Weekend Posts

Every Inchie Monday - "bike"

      Somewhere in all my crafting "stuff", I knew I had a stamp set with bicycle things on it.  Somewhere.  I searched for quite a bit before uncovering the perfect stamp set.  It had perfectly sized bicycles, some signs and some large one inch wheels.  I stamped some of everything all over the paper.  Then I used my water color pencils to color the background of several of the bikes, gel pens to color the bikes and glued on a sign piece.  I chose my favorite one and the "bike" inchie was complete.  I agree with someone else from last week, this one inch can be a real challenge.  Fun, but it really makes you think!

Monotangle - Phicops

     While I like this tangle, I have to admit I rarely use it.  For me, it doesn't seem to fit in the spaces of my tiles so well.  I did enjoy playing with it, but feel the tile itself is somewhat bland.  I fretted over what to add to "spice it up", but was unsure how to do that without taking the mono out of the tangle.   So finally, I just left it as is.

     I hope everyone is having a wonderful week.  I took some great pictures of my class's tangles but forgot to bring the camera home.  You will get to see them in my next post.  I cannot believe how great they did and do they ever love it!
     Thank you for dropping by and see you soon!  

Earth Day - Challenge #115

     Diva's challenge this week was to do a tile for Earth Day.  This was my first idea.  I wish the earth looked more like - well, the earth.  But I think the idea is there and not too lost.

     Thank you for dropping by and leaving me some sunshine!

No title

    Okay that is a truly silly title for this blog.  But I can't think of a title.  Or rather, the ones I think of don't work.  I could put "It's Over"  referring to the bliss I feel that testing is now a thing of the past - well, at least until we see if we have retakes and such.  Since I am posting 3 things at once, it doesn't seem right to refer to just one.  So "No Title" works best.

Every Inchie Monday

     This inchie was fun.  The phrase we had to illustrate was "spring meadow".  I watercolored the back ground, let it dry and then used colored pencils to do the meadow.  Still thinking it needed more for the spring part, I used my souffle pens to add dots of flowers.  As I said, this was fun!

Monotangle - Onamoto

   When I first started tangling about 2 years ago, this was a tangle I used all the time.  It showed up on everything I did.  I was fascinated by those little round beads.  Then with learning other tangles and exploring them, onamoto sort of got pushed to the background.  It was kind of like visiting with an old friend to do this tile.  I expect it won't get "lost" again for a while.

Dare #54

     This reminds me of those little flower bouquets that women carried of long ago.  What was the name?   I can't remember, but anyway, it seemed to be heading in that direction and who was I to argue?

Just because

   The last tile is well, just because.  I finished it and decided to share it with the others.  Maybe it represents the weedy garden of testing, paper work and such for me right now.  Although I have to admit, I felt a wonderful joy at sitting down to plan today for a normal week.  Seriously.  It was like the beginning of the year - loads of fun.  One of the fun things we plan on doing this week is some tangling.  My kids have begged for time for us to do some more.  I will share them with you when we get finished. 

     Thank you for dropping by and I hope you have a very blessed week.  

Challenge #114 - Stars!

     Diva's Monday challenge was to think about stars - star strings, star tangles, starry inspiration.  I began with a star shaped string and then used some tangles on and around it.  The string is a tangle in itself - something called "spiteria". I like this design and decided it would be a great string for this challenge.

     The whole time I am tangling, one of my favorite songs was running through my head - Don McLean's "Vincent" (Starry, Starry Night).  It is his song about Vincent Van Gogh.  You can check out this beautiful song along with some of Van Gogh's lovely work at this link. So, having a bit more time than usual, I went with the music and tangled a bit of a starry night on an ATC card.

Starry, Starry Night

     Thank you for dropping by and leaving me some sunshine!  Hope your week is going great!

Time to Create

     I have to have a moment each day to create.  It is as necessary to my well being as breathing.  Or nearly.  I just don't feel as relaxed or calm if I don't grab one craft or another to work on for a few minutes.  This week it has been even more important to my mental health.  I have pushed and pulled and practically danced on the tables to get last minute information across to my class before testing starts this week.  It has been stressful.  This coming week will be stressful.  I will walk around the room, watching them bubble answers - some right ones (I hope a lot of right ones) and some way off the mark.  Inside I will be screaming, "NO, we covered that!  Come one! You know better!  Car is not a verb!"  Outside, I will nod encouragement and smile.  It is going to be a very long and tiring week.  I am going to need a lot of create-time.  A lot.
     Normally I end up doing school work one day out of my two week end days.  Not this week end.  I just chilled.  I could feel guilty about the things I needed to do.  I could, but I don't.  I enjoyed the "down" time.  I needed it.

Every Inchie Monday

     The word for our inchie challenge was "life".  Big subject - little space.  So I played with several ideas before deciding on a quote by Robert Frost.  Perhaps one I need to remember when life gets rather stressful - "it goes on".  

     Had a "duh" moment while working on this one.  I tried writing the quote on this little
tiny space while holding it with one finger on the table.  Then a light bulb went off (sort of a 40 watt stroke of brilliance) - "why not trace an inchie shape but not cut it out until I finished?"  I am sure the fantastic artists over at Every Inchie Monday (see sidebar for link) probably already know and do this. It never occured to my brain.  "Duh"

Dare #53

      It is hard to believe we have been treated to zendala templates for an entire year by Erin at the Bright Owl (see sidebar for link).  Her templates challenge, excite and baffle me at times.  But always they are fun!  I love this week's template.  It is full of possibilities.  

      I hope you are having a wonderful week.  Thank you for dropping by and hopefully leaving me some sunshine.  Keep my kiddos and their efforts in your thoughts this week!

Auraknot

     Since I first discovered this tangle I have loved it!  It is a really awesome tangle and loads of fun.  The beauty of it is that it looks so complicated, but really isn't. 

     Here is my monotangle using auraknot.  I love these monotangles - they are so much fun!  Thanks for dropping by and hopefully leaving me a bit of sunshine!

Hip to Be Square!

   Don't you love the title of Diva's challenge this week?  I think it is so cute.  This week we had to draw squares and use them in a string challenge.  I love working in boxy places so this was a lot of fun!

     My anxiously awaited Amazon order has arrived.  Yahoo!  I ordered Made in the Shade and The Art of Zentangle.  The biggest problem I can see with both these books is - which do I look at first?!  Seriously.  They are really awesome and I keep swapping back and forth.  I need to make up my mind and see one cover to cover, but it is so hard.  If you have not gotten these books, you should dash out and get them both.
     My other purchase is also totally awesome.  A pencil sharpener.  Yep.  It has got to be the best thing I have ever seen.  I bought one for the classroom and just loved it.  I have fought pencil sharpeners in my room for 30+ years.  Nothing works well.  Until now.  It is sturdy, quiet and stops the pencil from being ground into 1 inch bits.  None of that is a problem if you are going to use it in your art studio, but with 8 year old children all are very important factors.  I love it so much my second one just came - again from Amazon - and this time it is for me! Below is a picture of this wonderful item.  Go to Amazon and check it our if you have a need for one anytime soon.

     Thank you for stopping by.  I hope your week is filled with sunshine! 

Inches and Twinches

     Funny, the combined art work for this post is a mere three inches.  It is amazing how I can agonize over those 3 little inches at times.  The inch for Every Inchie Monday wasn't too bad.  I worked a little ahead over spring break.  I pulled out the watercolor pencils and played around with this week's phrase - mountain peak.  It is the picture I had in my mind, maybe not as pretty, but it is close.

     Now for a bigger piece - a whopping two inches!  The monthly theme for Show Us Your Twinchies is "Spring".  Oh and I am so glad it is finally looking like spring.  The flowers are blooming and it is so lovely!

     I hope your week is filled with sunshine!  Thanks for stopping by.  Now it is time to get back to lesson plans and papers to grade!  Arghhh!

Holy Hollibaugh!

   That expression used by Bright Owl to define our dare this week cracks me up!  If you are familiar with the very old TV show "Batman", you'll understand what I mean when I say it reminds me of the things that his sidekick Robin used to say.  I think I went a bit overboard with this tile.  I meant for the template to show through more that it does.  But here it is anyway.

     I drew hollibaugh over the top of the template and then used some gray tone markers to color it in.  Then I sort of "forgot" the template and went to work.  I like it, I am just not sure it is what I think of for a zendala!  Ah well, experimentation is good, right?

A Few Relaxing Moments

      Diva's challenge this past Monday was to use a tangle created by one of my absolute favorite artists, LeeAnn.  Her work is beyond awesome.  This tangle, "Tuxedo", gave me a bit of a fit at first but once I found my rhythm it seemed to go smoother.  I did have a hard time deciding what string to use.   Finally I just "stretched" it across the page and added some other tangles underneath it.  I did it on an ATC sized card because I had one handy.

      Roy, at Mindful-Creations for the Monotangle Adventure, gave me a real challenge this week.  Monotangles, using only one tangle, is typically for me a very mindless, relaxing process.  The tangle "W2" is anything but.  I have to repeat "over under" all through the process and even then may mess up.  Simply put, I struggle.  I love the woven look and would love to use it more, but it is work for me.  I kept this tile very simple.  I figured that if I did it would work better.

     I thought you might enjoy a "smile" from my class this week.  At least it provided one for me.  Haylee (name changed) is one of my very best readers - reading well above grade level.  She came up to me, book in hand, and point to a couple of words.
    "What are these?"  she asked.
    I was sort of surprised she asked about such simple words, but I responded with the answer - "record player".
    She gave me an "I know that" look and said "Yes, but what is it?"
    Oh my, I tried to explain ancient technology and then wondered if I should creep off to find a rocking chair!  And for those of you who don't remember, I am not going to tell you - use your search engine and please don't let on to me you don't know.  My rocker is calling.
   Hope you have a wonderful week!  My week is going to be filled with test prep.  I will be glad when our state testing for my room is over.

Dare #51

   Quick post - I have hopefully 10 minutes before I am off to school and test review.  Only one more week of review before our BIG CRCT test.  Whew!  I will be glad to see the next few weeks cruise by.  I definitely needed a few tangle moments this week.  Keep your fingers crossed my kiddos do well. 

See you next time - still probably frazzled from test stuff!  Hope your week is great!

Every Inchie Monday - travel

     Let's see, where would I love to travel?   Or perhaps how would I love to travel?  How do I represent the word "travel"?   Good questions provoked by Every Inchie Monday's word of the week.  I decided to focus on where I would love to travel - to the Emerald City, of course.  Along the yellow brick road!  As a child, my favorite land of make believe was Oz.  So I took my inchie off to the land of Oz.

Thank you for dropping by and I hope you have a great week.  Check out the side bar for the link to Every Inchie Monday and see what others can do with a tiny little - munchkin sized - piece of paper!
    As for me, I'm off to see the wizard!