Life is a Circus

Circus Life - is the challenge this week. I decided to use the tangles LinQ, Tropicana, and Cack. What is especially ironic about this piece is something I talk about in my basic Zentangle classes. I talk about tangleations for basic tangles and demonstrate a few of the options. Then I say, "But pick one of these tangleations because if you use all of them it will start to look like a three ring circus." So as you can see above, I used lots of tangleations - and yes, it looks as busy as a three ring circus!

I think I actually want to use color on this piece too. But I wanted to get it on my blog in black and white first. I promise I'll get it up when it's done!

 My life has been so crazy for the past few weeks that this challenge describes it perfectly. I have been running is so many directions that it's easy for things to fall through the cracks. If I have forgotten to respond to a question or email please forgive me and email me again. 

Simplicity

Simplicity in a Zentangle tile is not always an easy thing to achieve. One of the things that is so fascinating about Zentangle to me is losing myself in the tangles and just going on and on. So for this challenge I had to force myself to think about tangles n their most basic forms and to stop early. So, I stopped - but then I was really into tangling mode so I did one tile after another.

The one at the top left is a simplification of Zhostovo Border. At right it's Striping.

This is Aquafleur.

The tile to the left is Gneiss. To the right is a combo of Ditto and Flux.

Glenview book club ladies

I had a fun group of ladies in Glenview last night. The book club had its monthly meeting at Christi's home and Christi went all out. She suggested that the members dress in black and white to go with the theme. I saw all sorts of new tangles in their wardrobes. Even Christi's little girl was in black and white.

Christi was so creative with the snacks - they all followed the black and white theme. And do take a look at the label of the wine bottle. It looks like a tangler was in on its design too! Chocolate nonpareils and mini marshmallows appealed to my sweet tooth.

This is the class mosaic - such beautiful work with so many wonderful tangleations!

And then there were the Oreo balls for dessert. I think I gained a couple of pounds with all those temptations! Full disclosure by the way - Christi is my daughter!

Shrink art jewelry for Madison

It's been a very busy week here. I've been creating new pieces for my booth at the Zentangle Expo in Madison. It's also been busy getting in new merchandise and packing everything up for my classes. Right now my front hall looks like a disaster zone. Here's a sneak peek at some of my shrink art jewelry. In the background you can see one piece that's before the shrinking process.

I'll be teaching my tricks for making shrink art jewelry too! Today is the last day to sign up on the internet - otherwise you can sign up at the expo on a space available basis.

Happy 4th of July!

Happy 4th of July. I usually don't post things that are food related but I had fun this morning and thought I'd share. Is it perfect and ready for the cover of a magazine? Probably not, but it was fun.

These are easy and quick to do. The main ingredient is marshmallows. Just stick a toothpick into it, wet it with water, dunk it into the colored sugar, and set it to dry. I got fancy and did three stripes but you could do them in separate colors and then put three marshmallows on a skewer.

To do the three stripes I dipped my (slightly) wet marshmallow into one color of sugar. Then I flipped it and went into the other color. Sometimes I used a spoon to help the sugar go up the sides. Then I held the marshmallow sideways and sprinkled the sparkly clear sugar around the middle.

The first batch I did I used jello mix - just the dry powder - for the red and blue. The middle stripe is sparkly sugar sprinkles.

Then I did some with just colored sugar. These might be better for the kids - as they won't get food coloring from the jello on their fingers.

Zentangle Expo coming soon!

Heads up! If you are anywhere near the Midwest, you will want to be attending the Zentangle Expo in Madison, WI on July 11th. If you have been postponing your registration - don't delay. Some of the classes are close to being full and walk-ins may be turned away from what they want.

I'll be teaching two classes on Saturday and doing a lecture. The picture here is the Tangled Luminary class. Yup, I'll be busy! And my hubby is coming with so you can buy official Zentangle supplies along with my hand-colored paper in the market.

Here is the link to sign up - http://www.penmarkpatterns.com/zentangle-expo/

Merely Meer

Meer is one of those tangles that I love but don't always think to use, There is a Facebook page called Square One: Purely Zentangle. This page asks us to post tiles following the traditions of pure Zentangle - black and white - on a 3 1/2" tile - non-representational. This week they asked us to use Meer in our tiles. I ended up doing 3 tiles as I got more and more into it. 

I'm thinking that I want to do more to this third tile but I haven't decided what yet so I'll post it now anyway.

Frame for displaying tiles

Everybody always asks me how I display my finished tiles. Usually I put them into page protectors in three ring binders. But sometimes I really want to display them. Problem is, whenever I do another tile I want to display that one too. So I was very excited when I saw this. I was teaching a small group at a home in Chicago and the hostess had this on her wall. It's a simple design. Wire is strung across and horizontally and small clothespins hold the tiles or pictures. She was using it for her tiles and it looked great. So I was off to Pier One to find one for myself.

You can find it online at the Pier One site - Look for 'Window clip frame' - there are a few varieties to choose from. If you have a Pier One store near you, it may be better to get it there. It was a little cheaper at the store - plus, I had to replace one of the clips so I got another discount.

When I got home I put my tiles and Zendalas in right away. As you can see, I made backers out of black card stock for the tiles - they just needed a little more oomph.

I'm excited about this. It's up on the wall already and it's going to be so easy to switch out my new favorites!

By the way - I have no financial interest in Pier One - If any of you find something similar somewhere else, please let us know!

If you are handy and want to try making your own, here's a close up of the way the clip is attached to the wire.

And here is the way I did my backers for the tiles - I just cut slits and tucked the corners of the tile in.

Umble Color Wheel

The tangle pattern Umble was recently featured in the Zentangle newsletter. It was time to really feature it in a tile. The basic instructions show it done around the four corners of a tile but the examples show that there are many tangleations that can be done with it.

Last week the Diva had us doing the challenge with colors of the rainbow. I was still thinking about color themes when I started working on this. When I realized I could do Umble in multiples of three I realized that the color wheel would be a perfect fit. I did the basic tangle with my Micron and added the color from my Tombow markers. A little shading and some shine with my white charcoal pencil completed it.

Color - Pink-purple-blue

Color!!! How I love adding color to my Zentangle work. Yes, now it's a ZIA - Zentangle Inspired Art. Thank you Diva, for suggesting that we use color this week for the challenge.

I used a design that I had used before for this piece but wanted to try a different color scheme and different materials. This time I pulled out my Inktense pencils. I used them with watercolor techniques. The tangles were added with pens. For this piece I used both colored Microns and Staetler pens.

As you can see in the picture I took when I was 'in progress', I'm still working on perfecting my techniques. (Picture taken late at night.) I put my finger in the wet paint in the purple area at the upper left edge. And then I got a backwash in the purple petal at the bottom left. And several areas are nowhere as smooth or have the gradation I would like. But since I am following the 'no mistakes' philosophy, I forged ahead. Once I got done I looked for those areas that bothered me at first. I have trouble finding them so I'm betting you won't find them either!!! LOL!

McHenry 6-10

Great class at McHenry County College last night.I wanted to share the class mosiacs we did of our two tiles. Some wonderfully creative tangleations! Thanks ladies - and my gentleman!

Don't forget there are two more classes coming up in McHenry. On June 24th there will be a 'Tangled Tins' project. Then on July 15th join me for a 'Zendala' class.

Beads of Courage

Beads of Courage is a program that supports children with severe illness. These children go through so much and this program recognizes that by giving them a glass bead that represents each step on their medical journey. The Diva has a child that has medical issues and I think of them as they face every day with each new challenge. Her challenge to us was to create a tile that reflected some aspect of the Beads of Courage.

To create my tile I picked out a variety of tangles that reminded me of beads. Then I arranged them on the tile in the same way I would do the Hollibaugh tangle. Look at the tile at the bottom of this post to see the first stage with simple line work. I added detail and shaded it for the tile at the top of this post.

After I had the tile done in black and white I took my picture and set it aside. I kept looking at it though and finally decided it needed color. I pulled out my glitter pens and had some fun coloring it in. Let me know in the comments if you like it better in color or black and white.

The tangles used here are;

Binial

Eek

Inapod

Lezy

Diamond Drop

Girland

All Boxed Up

All Boxed Up is the tangle chosen for this weeks challenge. It's a simple tangle to do that takes on such a different look once it's shaded, I did two tile this week. The first is done using a Greek key (boxed spiral) as a string. It came out looking very symmetrical. Okay, but kind of boring. So I tried again, starting without thinking out a plan before hand. I did one All Boxed Up and then added a single Paradox on top. I then kept going doing one and then the other. It is freeing to just do it without a plan.

Brandywine Revisited

Brandywine is an intricate tangle that was inspired by a wood carving I saw. It was so lovely I had to deconstruct it so I could use it in my tangles. The steps are posted  below. You can copy and paste the big picture if you want a reference photo to print out. Take your time and have fun.

Brandywine steps

This is the trickiest part. These 's' shaped lines go down from one line and then run alongside the next line. Do all the lines in one direction and then do the ones on the other side. Flip your paper if you are more comfortable.

Connect the remaining lines. These start at the end of the lines and go down parallel to the lines you already have and stop when they meet the next line.

Add small petal shapes.

Add as many details as you wish.

Shade and sign.

Adeline Revisited

I've been asked to revisit my tangle 'Adeline'. It's based on a carving I saw in a picture so I didn't invent it - I've just figured out the steps and gave it a name. (In honor of my mom.) It's a bit more intricate than some of my other tangles so take your time and practice it on scrap paper a couple of times.

These are all the steps together if you want to do a 'copy and paste' and print out a copy for yourself. Read on for more detailed instructions.

Begin with evenly spaced slash marks. Don't make your slash marks too close together (You will see why later in step 5).

Draw double 's' curves. Use your slash marks as a bridge to go over and then as a bridge to 'go under'. Pay attention to which line goes on the top of the s curves and which lines go under the s curves.

Complete the s curves that intertwine with the first set. 

Add little balls (ornamentation) where the lines cross.

Add linework to show where the s curves curl when they cross each other. (This is a little fussy and you can skip this step if you wish)

Add shading to complete.