Reorganizing My Studio #whatamess #mystudio #whereiwork

Reorganizing once again because I can't find something.

It is hard to find certain things because I keep

thinking about where they were in Florida. 

Every inch of this room is utilized for storage.

And it does get a bit out of control from time to time. 

Recently, I have had several people ask about 

my studio, so I thought I'd show you some photos.

The above shot was taken from the doorway. 

No, I did not paint the pictures over the TV.

They are the art of Jasmine Becket Griffith.

I got them at Disney Springs.

Of course Tinker Bell is my favorite!

Mostly I use the TV to listen to the radio.

Hahahahah!

Those white cabinets came from IKEA.

Of course.

The boxes on the shelves are filled with various paints and inks.  

I am working on a system to get them out in the open where I can actually see what I have. 

The white enclosed cabinet is the shipping station for my store. 

That next chest with the colored drawers came from

Hobby Lobby. They still carry this cabinet. 

That's just part of my lunchbox collection up top.

Down the right-hand side is where I actually work.

The two tall black cabinets came from Hobby Lobby

and the rolling carts full of ink sprays are

from IKEA. 

I have carpet on half the floor.

That way if I have a mishap with color -

it doesn't get on the hard wood floors.

Wow! I'm just noticing how cluttered things were

in these photos. It looks better now. Honest.

 My store is located in the closet. All the shelves are full. 

In both directions - left and right and out of sight. 

I have been pulling things out in order to downsize. 

I'd really like to get out of the shipping part of the store and go all digital.

I have a rack coming that will hang on the inside of the closet door. 

I am going to put as much of my color as will fit 

on the shelves so I can actually see and 

grab without having to move a lot of things.

Some more of my lunchboxes, Funko Pop figures

and my Zen the Zebra from Zebra Pen where

I am an Artist Ambassador. 

 I've put together and published three books

from that desktop, using that computer

and all these supplies.

Tangle Starts has all full color pages - 

similar to what you see on the cover -

ready for you to just add your line work to.

Or use as an art journal or for collage work.

 Tangle Starts Planner is set up in the style

of a bullet journal with heavy focus on the

tangler and tangling art.

It has 106 new tangle patterns and plenty

of places to store your favorite patterns and

for you to draw and tangle away the days.

Tangle Starts Strings is my most recent book.

There are 378 pre-drawn strings so all you have

to do is add the drawing.

That hard first step of setting up your string

has already been done for you.

I am currently working in stages on four more

books for the tangle artist.

They will round out my Artangleology Series. 

More info on those later.

This concludes my studio tour.

Hahaha!

I hope you enjoyed it.

And I promise, 

it is cleaner and more picked up now. 

Nebula Step Out, a New Tangle to Try #hahnemühle #zentangleallaround

What are you tangling lately?

I seem to do a lot of underwater or outer space

crazy skies or gardens.

This new tangle called Nebula will work 

very well for all of those.

Hahahahaha! 

Here is an example of that outer space thing.

The background belongs to my dear friend

Geneviève Crabe. 

She has a bunch of backgrounds in various

formats that you can purchase and download.

Makes your tangling a whole lot easier!

Here is a link to her store

Amaryllis Creations.

You can't go wrong with pink and blue.

So that's what I chose to work with.

My tangle ringz just felt like a good fit with this

background, but I needed something else.

I added in a sweet little Lilah Bean spaceship

but I needed something floaty.

And that is when nebula came into play.

Yes, it is similar to Michele Beauchamp's

popsicles tangle,

but it has more flexibility, more possibilities.

Varying auras and fills and centers.

I love it!

And here you can see what happens when you

morph nebula into something bigger.

Hahaha! 

I made this background on Bamboo Mixed Media paper 

from Hahnemühle with Schmincke watercolors, 

just swishing color here and there, 

and when I was finished with

the color, nebula just popped into mind!

It was perfect with this background. 

So. What do you think?

I need to tangle up a good ocean scene

using nebula and add that here.

I would love to see what you can do with

nebula!

Nebula is one of the 106 tangles featured in my book

Tangle Starts Planner.

A tangler's complete planner, tangle journal, and

organizer all in one. 

All the features of a planner plus 106 tangle patterns

to get you inspired. 

OK. Commercial over.

Go tangle up a bunch of nebula, please :)

Collections Pages in My Planner #zebrapen #tanglestartsplanner

 Please allow me to shamelessly promote my books.

Hahahaha!

Specifically the 

Tangle Starts Planner, Tangle Through the Year. 

This book is available on Amazon all around the world

and it is being really well received!

You can combine planning, organizing, bullet journaling, 

and tangling all in one location.

I set many of the pages up with a dot grid so you could

easily arrange your monthly and weekly pages

the way YOU want them to be!

If you would like to learn more about the inside of the book - 

go here. 

To purchase, click here. 

 This past weekend, Mark and I drove into Bangor 

during a huge snow storm - 

what in the world were we thinking??? - 

and while we were there I took my books to the local Staples 

store and had them spiral bound. 

That is not a function my publisher offers and 

I am finding I really like having them spiral bound!

 Bullet journaling is all new to me,

so I am learning as I go. 

This particular set of pages I set up for what they call 

"Collections."

This is a place where you store bits of notes,

lists of things you want to be able to find later,

important information,

things you want to keep track of.

Here are four examples of the way I am using the

collections area. 

I am already working on a new planner for next year,

trying to keep my notes all in one place for

things to remember to make the next one

even better!

 Quotes are going to be an important part of every

book I put together, so I figured I needed a place to store them.

I have many more than this in another book - 

I need to relocate them all to this one location.

 Being an artangleologist means always coming up with 

new tangle patterns. 

After a while it gets a bit confusing -

what has been published v. what hasn't.

So a new collection was started for that.

(That little pig was torn out of a Coldwater Creek magazine!)

Occasionally I get asked for my 'numbers.'

And I never have them available when someone asks,

so I set up a collections page to track my numbers

every month. Easy peasy! 

I am an Artist Ambassador for 

Zebra Pen 

which means I use a lot of their product!

Everything you see drawn or written in all my

books has been done with a Zebra product. 

I particularly love their Sarasa Gel Retractable pens

for working in my planner!

They come in 14 colors and lay down nice and smooth,

never a skip or a blob or a mess.

I just love them!

My favorites are the purple (I have used mine all up and ordered more,) pink and blue!

You can never go wrong with a Zebra pen!

That's collections in a nut shell!

And since I'm 'shamelessly' promoting one book,

why not do likewise with the other?

Here is my 

Tangle Starts

 book available on Amazon. 

It features full color pages that you can tangle on 

and create a tangle journal, 

or you can use them as bases for an art journal page 

and make this an art journal,

or you can tear the pages out and use them for collage work.

All the color has already been done for you!

You can purchase it here. 

I know so many of you have already supported me

by purchasing my books and I thank you so much!

You guys are the best!

Family Focus #zebrapen

Not sure why my page looks blue.

Maybe it is so sad because I tend to forget

everyone's birthdays???

Actually, I notice now that I forgot to add a 

whole bunch of the rest of the family.

But

I do have my kids and all our granddaughters 

listed - that is a win/win!

In my Facebook group

Zentangle All Around

we do a planner/ bullet journal prompt each Monday.

This week's prompt is to do a family page.

This page is what I did because I have such a 

hard time remembering.

For the wheel lines, I used Christine's template

I purchased here. 

All the pen work was done with Zebra Pens -

Sarasa Fineliners and Sarasa Gel Retractable Pens.

Get them here. 

To see some of the inside of my Tangle Starts Planner, go here. 

To purchase my Tangle Starts Planner, go here.

Thanks for following my blog!

I appreciate you more than you will ever know!

Mandala #zebrapen

Zebra Pen has the saying Find Zen in Your Pen. 

That is exactly what I did here with this mandala drawn in my 

Koala Grid book purchased from Dick Blick.

All the tangling was done with a Zebra Sarasa Fineliner, 

highlights with a Uniball Signo Gel pen. 

I tried out a new tangle pattern of mine called stack,

the step outs for it are in the Tangle Starts Planner,

along with 105 other new patterns. 

Shameless plug for my book, yes, I know.

Sorry. 

Tangle Starts Planner, Schmincke, and Zebra! #zebrapen #schmincke #tanglestartsplanner

 This was a fun page that I created in my

Tangle Starts Planner!

I began by coating the page with Dina Wakley's Clear Gesso, 

just using a sponge. Once it was completely dry, 

I drew the sunflowers and watercolored them using

Schmincke watercolor pans. Love their bright colors!

Tangling the sunflowers was the fun part!

I used my Zebra Technical Drawing Pens

and their Brush Pen for the fills. 

I love the solid black and the smoothness of those pens!

Highlights came from a UniBall Signo Gel Pen.

(I really, really want Zebra to make a white gel pen.)

I am loving my Tangle Starts Planner!

Learning as I go along. 

The book pages aren't made for color but I figured out that coating 

the page with clear gesso - or really any color will work - 

makes the page 'thick' enough that the wet media does not 

bleed through to the back.

I am ALL ABOUT the color, so it was critical to figure that out! 

Hahahahaha!

If you want to read more about my planner, click here. 

If you want to purchase a copy, click here.

And - if you want to learn about Zebra Pens (you know you do,)

click here.

Tangle Starts Planner Out Just in Time for 2018 #zebrapen

 Yay!!! It is finally finished and just in time for 2018!

For a couple months now I have been working hard to put this book together for you.

I wanted it to be a combination bullet journal type planner for the tangle artist along with tangling materials!

And I believe I have accomplished just that.

No color in this book, just 242 pages of black and white that you can add color to if you wish. 

Just read the instructions about the paper weight and pens first. 
I would like to point out that all the art in this book was drawn by myself with a Sarasa Fineliner from Zebra Pens! It is pretty much all I use.

 I don't actually have a copy in hand yet,

so I took screen shots of the pdf I submitted for the book. The Index will give you an idea what is inside.

This book has all the elements a bullet journalist would be looking for. And it has 106 new tangle patterns along with some awesome features for the tangle artist. 

The section on pages 154 - 183 is where you would set up your own lists and collections of things you want to track this year. 

And since there are no starting or stopping dates, and no specific month names written in - you can begin using this planner any time you wish.

Because someone always asks what pens to use, this is the page of instructions I included in the front of the book. When I build a book through Create Space which goes straight to Amazon.com I do not have control over the thickness of the paper. If you already have a copy of the Tangle It! Journal, this will be the same paper. And I believe it is similar in weight to other planners sold to be bullet journals®.

If you have never bullet journaled before - neither have I. But I am going to start. With this book. I tried to explain as you get into each new section how you might use the next set of pages. But as any journaler knows - this is your book and you set it up however you want to. It is all good! Above is the first "monthly" spread.

And this is the first of the weekly spreads.

 Each weekly spread has an inspirational quote on the right hand page. Some art quotes, some life quotes, some super hero quotes because 
why not?

Here is a sample to show how the patterns are set up. All black and white, so no red lines. The grey lines show the new step and you build from there. I tried to keep all the patterns to 3-4 steps each.

Above is a thumbnail "quick reference" page to show you what some of the patterns look like.

106 total.

Lots of fun stuff to work with.

There is also a section where you can add your own personal favorite tangles - another quick reference section.

And if you need to know more, here is the back side of the book with the description.

A total of 242 pages all in all for $14.99 on Amazon.

Available all over the world. 

If you are in the United States and interested, click here. 

In Canada? Click here.

In Europe? Click here. 

Thank you for reading my post! Sorry to sound like I'm trying to sell you a book but this is part of my marketing plan <3 .

And . . . in case you were wondering, the

Tangle Starts full color book may be a wonderful place to play with all these new tangle patterns. 

Available in all those same locations. 

Happy New Year!