Random Stacks

 No color today,

just traditional black and white.

Stacking some tangle patterns

and practicing.

I love doing this, and no, they aren't all

perfectly stacked.

But that's ok.

Just practicing anyway.

Practice, Practice, Practice

Some time ago I was part of a Facebook group dedicated to making stacks of tangles. Literally stacking one pattern on top of another.
I find after all this time it is still the best way for me to practice tangles I love, or tangles that are new to me, or just ones that need work.
It is really easy to do. Just make horizontal lines  - dividing your page into sections - and fill each horizontal section with  a different tangle.
So, grab your sketchbook and divide a page into sections - horizontal or vertical - it doesn't matter. And tangle away!

Stack Your Stripes

Here is a new stacking challenge for you -

stacking stripes.

Basically this means one tangle per stripe, all stacked on top of each other or next to each other. Stacked stripes can be horizontal or vertical. And one tangle per stripe. This is a great way to learn some new tangles, and to practice the ones you've been working on. These two I'm showing you are very different in appearance. I did not plan it that way, but that is the way they turned out. Why don't you give stacking stripes a try today?

4Mom, Jane Eileen's New Tangle

 Here is a pretty cool new tangle my friend and fellow CZT Jane Eileen created for Mother's Day!

Jane was playing around with this new tangle. As she drew it out, this is what she saw on row two and the name right away became 4Mom.

Jane has a pretty fantastic blog called  See Jane Run  where you can see her beautiful renditions of 4Mom,  as well as a host of other goodies!

Here is a little two inch Bijou tile I drew,  stacking Copada with 4Mom.  A lot of punch in a little tile!

This is another 2" Bijou tile, stacking 4Mom with flux.
My tile at the very top of this post stacks 4Mom with crescent moon and my own tangle TootsieMoon.

 4Mom is a versatile tangle, with lots of tangleation possibilities.

We'd don't you join us and give 4Mom a try this week!  

Faith

One more example of stacked, tangled, and lettered. I used another scrap of scrapbook paper to tangle this on. I really like the pink flower pops showing through the tangle design. An excellent use for all those bits of scrapbook paper I never use anymore. Love it! And the words - speak for themselves.

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.

Stacking in a Wreath

 Here's another stacked and tangled wreath.

Thinking you might want to try one of these,

but don't know where to start?

This is a photo of a wreath I posted last week. You can see the simple steps. I started with a plate and a bowl, which I traced for my strings. Then I just started sectioning off pieces and tangling them. The stacking technique comes into play as you continue building the wreath.

Add a little shading and before you know it - you have a tangled wreath stack that's pretty amazing!
This one is on a 10.5" Opus tile from Zentangle®. It works on any size, start smaller if you need to.

The Old Rugged Cross

Ever wondered what a tangled stack is?

Here is the definition once again:

rows of tangles that go in the same direction and touch. They may be vertical, diagonal, horizontal, circular, or semi-circular as long as they touch. There may be words in between the tangles.

For this piece, I cut this page out of an old Broadman Hymnal that my grandmother gave me when I was around twelve years old. A really long time ago. The Old Rugged Cross is a song that has meant a lot to me over the years. It is also one of the songs we used at my father's funeral.

I began by tangling the stacks, making them touch as per the description, and leaving words in between. I went through and boxed the phrases in micron, then highlighted them with pan pastels. Deciding which phrases to use - keeping a consistent thought running -  was really the hard part for this page.  The rest was fun and games. Super easy to do and I really like the way it turned out.

Stacks of Tangles

Stacking tangles is pretty much what it sounds like.

Here is a definition:

Tangled stacks are rows of tangles that go in the same direction and touch. They may be vertical, diagonal, horizontal, circular, or semi-circular as long as they touch. There may be words in between the tangles.

Grab something to tangle on.

Just about anything will work.

Paper, canvas, wood, ceramic, fabric, walls, 

really just about anything.

Then start tangling.

Pick a pattern and make a row of that.

Then stack another pattern right on top.

Make them touch. 

Keep building.

One tangle stacked at a time.

That's truly all there is to stacked tangles. It can be horizontal, vertical, diagonal, circular - it doesn't matter as long as they touch and stack.

I bet you have already been stacking.

Now it has a cool name!

These are all stacks that I've made.

Most of them you've probably seen on this blog already.

And may see some of them again when I post about how I made them.

Stacking and tangling?

It is a whole lot of fun!

You should totally try it for yourself.

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!