It's a Celtic Challenge

Judy from Creative Doodling offered us a challenge - a celtic knot challenge! A freestyle celtic knot challenge. You can see the link to her instructions here. 

Step One was to draw your string - draw one at random, with no specific directions other than to have it connect together at the two ends of the string.

Step Two was to draw the contours inside the shapes created by your string.

Step Three was to aura the outside of the entire shape. Apparently I forgot to take a photo of the next step. Step Four was to connect the lines at the gaps, creating over and under sections. (I opted to round some of the corners to smooth out some less than perfect lines.) Step Five was to rub out your pencil line and tangle/doodle in the sections. This was the fun part! I tried some new patterns and some old.

Next I started adding some onamato in the string.

Completed the onamato with a row of perfs around the outside.

Then I shaded. I was happy with my celtic knot at this point. But, you know how I am. Everything is better with color - even if only a little pop of color!

And so I added a little color with my copics. This was a really fun - and easy - challenge to complete. Judy has just posted challenge number 2! If you want to participate this week, click here to get the instructions. I am going to go check it out now and get an earlier start this week!

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.

Zendala Dare #10 - Thanks, Erin!

Erin at The Bright Owl is sponsoring Zendala Dare #10 this week. She gave us the blank you see below. Above, you see what I did with mine. I chose a yellow round tile and used the patterns paradox, weave, copada, hurry, and a variation of vortex. I'm calling the design in the middle 'paradox' - am I right? Or is this called something else?

You can check out everyone's drawings at The Bright Owl. You can even try your hand it at and post one for me to look at! I will leave you a comment to let you know I've visited your page!

Zendala Dare #7 - Catching Up!

I don't like being behind and I don't want to skip a challenge. I have a list of what I need to do and I'm knocking them out one-by-one. This is my first response to last week's zendala dare at The Bright Owl. Actually, it was my second response, but my favorite so I'm pushing it to the front of the line :). As far as patterns - I used paradox and made up the rest. Then I watercolored with derwent inktense pencils - my favorite art supply at the moment.

This is how things work. Erin at The Bright Owl posts a blank zendala each Friday, then we take it and create a work of art with it! Above is the blank she gave us this week.

This was my first response. Recently I hit the junkpot at Michael's. On the clearance row they had some scrapbook supplies. And in that bin were packages  of 60 (I think it's 60) round tiles. I bought a package of all white tiles and a package of various colored tiles for $0.99 each. Once you add in tax, it cost me about $2.00 to be able to create 120 works of art :). What a deal! So, for this zendala I used a hot pink tile and the patterns weave, skein, vortex, and Msst. Check out all our art contributions here at The Bright Owl. It isn't too late to add one of your own!

Zendala Dare #8

Erin's Zendala Dare this week came about in honor of her friend's wedding this weekend. Here is the blank zendala Erin gave us to use:

The challenge was to use at least one tangle starting with L, one with O, one with V, and one with E, thus making a L.O.V.E. Zendala! Above you can see what I drew on a heart-shaped tile.

I uploaded my zendala to Photoshop and ran a soft and faded action to "countrify" it up a bit.

Then I added a frame and grunged up the background and chalk inked the edges. I don't normally do all this, but thought it would be fun this one time! 


The patterns I used are:
L - Leau and Laced,
O - Onamato,
V - Vortex, and
E - Ebb.


You can check out all the fun zendalas at The Bright Owl. You might even want to try one of your own!