well + pea-nuckle

This tile combines two tangle patterns 'well' and pea-nuckle' When I look at the pea-nuckle tangle the first thing I see is lots of texture. I guess I'm still in thinking about that bug challenge last week so I thought a reptile's back would be perfect for the texture of pea-nuckle. And 'well', worked out reminding me of a fancy tiled floor.

Thankful zendala

The Bright Owl presented us with a new zendala template this last Saturday. It had numerous crescent shapes in it but as I played with it I decided the shapes almost looked like half a heart. So I modified the crescents to make my half hearts. I was thinking of all the love we share with our family on Thanksgiving so I went with a pink hand colored background. I didn't get too complicated with the tangles, just simple grid patterns. By doing basic tangling I could focus on everything I'm thankful for this year.

Pink micron pens on a pink colored background, shaded with magenta colored pencil.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Zentangle ornaments class next Sunday

 This is the time of year I really start working on ornaments with a zentangle influence. I even have a class coming up next Sunday called 'Zentangle for the Holidays'. It will be at Banbury Fair in Bartlett, IL. There are a few seats still available but don't delay - call Banbury today! -Banbury Fair - 211 Railroad Ave. Bartlett, IL 60103  630 837-1727
Contact Banbury Fair to register/sign up for the classes.  

In the class we will be working on simple ornaments and then ... thanks for my fellow CZTs ... I'll share the method to create the fantastic dimensional ornament shown above. I was surprised at how easy it actually was!

'Lanie' and string 19

This tile is done using string 19 from Tanglepatterns.com.  it uses the following tangle patterns;

Lacy by Sandra Strait

Lanie by CZT Adele Bruno 

Lokomotive by Stephanie Kukla

Longwood by J.J. La Barbera

Looplopp by Ksenija Vojisavljevic

As I started with the sting I reminded myself that, The string is only a suggestion. and It's not a coloring book, it's OKAY to go outside the lines!

When I do a tangle that's new to me I like to practice it a few times. So this was how I practiced the 'Lanie' tangle. It came out differently than the instructions but I'm happy with it none the less. Plus now I have another ornament made!

Ornament production starting

It's time to start production of ornaments with zentangle techniques. I decided the one featuring 'Quib' would be a good one to start with. 

These are made with basic posterboard that I punch out with a giant paper punch. I use a white or gold Sakura Gelly Roll pen to do the tangles. On the light blue I added shading with colored pencil.

This one uses a gold Gelly Roll pen.

The three pictures below are from the 'Zentangle for the Holidays' class at McHenry County College Monday night. Didn't they do a great job!

Tangle card contest winner

Yesterday my blog rolled over 400,000 page views and to celebrate I had a contest to give away a set of tangle cards to one of those who commented on my page. I also allowed people to comment on the link to my post on Facebook as the link to the blog wasn't allowing them to comment here. There were some wonderful comments, I appreciate them all!

The lucky winner is;

Jane MacKugler

Jane, I will be contacting you privately for your address.

Thank you everyone else. I promise to have some fun posts coming in the next few days!

Today might be the day! Tangle card contest

Tangle Cards Contest!

UPDATE - It's official - I'm over 400,000!!!

I started this blog back in November of 2010. I was so excited when I saw 1000 people had seen my blog. Who would have thought I'd ever get so many page views. The page counter is clicking away! 400,000 page views is likely to happen today. As I post this at 7:50 in the morning it's at 399, 833. From all the comments I get today (and the next 24 hours). I will use a random number generator to pick a winner. I will reply to you to let you know so be sure I have an email. 

The winner will receive a set of Tangle cards. They are the newest thing out in Zentangle and they are so much fun. They are from Sandy Steen Bartholomew. Each card pack includes tangles from Sandy's books in a way that makes them easy to pick tangles to use and easy to take your cards with you!

The tile I posted today at the start of this blog entry shows one I just did that I'm particularly happy with. It uses the new Renaissance (tan) tiles from Zentangle. These tan tiles let you use all your usual tools but then you get to use color (brown Micron) and both highlight AND shade. I did this tile in  Trompe l'oiel . Trompe L'oiel is a term that means 'fool the eye'. There is only one tile here but hopefully you will look twice to see that!

class pictures

This class was at the Antioch Public Library Thursday evening. We did ornament shapes with tangle patterns and a white pen. I know it's not quite Thanksgiving yet, but this is a good way to get started on those Holiday projects while still keeping the 'zen'.

Today I had a class at Harper College for their current art students. They came up with some really creative ways to interpret zentangle patterns. Thanks everyone!

And don't forget about my Tangle Cards Contest!

If you have ever scrolled down this page to the last entry on the right hand side, you will see an entry called 'Total Pageviews'. I've been watching it and seeing the numbers grow. Since it looks like it will be crossing 400,000 soon, I am having a contest to celebrate. On the day that the counter changes to 400,000, I will pick one person at random from the comments on that day and send the winner a set of the Yoga for the Brain Tangle cards. (hint - I am currently at 399,616 page views and I usually get 300-400-or more, page views each day.)

Going Buggy

Zentangle.com has come out with a new product - Renaissance tiles - also known as TAN tiles. At this time they are only available through Certified Zentangle Teachers. I got mine earlier this week and couldn't wait to play with them. They are FUN! They give you the opportunity to shade and highlight together. And when you add some pen work with a brown Micron pen - well - I'm having fun.

My bug was trapped with lacing over an N'zeppel background. In addition to the black and brown Micron pens, I shaded with both a black pencil and a brown Prismacolor pencil. Highlight were done with a white colored pencil.

Come see me at upcoming classes (or just contact me) to get some Renaissance tiles of your own.

And don't forget about my Tangle Cards Contest!

If you have ever scrolled down this page to the last entry on the right hand side, you will see an entry called 'Total Pageviews'. I've been watching it and seeing the numbers grow. Since it looks like it will be crossing 400,000 soon, I am having a contest to celebrate. On the day that the counter changes to 400,000, I will pick one person at random from the comments on that day and send the winner a set of the Yoga for the Brain Tangle cards. (hint - I am currently at 398,327 page views and I usually get 300-400-or more, page views each day.)

blue zendala

This tile uses the template from Erin at the Bright Owl. Usually her templates are wonderfully complex. I love them but because they are so detailed I find them difficult to use on a regular square 3 1/2" tile. This template was simpler and my mind could visualize all sorts of possibilities.

I saw this colored tile in a pile on my desk. I had hand colored it a while ago and pulled it from the tiles I have for sale because I didn't think it would sell with the odd dark areas. The tangles were done with a white gelly roll pen and additional shading and highlighting were done with a blue colored pencil for the shadows and a zenstone for the highlights.

And don't forget about my Tangle Cards Contest!

If you have ever scrolled down this page to the last entry on the right hand side, you will see an entry called 'Total Pageviews'. I've been watching it and seeing the numbers grow. Since it looks like it will be crossing 400,000 soon, I am having a contest to celebrate. On the day that the counter changes to 400,000, I will pick one person at random from the comments on that day and send the winner a set of the Yoga for the Brain Tangle cards. (hint - I am currently at 397,605 page views and I usually get 300-400-or more, page views each day.)

string 10 and Banbury basics

The tile here today was done using string #10 from Tanglepatterns.com and only two tangles; Antidots and Angelfish. I wasn't sure how I was going to approach this challenge because this string has several sections and with only two tangles ....??? But, as we say in Zentangle, just start, just go for it and let the magic of Zentangle work with you. When I finished the tile with the pen I looked at it and felt it was sooo busy. I knew it needed something but I wasn't sure if even shading would do it for me. So I added color. Now the tile is still busy but at least it's a HAPPY busy!

These are the tiles from the basics class at Banbury yesterday. They did beautiful work. Liz, a repeat student, participated too and I had to laugh at her tile. (hers is on the left) Liz is not fond of doing Tipple so when she did her string, she purposely made her last section tiny. As a result, she had very little Tipple to do. She also did some beautiful shading too!

And don't forget about my Tangle Cards Contest!

If you have ever scrolled down this page to the last entry on the right hand side, you will see an entry called 'Total Pageviews'. I've been watching it and seeing the numbers grow. Since it looks like it will be crossing 400,000 soon, I am having a contest to celebrate. On the day that the counter changes to 400,000, I will pick one person at random from the comments on that day and send the winner a set of the Yoga for the Brain Tangle cards. (hint - I am currently at 397,244 page views and I usually get 300-400-or more, page views each day.)

Cruze away!

This zendala incorporates a new tangle pattern from Caren Mlot. It's named 'Cruze'. Caren was inspired to create it by patterns she saw all around her on her last cruise trip. The tangle Cruze was seen in the tile by the pool. She broke down the steps for it and posted it on her blog here. http://tanglemania.blogspot.ca/2013/10/cruze-new-pattern.html

I decided to do my cruze on a curve - and that made it harder of course. It took me a while to get it to where I wanted it but it was fun once I got going. I almost reminds me of gold braid on an officer's uniform.

And don't forget about my Tangle Cards Contest!

If you have ever scrolled down this page to the last entry on the right hand side, you will see an entry called 'Total Pageviews'. I've been watching it and seeing the numbers grow. Since it looks like it will be crossing 400,000 soon, I am having a contest to celebrate. On the day that the counter changes to 400,000, I will pick one person at random from the comments on that day and send the winner a set of the Yoga for the Brain Tangle cards. (hint - I am currently at 396,158 page views and I usually get 300-400-or more, page views each day.)

Tangle Cards Contest

If you have ever scrolled down this page to the last entry on the right hand side, you will see an entry called 'Total Pageviews'. I've been watching it and seeing the numbers grow. Since it looks like it will be crossing 400,000 soon, I am having a contest to celebrate. On the day that the counter changes to 400,000, I will pick one person at random from the comments on that day and send the winner a set of the Yoga for the Brain Tangle cards. (hint - I am currently at 395,885 page views and I usually get 300-400-or more, page views each day.)

The tile above shows what I did with a couple of the cards from the Kidz edition. The Tangle Cards are by Sandy Steen Bartholomew CZT. They are a great way to pick a few tangles to work with as you do your tile. The stepouts are all there and the box is about the same size as a deck of cards so they are really portable. The backs of the cards have basic info on how to start out creating a zentangle tile. AND, as an added bonus, 6 of the tiles can be put together like a puzzle to find an awesome piece that Sandy created.

zendala for Rick and Maria

At the Bright Owl, Erin posted a new zendala template on Saturday. She added that when we used it she wanted us to do it as a thank you to Rick and Maria, the founders of Zentangle.

This uses one of my favorite colored tiles. I did the template with tangles that I believe may be some of their favorites. I got my CZT (Certified Zentangle Teacher) back in Feb 2011. Rick and Maria shared their enthusiasm and even showed off their home to us. I remember Rick demonstrating Paradox to us and then Maria went into Mooka. shortly after the seminar they even posted a video for Mooka which you can link to here. How to draw MOOKA – a Zentangle video

It was an interesting challenge to do Paradox within a curved shape but I'm happy with the way it came out. A Brown Pigma Micron pen was used to do the tangles and then two shades of brown colored pencils to shade. A few highlights were added with my zenstone for fun.

Fall colors

This tile uses one of my tiles that I previously colored. I love the way the colors echo what I am seeing outside my window right now. I used a colored Micron pen and colored pencil for shading.

 String #17 from Tanglepatterns.com is featured here and the tangle patterns are Bumpkenz, Bulb Lanterns, and Betweed .