Monday, December 25, 2017

Wishing you a merry holiday!

Just a few recent cards I've created and a wintertime photo....

Using an oldie but a goodie rubber stamp from Penny Black, winter glow!  I think I can finally do it justice (?) years after I bought it!  Here I used distress inks.

And a paint chip sample can make a pretty darn good background on this Copic colored image from Altenew, Beautiful day.

And a card I had a lot of fun with.  It's just a single turtle image that I repeat stamped to form the circle mandala.  It's a stamp from a set Under the Sea by Inkadinkado.  Then I tangled Quipple with colored microns and then added colored pencil for shading.  

And it needed a custom envelope, so this one is made from a recycled calendar page.  

The view looking up on a recent walk.

Have a great holiday season! Thanks for stopping by.

Tuesday, December 12, 2017

Hex 9 Fragments...and more!

Foxy's been building away and wanted to show off a few more reticula and fragment examples.

So simple...I see twisted rope.  

And here I see Static.

A Meer fragment that creates a triangle.

Some Striping or side by side Meer.


And yet another hexagon, sort of a gem quality to it.

Perhaps Foxy is done for awhile with these alternating triangles?  (For more about Foxy see my last post. For more hexagon fun, check out the hexagons label to the right or click here.)

I also thought I'd share my BuJo calendar featuring Organza Again.

And then, in honor of MoFins being included at Tanglepatterns.com (woohoo!) I had fun with this.  

First I had fun with a dirty stencil.  I had been playing around with my Distress Oxide ink pads and one of my favorite stencils from Crafter's Workshop, cosmic swirl.   It pays not to clean your stencil sometimes.  All I had to do was mist the stencil with water and then apply paper to it.  These 3 were done on Bristol smooth.  They are roughly the size of ATCs.  

But this larger one (about 4 1/2" x 6")....this one I claimed for MoFins!

I added the first step of MoFins, but then Maryhill wanted to play, so it would've been a duotangle...

Until I realized that Mooka had been there all along, it just needed a little coaxing with colored pencil.

And then I decided to be brave and do this...
Yup, I cut it!  But I had a plan.  After stacking several layers of letters (bold alpha dies by Altenew) and outlining in marker, I returned them to the piece


I'm calling Dream Big! Shown here on a card base that's 5" by 6 1/2"
Thanks for stopping by.  And thanks too, if you choose to leave a comment!  Have a good day!

Sunday, November 26, 2017

Hex 8 Fragments

A little friend helped show me just how simple a fragment could (should?) be.  This fox is a die cut set from Karen Burniston that is cut from white watercolor paper, water colored then assembled.  Adorable isn't he?  And I'm still using my Papertrey Ink hexagon cover plate die.  This time I cut from Strathmore mixed media paper.
Reticula and fragments from a different perspective!

I saw some extremely basic geometric inspiration on Pinterest.  Wow, I have grown accustomed to seeing triangles within the hexagon, but this made me look at things quite differently.  
Paradox

I put the hexies on the back of a piece of post-it tape to keep them corralled while I drew.  
Maryhill

I started putting the puzzle pieces together and went for a pattern that radiates out from the center.  
I tried them out in the honeycomb frame.

Paradox and Maryhill alternating.
Did you notice the large hexagon created by the 6 triangles?  Too cool!
I  temporarily adhered them to some cardstock for watercoloring.

Now for some watercolor ( I used Derwent Inktense pencils) 

I decided to emboss the coverplate on a card with the design (I die cut copper card and then hand cut around the honeycomb Reticula to just frame my design) and add a little stamping ( stamp by Momenta) and embossing powder.  

The fox thinks it's a little busy, so I think I'll try again.....

I hope you enjoyed your Thanksgiving holiday.  Thanks for stopping by.

Visual texture


My contribution to The Weekend In Black and White.

Saturday, November 18, 2017

Be Kind To Elephants meets Go Big or Go Home

#BeKindToElephants
After viewing Ellen's YouTube I knew I needed to use it as a drawing string.  It was just calling out to me.  And what's bigger than an elephant for Laura's Go Big or Go Home Challenge?
After tracing on the graphic

Please check out the video, (link above) and if you're on Twitter, retweet.  As I'm not on Twitter, I'm hoping posting my version of her graphic here will get some attention to the cause.  
Ha, the ink covered up my outline :-0

I used a circle die cutting a large Zendala (about 7 1/4 inches diameter) from Bristol vellum. After printing out this article I found on the Ellen's campaign (I think I printed the page with the graphic at 175%?) I decided then to try this stencil technique to add some color and texture.  I probably would have started out with watercolor paper or mixed media, had I realized I was going to do this technique from the beginning.  In the end, the Bristol worked ok with the stencils and it was lovely to draw on later.  I transferred the drawing to the paper using graphite on the back of the printed page and tracing it out (old school). I used Sakura PN microns and a 5.0 Graphik Line maker, graphite and colored pencils to tangle Enyshou, Fife, Nipa and Shattuck. I let the stencil dictate some of the lines and tangles.  
After tracing the design (again :-)
Enyshou got me started

Thanks for sharing your support, however you can.  


Friday, November 10, 2017

A4 fragment and November calendar.

As I was filling in my habit tracker for October, I noticed that the fragment A4 (from the Zentangle® Primer) could create plaid!

Here I tried it out as a monotangle (er monofragment?).  See the individual fragment down in the lower left?

And here, a totally different look just by taking the same fragment but repeating and mirroring in a different pattern.

I really liked the plaid and decided it would make a nice card for someone special.  I took Bristol vellum and air brushed using Copic markers.  I used a hexagon stencil I cut.  Next I tangled with a black micron inside the hexagon.  I added the gold grid on top with a GellyRoll just to complete the plaid look.  Next I scribbled the gold on a white scrap of cardstock, let it dry and then die cut it, along with several black layers all stacked together for the sentiment.  I believe this die is by Crafter's Companion.  And here it is mounted on a black A2 card base.  

And I case you're wondering what my November calendar for my BuJo looks like:
Fife as a calendar.

Have a good week!

Friday, November 3, 2017

Inktober 2017 (2 of 2)

And on to the second half of the month.  Enjoy:
(fat)  My thought pattern went to a curvy ogee grid.  I looked up some ogee patterns and thought Mariposa could resemble a fat slice of watermelon.  Not to mention, Viveca's grid approach to the ogee grid is fabulous!
(graceful) Enyshou is my go to graceful pattern.  No instructions, (see your CZT) but some excellent examples at the link.
(filthy) I thought C-view looked like a microscopic piece of dust...maybe on Pigpen?
(cloud) at this time, NOAA was describing our weather pattern as a river in the sky.  Cloudfall seemed to fit the bill.  And those scales are Betweed and Shattuck.
(deep) Wellwellwell.  This is a fractal version of Well.
(furious) Floo (sorry, no instructions, but see your CZT!)
(trail) Luckily Bijou moves slow and I was able to still find him on the Skwim trail.  This was a really late night when I completed this.  I realized the next morning that I should have done the back side of Bijou for a proper snail trail!
(juicy) Molygon
(blind) This one stumped me initially.  But when I sat down to draw, Bronx Cheer easily emerged.  
(ship) Parasail-Z
(squeak) Nuwave
(climb) Static
(fall) Falz (slight variation)
(united) BB
(found) Organza Again.  This used to be a frequent tangle for me.  Through this Inktober, I found it again :-)
(mask) Enyshou and Rain

And the full calendar:

Yeah!I did it!

Have a good one!