So how are you doing? Are you enjoying making your own little works of art? You might think that that lines and dots are very simple, but the more you work on the basic parts of doodling, the more you feel at home using them and the more comfortable you will get using them on your projects. Practice practice practice! Take your journal with you when you wait for your kids to come out of the basketball practice, or at the dentist, or doctor. Make the wait more relaxing and fun!

Today is the last of the basic doodles that we will learn and then we are headed into some more adventures in doodling!

The swirl is often used in scrapbooks and cards. Watch around your world this week and you will also see that they are very popular right now in many mediums. You might see them in magazines ,on tv, on a billboard or even on clothing. Often stamps and stickers made for our scrapbooks and craft projects are swirls. Our stamps and stickers can be inspiration for us as we draw swirls and vines.

A swirl is actaully a basic "S"

If you see it upright you will see the "S" shape. If you have trouble making the swirls on their side at first, just turn the paper and make an S.

So in your journal start with a basic swirl..and then try some variations. Check out the pages in my journal and see some of the things that you can do with swirls...and be creative. Let your imagination go when you draw.

If you want it to, draw it with a pencil..and then follow over it with a color pen. When you follow over it, dont be worried that you folow the lines exactly, just use them as guidelines. After the pen is all dry....you can erase the pencil lines. Use some care with this technique on some papers. SOme colors will change if you erase on the papers...so test it out first.
Using a pencil is a great way to see if you like doodling on some of your projects, or if you are not sure you can draw something. Be sure to use a white eraser, as it leaves no marks.

I'd like to set up another Doodling chat in case there are questions on the weekend. Please dont stress if you cant make it to chats... they are just set up for you to ask questions and chat about what you are doing with doodling. I found them encouraging when I was doing my classes. Any ideas about the times that will work for you? Fri Evening, Saturday AM, or evening, and SUnday evening appear to be available for me. Any interest?

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Thanks for lesson 3, Benita. I love how your swirls look, TFS!

This Thursday (tomorrow) is a busy day for most of us in the USA as we will be celebrating Thanksgiving with family and friends, after that begins the major Christmas shopping as a lot of people have Friday off, too. It makes for a long weekend. Just letting you know in case some of us are missing online, although I'm sure I'll have time to drop in as I'm not going Christmas shopping this long weekend, I'll wait until everyone else is back at work.

Hugs, Sondra

I love what you've done Benita! Love your swirleys!! Can't wait to work on mine now.

I should be free Saturday and possibly Friday evening. We are planning a quiet weekend to heal and get better before our trip, so I should be around most of the time. I am excited for the chat!!

Gorgeous swirls Benita! I'm anxious to get back to my practice - but as Sondra said, tomorrow (Thursday) is Thanksgiving here in the US. Any of the evenings (Fri, Sat, or Sun) would be fine with me for a chat (just have to remember it this time! )

Thanks Benita, I will be working on mine...Friday eve or Saturday is best for me, too!

I finished lesson #3 last night, but with my new iMac computer, I'm having trouble figuring out how to use the new scan program that came with it. I want my old scan program back. Waaaa. So will try scanning again later, so I can post.

The swirls felt harder for me to make, strange.

Can't wait to try it

The doodling chat will be on Sat evening, since my dad's birthday is today and we decided to have a bit of party for him on Fri night.

Hey Sondra....keep practicing and just let yourself draw, dont worry to follow somone elses work and I bet you'll figure out the swirls that you draw from your heart!

I'm late! I'm late! as per usual . I won't make the chat this time. I'll be at church and it is DH's 50th so have fun girls....next week I'll have a bit of free time I'm hoping so I need to catch up. Went to the doctor yesterday and I didn't have to wait....how rude.....I always wait! I wanted to doodle!

I REALLY CANT THANKYOU U ENOUGH BENITA.. YOU ARE A STAR

Okay, I'm back and full of turkey dinner.

Here is the scan of my Swirls, Lesson 3. Thanks, Benita.

Very creative swirls Sondra. I've done just a few, need to practice more. I also want to play with my Wacom tablet and see if I can figure out how to doodle with it!

Sondra, I just love your swirl page..so creative! Love the swirls as hair..and on the dress...love the heads on vines and cool rose! If your worried about the smoothness of lines, that really does come with practice.

Cheryl I would love to see what you will do with the Wacom tablet..You could have come awesome digi doodles. Do show us!

Inspired by insomnia and sleep meds, I did this doodle in semi-darkness - there was a night light so I could see what I was doing but not the details. I highly recommend this idea. Not the insomnia or the sleep meds, but doodling in semi darkness. It seems to quiet the inner critic/editor.

I may play with this doodle more -either on paper or on the computer.

Patty, what an awesome doodle. Sorry you couldn't get to sleep, but at least the time was well spent.


Thanks, Benita and Cheryl.

Hugs, Sondra

Sondra and Patty...both wonderful doodling!

Patty, the quote is perfect!!

Wonderful doodling!

I'm really enjoying these doodling classes - a perfect way to unwind as well as learning something - thank you

Just browsing the net (as you do) and googled on zentangles as I'd not heard the word before and found Trish Bee's fabby blog - I thought I'd pass on the address as there are some great doodles on there - you'll need to scroll down through a couple of the the more recent postings, but her stuff is just wonderful so I'm sure you'll enjoy your visit
http://trishbee.co.uk/

Great site, great woman, I've already got her bookmarked for her tuitions, which are brill,but never visited her blog before. thanks kathy

I played with the doodle while watching TV tonight - the paper version. Mostly I darkened lines and added details and flourishes. We'll see what happens when I get a chance to play with the scanned version.

Here's the "elaborated" doodle:

Very pretty, Patty, I think you are a natural with this doodling.

Thanks for the website, Kathy, will check it out.

Last night I made a birthday card (see below) where I added some straight and slightly curved lines near the words, Happy Birthday. I used a Sharpie ultra fine point pen in black. Does this count as doodling?

That sure does count as doodling! What a differnce that made to the lettering I bet! Great job!

Patty your doodling is wonderful! Just love it!

Kathy, I'm glad your enjoying our doodling...thanks fro sharing that site..its a great place to look around for inspiration.

I think that definitely counts as doodling, Sondra! In fact, I think that's the kind of doodling I do most - sometimes a card just needs a little something and penwork is just right!

Thanks, Benita & Patty,
It did help the words to stand out better and I kind of like it, but it sure was scary adding the lines to the card because if I blew it, the whole card would have been ruined. Well, guess I could have covered it with another piece of cardstock and restamped the words....but still......you know what I mean. Guess that's why lots of practice is important.

Hugs, Sondra

Wow Patty and Sondra, great job!

Thanks, Marcie.

Hugs, Sondra

Here is mine:
http://www.crafthappy.com/forums/index.php...si&img=3703

Here are a few doodles...

Very pretty and delicate Marcie! Great to see your doodles Jeanne:)...are you having fun???

Love everyone's work. Here is mine.

Great swirls Deb! Great t o see everyone catching up!

Cute job ladies!

My Swirly doodle practice page. I think I misunderstood the lesson, cuz I didn't do much in the way of vines. Duh! Sometimes usually my brain isn't really in gear.

Well, anyway - I added this to the gallery too.

Cute swirls, I like that heart and the tree!

I actually did quite a bit of doodling today - I'll post pics tomorrow. It was a lot of fun - but we're getting ready to leave in just a few minutes, so I can't post now.

Like I said, I did a lot of doodling yesterday. Since I was behind, I mixed it up. I didn't just do lines on one page, swirls on another, etc., so I'm just going to post all my pages here, even though there is a mix of techniques so to speak. Hope no one minds!

The pictures are too big to put more than one per post, so I'll do this over several posts.

Here are my last 3 pages.

Some of my doodling is quilting practice

GREAT job, Cheryl! Wish I lived closer to get some quilting tuts from you! Your stuff is just lovely on your blog!

Yours look great Cheryl and I imagine it was very relaxing doing them.

Thanks Jeanne - I wished you lived closer too - that would be fun!!

And thanks Deb - it was relaxing - I did it while my machine was embroidering!