Inspiration Avenue Challenge - If you could go anywhere

When things seem a bit hum-drum

or the cares of the day are pressing in,

then it's time to do a little 

wishful wandering!

If you could go anywhere, do anything,

where would you go?

what would you do??

what would you see? 

This week's challenge over at Inspiration Avenue  is to describe where you'd go and what you'd do if you could go anywhere.  I would go back to my hometown in Greece where I could watch the boats on the marina and take in the beautiful sea.  I would sit out on the balcony with a cup of tea and watch the peacefulness of the village lifestyle go by.  I would slow down my life and take time to enjoy my surroundings.

This creation started with a black and white photograph of the marina in my hometown.  I changed it to a sketch in Photoshop, and colored the background.  Then I used brushes in Photoshop to add the sun and other embellishments. 

By the Sea

You're invited to a party!

Here's you very own, personal invitation to a Fairy Tea Party! Everyone's invited to this special blog party!  Head on over to Inspiration Avenue and let them know you'll be attending on September 23, 2012!  There will be lots of fun, freebies and giveaways for you.  Join in the festivities today!

 

Very-very close to us in their fascinating parallel world live fairies. You can find them in the silken silence of beautiful flowers, near the forest silver lake late at night, or see their sparkling wings in the gray of the dawn. Fairies look like illusive tender creatures with enormous fiery eyes and ethereal pearl wings. They live near mountain lakes, sleep on beds of green flag leaves, eat pollen and drink morning dew from the blossoms. Early in the morning they are floating in the sky and play hide and seek beneath the whirlpool. This supernatural world is close and at the same time it is inaccessible for us. As usual, fairies hide from hostile human beings, but sometimes it is possible to see them. 

Whether they're in the garden

 In the night,

 In the sun

Or in the sky, fairies will gather together on September 23 to drink tea, eat fanciful desserts and have fun together. See you there!

Diva Challenge #83- Assunta and Mooka

Hmmm this week's challenge really was a challenge. I love Mooka and I use it regularly-but Assunta I just didn't get. Finally I started to get a little bit of a rhythm with it, but I can't say I'd use it again!  I like that I had to do something I wouldn't normally do.

Zendala Dare #18

Here is this week's Zendala Dare. I used crescent moon throughout plus a little ribbon flower I created. I thought the crescent moon looked like bugles-remember that snack?

Fairy Kitty

This week's Inspiration Avenue Challenge was FAIRIES, all types, all genres.  So, I decided my kitty, Carly, was worthy of fairyness.  I used Photoshop and fairy wings brushes by Obsidian Dawn.  This was fun to do, although I had to do it without the benefit of my waacom tablet, so it wasn't as fully finessed as I would have liked.  I just moved and my tablet is still packed.  This challenge reminded me how much I love playing with Photoshop and creating digitally manipulated illustrations.

Zendala Dare #17 - In honor of my grandfather

This week's Zendala Dare was to be in honor of someone special and for me that is my grandfather.  He was the sweetest, most patient, kind and loving man I have ever met, with a kind quiet voice and a passion for his church.  I want most to be like him in every way.  This Zendala is for you papou - grandfather.  This is a page from my sketchbook for the Sketchbook Project - I used pigment ink pads to color the background.

Weekly Diva Challenge #82: UMT v. VII "Brayd"

This week's Diva Challenge invites you to use the tangle Brayd by Shelly Beauch.  I really like this tangle because it looks so cool, and you can embellish it too.  I had partially completed this ZIA with Mi2 from a previous challenge and found that Brayd was perfect to finish it off with.

Inspiration Avenue

I just discovered this site, Inspiration Avenue with weekly art creativity challenges.  I'm very excited to see what the challenges will be and how it will stretch my creative mind.  I've been doing Zentangle for about 3 years, maybe longer, and I am a CZT - a certified zentangle teacher - so I was excited to see that this week's challenge was Zentangles.  Here is a Zendala that I created using a template from Erin Olson over at the Bright Owl.