Tuesday, March 17, 2020

ZT for KIDZ! ... Stress! Not Just for Adults Anymore!

Stressed? Got Kids home from school? THIS is the perfect time to try Zentangle®!

I an effort to try and help in the only way I know how - I am making my Zentangle for Kidz! book available right here for download:


Click here to download the book.
I just ask a few things:
1. Please don't be a jerk and do something like... try and sell this book online.
2. I'd LOVE to see the Zentangles that you and your kids create!
Send me a jpeg and I'll post it here on the site for others to see.
Let me know if there is a story to go with it too.
3. If you want a physical copy of the book (with stickers!!) you can get it at my shop - BUMBLEBAT
4. Have fun!!

And since I know that there are some very curious folks out there who might be interested in drawing comics or illustrating books - I thought you'd like to see the "sketch" version of the book?

This is how I figured out what I wanted to be in the book and how it should look...

Click here to download the sketches.

Tuesday, August 25, 2015

The Last Days

There are only a few days left for my Kickstarter campaign to fund my Glyphs & Glitches project. If you have been thinking about it - or maybe had no idea I was even doing this... I strongly encourage you to go check it out and make a decision. ASAP.

Even at the lowest pledge level ($25), you will get access to the blog that will follow me through Cartoon School. You will learn all kinds of cool, artsy things right along with me. After the Kickstarter is over, I will offer access to the blog through my Etsy shop, but it will be more than $25. (So it's a good deal too!)

The way Kickstarter works is - the project must meet the funding goal by this FRIDAY! or I don't get any of the money that has been pledged. Which also means that no one gets their rewards. Agh! And I have already started making up the cool little boxes of Goodies!!
BTW - their are only 9 more of those available! 



If you haven't had a chance to look at the project, but are curious what kinds of cool things you might get... I will list them all here for your convenience!

You: "What's in it for me?"

Me:  You get the experience of going to Cartoon School without the stress, sleepless nights, spilled ink, and lack of talent!

You: "Cool. But what do I get?"


$10 - THANKS Everyone at this level and higher gets their name on the list of Project Backers on the blog. I'm also happy to add a simple link to your website from your name in the list.

$25 - FRIENDS! Everyone at this level and higher will get the "Glyphs and Glitches" blog sent directly to their email inbox.

$50 - DIGITAL FRIENDS get all three of my Inspiration Sketchbook pdfs to download. The three ebooks are "The Tangles of Kells," "The Tangles of Santa Fe," and "The Bauble Tree." (Everyone at this level and higher will get the three digital downloads!)


$100 - FRIENDS with GOODIES will get a little box stuffed with Stuff! Including: Signed copies of "The Tangles of Kells" and "The Tangles of Santa Fe" books, a pack of AlphaTangled cards, tattoos, stickers, pins, rubber stamps... and anything else that might fit. (I've had a lot of different businesses, so lots to choose from!) I've limited the goody boxes to 30 so I can make them really great! I expect to have these mailed out in September or October, depending on how many there are. (Only a few left!)

$150 - STUDIOMATES will join me for a monthly blog "Open Studio". You can submit your questions, art problems, thoughts... throughout the month, and I'll do my best to answer as many as I can on the blog. I am hoping for 9 blog Open Studios (school year is Sep.-May).

$200 - STUDIOMATES... with GOODIES will join me for a monthly blog "Open Studio" AND I'll send you a little box stuffed with Stuff! This box of stuff may have some additional special Goodies... oh, say, maybe an original, vintage AlphaTangle book, or a print, or...?

$250 - STUDIOMATE V.I.P.s can take part in the Open Studio each month. V.I.P.s will also get 1 hour of my undivided attention - through FaceTime or through emails. I'll be your creativity coach, Zentangle guru, or encouraging elementary art teacher. Whatever you are struggling with - from publishing questions to how to shade your piece of art to brainstorming your craft room layout. I'll spill my thoughts, sketch, or even shoot a video if you need the visual help. Need an open mind to share a "crazy" ("cool, unusual...") idea? I'll listen. [Note: this is one hour total, not one hour every month. However, you could break it up into shorter sessions- like having "Sandy-on-call." ] You have until the end of April 2016 to use your hour. And yes, it is perfectly ok to ask a question "for a friend."

$250 - CARTOON YOU - I'll create a cartoon avatar of you! Use it for social media or on your calling cards (any non-commercial use). You can decide if you want a full figure or just head and shoulders. Send me at least 4 clear photos and let the fun begin! The final image will be sent to you as a jpeg, so no postage is necessary.

$250 - SHAMELESS PLUG - I'll put an ad/link for you, your business, or your product on the blog. Creativity is welcome! The ad will stay on the blog until May 2016.

The Shameless Pug

$650 - The SHAMELESS PUG really likes you! I'll put an ad/link for you AND I'll review your product (book, website, whatever you like) on the blog AND I'll include it (the product) or you, in a comic strip, and post it on the blog. [Note: for reviews, I'll need a sample of the item. I'd particularly love to "review" a new iMac, a large format scanner, and a fuel efficient car!] You have until March 2016 to claim your Pug.

$3,000 - BACKSTAGE PASS - At this level, you are a very good friend, close family... or a stalker. Either way, you can't stay at my apartment! But, I will put you up at The Hotel Coolidge (good example of a Shameless Plug!), for a night. I'll take you out for lunch - BBQ? Turkish? Food co-op? And then I'll show you behind the scenes at the Cartoon School! You'll get to see the studios and such rarities as the kind-of-creepy-but super-cool cartoon graffiti bathroom! That's not for kids though. Some of those drawings bring new meaning to "bathroom humor"! ...And other exciting sites. I'll also give you a Cartoon School tote bag or some other memento of the lovely day. And, depending on the day you visit - you may get to attend other intriguing events, like a film night or a visiting artist lecture. And yes, you can bring a friend, spouse, or kid. Or two. But not two spouses. That's just wrong. You have until May 2016 to use your reward. This level also has Studiomate status so you can take part in the blog Open Studios.

$4,000 - The COLLECTOR - You just KNOW that someday my art will be famous, right? Especially with all the skills I will learn at Cartoon School! You can start your collection while my art is still affordable. ;-) You will get an original, fabulous, framed piece of my Zentangle art! This piece uses black, brown and sepia inks as well as white chalk - on handmade lokta paper. It is professionally framed. Big and impressive! Just the way art should be. It might even match your sofa.


The Baron is not included. He is a character from my rubber stamp line, and volunteered to help show scale.

Here is a close up of the piece:

So those are the amazing rewards you can get for backing my Glyphs & Glitches project! I added a few of these as requests - so if you have an idea for a reward that you want to see - and are willing to back... let me know real quick as there are only a few days left!

Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Bauble Tree and Lilah Beans!

Chelsea Radley recently emailed me to tell me about how much fun she and her kids were having with my ebook, The Bauble Tree. She also told me about a few blog posts she had written about the ebook and gave me permission to share them with you. I just wrote a post on my BeezInTheBelfry blog with the first two posts, but thought this one might really appeal to all you Lilah Bean fans and kids!

So here are Chelsea's great ideas!

More Ebooks and Tangle Cards

Hello again. I seem to be on a roll. Well, first let me say that this is all Ms Bartholomew's fault. If it weren't for her and her talent, I would not be so inspired to spend so much time playing with zentangle and especially her lovely little Lilah Beans! That being said, I had way too much fun creating my Christmas cards this year. I decided to extend the fun and once inspired it was hard to stop. I ended up making a total of 6 different designs staring the Lilah Beans. You can now find these cards as printable PDF's on my Esty shop CraftyStx

So the first cards I made were the trees. They were so cute. I couldn't resist. I played with the idea on them for a bit. The Merry and Bright card was bothering me. The original was just missing something. I couldn't quite put my finger on it but it kept me awake one night. Then it hit me, an easy fix would be to modify the lettering some and maybe add a Lilah Bean or a present beneath the tree. The finsihed result was much more to my liking. 


The second cards were the Feliz Navidad and the little Bean hopping out of the present. This was just too much fun to do. They naturally lend themselves to mischievousness and hijinks. But I didn't stop there...


The last set of cards was the Welcome Santa and the Season's Greetings. Once I got started on the little guys wearing hard hats, it was only natural to take a look at them wearing elf hats and reindeer antlers. And the little guy wearing the antlers would not be pleased. Who would want to pull that sleigh? 

The next step was learning my printer. I am so technologically challenged. I only have an ipad and my latest addition was an epson printer. And our internet here is goofy so suffice to say I have to go offline and use a wireless nettwork that isnt' actually hooked up to a network in order to connect the printer to the ipad. Whew, and once all that is done I spent some time learning to scan with the epson app. I printed a black and white copy of my cards to play with on cardstock. 

I pulled out my handy dandy colored pencils and my fine point le pen markers and went to work. The results were just too much fun. It is always a joy when your own coloring work is satisfactory. After all and an artist is their own worst critic. 



 
Another Epson scan and I now had printable color copies. I invite you to take a look at my Etsy store and see for yourself. Just look for CraftyStx and they are the newest listings. 

As far as my daughter goes... she has recenlty been "Bauble Bombing" as I like to call it. She simply can't resist drawing these little trees. My son has gotten in on some of the fun too; however he leans towards simply adding the Lilah Beans into his art. Take a look at the latest escapades....



Should I tell them I recently purchased the printable book, "The Tangles of Kells" by Ms Bartholomew? 
 
 
Here is the link to Chelsea's first post... Bauble
And the second post... Bauble Cards
And this third one... Tangle Cards

Thursday, August 28, 2014

Mia and Lilah - the Lilah Bean Comics

 This summer I was lucky enough to attend a Comic Camp at the Center for Cartoon Studies in VT. My daughter Lilah visited the classroom every chance she got and spent a lot of time working on her own comics ideas. I posted about our experiences on my Beez In the Belfry blog. Here are links if you would like to read about it:
Pow! Zing! Comic Camp!
Pop-Pop-BLAM! - Comic Camp
Splotch! Ploop! - Comic Camp
Ka-zaAM! - Comic Camp
Zip! Squeeee! - Comic Camp
Blip, Bleep! >Sigh< - Comic Camp

And this is a Lilah Bean comic that uses a "Mad Libs" technique. I had to create a comic that took place in a cave with my character getting arrested for laughing... and saved by a smiling cat.


Looks like my comic-camp-adventure had an influence on some of my readers! We received this wonderful Lilah Bean comic from Mia Bonet (daughter of CZT, Elizabeth Bonet)

Deep in space on a space...

island, Lila

Beans dance!



(spinning)



Their dance ends...

so they leave their space island...

so they can dance for others too!


Bye

(cliff)

By: Mia B.

My daughter, Lilah, decided to respond with her own comic...


Once there were four Lilah Beans - Leo, Boby, Ecy, and Mia...

They were acrobats!

One day they all went to a museum...

Mia went to the bees, Leo went to the fake Dinosaur...

Boby and Ecy went to the bubbles.

(Boby is trapped inside a giant bubble)

Everyone got to do potions...
(Mia grew a curly tale)

(drinking the potion, Boby grew giant)...

"Flood!"
(Ecy grew wings)...

(Leo grew crazy-long arms)

They went home...

Reading book or newspaper...

Watch TV...

went to their job.
(they are all swinging on trapeze, with the giant face of Boby in the background).

The end.
(By: Lilah B.)

A note: the Museum Lilah mentions is the Montshire Science Museum in Vermont. They have an exhibit right now called A T-Rex Named Sue, and they have permanent exhibits about bees and bubbles (not related). She visited with her Gramma while we were all at Cartoon Camp.

Have you created a Lilah Bean comic? We'd love to share it here!!



Sunday, August 3, 2014

Viyana's Art

I received this great note and picture and thought you would enjoy seeing it too. This is the first tangled teen I have seen and she makes me think that this is what a Lilah Bean might look like when she grows up! ;-) Oh - and be sure to take note of the Hollibaugh tangled belt! Very nice.
- Sandy


This was done by my 12 year old daughter Viyana and 
she wanted to share it with you. 
She loves zentangle. We love your books.

Her advice is "just have fun with it".

Tangled girl by Viyana




Friday, July 18, 2014

Comic Camp Recap!

© Sandy Steen Bartholomew
I just spent a week at Comic Camp in Vermont.
I blogged about it every day on my Beez In the Belfry site - and there are lots of pictures of the cool stuff we worked on. I had such a fabulous time!! If you are curious, here are the links to the pages. The first link is Monday's, then Tuesday's, etc.

Pow! Zing! Comic Camp!

Pop-Pop-BLAM! - Comic Camp 


Splotch! Ploop! - Comic Camp 

Ka-zaAM! - Comic Camp

Zip! Squeeee! - Comic Camp

Blip, Bleep! >Sigh< - Comic Camp

 

 

Tuesday, May 6, 2014

Guest Post - Chelsea's Tangled Fairies

Dear Ms Bartholomew,
Thank you so very much for your tangle cards and inspirations. I have laminated them with contact paper and put them on a ring. They are easy to flip through and gather ideas. I also will be using these in the summer camp craft class I teach and I am much easier about letting kids use them now.



I wanted to share with you some tangled inspiration I had lately. I was shopping at Meijers and saw this lovely design your own fashions set from Disney. There were so many to choose from I had a hard time picking just one. I finally settled on Tinkerbell but there were also princesses and Disney villains.  [Note, this book is: Style Me Up!]


I bought it with the intention of playing with tangled outfits. Here are my results on a few.






Perhaps your Lilah will enjoy this too. It reminded me a bit of your Tangled Fashionista just with less pre set strings or dress outlines. The girls come just covered with boy shorts and a strapless top. They give you stencils and stickers to play but I wanted to see what tangled outfits I could come up with. The stencils help if you are not good at outlining the idea of a dress or top but I use them rarely and only for a guideline.


 
Your latest post about kids using your tangle app was wonderful too. My daughter, Calista, is 5-1/2 and uses your app and your tangle cards intermittently. She has created many tangles for me including this beautiful tree.

Tangle Tree by Calista, age 5 1/2
 I also plan to teach a little girl who is 5 some of the tangle method using your books and cards to help her with her dexterity. Her mother is very excited about the idea. Perhaps I will be able to share the result of that session with you as well.

Thank you again for all your books and resources you have published or been a part of.  I believe your styles tend to be my favorite and thank you so much for the kids book! That has been so helpful for so many kids!

Hope you have a wonderful day!
Chelsea Radley


Visit Chelsea's blog HERE for more really cool ideas and tangle-y fun!
And if you are in the Ohio area, check out her summer camps HERE.

For even more great inspiration in the fashion-doll theme, Suzanne McNeill just posted a YouTube video of a cute project - Zentangle Paper Dolls.