This year Mike and I celebrated our 30th anniversary by taking a trip to St. Thomas. We had a fabulous time and enjoyed every minute. We took a tour of the British Virgin Islands and enjoyed white sandy beaches, meeting new friends and relaxing. Unfortunately vacations come to an end. Sitting in the airport waiting to leave St. Thomas I noticed a design on the bottle of water I was drinking. I deconstructed the pattern but then went on to make it my own. This pattern only uses 2 shapes, an S shape and an O shape. The name became “So” for that very reason.
Idea #20 for Zentangle: Tangled & Journaled Too, Facebook group. Jane asked me to post a tutorial on using Tombow markers and salt. I’ve also used Dylusion sprays with salt on the last two images.
2. Using your Tombow markers color several colors in any way you’d like.
3. Spritz water with the mister or a spray bottle and let your paints run or move around.
4. Sprinkle paper with salt. I tried several different salt, coarse, fine, whatever I had on hand.
5. Let the salt make move the paints around.
6. If there is too much water dab it with a paper towel or use a heat tool to dry your paper.
7. When dry, wipe the salt off the paper.
8. Use the paint lines as strings and tangle away.
9. Use Tuesday Tangles for some added fun.
Gather salt, mixed media or watercolor paper, Tombow markers, water mister or spray bottle
Color paper with markers.Spritz water over colors, let run or drip. Add more color and water as desired.Spinkle salt over colors and let sit for a while.Try different colors on other papers if you want to play around some more.
Try the same technique using Dylusion sprays. I did the spays on on sheet and placed another sheet on top then added salt to both sheets. This made a cool reflection look for the pages.
4 sheets all using the same technique with different painting medium.Add tangles – have fun!
In 2015 around Valentine’s Day there were many posts and patterns that included hearts. As I was playing around in my Tangle a Day Calendar I wanted to use a heart but create something that felt light and airy to me. This is what I came up with. It made me think of love getting caught in a net.
Circles make me happy. This pattern has a lot of possibilities. I love doing rows on top with other tangles underneath them. I’d love to see what you come up with!
Dream Dancer – a new Zentangle pattern came to life while I was trying to fall asleep. As I was trying to fall asleep one night, somewhere in between being fully awake and asleep, I pictured this pattern. I grabbed my notebook and drew it out. One of the variations looks like a dancer to me. That’s how the name came about. It is a simple pattern with a lot of options. I had fun with it in my sample, using two variations and putting it in a grid. I’d love to see what you do with it. Feel free to comment and include a link to what you’ve done.
In December of 2012 I had brain surgery for a benign brain tumor. Two months after that surgery I was re-admitted to the hospital with a subdural hematoma. Following each surgery, I was advised by my doctor to take breaks away from the computer often during the day. He suggested doing something where a screen wasn’t involved. For a web designer/developer who reads on an e-reader that makes things a little difficult. I picked up my old sketchbook from when I went to the Art Institute and just stared at it. Nothing came to me. I set it back down and played around on Pinterest. It was there I discovered a pin of cute patterns drawn on rocks. I started using ink in my sketchbook to make my own rocks. I drew different shapes and used some of the patterns I saw online as well as some I just made up as I went along. It took me completely out of the world and muted any noise or distractions around me. Wow, what a relief to my overtaxed brain.
It wasn’t until late December of 2013 that I found a Zentangle book at Barnes and Noble. This led me to discover Tangle Patterns online. I decided that I needed to find the “right” way to do this and wanted to take a class. I looked up CZT teachers in my area and saw that there were two. I was leaning toward one of them but made no attempt at contact. Then my friend Beth encouraged me to post some of my tangles on facebook, this is a big thing for me as I have a hard time putting my stuff out for others to see. Later that evening my high school friend posted on my board introducing me to her friend Karen, the CZT that I had been leaning toward for a class! I emailed Karen that evening and was able to go to one of her classes. I LOVED it!
I do Zentangle whenever I need a break, or just some time to get rid of stress. I once lacked the confidence that I could create something beautiful with paper and ink. Now I’ve found that when I get out of my environment and into the zone, I can.
I love water. It balances me. When I was suffering from horrible migraines, besides the dark room, pillow over my head, ice pack over my eyes, and drugs, the sound of waves was what helped me to try to relax. It was imagining myself at the beach with the wind blowing and the rhythmic sound of the waves that got me through it. Sometimes I still have to imagine that just to get to sleep at night.
Diva Challenge #181
I used a regular Zentangle tile for this challenge. I spritzed it with 2 Shimmer paints, Mama Sings the Blues and Jeni B Blue. Instead of using regular graphite pencil, I used my lovely Fantasia Colored Pencils. They are so pretty and smooth. Did I mention that I love color? Don’t get me wrong, I love the simplicity of black and white too, but color… It makes me happy.
I took a paper making class a while ago. Below is a picture of my favorite piece. I haven’t done anything with it yet. It is just too pretty to draw on. Maybe one day…
Hand made paper
Along the lines of water, my daughter picked the theme of “Under the Sea” for her son’s baby shower, nursery etc. It fit well since she thought she was the little mermaid when she was young. She insisted that her (black) hair was a lovely shade of red. The quilt below was the one I made for her son (now 14 months old) with fabric called “A B Seas” and oh-so-cute! It is kind of hard to see the details in this picture but all of the ABCs have under the sea related words associated with them. You can get an idea what they look like if you click on the “A B Seas” here or above. Also the quilting, which I did on my regular sewing machine, was done with a lot of circles, swirls and shell looking designs. I admit, I had a lot of fun doing it even though it took a long time, it was truly a labor of love for my cute little grandson.
This week’s Diva challenge “UMT – MacDee by Anneke Van Dam” was fun. I had to do color for this one. I mean really, the plaid just screamed out for color. Luckily I had been playing with the sprays that I bought from Pat. I had some leftover spray on my craft sheet and mopped it up with my sketchbook paper. Love the orange and pink together. I think it would make a really cute plaid skirt – if it were fabric.
This weeks challenge is to tangle on a small tile. We were introduced to Bijou and his fun beginning. If you haven’t read the Diva’s page, you should check it out. I didn’t have any 2 inch tiles so I drew a little square in my purse sized sketchbook and started a tangle. Of course I ordered myself some Bijou tiles with my birthday money. How could I resist? And they fit in my purse!!! Here is the version I did on my little notebook paper.
After I received my Bijou tile in the mail (oh, happy day) I couldn’t wait to get started tangling. But alas, things don’t always go smoothly. So yesterday while sitting in the waiting room of a doctor’s office waiting for my son to be seen, I started. A friend of mine had shown me a site with some cool looking room dividers. One of them pretty much said, “Hollibaugh” to me so that was what I wanted to play with. Here is a screenshot of what I had seen.
Of course I had to put my own little twist on it. So while waiting for a follow-up doctor’s appointment for myself, here is what I finished. I still need to shade it and will update when I do, but for now here is my first Bijou tile.
I just had to take a shot of the cool sculptures (big rocks) in the lobby of my doctor’s office. Don’t they make you want to climb them and sit on top?
This week’s Diva challenge is to do a DuoTangle using tangles that begin with the letters of you name. I have C and R. I chose Cruffle and Rixty. I was looking to have them sort of morf together. I think it worked out pretty well.
This was tangled on water color paper that I used shimmer spray on in a Fun With Paper class at the Photography center in Frazer, Pa. Thanks to Pat for the fun play time!
I can honestly say that I’m glad I did it yesterday. Today would have a bad tangle kind of day. I was working on a monotonous project of fixing author names in a database. You fell asleep a little reading that didn’t you? It’s ok to admit it. Really. I came home with Pink Floyd lyrics, “one day closer to death…” On repeat in my mind. So yeah, I’m so glad it’s over now. Well at least until tomorrow.
