Distress Inks & Zentangles

A bit ago I blogged that Halle was in the hospital for a couple days. Well, as I'm sure you know if you're a parent, or anyone for that matter, and have been to a hospital, boredem can set in pretty quickly. Luckily for me, Mario (Tim Holtz' business manager) was on twitter that day to keep me entertained. He has just got to be the sweetest person ever and definitely improved my day! Well, fast forward to the past month or so and Mario and I continue to chit-chat on twitter (by the way, he totally got me addicted to, "Glee." Ummm.. where have I been?) and the other day he had posted some behind the scene photos at the Ranger warehouse. Some of them were of Tim's 12 new distress ink colors. I think I said something witty to the affect of, "I need those 12 new inks like Jesus needed the 12 Apostles." He replied back saying, "Then you shall have them." Stop. Wait. What? No... he didn't just say, what I think he just said, did he? Yes, he did. And guess what I got yesterday from FedEx? Yup, all 12 of the absolutely gorgeous new distress inks. Ummm... could a girl get any happier? And let me just say... Forest Moss is the new Peeled Paint. Thanks again, to Mario, for not only brightening my day on more than one occassion, but just for being an all-around nice guy. I've said it before, and I'll say it again, "God Bless Mario." He should be getting a little something' somethin' in the mail soon and I'll get to meet him in person this Sunday at my class with Tim. I don't know if I'm more excited to have the class or just chat with my newfound, fellow Gleek.

So, over at Scrapbook.com someone on the forums brought up Zentangles and I was intrigued. These were the kinds of doodles I used to do all over my notebooks in gradeschool when I was bored. And I'm pretty sure I was not the only one. So I was excited to find out that there is an actual name for it. I attempted my first zentangle, it's 9 3x3 decorated tiles on watercolor paper and I used a finepoint quick-drying sharpie. I then shaded with an HB sketching pencil and mounted it on heavy-weight black cardstock using foam mounting tape. Pretty cool, eh? I like these little 3x3 tiles because you can stick them in a ziploc in your purse and take them with you while you're waiting at a doctor's office or for a meeting, etc... I think it took me about three days to complete all 9 tiles. So, what do you think? Pretty cool, eh?


Well, have a great day everyone! I've got to finish off some teachers gifts for the girls. Today was their last day of school, and Emma's last day of preschool. Oh, I'm getting so old. I also have to work on a little project for a contest that Tim is holding over at his blog. Go check it out. And I'm ALSO working on another little kind of Tim-ish project that I'm pee-in-my-pants excited to share with you, if it works out how I'd like! So much to do, so little time!

Hasta Pasta!