. It is a lot smaller than it looks…my journal is a 4 x 6.

And I also discovered that the Garage Brewing Co. has coasters with tangle spots! Left this one for the barkeep…(I guess that qualifies as the gift of Zentangle too!)

Oh, and last but not least, I hosted the San Diego/Temecula Zentangle Friendship Group at the shop for our December meeting. Pot luck, gift exchange (all tangly!), and we did Dorian Eng’s pretty ornament.

So the trees are up, the decorating is all done. (Finally, Opus is back! I have had this for years!)

Between the shop and classes and the holiday season, I’ve been a bit wiped out. We’ve had our first Christmas party/celebration with the kids coming out from Texas, and getting together with friends and family for a nice meal and spending time with our grandson. This year, he is all about Batman. So Batman it was!

Having a chill out day today, but got a lot of business-y type stuff done. Still have some presents to wrap for 2nd Christmas (on the real day) and mail (they will be happy to get it, even if its late, I’m sure.)

And now, off to finish my framing, and draft the samples for upcoming classes!

Namas’cray my friends!

Wow…I am so behind this week! So behind I actually missed last week!

I guess I’ll start with this week. Dilip Patel, the first CZT in India, was the Guest Blogger for the Diva this week. In his prompt (#246) he implored us to think about deforestation, and to do a monotangle of trees (or a tree.) I have been practicing new tangles as they come out in my new Creativity Planner and thought that the new tangle, Fleavy, would make a lovely tree. When I finished, I felt like coloring it. (yes..I know its not a true monotangle, because I added other things, but I like it anyway!)

And since I missed last week’s Diva (#245 Hollibaugh) I did it in my purse journal (Midori MD with the extra slip cover) at church while listening to Rev. Susan talking about manifesting joy. I guess my joy is a bit of a puzzle!

So I guess that brings me to why I missed last week. I took the holiday week (here in the US, Thanksgiving) to participate in Julie Gibbons‘ free 5 Days of Mandala Magic. It was pretty intense, but a good introduction to her year long course that starts in January. (I signed up! Registration closes soon, so get there if you want!)

The first day, we studied the circle (sorry, just circles on the page, no pics of those.)

The second day, we drew our first proper mandala, a lotus. I got a bit cheery color wise (still learning about color meanings so I still am pretty basic.

The third day was concentric circles.

The fourth day was a hamsa.

Day 5 was the Flower of Life.

So now you know what kept me busy!

I did get some finishing done on some cute Kumihimo things as well. Most of them are in the bookstore at my church (Center for Spiritual Living Temecula Valley)

And Finished a few ornaments (and forgot to take pictures of some of them…ack!)

And got in some work on my ginormous mandala. (total size is 20″, working with Twinkling H2O’s and Acrylic Ink with a brush. Very time consuming. Created using Margaret Applin’s Medallion Master Set.)

AND…I did a bunch of these for cards…

So see, I have have NOT been slacking!

Be sure to check out the class schedule, there is some fun stuff coming up. Mandala Monday (the 21st) we will be painting mandalas on rocks. Lauren teaches a great class for this, and it should be very Zen to get you in the right frame of mind for the holidays.

Namas’Cray my friends. Be crazy and make stuff!

Month: December 2015

The Giving Season

Behind in the Trees