tangling with a stapler

click on the picture to enlarge

I had a chance yesterday to do something really outside of the box. I did my tangling with a stapler. I looked through my ‘go to’ tangles to find some that would work with the size of the staples. Then I found some black tiles and just went for it. It was fast and fun. And it felt really different.

In full disclosure, I did this because I received a new stapler for me to review. Honestly, I‘m glad I did this though because I found out that stapler technology has changed significantly since the last time I shopped for a stapler. I was sent a    Swingline SmartTouch Stapler  and   Swingline Premium Chisel Point Staples . The stapler is easy for me to hold in my hand and though I used lots of staples in my project I didn’t feel any pain in my hand at all. I never had a staple jam or form a ‘wonky’ shape either.

The only criticism I had was that it took me a little while to figure out how to load the staples into the stapler. There is a button at the opposite end from the business end that when pushed, opened it up easily. But as I was holding it in my hand, I couldn’t see that button. I would appreciate a diagram on the packaging that showed me where to push.

Additional full disclosure – I got the stapler through     Shoplet .com and they asked me to write this review. They have lots of office supplies available.

easy ornaments again

When I had a little time over the holidays I tried to sneak away to my studio and get back to my tangles. One night I went back to my easy ornaments. (Easy because they use an extra large circle punch to cut the paper and a metallic pen that produces wide lines to tangle with.) After I did the quick tangles I pulled out my colored pencils and kept going. This doesn't photograph as well as I would like but hopefully it will give you some idea of what can be done!

Done on red cardstock with Sakura metallic gelly roll pen. Shaded with two shades of red colored pencil and highlighted with orange and red. - Wish the colors showed up better in the picture!

Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays everyone. I used the new tangle pattern 'Garl' here. I guess you can see that garland inspired the name. I was so excited when I got to the shading part. It almost looks like a blanket of snow!

I expect to be pretty busy with the family for the next few days so I may not be able to post too much new content - so Happy Holidays!!!
Sue

tangle pattern 'Garl'

click on picture to enlarge for detail

I came up with this tangle pattern after looking through some Dover books last night. I found a version of this in a book about paisley patterns. It starts with a curving line like many tangle patterns do but it's the petal shapes and comma strokes that  makes it unique. I've done this in a straight line for clarity but it's easy to do this on a curve too. As you can see, there are also many variations that you can come up with for this tangle. The name? well look at the tile that I'll post tomorrow and you'll see it.

Ornaments - easy!

I wanted to do some zentangle ornaments to use as gift tags this year. I needed for them to be quick, inexpensive, and still look festive so I decided on these. I purchased a sheet of red poster-board (99c) and used a large circle punch. While the large punch wasn't cheap ($26 less a 40% off coupon), using the large punch made the prep process go so quickly. I then did tangles using a gold Sakura gelly roll pen. I choose simpler tangles and did them larger than I would normally do on a tile because of the thickness of the line that the gold pen produces. All the ornament/gift tags above were done in one evening. The gold pen doesn't photograph too well but it looks great in person.

These will all be given away so I guess these fill the bill for the Diva's challenge too!!

Alphabet Soup

A - G

H - M

N O P

Q - U

V - Z

Here is my alphabet soup all together. I picked tangles according to their names. In the first tile I have only tangles that go from A - G. I continued through the alphabet in the same fashion. I tried to also pick tangles that I hadn't used much in the past. I used some official tangles but chose many from individuals. I did my best to try to choose from a variety of people. There are some people that are prolific designers and I wanted to spread my choices around. 

This was a challenge I started purely for myself. It's fun to see that others are trying it too. If anyone else wants to try it, here's how it goes. Start with a string of your choice. Pick tangle patterns in alphabetical order. Only use an 'A' tangle once and then move on 'B', 'C', etc. Fill and shade as usual. Extra points for using tangle patterns that are less used. When you finish one tile start the next tile at the letter of the alphabet that you left off at.   ---if you only want to do one tile; pick a random letter of the alphabet and use that as your starting point to begin your alphabet soup.

If you do this challenge please post a picture and send me a link in the comments.

When you are looking at my tiles above, see if you can get the names by yourself. When you are stumped you can look at the blog archive entries for each day to find the the name of the tangle and the name of the person who first posted it.(look at the column on the right)

Someone asked me where all these tangles came from. Well, I collect tangle patterns. Whenever I see one posted I copy down the steps and add it to my collection. The Zentangle newsletter frequently comes out with new tangles.http://www.zentangle.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=21&Itemid=131 I have many blogs that I look at. (see my blog list in the right hand column.) I also watch the links that Molossus puts up at her site. http://lifeimitatesdoodles.blogspot.com/ I don't know how she finds all the sites she does! Another resource is the Flicker site. http://www.flickr.com/groups/freehandpatterns/  And I also have to give credit to Linda Farmer at http://tanglepatterns.com/ Her site is amazing.

Alphabet Soup V - Z

Finally - I got through the whole alphabet! I did it in 5 tiles. Maybe I'll post them as a group tomorrow. This tile uses tangles that start with the letters V through Z. The creators of these tangles are;

Volant - Solveig
Wiltshire 1 - Liz T
Xing - Bette Abdu
Yabbut - Margaret Bremner
Zardoz - Cherokee 410

I've heard from a few of you that are planning to try this challenge too. (Margaret Bremner already completed hers.) Please let me know if you are doing this so we can link back to you.

Alphabet Soup Q - U

Continuing my alphabet soup personal challenge I present my tile with tangles starting with the letter Q thru the letter U. I've tried to use tangles that are either new to me or I seldom use. These tangle patterns came from;

Quatiny - Molossus
Razzor - Melissa Hughes
Socc - Erin Koetz Olson
Thai mix - Moon Attic
Upholstered - Lizzie Mayne

'Fife' in a ZIA

Click on picture to see detail.

I got my challenge done for the 'Diva' but I decided to go away from the usual tile this time. I found this mug on sale and found that the paper insert was easily removable so - presto chango - now it has a zentangle insert. I liked adding fife to my patterns.

Alphabet Soup N-O-P

The next tile in my alphabet soup personal challenge uses three squares for strings and uses;

ninja star - Margaret Bremner
onion heart - Lizzie Mayne
pina - Carole Ohl

As the holidays and all the related tasks as approaching I hope to get the next tiles done soon. There are parties to go to, parties to prepare for, gifts to buy, and gifts that I have to finish drawing. But we will see!

ornament time - 'Ogee'

Taking a break from my alphabet soup, I wanted to share this ornament that I did over the weekend. I followed a link from a fellow blogger and unfortunately I don't remember who provided that link. Anyways, I got to http://blog.betzwhite.com/2009/12/felt-ogee-ornament-tutorial.html

She demonstrated how to make her ornaments with felt but as a dedicated tangler, I had to do mine with the Zentangle method. I used red cardstock and a white Sakura Gelly Roll Pen. Oh, and I used glue rather that sewing the points where the paper meets.  Other than that, I followed her method and measurements! After doing the Diva's 'Biggify' challenge I realized I didn't have to do my tangles so small to still be effective so this project went fairly quickly!

Alphabet Soup H - M

Continuing my alphabet soup project I have had fun discovering more tangles that I haven't used for a while (or haven't used at all until now!).

Hugs and Kisses - Jeanne Kuzel
Iffy - Lizzy Mayne
Japonica - Molossus
Kolum - Lara Williams
Liz - Mafe Movromati
Marbles - Helena - Belatrix 29

Alphabet Soup - A - G

I've decided to issue a personal challenge. It may only be me that completes it but I think it will be fun. I'm calling it Alphabet Soup because I want to try to use tangles starting with every letter in the alphabet.

In this tile I've used; Amaze (official zentangle), Boucle (Molossus), Coil (Sue Jacobs), Dervish (Elaine Benfetto), Emilie (Sandra Bartholmew), Fleuve (Jay Cadian), and Greating (Molossus).

If you want to join me, here's the challenge. Start with a string of your choice. Pick tangle patterns in alphabetical order. Only use an 'A' tangle once and then move on 'B', 'C', etc. Fill and shade as usual. Extra points for using tangle patterns that are less used. When you finish one tile start the new tile at the letter of the alphabet that you left off at.   ---if you only want to do one tile; pick a random letter of the alphabet and use that as your starting point to begin your alphabet soup.

If you do this challenge please post a picture and send me a link in the comments.