Ongoing Tangled Altered Book - weeks 3 - 7

This is really my first altered book adventure and I am thoroughly enjoying it!

The day planner I am using is 3.5" x 5.5" which is just the right size for me. I usually work on the background of several page spreads at a time. Then as I have time and the creative urge I add to the pages. This really works for - that at any given time I can reach for the book and either work on background, tangles, or add text.

As per the usual me, however, I have trouble fitting in time to scan and make blog posts, but no worries, this is a leisure, relaxing and healing art form, right?

Feel free to post feedback!

The quote reads, "...and when the day arrives I'll become the sky

and I'll become the sea and the sea will come to kiss me

for I am going home." - Trent Reznor

Way of Life....

This is week 2 of my Jan/Feb 2013 resolution to complete a ZIA 2-page spread - in my dayplanner. One of my favorite tangles is "Unyun" by Carole Ohl.  I love the curves and the play of dark against light.

So I tangled unyun from memory. Well, memory can be a little flawed - so this tangle - is inspired by unyun! I like it anyway! Close enough. You know, there are no mistakes in Zentangle!

I was browsing the web one day and came across a site that listed "Latin Phrases". The phrase "modus vivendi" jumped out at me. Way of Life. Art and tangling has become a way of life for me. How about you?

Modus Vivendi!

Another ICAD

Did any of you ever watch an artist on Public TV by the name of Bill Alexander? He hosted an oil painting show and one of his famous comments was "happy accident" - he emphasized that there were no mistakes just happy accidents!

I've discovered that with the ICAD challenge - there are just happy accidents no mistakes.

Thanks to Tammy at DaisyYellow for hosting this challenge!

Here is one of my happy accidents! This was the ugliest mess - but now I love it!

Cadent Tangle - Tangleation

Back home after a small vacation excursion! Time to tangle and recuperate!

This is my response to the weekly Zentangle Challenge #75 - Tanglation Nation: Cadent at "I AM the Diva - Blog". I do love Laura's challenges - they always are fun and encourage further exploration of the Zentangle method. Thanks Laura!!!

Since cadent is on my top 10 list of favorite tangles - this task was a huge pleasure. I had fun playing with cadent. My results end up looking a little bit 3D-ish. I also posted the steps I used.

Have a great tangled week!

Divan Challenge #73 "Bridgen"

I am obsessed and preoccupied with this tangle, "Bridgen" by Carole Ohl! Every spare moment, I am tangling Bridgen. When I'm driving, I'm thinking about it, when it's time for bed, I think, "just 5 more minutes", then the clock says 1:00 AM!  Yikes!

Laura at "I am the Diva" thank you tons for these challenges!!!

Carole Ohl, thank you tons for sharing this tangle!!! click here

Lately, I've been working on "embracing the string", i.e. including the string as part of the completed Zentangle/ZIA - rather than have it disappear/melt away into the Zentangle. Well, Bridgen fits right into this practice - it can follow the string, become the string, add more string to the string - ooops, guess I don't need to say more.

I hope that you had as much fun as I did - I mean as much fun as I AM having! I really, really, truly, get lost in tangling with this one.

"Sun n Flip Flops" Watercolor, Micron Pigma, Prismacolor Marker

One more thing - if you haven't tried watercolor on the Zentangle tiles - you absolutely MUST!  This paper is such a joy when using watercolor!

The 2nd ICAD Challenge by DaisyYellow.com

I just had to add one more thing to my list of creative activities!  There is something so irresistible about the ICAD (index card a day) challenge. Huge thanks to Tammy at DaisyYellow for hosting this great adventure!

I have my index cards (4"x 6") and I'm in!!!  I'm going to complete 61 cards in 61 days!  No cheating this year either!!!

If you haven't heard about this - hop over to the ICAD challenge - follow the button in the margin!!!

ICAD - #1 I'm on my Way! Bic Markers, Micron Pen

ICAD #2 Flying Fish - Viva Los Vegas Steampunk Stamp, Micron Pen, Watercolor

ICAD #3 Travel Map - Watercolor, Marker, Micron - This map will be completed while on vacation! Route numbers and other info will be collaged on top!

Explore Crescent Moon - Diva's Challenge #72

Gee - it's like going back in time to the beginning! Crescent moon is one of the first tangles that I become familar with as I began the fantastic Zentangle adventure!

Laura at "I am the Diva" selected a tangle which poses a great challenge for me. I tend to avoid crescent moon when I am not using it instructionally. Thank you for the motivation Laura!

Here is my tangleation - Zentangle Inspired Art version!

Have a great week!!!

Feeling Groovy!

Hi All!!!

Tangles used: Groovy - Eden and Footlites - Carole Ohl

I love the Diva's Challenges! Thanks Laura Harms! If you love to tangle - do check out Laura's weekly Zentangle Challenges!

I covered my tile from corner to corner even though when I started out I thought I'd leave some white space without tangles!  Oh, well - hey! Does dark space count? If so, then I did leave some space untangled!!!

For my new tangle friends - I used a "tangle enhancer" on this tile. It's called rounding. If you look at groovy on the right side and lower right corner, you'll see I rounded the ends of groovy. Look at the difference - same tangle 2 different looks by using "rounding".

I'm going to continue rounding the rest of this Zentangle, cause I think it looks really GROOVY!

And now, I'm "Feeling Groovy"!

I love this song!

A Year in the Life of an Art Journal

A Year in the Life of an Art Journal

Tangled Up in Steampunk Postcards!

I had been avoiding steampunk; just didn't get it or wasn't inspired by it. Then one day, I saw some tangles on Flickr posted by Molossus (Sandra Strait) and I thought wow! those are cool! If you haven't visited her blog, "Life Imitates Doodles" - you really should!   So I jumped in and began to explore! I was obsessed with steamy punk tangling for most of March! LOL!

A couple of these ended up in a trade for some AWESOME steampunk postcards from Sany P and Kristy S. How lucky am I?!?!!!

Here are my attempts - a few of my own tangle designs, some inspired by Sandra Strait and of course other tangles in there too!!!

Huge thanks to my hubby, Frits for taking the fantastic photos!

Stained Glass Pennants

I just have to share these AWESOME images of tangled stained glass pennants! These were made for a swap in the ZIA yahoo group. I hosted the swap for March and had to take a picture of all the pennants before swapping them out. They are GORGEOUS!

The pennant swap has been a monthly swap which started in December. The pennants are ATC size 2.5" wide across the top and 3.5" in length. After making and trading these gems, each artist will assemble the pennants into a swag.  How exciting is that!

Some of the themes we've had are: inspirational words - tangled around (joy, peace, love, hope), hearts, green and black, stained glass, and quilts.

If you want to try your hand at making some for yourself - you may download this pennant template. When you print the template, make sure that you set "scaling" to "none". Use paper the weight of card stock so that you will be able to fold them in half to construct your swag.

If you make any - let me know how they come out!

Enjoy!

Stained Glass Pennant Swap 3/2012

Below are some samples from the other swaps; the length of the swag keeps growing!!!

Inspirational Words Swap

 Black and Green Swap

 Tangled Hearts Swap

Quilt Swap

Diva's Challenge #62 Spirals and Pair-a-dogs

Whoa!  This was so much fun! What a great combination!  I really need to practice these tangles more often!


Thank you Laura and Marizaan van Beek!


What - it wasn't "pair - a - dogs?"  LOL!!!!


Have a great week!

Diva Challenge #60 Duotangle

I love the Diva's tangle challenges because they push me out of my comfort zone to work with other tangles.  I haven't worked with Munchin and Cirquital much so I'm ready to make some "deliberate" strokes with these tangles!

I've been tangling on paint chips for the past two weeks.  I bought some Bic Permanent Markers and they work oh so nice and smoothly on the paint chips.  I'm making small matchbooks.  I put some plain white copy paper (used on one side) into the first set of matchbooks - to use as little notebooks.

In the next series I'm working on, I'm cutting up 90lb watercolor paper - and making the matchbooks into little art books.  Some of the books I'll give away to artist friends so they can create their own mini-art and in the others I'll create some mini-art to give away as gifts.  I'm using small brads to attach the paper instead of staples.

Of course, I had to try to tangle munchin and cirquital on the paintchips - don't know why this is so addictive, but it is!!!!

 Duotangle - Challenge #60

 Duotangle on a Paintchip - this will be folded into a matchbook with 90lb watercolor paper inserted. The folded size is about 2.5"x3".

It's a Leftie Kind of Day!

Today's Diva Challenge is a good one!  Complete a Zentangle using your non-dominant hand!  For me that's my leftie!

The ironic thing about this is that yesterday - I posted the weekly Zentangle Inspired Art Journal prompt which was about not trying to be perfect.  This is the perfect (hem...hem..) challenge to get you away from trying to make all your tangles and strokes be perfect. 

I had posted a link to Mary Oliver's poem - "The Ponds" and it rings even more true, as I let my leftie stand on it's own five fingers and complete this task!!! I thought I would try "Fife" one of the newer OZT tangles - what was I thinking!!!  This required quite a bit of concentration.  But when it was all finished and I looked at all the imperfections - I love this little Zentangle because of its imperfections!

A few things I noticed during this activity:

• I hold the pen much more lightly in my left hand - in fact, it's quite loose.
• I find that I turn the tile  more frequently - so that I can make my marks from the left to right.
• It is really hard to stay in the lines when filling spaces in with black!
• This exercise really reminds me about making "deliberate" strokes - one stroke at at time.  I really did find myself getting lost in the moment of as I made this Zentangle!

What were your observations about this experience?

Weekly Challenge #55 "String Theory v. VIII: Moebius Trip

The Diva's Challenge - if you are seeing this for the first time, please treat yourself and check out this BLOG today!


For me, this is my first happy accident - of 2012.  I had big plans for this challenge. I was going to use the tangle, "Lacey" by Sandra Strait on the Mobius Strip. It was going to be done in positive and negative. I began and instantly realized this string was too small for my fine motor and eyes to be able to do what I had envisioned.  My first marks became a solid black square.  Yuk! Now what?

Hmm, let's go with the flow and do black and white boxes and see what happens! Okay, I can live with these checkerboards, I guess!  I completed the piece with two of Sandy Bartholomew's tangles: "Ripple" and "Scraper". (from Sandy's book - "Totally Tangled")

Again, I am reminded - that with Zentangle it is more often than not best to let it take you and not try to plan and force something!


I was quite wide awake so then I played with my image in photoshop - adding drop shadows and frames and just having a great time! 

Have a great week!