Tangle Card Challenge #1 - Y.A.F.

Ready to play?

To see all the contest details, read this post.

Our first contestant is the tangle Y.A.F. "Y.A.F." stands for "Yet Another Flower" because there are SO many flower-based tangles in Zentangle® world. True?

This one was inspired by henna designs from India and is actually really fun to draw. You can create a piece that uses YAF the way I have designed it, or create your own tangleation, or variation. Post your art on the Beez Ink Studio Facebook Page.

The winner will be chosen next week and announced here next Friday, July 19th.

And anyone can enter - any age or skill level.
Let's see what you've got!

[YAF is from the Yoga for Your Brain card pack. The Tangle card packs can be pre-ordered HERE.]

Ooo-yah! A Contest!

Did you read the previous post? The one about the NEW Tangle cards? Did you read all the way to the end? Great! So you want to get your hands on a pack of these cards...

The cards will be in shops in September, but the publisher, Fox Chapel/Design Originals, had some advance copies made to show at Book Expo in NYC. They very kindly sent me a set so I wouldn't gnaw off my own hand in anticipation.

Filled with gratitude... and greed... I did the only reasonable thing - I asked for another set. (Actually, I think I begged.) And as every 5-year-old knows - begging gets results. :-) They sent me THREE sets! THREE! That's 9 packs of cards! Mine mine mine... ooh, right - the OTHER 5-year-old lesson: "Thou must share."
(I'm kidding - I always intended to share them.)

Let's have a CONTEST! 
It's been a while since the Lilah Bean contest - so I'm making this up as I go...

•  Each Friday, until I run out of packs, I will post one
    of the tangle cards here on the blog.
•  You, if you choose to accept your mission, can either
    - use the tangle to create a Zentangle, a dangle, 
      a doodle, or other inspired art (it's all good)
      or
    - create a Tangleation using my tangle as 
      inspiration.
      I cannot pronounce that word, but a tangleation is
      a new variation or crossbreed based on an existing
      tangle. This must include the steps to draw the new
      tangle.
•  Any entries should be posted on my
   Beez Ink Studio Facebook page. 
   (https://www.facebook.com/BeezInk)
•  People can vote by clicking "Like" under each entry.
   But I get the final say as to the winner because...
   it's my contest. The winner will be announced the
   following Friday when I post the next Tangle Card.
•  I will send one pack of Tangle cards to the winner.
•  Legally stuff: No purchase necessary. No monetary
   value to the prize (unless you resell it on ebay!)
   Your artwork remains your property, however, by
   entering the contest you give me the right to use
   your art (or tangle) on my blog and in a future book-
   with your credits attached, of course.
•  If you win a pack of Tangle Cards, you are expected
   to gloat, ahem, speak nicely - about them all over the
   internet and to all your friends. Actually, I can't make
   you do that, but I'd appreciate it if you at least told
   your mom.

Did I forget anything? Add it to the comments below, OK?

The publisher said these cards are worth their weight in gold... In case you doubt that I actually HAVE these tangle bullions in my possession, here is some photographic proof:

See? Stacks and stacks and...
               HEY! Hold it RIGHT THERE, ladies?
Where do you think you are going with those cards?

Ah, I SEE... well, the Lilah Beans DO have a point. They want to take one of the Kidz! packs over to the Zentangle for Kidz! site and have their OWN contest. OK. That's fine. We'll have to wait to see what they come up with... But that still leaves US with 8 packs to play with.

Tune in this Friday to see the first of the Tangle Card Challenges.

Toot-Toot! The Tangle Cards are Coming! The Tangle Cards are Coming!

Let's travel back in time... to April 17, 2009...

(I had been certified as a Zentangle Teacher, just one month earlier! Wow- time flies!) In April of 2009, I posted my first "Tangle of the Week":

Notice the lovely Tangle Trading Card shown? You all know that I am just a tad OCD, (just a tad)... So I had designed these cards as a way for me to catalog and organize all the 100 existing Zentangle® patterns, plus the ones that I was creating on my own. I still sell the small packs on my Etsy store and you can get bulk packs (100 cards) in my Zazzle store. It's funny that I still use this Tangle of the Week card as my sample card in the shop. :-)

Fast forward to last summer, 2012, and my publisher has asked me to create card decks with the tangle steps drawn in.  I spent the entire summer drawing... 120 tangle cards, plus instruction cards, PLUS three tangle puzzles!

Here is one of the pages from my sketchbook showing the art for the fronts and backs of three tangle cards - Puff-O, Punkin, and Revel.

And this page is the art for one of the puzzles in the card packs:

I designed one card pack for each of the books - companion cards. There is a Totally Tangled pack, a Yoga for Your Brain pack and a Zentangle for Kidz! pack. Also a smaller bag of DIY, blank cards so you can record your own tangles.

A year later - the Tangle Cards are coming! The Tangle cards are coming!!
The cards will be available in September!!! September 2013!

It's like being pregnant for over a year but then finally meeting your children and discovering they are everything you ever dreamed of. Can you tell I am really proud? ;-D I've never been great at tooting my own horn, but I find it pretty easy to toot these cards. Fox Chapel (my publisher) sent me some packs and I couldn't stop fondling them. Here are the really cool features:

The card decks come in sturdy, color-coded boxes. The edges of the cards match the box, so it is easy to sort and clean up - if you feel inclined to keep them together. Each card is numbered as well. (See? OCD dream come true, right?) There are little boxes in the corner where you can put codes like "ZT" for original Zentangle tangles or "JP" for Japanese inspired, and an index card to record your categories.

Each pack has 40 cards with a tangle on each. There are 10 cards with info, instructions, ideas and an index. The backs of 9 of those cards have a piece of a puzzle. There is a different puzzle (and different info cards, too) in each pack.

 Here is one of the professional shots from the publisher:

Perhaps you are thinking, "How hard could a 9 piece puzzle be?" Well, here is a little video of a few certified Zentangle teachers trying to assemble one in my studio:



You're up for the challenge? You are wondering how you can get your hands on these?

They are expected to hit stores (with a thunk) in early September and are available on Amazon for pre-order (Yoga for Your Brain Tangle Cards, and Totally Tangled Tangle Cards ). I also have them for pre-order on my own webstore (http://bumblebat.wazala.com).

If you have no intention of buying the cards but want to get some more "free" tangles, then go to Amazon because they have a peek-inside feature. If you are totally addicted to Zentangle and think that being able to pull out certain tangle cards to work on and sorting patterns makes you smile - then I made these cards for YOU - and you should buy them directly from ME. I wholeheartedly believe in bribery. And collectibles. So these packs (directly from me) will each have a special little prize in each box. Only from me. Mine. Just mine! ;-D

NEED to get your hands on a pack sooner? Read the next blog post!

CZT 11!

It's been a bit of a whirlwind getting to this point! Trying to get my homework for the Lilla Rogers class done, the same day that I had Open Studio at The BeeHive, my sister and her whole family arrived, somewhat unexpected, to stay at my house, and doing laundry and packing... have I ever told you that I am NOT a multi-tasker?

 

Anyway...

Alex and I somehow managed to do everything we needed to do and were only one hour late in leaving the house to head down to Providence, RI for the 11th Zentangle Teacher Certification Seminar.  I decided to get Alex certified while I still had some influence over his summer activities and I think my hunch may have been a good one. Despite having a really bad head cold, he has been tangling up a storm and I am really excited to see what he does with this.

We are staying at The Biltmore Hotel which is covered with tangles and rumored to be haunted. Cool. The room left us speechless. There was a giant chair in the living room and huge, poofy, royal looking beds. Alex had been expecting to sleep on the fold out sofa, so he was beyond thrilled to get a bed that is "as wide as I am tall". Seriously, Alex is tall!

 

I always feel really strange when I am in Providence since it doesn't look much as it did when I went to school here. There was no river, and the downtown area was so dangerous, it was off limits. Now there are little art boutiques, restaurants, hotels, a beautiful park and skateboard park, and then there are the gondolas and river walks and a ginormous mall with an iMax theater built over the river. Oh yes, there's a river. We used to joke that Providence was the world's widest bridge. All this construction was being done while I was in school. We had a space of about three feet outside the Illustration building at RISD between us and the four lane highway. Now, there is an enormous brick... I don't even know the word?.... giant patio-thingy that goes for miles, and overlooks the canal and bridges. Jealous, me? Why would you say that? ;-) 

It's really pretty.

 

It was also 92 degrees and muggy... so Alex and I did a lot of walking the first day, then fled to the air-conditioned room. 

It was actually a giant, pink, Super Moon.

So, here are some highlights of the seminar, so far...

A mosaic in the Providence Hotel hallway of tangled bar coasters!

A close-up of the mosaic... I was excited to see someone had used my "Pingline" penguin tangle! Cool!

Part of one of Maria's display pieces with a funny limerick.

Me and Amy Broady in the tangled photo booth.

She'll kill me for showing you this photo, but I think it is SO funny! But, no, it's not beer, it's actually TEA! I love this photo because it shows Amy's cheerful, glowing disposition. So you see why I asked her to take on the Zentangle for Kidz website?

I think we really are this blurry in real life too... Me, Bette Abdu, Amy Broady, Katy Abbott

Today, Tuesday, we CZTs who were not technically IN seminar, but were lurking around because we had family members in training - gathered together in the lobby to gossip and laugh and pretend to shoot a video about my new Tangle Cards. I think I have learned more out in the lobby than inside the seminar (LOL) - there are so many fascinating people here. And from all over the world!! I was so excited to meet ladies from Ecaudor, Latvia/Belgium, Sweden, South Africa and Alabama... and there are actually quite a few men here too. One is named "Dude". Yes. Dude. And my son and Caroline Broady are the youngest CZTs yet.  Alex is 15 and Caroline is 14. Woo-hoo! A record! They will both be amazing CZTs. I was so proud of Alex - despite being groggy from cold medicine - he has been doing his best to be friendly and open-minded and he's been talking with people. I knew this was all worth it when, at dinner last night, he was asked what he might do with Zentangle, and he replied - "I think I'd like to teach it to my school. The entire school." And then went on to wonder how he could get enough supplies to give to all the students. Caroline is also pondering how to create a club at her school. Very cool kids!

The newest batch of CZTs! The group is so big they had to shoot the photo from the second floor.

I hope this post doesn't sound like an ad for CZT training - it's actually quite difficult to get in (there's always a waiting list). But I think going to seminar, even if only to visit for a few hours, helps me reconnect to why I feel so passionate about what I do, and reminds me that there are an awful lot of people out there (like you all!) who are really wonderful, interesting folks. Without that reminder, I'd just crawl back into my batcave and draw on the walls. ;-D

Lilla Rogers Global Talent Search

I've been working really hard the past few weeks on one of my online courses. The Make Art That Sells Class is incredible! And a lot of hard work. I have been stretching my brain and trying to absorb the info and keep up with the work and give 100% to completing each week's challenges. Perhaps I will post some of my work when I come up for air, in two weeks (when Part A ends for the summer). For now, I wanted to let you know about the talent search that the teacher, Lilla Rogers, is conducting in case you would like to join in.

Although the prize is something I have dreamed of for ages (see below)... the competition is insanely fierce. However, I am trying to think of it as just a really cool challenge or assignment. Sometimes, if you want something too badly, you doom yourself to failure before you even start. So... do this for FUN not as if your career depended on it. :-)


Lilla Rogers Studio has launched a Global Talent Search to find the next hot new artist!

We have secured some incredible prizes for the winner including:

- TWO YEARS’ INTERNATIONAL REPRESENTATION BY LILLA ROGERS STUDIO, including a host of licensing deals and international promotion of you and your work. This includes:

- A SCRAPBOOKING LICENSE PRIMA MARKETING INC. The winner will work directly with Prima’s own Creative Director and in-house Design Team through the development process, giving them the hands on experience to learn about this industry from the inside out.

- A HOME DECOR OR GIFT PRODUCT LINE WITH MIDWEST-CBK. Midwest-CBK’s Vice-President of Design & Creative will personally work with the winner to create a strong product line of either gift or home decor, depending on what is the most natural fit. There’s the potential of developing wall art, lighting, textiles, ceramics, gifts, specialty products… all offered with the voice of this artist to help them build an identity and strong brand footprint in the marketplace.

- A LICENSE FOR A JOURNAL COVER WITH GORGEOUS STATIONERY CHAIN PAPERCHASE. 

- A LICENSE FOR A DECORATIVE GARDEN PRODUCT WITH STUDIO M, the new artful home and garden division of Magnet Works, Ltd. The Director of Product Development will personally work with the winner throughout the development process to give them a better understanding of how a product line is conceptualized, developed, and marketed in the Specialty Gift Industry.

- A FEATURE IN WHERE WOMEN CREATE BUSINESS, the gorgeous business magazine from Stampington
In all cases licensing deals will be negotiated by Lilla Rogers Studio on behalf of the winner.

Registration for the Global Talent Search closes on Wednesday at 9am PST / 12 noon EST / 5pm GMT.

The information pages are here: http://www.lillarogers.com/global-talent-search.

Interview with Terry Hathaway, CZT

Terry Hathaway, CZT and crafter extrordinaire!

Teresa “Terry” Hathaway is a dabbler.
She takes classes, reads and collects craft books, and searches the internet for new art forms and neat things to make. Then, if she really likes the art form, she wants to share it. Right now, her top four passions are Zentangle®, Mini Books, Origami, and small sewing projects.

Tangled garden ©Terry Hathaway

For her current mini book projects she is delving into mixed media art and just acquired a whole lot of acrylic paints. Although Terry does not claim to be an expert on all things Origami, or Mini books, she IS a Certified Zentangle Teacher. And she is passionate about sharing the fun of each of these subjects.

Tangled color planets ©Terry Hathaway

She teaches the basic methods, gives you some history (she was a history major in college!) shows you several options and then lets you create, get dirty, rip paper, slather the glue, what ever it takes.

Tangled Owl tote bag©Terry Hathaway

She likes quick projects so she has a chance of finishing them. Therefore, she prefers to make mini books, tangle in mini books, or use the Zentangle® tiles.

Teeny origami owl ©Terry Hathaway

As for Origami, the smaller the better. And although she’s very impressed with the elaborate complex models and has managed to fold some, she’d rather avoid the stress and stay with intermediate models. She is currently working on 60 origami cat pins to trade at the origami convention in New York City.

Origami clock with mini-book in bottom drawer. 10in. tall ©Terry Hathaway

Terry is originally from Lewis, NY, a small town in the Adirondack Mtns. a mile away from their closest neighbor. She and her four sisters learned early on never to say they were bored or their mother would find something for them to "do". There was always a book to read or a craft to learn. She attended Union College in Schenectady, NY and SUNY at Albany for her Masters In Library Science. For 30 years of her library career she worked for the US Air Force at bases in North Dakota, New Hampshire, England and Massachusetts. Terry now lives in Acton, MA and travels up to Warner, NH fairly often to see relatives (and tangle at my studio!).

Since retiring from a 33 year career as a Librarian, Terry has continued to teach classes at libraries in the Metro-west Boston area and started three Meetup groups for Zentangle®, Mini Books, and Origami. These groups are small but participants have found that if they like one craft that Terry teaches they will like the next one just as well.

She's got crafting in her jeans! Tangled pencil bag ©Terry Hathaway

I am very pleased to be hosting Terry for two intensive workshops at my studio, The BeeHive, this summer.

If you are intrigued, Terry will be teaching...

Sunday, June 30  •  Art Book Workshop - from 1-4pm
Saturday, July 27  •  Terry's Mini Tangle Retreat - all day, from 8:30am to 5:00pm
Click the workshop titles to get the details.

You can connect with Terry at her blog - Terry's Tangles.

Let's Go Dutch

In this week's category of "It's kind of weird, but also kind of cool..."

Totally Tangled has been translated into Dutch!

Interesting what they chose to put on the front cover...
but it is still a thrill to be published in two languages. The "weird" part is looking through a book that looks very familiar... but I don't understand the words - like a strange dream. The Dutch words - some are similar to English - but others are so colorful. For example, in my bio inside the front cover... "hobbywinkel" jumped out at me. How cute is that word?! I picture some little round artsy-elf named Hobbywinkel. (Hmmm... I have to file that away in my idea bank). Americans would just say "craft shop".

They used a really nice, thick, creamy, matte paper and the drawings and colors look more like the originals. I like that they added a title page so the book doesn't start and end inside the covers, but they also removed a few pages - p. 47 (Sandra Strait's works), and pp. 42-43 with the Lilah Beans and my samples using kids' art.

I want to say "Thank you" to Maria Vennekens, Calligrapher and Certified Zentangle teacher for her help in editing/translating the book. That must have been quite a job!

And speaking of Totally Tangled, my American publisher, Design Originals/Fox Chapel decided not to have me do revisions of it and Yoga for Your Brain. Definitely a relief! I would rather put my energy into starting a NEW book. But don't worry, I will incorporate your requests into the new book. And if you have any ideas, or problem areas, or "my life would be complete if only there were a book that..." requests, please put them in the comments below or email me. I'm still in hunter-gatherer mode. In a few weeks I will revert to my more reclusive, introverted self so I can concentrate and get crackin'.