New Zentangle® Products!

The folks at Zentangle have been super busy coming up with cool new products! I just got a little box today and rushed to put them up at my Etsy store.

 

• Zentangle Artist Trading Cards (ATCs) in White or Black
• Zentangle Tiles in Black
• White pencils and gel pens for tangling on black paper

I've also added:

• a Sakura Microperm Permanent Pen Set (these are great for tangling on slick or non-porous surfaces)
• an Official Zentangle Kit... with some EXTRAS
• a Total Addict's Zentangle Gift Bag (you want it all, right!?)

I don't have examples yet using the new products, but there are samples and tips in my Yoga for Your Brain book (pages 45-47), that use white on black paper.

I also have lots of copies of all my books, including the "vintage" AlphaTangle and YogaFYB (which Amazon lists as "out-of-stock" and someone is selling for $30 - wow!)

• AlphaTangle (vintage, black cover)
• AlphaTangle (revised, red cover)
• Totally Tangled (the classic)
• Yoga for Your Brain (the workout)
• Inspired by Zentangle (the fabric book, I have one project in there)
• Zentangle for Kidz! (teasing! It's coming soon...)

Some people have had trouble getting some of these books from their local shops. There is a good reason, really! Design Originals (the publisher) was just purchased by Fox Chapel Publishing and all operations were being switched over at the SAME time that the books were being re-printed. Yikes. Mini-nightmare. It should be resolved soon though.

AND, in other news, my real-life, brick and mortar store, WINGDOODLE, celebrates its 10th Birthday this Saturday!!! How amazing is that!?! There is a Munny decorating contest (I'll write more about that this weekend) and food and merriment - so if you are around Sat. afternoon (in NH!), please stop by and help us celebrate this momentous occasion.

So to use this as an excuse for free stuff... and to reward you for reading all the way through this post... here are some Birthday Presents for you (good through this Sunday night at midnight - or whenever I check my email on Monday). :-D
There are no special codes, but you must mention your freebies in your note when purchasing on Etsy, OK?

• Buy Inspired by Zentangle, get a free Fabric Gel Pen
• Buy any two of my books, get a free vintage AlphaTangle
• Buy any Zentangle products, get a free tangled 2.25" button/pin

ZT in VT

Email, 3 days ago:
Hi Sandy,

Just wanted to let you know that you might like to take a road trip to see us at Flood Brook School (K-8) in Londonderry, VT. We have come to see you, it's your turn to visit us! I've introduced Zentangle to our art teacher, Casey Bailey, and she has taught the kids. Casey is using the paper puzzle pieces that she got from the Vermont Council of Arts a few years ago. It is sooooo cooooool! You have to come and see what's happening here. Casey is also loving teaching it this time of year since the kids are quite excited about the year ending and this tends to calm them down and is not messy!!

... It is so nice to see zentangle all around me. I'm a teaching assistant in Kindergarten and have taught the teacher in our classroom zentangle. We've been having a blast with the kids (and each other). Oh, the places we will go.......

let me know if you want to visit!

Jane MacKugler

CZT 6 


And what do you think I said?! Of course - I went to Vermont!
The Flood Brook School is a wonderful, artsy, little school - I mean. there is art everywhere! The art teacher was doing Zentangle with a group of older kids when I arrived. They were tangling on giant puzzle pieces.

A few of the big kids' puzzle pieces on a hallway bulletin board.

One of the reasons that Jane contacted me, and why I drove the two hours out to VT, is because i am working on a website to go along with my new book ("Zentangle for Kidz!"). I had intended to have a place where I could put extra projects and such for kids who enjoyed the book. Then, I started getting amazing art from tangling kids. Hmmm... that should be on the site. Then I realized, parents and teachers would be using the book and had lots of tips to offer too. More stuff for the site... So I will post the pictures I took of these kids' tangles on that site too. And I will let you know when I have it pulled together enough to go "live".
You have to see these close-up! The kindergarten one has spiders and little poem parts too!

Puzzle pieces done by the kindergarten class.

As I was leaving, I got to experience one of the school's traditons. On the last day of school, the teachers cover the tables with shaving cream, crank up the music, and let the kids "draw". I captured a little video of the kids dancing and drawing Zentangles in the foam! It was so wonderful. I know - I'm torturing you - but I can't post the kids on the internet. I'm so sorry! I'll watch it one more time, just for you.... yes, it is still wonderful. But I can post a close-up of one of the foamy creations:

So, just imagine "I'm Yours" by Jason Mraz playing really loud, kids laughing, bouncing from one table to another, hands looking like white gloves, smooshing the foam smooth, then joyously drawing huge swirls and zigzags... I know many CZTs like to have quiet, meditative Zentangle experiences for their students... but I admit, for me, Zentangle is about creative, playing, sharing, and JOY! I really wanted to join in the fun!


On the way home, we stopped in town to get lunch at this really cool cafe. All these buildings belonged to the same business (cafe, restaurant, quilt shop, art gallery...). I don't even know if there is a name for this style, (Steampunk Western?) but I love it. And there were so many interesting patterns in the details, the shingles... I stood in the middle of the parking lot, in the pouring rain to take these shots for you. ;-D

Something Light and Fluffy

 

I am so excited that my peonies are blooming! Big whoop, I know, but it means that my garden is still alive. I am not a failure at this growing plants thing! And peonies are just so amazing. They die back over the winter and then suddenly, this tall plant is there, with ants crawling all over the buds... pretty small buds... that just EXPLODE! in pink, fluffy petals. I am NOT the pink, fluffy type of person, either, but I can't help but smile when I see these flowers. How in the world do all those petals fit into that teeny bud!? It's like a popcorn kernel...

In honor of my peonies (nice work, ladies!), I'm going to post "Mumsy" from Yoga for Your Brain. This tangle starts with a simple squiggle center and then grows and grows and grows... until you run out of space. Someone needs to create a tangle called "Plant Stake". ;-D

And because I am temporarily obsessed with pink, fluffy flowers, I just had to show you these rhododendrons that are blooming in front of my cottage! This is evidence that pruning is overrated! Perhaps it is also evidence that I have a dual personality? I admire a trim, neat plant that hibernates, obsesses, creates in obscurity, then explodes forth with a masterpiece. And I also admire the hardy, lazy, New England "weed" that grows anywhere, next to any plant, and effortlessly sprinkles day-glo pink petals all over the lawn. Go figure. Either way, it is nice to have role models.

This calls for cupcakes!

I finished the edits for Zentangle for Kidz! this week, changed the cover colors and sent off the CD. Seems like there should be bells ringing and a party, eh? Perhaps when the book is printed. And cupcakes, I need cupcakes! Here's a little piece of one page to show you how I decided to do the color:

I think I have said this before... but this was a really fun book to do! I can picture some of you jumping up and down saying, "But you had to run away to a hotel TWICE for this book?!"  Hmmm, true. Perhaps that adds to the enjoyment? :-)

This one will be only 20 pages, with the standard Design Originals binding. The colors and printing will be lovely. And of course, the price will be under ten bucks. You can buy copies for all your kids, your grandkids, your friends' kids... (and yourself!) It will be out in July, in time for CHA in Chicago. I would so love to go to CHA! It's the same week as the CZT Retreat in N. Andover. Would I be insane to try and make it to both events? Don't answer that!

To celebrate finishing this book and getting a few more items onto my Etsy site, I had posted a "special" on Facebook, but realized I should extend it to all of you folks too, right? The DEAL is: Buy a copy of Inspired by Zentangle - Fabric Arts book from my Etsy store, and get a FREE Pentel Fabric Gel Roller Pen. (Be sure to make a note on your order that you saw this on my blog). This is the fabric pen that I used to decorate my apron that is featured in the book. Of course I also have the pens for sale on the site.

And I had meant to post this last week, but I got caught up in finishing the book... This note and these photos are from Donna Lacey - a freshly minted CZT. I sat next to her, and her pet rat, at the training workshop a few weeks ago (she had an awesome Zentangle journal!) Well, the rat wasn't... real... but he was charming. A few days after the workshop, Donna and Herkimer (the rat!) visited my store in New Hampshire:

Herkimer loved your shop.  Spent probably an hour there looking at books and deciding what I just HAD to have!! 

Herkimer flirting with SherRee.

Perhaps we should hire him for PR?