It's That Bauble Tree Time of Year

I received the following email this weekend:

Dear Ms Bartholomew,
I have to thank you again. I recently had the pleasure of purchasing your book "The Bauble Tree" in your Etsy shop. I have since written a short blog post about it at http://www.stxradley.blogspot.com  The book was so quick and easy to print out and I love it so much. My 6 year old loved it as much as I for she quickly absconded with it and sat down to draw. You inspired her yet again with the Lilah beans and the tree. I was lucky to get a look at the book after I put it together. Haha. But thank you again for all your efforts and your books that you produce. I know you are a very busy lady and I admire both your work and your simple instructions. These books have been tools for myself as well as our craft program at camp. I look forward to seeing what is next.
Sincerely,
Chelsea Radley
Stx

I was so blown away by the blog post... and then a second post, that I begged for permission to re-post it here. I edited a little, so if you would like to see the complete posts, just click the titles for either and they will get you there.

Bauble Posted: 07 Nov 2014 09:06 AM PST Hello and welcome to another sporatic installment. I recently purchased the printable book "The Bauble Tree" from Sandy Steen Bartholomew's Etsy shop. It was an instant download so I was able to print right away.  Following her suggested directions I created a book out of the printout and even added a cardstock cover.  I folded the pages in half ...       and glued the back edges together.  Look at my little munchkin. No sooner did I print and glue than the book was stolen from me! Yes, stolen I say! Because as soon as she got her hands on it she proceeded to draw "bauble" to her heart's content.       Copying the ideas in the book, Cali sat down and immediately drew her own tree and accompanying tangles.       She was very intent on her work. And who isn't? Honestly it was a joy to watch her stretch her creative muscles. I fancy that Ms. Bartholomew's daughter and mine would get along quite well when it comes to tangling.      Cali even cut it out and asked for a string to hang it up like an ornament. Seeing as it is not yet Christmas, I headed outside for this shot on our neighboring pine tree. I think her tangled ornament came out quite well! Now if only I could get the chance to play with the book myself. *sigh*      Bauble Cards Posted: 08 Nov 2014 03:32 PM PST Ah, yes. So I finally got hold of the book "The Bauble Tree" and was able to try my hand at this tangle. What resulted was a lot of fun experimentation. My first attempt was this little card. I colored on with metallic colored pencil. But I thought to myself, can I do more?  Yes! I did! And I absolute love this little card!  So how could I make this even better? Well, color it in of course. Thankfully, my color printer did a fantastic job so I just had to cut and fold my papers. I now have over 40 of these little cards to send out this Christmas. I don't think I have ever had Christmas cards ready this fast!  And my daughter even sat down to tangle and color yet again. What do you think of her version?  For the third installment in this series, in which Chelsea creates all of her Christmas cards, in November - and under the influence of the Lilah Beans... click this link to read all those details... More Ebooks and Tangle Cards And here are some quick previews of the adorable cards which are available on Chelsea's Etsy shop. If you would like to get your own copy of The Bauble Tree ebook, come on over to my Bumblebat Etsy shop. This is the perfect time of year for Baubles!

October Journal Pages

Week 39 - In the City

This prompt was so much fun! Since I don't live in a city, I was free to imagine whatever kind of buildings I liked. I started with my tangle CUdad and built the buildings UP from there... bigger and bigger! I used a Sharpie Pen and tried really hard to stick to just clean lines. I entered this piece in the Doodler's Anonymous Coloring Book contest!

© Sandy Steen Bartholomew

I often feel torn between the very simple coloring book drawings... and going all out with color and shading. So when I saw the theme for the next week - "Experiment"...  I thought I'd submit my city in B&W and maybe experiment with color on it for the next assignment.

Week 40 - Experiment

And here are my Experiments!

First - lots and lots of shading (with gray Tombow markers).... to see if I could create some depth.

© Sandy Steen Bartholomew

... and then color on top of the gray (with more Tombow markers)...

© Sandy Steen Bartholomew

My favorite part is the little park on the roof.


Week 41 - Mosaic Inspired
 
I glued down a piece of an Asian newspaper that had been used as packing in a box. Then I drew the mosaic tangle, Man-o-man, all over it with a Uni-Pin pen, and added some white (GellyRoll pen) and gray Pitt brush marker). This one took quite a while to do!

 

 

© Sandy Steen Bartholomew

Week 42 - Magic

An old book, tissue paper, gesso, markers, paint pen, Inktense pencil, ballpoint pen... kind of a stew of everything sitting on the desk! I scanned the piece into Photoshop and removed the harsh seam down the middle. I transferred the finished art, using Sheer Heaven, to a piece of Bristol, and I hope to do some more work on that... (after the Art Swarm is over!)

© Sandy Steen Bartholomew

Week 43 - Stencil It!

Colorbox pigment ink pads, Prismacolor pencils, Crafter's Workshop bees and hive stencil, Dreamweaver honeycomb stencil, black 12x12 paper. 

This one was almost relaxing... easy... after the last few prompts! It was nice to use someone else's art as the basis for a page. Just color and play. Aaaahhhh... But looking at it now - I can't help seeing the beehive as a stack of pancakes or cookies!? I think I may need a snack...

© Sandy Steen Bartholomew

Ooooo! I'm in!

I'm so excited!!! I just found out that my art was accepted for the Doodlers Anonymous Coloring Book - Volume 4!! I don't know which of two pieces was accepted (or both?!) but it is such an honor. I own the first three volumes and the art is amazing.

I also have a journal piece coming out in the second issue of Mabel Magazine (in November). This is a beautiful new magazine... the tagline is "Making a Living • Creating a Life". And the description on their site sums it up so nicely:

"Mabel is a print magazine that is here to tell real stories about making a living and creating a life.
At Mabel, we’ll be talking about the different ways we support ourselves in the world—
stories from entrepreneurs, artists and small biz owners about how they’ve gotten where they are—
it’s not always pretty, it’s not always tidy, but it’s always beautifully real . . .  please join us!"

They are on Facebook too.

Does it seem just a little ironic to be accepted into a doodle coloring book and an elegant magazine at the same time? I don't think that I will ever figure out what my "market" or who my "audience" is.
I just love to draw stuff.

Tangle of the Week - Nebel (take 2)

I recently received this email:

Hi Sandy,
I have the yoga for your brain tangle cards. Right now I'm trying to do "Nebel" and having a hard time with the beginning steps. I was wondering if you could do more of a step out for me. I just can't seem to get it right.
I'd appreciate it and enjoy reading all your newsletters.
Sincerely,
Sylvia

I forwarded the request to my Minion, Bonnie, and she said she couldn't do that one either. That made me think that there might be quite a few people who don't "get it."

OK - I actually needed an excuse to use my new video setup! Ian, my fabulous App guy, had sent me a very cool grippy-bendy-tripod and instructions on how to film myself drawing tangles really fast... all using just my iphone. (Thanks again Ian!) It would be much faster and easier than drawing and posting step-outs.



(Click here to watch this video on YouTube.)

I have found it easier to draw Nebel if you turn the tile as you work and start by drawing all the center lines, horizontally and vertically. It starts out looking like a slightly wonky Cadent!

Hope this video helps!

The Mural's Second Life

We had gorgeous, if really-chilly, weather for the Fall Foliage Festival. I couldn't feel my fingers as they gripped the paint markers to work on the new mural. There were only gawkers and peekers at first... I'd hear them whispering "what is she doing?" and as soon as I'd turn to smile, they'd run off.

But once I had snagged my first, brave soul, others came closer and closer and when they realized that they too could put their mark on the wall, I had plenty of eager hands reaching for markers!

Before I forget - I want to thank everyone who donated to the mural!! See if you can spot your requested images and names on the mural! (Like "Where's Waldo?!") You all financed the sanding and repainting of the old mural, and purchased our new Molotow professional graffitti markers. And, no, I don't think that "Professional Graffitti" markers is an oxymoron. ;-)

  

I divided the scenes with the left panel as an Ocean theme and right panel with a Forest theme. I explained that to every person and said to sign their names on the border. The one rule was "No scribbling!" I still spent over an hour on Sunday morning painting out the scribbles and plethora of names tagging the artwork. I left the narwhal in the tree... flooding? And the school of fish on the side of the mountain... rock paintings?

Doing a community mural is an exercise in patience and, like Zentangle, involves lots of deep breathing and a constant repetition of "let it go" and "that's just fine" and "it's all good" and "I can always paint over that later..." ;-)

 

 

 I heard from one of the dad's - that drawing on the mural was his kids' favorite event of the weekend! And that's with competition like Tilt-a-Whirl rides and fried dough! Yeah for Art!!

Laurie, Debbee and I did a bit more work on it the mural this past weekend. I'm still hoping I can get another tree painted and some blue water to help the sea creatures stand out a bit more. We'll have to wait and see what the weather does in the next few weeks.

Open Studio This Saturday

Saturday and Sunday are the annual Warner Fall Foliage Festival days here in Warner, NH. Pretty leaves to peep at, rides, fried dough, all that good stuff plus crafts, dance performances, parades...

The BeeHive will be having an Open Studio on Saturday from 11-3 (or whenever we feel like it). ;-) And if the weather is nice, we'll be outside creating a new mural on the side of the building.

 These are pics of the previous mural created at the Spring Into Warner Arts Festival (2013).

We had so much fun creating it. But now the space has been sanded and painted and it is waiting for a NEW mural!

Jacque will be selling her beautiful crocheted accessories outside. We will be having a Sale inside the studio and maybe Bonnie will do a demo too.

I hope you will come by and visit!

But wait... that's not all...
If you can't make it or are just too far away - you can still be a part of the process. We need contributions, donations... tips... whatever you'd like to call them... to help pay for the construction, upkeep and materials for our community art mural.

There is a PayPal button below with three choices for donations. (You can also do multiples if you'd like to contribute more.)

For a donation of $5 - we will think happy thoughts for you and smile whenever we say your name.
For a donation of $25 - we will draw an object (or creature or tangle) of your choice into the mural. (Be sure to put your choice into the special note box in the shopping cart)
For a donation of $50 - we will draw your name (or someone else's) into the mural. (Be sure to put your choice into the special note box in the shopping cart)

Please note that you will not receive any material object in exchange for your contribution.

I will post photos of the mural though when it is finished and you can see how money really does buy Happiness!

Lilah Bean taking photos of the mural!

Donations for the Mural

Happy Thoughts... $5.00 USD Draw this... $25.00 USD Add my name... $50.00 USD

And THANK YOU!
(See, there's a free Happy Thought for you!)

September Journal Pages

Moving right along! Here are my pages for September for the Journal52 challenge.

Week 35 - Making Time

Sometimes the timing of the prompts seems kind of creepy ... I am struggling with a particular issue and - BAM - THAT is the very topic of the week's prompt. I have a lot of theories and questions about Time, but I was having trouble thinking of what to do for this journal page. Then one night, Lilah and I were reading Harry Potter. When Dumbledore says this line - I got so excited! Exactly what I needed! A time turner! So I snitched the book from Lilah's room and used the illustration of the time turner as my inspiration. I drew it a bit more steam-punked and then drew in the text. Everything is drawn with a Papermate ballpoint pen.

Art © Sandy Steen Bartholomew

Week 36 - Texture

Maybe it is obvious - I like to draw. But sometimes I push myself to solve the assignment as it was intended. I could have done a drawing of "texture" but seemed only fair to play with real textures...

I took an old drawing from my sketchbook (done in gouache and pencil) and smeared over it all the different texture pastes I had on the shelf, through brass stencils. I used gold mica paint, modeling paste, and pumice paste. I could have done more, probably, but... eh. I keep wanting to go back to the original drawing and work more on that!

Art © Sandy Steen Bartholomew

Week 37 - Newspaper

This was fun. I had no idea where it was heading... and I have no idea where I ended up! I just started drawing on a classified page - inspired by the words and photos - then painted around stuff. I guess I could have gone either way - drawing a "Hungry Buffalo" OR an "Ugly Bathtub". Ok, I whimped out - I couldn't think of what a buffalo looked like - off the top of my head. "Ugly Bathtub"? That creature I know very well! (I do wonder what exactly the dad is pointing at?)

I used a NoBlot pencil for the drawing and gesso (on newspaper). NoBlot is magic - like Inktense pencil. It writes/draws like a regular graphite pencil, but when wet, it turns blue and becomes permanent. I think it was developed for accountants/bookkeepers. In this case, the pencil was activated by the gesso.

Art © Sandy Steen Bartholomew

Week 38 - Rhyme Time

I started out thinking I'd do a Dr. Seuss quote. Then realized, I've done a bunch of Seuss quotes already. This one by Bob Dylan struck a chord. ;-)  This was a cast-off Gelli print - I probably cleaned the brayer and thought it looked pretty. I never would have intentionally picked these colors to use together. I really like them! 

 I should have mounted it to a thicker paper first...the very thin paper got a bit wrinkly. The Gelli print was done with acrylic paints. The words and embellishments are paint pens and Bob Dylan.

Art © Sandy Steen Bartholomew