Using Lettering as a Layer

Tangled stacks and lettering. It just needs to be a layer in and of itself. That's all it takes. Not superimposed over the top of what you tangled, but a layer all by itself. Tangled stacks with lettering. Now if we could just get everyone to understand that. Hahahahaha!
This piece was drawn on scrapbook paper. All I used was a black Sharpie fine point, a little graphite for shading, and a white gelly roll pen for highlights.

Stacking Circles

 Lately it's been all about the stacks.

Stacks of tangles. 

In this case, it's a stack of tangled circles.

Now you know I love me some gorgeous colors,

but I did not make this background myself.

It came from this book. (I was going to tell you what page,  but this awesome book doesn't have page numbers. So that's not going to happen.)
I purchased three of Mindy Lacefield's books and they are all beautiful! They are copies of her personal art journals with lots of open spaces where a tangler could have some fun. And I love the results!
Why don't you grab a book you haven't enjoyed in awhile,  or a book from a second-hand shop, and tangle a little today? You'll be glad you did.

Test Driving My Wall Book

 My friend Jane gave our art journal group the challenge of stacking.

Stacking tangles,

stacking text,

stacking text and tangles,

stacking colors with any of the above.

Jane showed some examples of stacking,

and in a couple pictures she showed drawings she had made in her wall book.

I thought, I have a wall book that I rarely use.

So I pulled it out and tangled the stacks you see above

 in the page on the right.

It started out as a blank brick wall. 

(This is an actual two-page spread in the book.)

 I started at the bottom and worked my way up.

I love the way it turned out.

Looks like that art could be real graffiti.

(Fourth tangle up from the bottom,

is one I made up for this page.

I'm calling it Box It Up.

I'll post step-outs for it in tomorrow's post.)

In case you wondered, and even if you didn't, hahaha!

from the bottom up, the tangles are:

shattuck, copada, curlz (one I came up with at CZT training,) 

box it up, variation of crescent moon, flying geese, rain, 

curvy variation of shattuck, twing, laced, and footlites.

Here is the wall book, which I have been calling by the 

wrong name for the past couple weeks! 

I got mine at Amazon,

(I mean, really, is there any where else?)

Walls Notebook by Sherwood Forlee.

 I enjoyed that stacking stuff so much I decided to do a second page. 

I decided to go with graffiti circles and tangles that draw the eye to that post rising from top to bottom of the page.

And here is the completed page. 
Tangles from bottom to top: shattuck (yes, I love this one,) puf, shattuck  (see what I mean?), rain, box it up, and flying geese again.
And remember, anywhere you see pink words, that means it's a link.  Click on it and you will be taken to step-outs for that tangle. Cause pink = link. In every picture I draw, I include my chop. My signature. At least I try to. You see it just under this post. My initials with the leaf - for The Creator's Leaf. I don't always date the drawing - on the drawing itself - it's usually on the back. For this page, though, I included it on the front. Can you find it? And my chop? (It's kind of obvious.)
P.S. ~ time for you to try out this whole stacking thing. No rules, except you pile it up. Words, tangles, colors, elements. Whatever media you want to use. It's stacking time!

Lucky Cat

 So excited!

This is my first template animal and I really like the way he turned out.

 On Facebook there is a wonderful artist named Ben Kwok. 

Ben administrates a group called Ornation Creation, where he regularly posts templates he has made for us to take and tangle. 

If you are a Facebook aficionado, you should check out Ornation Creation.

Ben gave us the above cat template, which I printed out on cardstock and started tangling.

Next time I will use watercolor paper, I wasn't convinced I could actually 

pull this off this time. Hahahaha!

 Ben also has a Facebook page called BioWorkZ.com where he features his own work.

He is really incredible! Worth taking a look.

I promise!

I just kept filling in tangles. 

The idea I went with was the oriental lucky cat -

typically done in either gold or white with touches of red.

I kept the tangles simple.

The gold was a metallic Pitt Artist Pen,

the reds were a combination of PrismaColor pencil and Uniball Signo pen.

Shading made all the difference.

It usually does. 

And there you go. My first Ben Kwok template tangled and framed in a dark red, wooden 8" x 10" frame. Yay!!!!! Now to decide what to work on next.  He has 94 templates posted on the group page, so there's plenty to pick from!

String #145

I haven't been keeping up with Linda Farmer's  weekly string challenge like I should. I used to faithfully tangle the string each week. Guess life has gotten in the way, but here I pulled out a recent string and drew a little puf, and some printemps. The shading really brings this piece together. Sorry I couldn't show the steps to printemps. When I follow the link from tangle patterns it takes me to a page that is no longer there. Oh well. It's the rolley one, like cinnamon buns :).

Triangle Party!

It's a party over at Tangles and Stuff! This week's ZIA challenge was to use triangles as a string. Hence, a triangle party! I am really enjoying these challenges each week - thanks for hosting them :). This past week has been tough - creatively - I guess I have too much going on in my life. I was able to complete this page in my newish mini Smash Journal! I really like the size of the book, the spiral binding, and the smoothness of the pages. Haha! If you noticed my notations - "no weave" and "no betweed" - it's because I've been using those two patterns entirely too much lately! You can check out other triangle tangles - and join the party! - here.