My garden produced some mighty fine veggie’s this year and some beautiful flower blooms as well.  And among them are a few little painted goodies here and there too.  I like a bit of whimsy in the garden and since rocks are plentiful here in the high desert, I figured I might as well have some fun with them.

Butterflies and Worms

When I paint rocks I like to do double sided themed rocks.  Here’s one with a worm on one side…. and his second life butterfly on the other.

It’s fun to see the look on peoples faces when they pick up the rock and see the second side.

Frog Prince

I’ve kissed a few frogs in my day.  But not this fella.  Although I do think he came out rather cute in the end, kissing isn’t a part of the game.

Eats from the Garden

Tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, mint, VERY HOT peppers, and strawberries are the yummies I planted this year.  And we had more tomatoes than we could eat.  So our neighbors benefitted from our plantings too.  Everyone seemed to like them, coming back for more about every other day.

I think the birds were the only ones who enjoyed the strawberries though.  Ours were too sour for my liking.  So we took advantage of the local farmers market for our breakfast berries instead.  Much sweeter from the California farmers who come over and sell.

And we had Zucchini till the cows came home.  We love Zucchini stew!  But had too much for stew every week. The chef at our house (my husband) found a delicious Chocolate Zucchini Bites recipe.  He tweaked it just a bit further to fit better into my KETO diet.  And it was oh so yummy!

How about you?  What did you garden this year?  If you do – I hope you’ve had a good harvest this year as well!

Until next time, Cheers from ~Cindy

I love doing up birthday cards.  So I decided to share a few with you hoping to inspire other card makers out there.

Something for the Fellas

These first two were for some of the Dads in my life.  Brown-ish buttons were home made plastic drops.  You know – the kind you melt in the oven.

On this next card I used one of my favorite House Mouse stamps.  I use it pretty often as I can make up plain cards or get all sorts of fancy with it. It was several months back that this card came together, but if memory serves me right – I used my water color brush pens and colored pencils for the coloring.   And it’s a good non-gender-specific stamp.  Works for just about any age group too.  This particular card was made up for a young fella.

Cutting Up a Rubber Stamp

The cat with gifts stamp used on this card is one that had Christmas looking packages included.  I wanted to use the stamp for birthday occasions too.  So out came the straight blade and I snipped off the Christmas goodies.  When I add a couple of balloons with 3-D tape and some thread – I can use it for more than just one holiday now.  Yeah… bigger bang for my buck.

Coffee Anyone?

This coffee stained card with a vintage look was accompanied by some coffee themed gifts for a special not-so-little gal in our family.  I like the distressed look I got when inking over embossed background in blue with brown edges.  And who doesn’t like a polka dotted flower?!  Fun textures and layers on this one.

Simple Celebration Card

Plain and simple turned into something with flair.  Used a 3-D, corrugated cardboard cupcake and wink of stella shine on the Celebrate die-cut.  By using the earth tone card stock and keeping the sparkly to a minimum, this mellow card could be used for guy or girl.  This one happed to go to a nephew.

DieCut Letters

These three sold off my craft table last year.  I guess you can’t tell it in this picture, but the lettering is all die cuts and the backgrounds are popped up for a little bit of extra texture on the cards.  It takes a bit of patience to get them assembled straight, but worth it in the end.  They are quick and easy to put together and are quick sellers.  Great way for me to use up scraps in matching prints too.  Every diecut machine owner needs a set of letters… or two… or more.  LOL

One in Every Family

And yes – I like a few of Tim’s Crazy Birds too.  So, yeah… gotta toss one of those in this mix as well.    Like most every family I know, there’s at least one crazy person in the group.  And if you can’t figure out who it is in your family, well…. then it’s probably you! Of course if you are having a party you need to hire the Jumper’s Jungle Family Fun Center game service for all ages.

Maybe these little cards gave you some inspiration for your next card making project?  I hope so.

Happy Days to you All!
~Cindy

With the fires in California being so bad this week, we’ve had less than wonderful air on this side of the mountain.  Our little valley over here in Nevada has been left with smokiness all around.  Blah!  This air quality issue has kept me mostly indoors – giving me more time than usual to play with pen and ink.  Here’s a few of the things I’ve played with lately.

Twisted Corners Pattern Play

Isn’t it fun when you find a pattern that seems to flow off the end of your pen in a fun way?  This little Twisted Corners pattern (by Alexandria Cortez Diaz) does that for me.  So I played with putting it inside of several small shapes.    If you haven’t tried this one yet, maybe consider giving it a go soon.  You can find  a pattern step out inside our pattern photo album in the Lineweaving.com forums website or over at Pattern-Collections if you haven’t joined our community forums yet.

Playing with Creative Challenges

Our last Weekend Weaver challenge was to wrap patterned ribbon around something.  Didn’t really matter what we wrapped them around, could even be a bundle of ribbons wrapped around themselves.  I was inspired by a picture I saw on Pinterest, that had ribbons hanging from a pencil.  So I did something with the same theme.

While we’re on the subject of challenges – Our MOJO play time this week was spent weaving together the patterns: Boucle by Cherryl Moote, Kandysnake by Vicki Murray, and Swags by Neil Burley.  Swags gave me a run for my money.  Took me quite a while to figure out how to stagger those blocks to give me the affect I was looking for.  Of course these pattern step outs can all be found in our community forum gallery as well.

If you enjoy weekly challenges to give yourself a creative boost, be sure to pop into our forums and check them out.  You can subscribe to the discussion string so you’ll always know when the next one is posted.

Feathering for Fun

Are you familiar with the term feathering?  It’s used often in quilting and in the Creative Pattern Tangling (CPT) world as well.  I believe Eni Oken gave the method a zen-like name: echoing.  Well whatever you call it – here’s a little something I played with while sitting in front of the TV last night.  A little feathering can go a long way.  Bright blues always make me happy.

Thanks for stopping in for a visit here at the Rainbow Elephant.  Hope you have a great day!
~Cindy

I’ve done Artist Trading Card swaps for many years.  But this last month was the first time I did an Artist Trading Coin swap.  This one was hosted by Janelle and she said, pretty much anything goes.

We could do collage work, stamping, drawing, painting, inking, or whatever suites our interest.  That seemed to me to be the perfect kind of swap to participate in for the first go around with coins.

So I pulled together a set of coins using water color backgrounds, a fun rubber stamp, some doodling, water brush pens, and a tiny shimmer heart sticker on each one.

Here’s the set I came up with:

I have two coins left over from the swap.  If you’d like to swap one of mine for one of yours – drop me an email.  If I have any leftover by then, I’ll happily trade with you.

Hugs to you All,
~Cindy

I’d like to introduce you to Carol Ross Edmonston.  Back in the 1990’s she developed a creative drawing method she calls Sacred Doodling. Her method is seriously close to the method Rick and Maria claim as their own.  I mean SERIOUSLY close.  Like the meat and potatoes of the creative process is exactly the same.

Carol is actually the original designer for the creative process many people now refer to as Zentangling.  Oh no, she’s not the one that came up with the zingy company name or the business plan to market the heck out of it.  But she is the one who first wrote about and taught the drawing method, as well as some of the meditative and wellness theory that goes along with it.

Carols Sacred Doodle teachings and drawing method includes the following:

• Drawing a guideline/string that has open spaces in it.
• Filling in those open spaces with repeated patterns.
• Maintaining a mindfulness mental state of focus or “being present” while drawing.
• Allowing for your art to develop with no expectations of what the end product will look like.
• Recognizing that art has similarities to life – in that there are no mistakes, only opportunities.
• Appreciating the final piece of abstract art – that is usually created in 15 minutes.

Any of that sound familiar to you?   It should!  Rick and Maria’s drawing method has all the same characteristics as Carols products.

By the way, besides Rick and Maria – I’m not the only other one who knows Carol is the original author of this creative process. Our U.S. Patent Office reviewers see it too.  Their findings of Carols work isn’t the only reason they have been denying the patent application for Rick and Maria’s “teaching method and kit for abstract pattern drawing” invention.  But it’s one of the strongest reasons they’ve used during the 13 years the patent application has been processing.  Despite the many rebuttal letters Rick and Maria have submitted to the U.S. Patent office – thus far they haven’t been able to convince the reviewers they have a unique invention that isn’t a copycat of Carols methods.

Is it Coincidental? Maybe.

Back to my introduction of Carol…  After realizing the health benefits from this mindful drawing practice, Carol began teaching her methods.  She published books on the subject.  Taught the method in schools and hospitals.  She and her works were written about in several high profile periodicals.  And news sources interviewed and wrote about her.  Carols teachings and creative works were public knowledge long before Rick and Maria claimed to have come up with their methods in 2003.

I have a couple of Carol’s books.  In 2000, she wrote the book titled Connections, The Sacred Journey Between Two Points – One Women’s Spiritual Adventure Through Breast Cancer.  My copy of this book has the pages falling out because I’ve referred to it so often.

In the Introduction of her book she tells the back story of meeting a great meditation master.  Carol then tells us a little about her own meditation practices.  Here’s one of the statements in this section of her book, “… I have learned to look within, and to trust and have faith in the journey itself”.  Coincidentally the Zentangle® story has a direct connection to Rick’s meditation practices and they have taught students of their drawing method to “…take it one stroke at a time, and trust in the journey”.  Not an earth shattering coincident on it’s own.  However, a few more quotes from Carol’s book that may sound to you, suspiciously similar to what’s taught through in the  Zentangle® drawing method:

• “As the outline for each drawing was being created with one single movement of the pen, I was learning how to trust in the process and have faith that I would be guided to create a perfect design.  And I always was!”
• “[no matter how the finished product looked]…. they were all unique and perfect, just the way they were.  There were no mistakes!”
• “This was the beginning of a magical time for me and I began to see the correlation between this art form and life itself… for both are about immersing oneself in a journey…”
• “[In life]… There are no wrong turns.”
• “Remember, this art form is about freedom.  There are no rules!”
• “I am constantly reminded that everything is just how it should be… there are no mistakes.  Life can be such a magical journey!”

There are more quotes I could share.  But I think you get the idea here.  There’s a resounding theme in her work that coincides with the Zentangle® teachings.  Specifically, how they both correlate their creative process with life events – claiming there are no mistakes, no rules, no wrong turns, and the student is to trust in the creative journey.

My point isn’t that the words are or are not exactly the same.  My point is that the words they use along side the creative theme, follow the exact same pathway.  A coincident?  Maybe.  But then again… maybe not.

Abstract Strings and Repetition

Let’s say for the sake of argument that Rick, Maria, and Carol just happen to think along the same lines with theories of life events and creative processes having correlations with each other.  I mean really that could happen…. especially since they also have a similar meditation practice background.  And maybe the teachings of their meditative practices are similar.  Religious beliefs often have similar threads of thought.  So yeah…. maybe, just maybe, they teach the same “Zen” theories as each other… I suppose that could happen.

But then I compare the art that results from their drawing processes.  What do we see?  Well, here again, the similarities are obvious.  Here’s a picture of her art on a CD cover I have and a picture on the book I mentioned above..  Inside this book are many more examples of her art work.  What I’ve seen in her open string-sections are several of the exact same patterns that have come out of Zentangle® HQ.  And by several I mean a lot.  More than 20 patterns show up.

Of course so many of the patterns in our art have been around for thousands of years and anyone can recreate them.  But then I read the statements in their patent application rebuttals where they argue that they use different types of repetitive patterns that Carol doesn’t use.  With over 20 of the same patterns between them – how can they say that her art is different and doesn’t include the same type pattern work?  It’s no wonder to me that the patent office isn’t accepting those rebuttals as factual.

There’s just no way there are that many accidental similarities.  They both have a Zen meditation back ground.  They both use some of the same theories on life and art connections.  They both use the same verbiage in their writing.  All of Carols creative processes are included in Rick and Maria’s.  The abstract art is very much of the same style.  Coincidental? No.  I don’t believe it’s coincidence.

Making it Their Own

What I think is very apparent here, is that Rick and Maria took a great creative process and tweaked it a little bit.  Then built a business around it.  That’s perfectly legal.  Even the similarities in the words they use don’t equate to copyright infringement.  Businesses do this all the time.  Think about how many different rubber stamp companies there are or how many different companies sell decorative papers for card making/scrapbooking.  The same is true in just about every industry or for any product you can think of.

Rick and Maria are saavy business owners.  Kudos to them for having those skill sets and the resources to follow their business endeavors to the level of success they’ve accomplished thus far. I can not deny them that.  I think it’s great when people can create a successful business based on their artistic interests.

I suppose they might be nice enough people. Certainly they have a large following. But I have an issue with the way they handled a recent business matter.  When someone used the same creative process and tweaked it even further and also began building a business around it…. they squawked.  They posted a scathing blog post about how someone else stole their information property.  Seriously?

She didn’t steal their information!  What she did (and continues) to do, is she enhances the basic creative patterning methods wonderfully.  Far beyond anything Zentangle®, Inc.  has done.  And she’s done it all without infringing on their copy rights.

What really gets me fired up is that they are smart enough to know the information they fed to their blog readers about copyright infringement was not true infringement!  I’m amazed to see the number of people leaving comments on that “Seriously” article, that accept the blog posting as truth. I haven’t figured out if so many of these people don’t do their research before speaking out because they don’t care to find out the truth, or if they follow along because of herd mentality.  It really baffles the mind sometimes.

Here’s the thing – just because Rick and Maria say (or insinuate) that something is true that doesn’t necessarily make it true.  They try to convince people that they invented their teaching/drawing method.  Proof shows they didn’t invent it.  Carol did, and then took a different business path than they did.  They try to convince people that Ina infringed on their copy rights.  She hasn’t done that.  They have no copy rights to the drawing methods they teach.

Seriously – Don’t be fooled!

They spin a story.  People believe them.   And to me, it’s a sad thing that people are so gullible and easily mislead.

Whether you’re a business person in the repeat pattern art field or a hobbyist – don’t just follow along with the Zentangle® stories blindly. Learn the facts.  Look for info and start forming your own opinion instead of adopting that of others, this is some of what you may learn:

• Neither teaching methods nor drawing techniques are copyrightable.  Words and short phrases are not copyrightable either. Plus the content they shared in their “Seriously” blog post isn’t enough to be considered infringing on their previous works.  The so called “proof” Rick and Maria provided to their audience doesn’t prove copyright infringement at all.  They just wanted you to believe it did.
• The business model of recruiting and training reps to teach art-making methods or to buy/sell your products is not a copyrightable, nor a patentable business model.  Anyone can legally do that.  Many, many companies do!  Telling someone to stop recruiting and training other people on how to teach a creative method – well, it’s just a stupid thing to do- like bullying always is.  With the CZT®  Program, Rick and Maria are Following a proven business model.  Just like other companies have.  And they have no legal footing for stopping someone else from doing the same thing.
• Their training/drawing methods are not covered by copyright laws, not trademark laws, and thus far they haven’t proved patentable either.  There are several reasons it hasn’t been patented yet.  The fact that it’s not their original invention is just one of the reasons.  Whether they ever see a patent get approved or not, the patent does not now (nor will it ever) prevent anyone else from legally teaching drawing methods using repetitive patterning.  Even if those methods are seriously close to their (claimed) original method – the Zentangle® company can’t stop anyone from teaching repeat pattern art, abstract art, or any combination of the two.
• If you want to buy their products wholesale, or contract with them to resale their products, or you want to teach using their exact same methods – then by all means, get certified by Zentangle® , Inc to do so.  But certification from their company is not required for you to teach patterning using your own teaching methods – even if your methods include strings and repetitive pattern markings.
• The intellectual property that the Zentangle® company has protection on at this time, are their copyrightable products, and their trademark related products.  And yes – there are situations that allow for you to use their trademarks and their copyrighted materials too.

Do Your Homework!

If you happen to still be reading this and you’re a certified rep for Zentangle, Inc – before you get all defensive on me stop and take a breath. If you haven’t looked into it yet and you’ve already started taking sides or making even more false accusations – then shame on you for just blindly accepting false claims as facts.  I understand that you feel like you have a personal relationship with Rick and Maria.  I understand your loyalty to the company you represent. But neither of those things excuse you from educating yourself about copyrights and infringements, or the history of the company you associate yourself with.

If on the other hand you researched what’s copyrightable and what isn’t and you’ve learned what constitutes infringement and what doesn’t – then you already know exactly what I’m talking about.  Congratulations for doing your homework.  I admire you for taking the time to learn and form your own opinion.  Even if your opinion differs from mine I respect you and hope that you will offer me the same.

Check Out Carols Work

You can learn more about Carols story and her stringed abstract art works completed with repetitive patterns; and pick up her books, or learn of her workshops at her Sacred Doodles Website.

Check Out Ina’s Work

You can learn more about the many drawing options in the Creative Pattern Tangling Drawing/teaching methods that encompasses Ina’s work by looking at the training resources she’s posted at Pattern-Collections.com

Check Out Zentangle, Inc.

You can learn more about the Zentangle® drawing method at Zentangle.com.

Check Out Copyright Info

You can learn more about what’s copyrightable and what’s not by visiting the official US Copyright Office website

Check Out Patent Info

You can learn more about patent requirements at the official US Patent and Trademark Office website

You can get copies of the patent application and associated documents for the Zentangle® methods by using the Public Pair site.  The patent application number that you’ll need is: 11/229,928

Cheers,
~ Cindy