Shiretown, A New Tangle

 Thank you for being patient while Cindy and I tracked down the problem with the blog.

It has been corrected and you should not have

any more of those nasty pop up boxes

to deal with.

To celebrate, allow me to introduce you to

Shiretown, a new tangle!

Back in the summer, Mark and I traveled to Maine

to look at some houses. 

We overnighted in a hotel name Shiretown.

This is phone photo I took of the carpet in the hallway.

Many of my tangles come from carpets.

 Deconstructing that pattern was simple.

You just break it down one step at a time,

much the same way you draw a tangle.

One step at a time.

 Shiretown makes a fine border as you can see. 

 I really, really love tangling this in a circle!

In the background you see another of my patterns -

barz. No step out drawn, just rows with a series

of straight and diagonal cross lines.

And here is another tile I did using shiretown. Add a little zander and some  Knights of the Round Table. Shiretown looks great in black and white, but it also looks great with a pop of color. Why don't you give shiretown a try? I would love to see what you do with it!

Did Someone Ask For Circles?

I mentioned yesterday how far behind I am on challenges. I've had this one sitting in my smash journal waiting to lay down some color. And now I remember that someone challenged us to circles, but for the life of me I cannot remember who - and I cannot find the challenge in my daily reads. So. Here is my response to the Unknown Circle Challenge! I used a little spinner pattern, mixed in some assemblies and jalousie, threw in some of my barz and geerz, and you have a bit of steampunk. With a whole bunch of circles. I count 79, but there might be more :). On to the next drawing.

Brayd With the Diva, A String, and Inspiration

I apologize up front because I am going to use this tangled tile for three challenges this week - I have never done this before.  I am feeling the stress this week - I am leaving town in two days for almost a week and I am nowhere near being ready. So, up first is Challenge #82 from the Diva (AKA Laura) - that's police talk :). Laura challenged us to use Shelly Beauch's pattern brayd for our tile. I think I have drawn this pattern once before, so it was like new for me. The hardest part was taking my time, and not rushing my way through.

The second challenge comes from Linda Farmer at Tangle Patterns. The string came from Barbara Finwall.

When I drew this, I patterned my brayd along the lines of the string Barbara drew for us. To give the color - I used Derwent graphitint pencils, and their metallic pencils with a water brush. I really like the way the graphitint pencils look - like aged patina - sweet!

Inspiration Avenue offered a challenge this week to use the art of zentangle. Above, I used the patterns brayd, jalousies, and two of my own patterns - blox and barz.

To see some fantastic art, go to these sites and check it out! You can share your work with us! The Diva Challenge, Tangle Patterns, and Inspiration Avenue. 

Catch Up Time, Zendala Dare #14

Not sure why, but my life has been a little hectic lately. Last week I was busy building a new facebook page The Creator's Leaf and working on this blog - trying to make it more professional. Crazy times! Cause I sure don't know what I'm doing. Anyway, I missed last week's Zendala Dare :(. Above is the template Erin gave us to work with.

I found this template a real challenge. As I was staring at it last night - trying to think, "what circular patterns do I know?" and it dawned on me that this could be one big gear! Yay! Steampunk! So this is what I did with Erin's template. Lots of fun! I started with the center gear, then expanded the metal arms along the sides of the smaller circles in the template. The large circles at the top made up a bunch of screws and fittings. Add in some pipes and a wall in the background, then liberally wash some watercolors around. Ta-da!

Patterns are pretty much ones I made up: geerz, barz, pipez, and a wall :). Color from Derwent Inktense Pencils, a Pitt Artist Marker, and  Pentel Slicci pen. Check out all the zendalas that were done on time at The Bright Owl.

Steampunk String 010

Yesterday, Tangle Patterns posted a string for the week. I posted a tile last night that I made following the string of Anne Marks. Today, I made another - of the steampunk variety this time :). You know how I like drawing steampunk! Patterns - jalousie, assemblies, and from my patterns - pipez, barz, and geerz. Color by Pitt Artist Markers and Derwent Intense Pencils. You can join in the fun at Tangle Patterns here :).

Can We Punk in Pink?

Hopefully I'm not breaking some kind of code. 


Some kind of steampunkiness code. 


I got to playing around today with this pattern auraknot - trying to get it down - and I ended up with a steampunked wall - on a piece of pink background paper. In - what else? - my mini smash journal. I love it! Steampunk is so much fun! And I think auraknot will be, too, as soon as I'm used to it :).

String 008 - Steampunked

At Tangle Patterns, it is time for String 008! This week's string is shared by Hope Martin. Here is what I did:

Steampunk just really calls to me right now. Hopefully you aren't getting sick of looking at it. Let's see. I used some assemblies, some geerz, some barz, and apparently not enough light when I photographed it with my phone. Oh well. Maybe tomorrow.


Check out string 008 and get involved here!

Tangle Patterns String 006

It's week 6 in the Tangle Patterns string fun. Above is the string Linda gave us to work with this week, courtesy of Sandy Hunter, CZT. We take this string and turn it into a work of art. Hopefully :).

I had fun with this string. I turned the loops into a wrecking ball and rotate-able gear. A little of this and a little of that and presto! it's steampunk. My favorite for now. Why don't you join us in this fun? You can see the instructions and the get the string here.

Zendala Dare #11

Erin at The Bright Owl presented us with the eleventh zendala dare this week. Above is my traditional zentangle approach to the dare: betweed, zedbra, and something I learned on Art With Mr. E's page. Sorry, don't know the name of the pattern.

This is the blank mandala Erin gave us to use. I chose to ignore some of the lines and to let my patterns overrun those areas.

Then I drew this one up. I'm really enjoying the steampunk angle, and though this design is a simple one - the mandala was perfect for the steampunk idea. The outer ring is called linked. The background is a pattern I've been referring to as barz. I don't know if it's anyone's pattern, but I have been using it a good bit. Filled in the color with what else? Derwent inktense pencils, Pitt artist pens, and slicci pens. This is actually an instagram pix of my tile.

You can see all the zendala dare offerings at Erin's page here. You can even join in the fun! Erin posts a new blank every Friday.

Get Your Steampunk On

Last night I posted the pen version of this picture. I spent a little over an hour today adding color. I even got some texture of sorts, due to all the product I used.

I drew this in my smash journal. I guess if I am going to continue to doodle steampunk I should probably start a journal specifically for this. Products that I used included: Derwent Inktense Pencils, Pitt Artist Pens, Robin Mini-Metallic Rub-Ons (I've had these forever. I don't know if they are even still available,) Sakura Opaque Pigment Markers, Pentel Slicci Pens and Micron black and sepia pens.

Patterns include:  assemblies, spinner, parabola, kolum, jalousie, linked, and two I made up - geerz and barz. This was a load of fun! Now, back to working on challenges!

Zendala Dare #5 with the Bright Owl

It is hard to believe it's already the 5th week of Erin's Zendala Dare! This is the pattern she gave us this week. It's really very simple (snicker, snicker!) Erin gives us a pattern and challenges us to fill it with various tangles. Then we get to share our work through her blog and we can visit everyone else's page and learn from their work. The hard part for me is deciding which tangles to use. Sometimes it just comes to mind - like last weeks' surboards. Sometimes it's a bit of struggle for me. I'm sure that is what Erin has in mind with this dare - to challenge us, to push us, and to help us learn. So, with that said, here is my finished zendala for this week :).

I am really interested in steampunk design right now - for whatever reason - and I knew I wanted to use that this week. It was a lot of fun! I used: spinner, metal plate, assemblies, deha, and two patterns that I just made up - geerz and barz. For the color I used Derwent Inktense Pencils with a water brush.

You can find the Zendala Dare here. Check out everyone's zendalas for the week and maybe you'd like to post one of your own! We'd all love to see you there!