4 Tile Swapping

 One of the CZTs had a great idea to host a 

swap using four tiles,

drawing a mandala onto them,

then tangling each quadrant differently.

We mail our set to her and she will

match one of our pieces up with pieces from

three other people and mail us a set back.

Sounded like a really fun idea to me! So here are my 4 tiles. Here you see them unshaded. At the top of the post you see what a  difference shading makes.  It's a pain sometimes but it is always worth it!
I will be out of town for a couple days. Expect more posts when I get back. 

Zendala Gold

OK, I am really at a loss when it comes to naming these posts.  Especially when I'm sitting her pre-blogging a bunch of them. Creative and cute I am not. Hahahaha!
This zendala was a lot of fun to draw! My friend Sandy Hunter sent me some blanks awhile back,  and I thought to have some fun with Lindy's Stamp Gang Starburst ink sprays. These sprays give some great sparkly, shiny, beautiful color which is incredibly smooth to tangle on.

Not all ink sprays are easy to draw on, but these Lindy's Stamp Gang sprays go on smooth, even though they are loaded with shimmery beauty.
Today's forecast in Colorado? High temp 18˚ ???? (What in the world was I thinking,  coming to Colorado during some serious snow storms???) Low temp 5˚. Well, that's a higher low than yesterday, at least. Hahahahaha!

Zendala Dare #94 - Happy

While Erin was taking some much needed time off, we were missing the Zendala Dare each week. Well, the wait is over - Erin is back and the dare this week included the theme of happy. Erin left the interpretation of that theme up to us. Yay!!!!!

This is the zendala template she provided us with. With the theme in mind, the first thing I thought of when I saw the template was . . .  minions!!! Cause they make me very happy!

So I started laying down lines within the template, which I traced onto a blank zendala. I knew those little round orbs around the outside were the shape I needed for little minion heads and I just took off running from there.

Admittedly, at this point my little guys were looking a lot like Homer Simpson heads, but they just don't make me happy. (Homer Simpson wearing a gas mask!)

More lines, and the minions started taking shape.

Once I got everything drawn, I pulled out the copics and started filling in some colors. And singing . . .
It might seem crazy what I'm about to say Sunshine she's here, you can take a break I'm a hot air balloon that could go to space With the air, like I don't care, baby, by the way
Because I'm happy Clap along if you feel like a room without a roof Because I'm happy Clap along if you feel like happiness is the truth Because I'm happy Clap along if you know what happiness is to you Because I'm happy Clap along if you feel like that's what you wanna do.

Well, you get the idea, but just in case you don't - I am also including the youtube video of Pharrell Williams singing Happy, featuring the Minions - which makes me incredibly happy!
If you want to see how everyone else interpreted the theme Happy, click the link here and visit The Bright Owl. Because I'm happy . . . 

 

Mandala Practice

This post is going to have lots of photos, walking you through how I made the above mandala.

I am taking an online class with Marie Browning and one of this past week's assignments was to make a mandala and color it with Irojiten pencils. I was in Maryland, 800 miles away from home, and didn't have my normal supplies with me. As I was walking around a fabric store, I came across these quilting templates hanging on a rack.

It dawned on me that these templates would make pretty good mandala templates. I started pulling them off the rack and layering them on top of each other, trying to see what would match up together and look like a mandala. I ended up buying four templates and used these two for this project.

I placed one quilt template onto my paper and used a micron 01 to trace within the lines. Then I played with the second template, moving it around until it lined up in a pleasing format. Then I traced those lines. I didn't use all the lines, on both templates, just the ones that looked like they went together.

Next I started filling in lines, connecting paths that seemed to go together. A flower started appearing, so I added some small leaves and started outlining some larger ones.

A few more lines made those larger leaves start standing out more dramatically.

I filled in some seed pods with some purk, finished the larger leaves, then used the tangle phicops to start turning the rest of the design into flower petals. A little fescu soon became stamen.

Once I got my flower mandala looking the way I wanted it to, I used my Japanese irojiten coloring pencils from Tombow to start laying in some color.

These are some pretty incredible pencils. Not watercolor pencils, just coloring pencils. The shading and color variation comes from dropping in layer after layer of color.

I think this was the second time I used these pencils, so I still have a way to go with them before I feel competent.

I used five different colors to lay down a technique called scrumbling around the outside. The scrumbling gives an almost drop-shadow kind of cast to the mandala.

All in all, I think I used 15 different pencils. Here is the finished product and I love the way it turned out! If I can do it - anyone can do it!

Celtic Challenge #7

Judy's Celtic Challenge to us last week was to have fun! She provided us the following template. I added a little paradox to the central portion and shaded with a copic marker. The simple lines of the zendala reminded me of a flower, so I turned sections into leaves and the remaining sections into petals. 

And, yes, I am still running behind. Will I ever get caught up? I doubt it - hahaha! But I am trying! You can go here to check out all the beautiful celtic zendalas!

I've Got Mail!!!

It's raining outside but I braved the trek to the mailbox and was rewarded with this package! As soon as I saw the sender name I knew it was going to be a wonderful package!

Do you see it right there? Above the hand-written 'thank you!' Mandala Stencils - yay!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is a package of absolute awesomeness! Stencils to make my own mandalas to tangle and turn into zendalas!

A very short while ago, Genevieve Crabe announced she was releasing a stencil set that would help us draw innumerable mandala designs. Haha! I tried to pre-order them before she even had the link up! This afternoon is almost over, but it's going to be a fun rest of the afternoon and evening!

Genevieve, you're the best! Thanks for making this available to us!
If you would like to learn more about these awesome stencils, please check out this link. And if you would like to watch a short video explaining how to use the templates, here's a link for that :).

Zendala Dare #22

I am five weeks behind on the Zendala Dare. Life just got away with me, now I'm trying to play catch-up! So far behind that I forgot that the Zendala Dare this week was to take the mandala pattern above and turn it in to a Monodala - one pattern with variations. I totally forgot the whole "mono" part of the instructions. I sat up late last night and into the morning drawing, hoping to catch-up a couple things. And this dare was one of them.

This is what I drew. I had a great time with it, trying to figure out all the little shapes and angles. I sat down a little while ago to post this and when I went to Erin's page to grab her button I saw that word "Monodala" and thought, oh, yeah, whoa! So, I will try to draw one of those tonight - because I do want to give it a go -  but I'm posting this anyway. And in the meantime, I'm probably one more week behind somewhere else. Life!

To look at the "correct" monodalas, visit Erin's page here. Why don't you join in the fun?

In Honor Of . . . My Dad, Zendala Dare #17

The Zendala Dare's challenge this week is to honor someone who has been touched by cancer - either still fighting, or someone who lost the battle. She gave us this template:

and asked us to keep that someone special in mind as we tangled this mandala. 
I thought about that one for a few minutes. In my circle of family and friends, my mom, dad, mother-in-law, nephew, an aunt, several uncles, a sweet photographer friend, several friends at church, even myself have all heard that doctor's diagnosis of cancer. I think the one that impacts me the most is my dad. He battled cancer for years, running tests every 3 months for 4-5 years. Dad died a little over six years ago - not from cancer, but from a heart issue. Of all the illnesses my parents went through, from Dad I received his cancer genes, and from my Mom - her diabetes. 
This tile was fun to work on. In his healthy days, Dad loved being out on the water. Riding around in his boat, putting across the lake, throwing a line out for a fish, setting up a trout line, fishing for cod off the docks of Newfoundland, or casting a net for shrimp - it didn't matter as long as there was water. This tile just reminds me of water and boats and maybe some fishnets in the background. 
Thanks for a fun challenge, Erin! Head on over to The Bright Owl and check out the Zendala Dare. It is not too late for you to post a zendala of your own - in honor of someone you love!

Zendala Dare #13 = Fun!

We are thirteen weeks into the Zendala Dare with Erin over at The Bright Owl. Above is the zendala template she gave us, and the challenge was to play with paper! All of us have our favorite papers to tangle on. I prefer the zentangle tiles or watercolor paper.

This week we are drawing on other types of paper - anything that isn't our usual. I started out with a piece of cardboard filler that came in a package today. I couldn't get the template to transfer over onto the cardboard, so I tossed that in the trash! Then I pulled out a heavy cardstock scrap of scrapbook paper - above - and transferred my template with no trouble. This worked like a charm! Smooth pen strokes, shading was easy. I stuck with lines mainly, so I wouldn't get confused - hahaha!

Today was bill-paying day, my least favorite day of the month! I didn't want to use scrapbook paper solely, so I scoured around my workroom and came upon the garbage can full of bill-paying trash. I pulled out this ad for AT&T and used it. Template transferred very well, but the penwork was sloppy. I noticed the pen kept moving when I wanted it to stop. I guess due to the slickness of the paper. This was a challenge. 

I thought about things other than paper that I could draw on. I m going to the CZT session in 36 days :smiles: and am trying to figure out what I could use to make a display the first night. I bought this letter at Michael's for around a dollar. It was already painted white. I used the same method to transfer the template - it worked great!

Then I used a fine point Sharpie and a Zig Memory Writer to fill in the zendala. (Note added the next day - don't use the zig memory writers - apparently they are not permanent. Big, huge smear right across the middle. Argh!) I stuck to the same basic design on all my zendalas, with very few changes so I could concentrate on the materials.

Here's a closer shot. It worked great! Took a little longer to dry than pen on paper, so I had to be careful of hand placement. I expect to continue tangling on this letter and it will be on display at the CZT session in - count them - 36 days!


To check out all the zendalas, and see the various types of papers, visit Erin's page - The Bright Owl - here! You have time to complete one of your own!

Zendala Dare #12

Behold. The blank mandala Erin gave us this week. This is a weekly challenge where Erin posts a blank on the Bright Owl, and we fill in the tangles! I thought this was a fairly easy one, but it actually turned out to be the most intricate drawing I've done. I think.

And this is what I did with it. I tried some new tangles that I hadn't used before: pokeleaf, pokeroot, fencee, and a variation of purk. On my hand-drawn tile I have a border of snookums in that vast whiteland seen above, BUT I picked up the wrong pitt artist pen and ruined it. Ruined with a capital Ruin! So badly I couldn't figure out how to resurrect it. So, I removed snookums in photoshop. On my real tile I am probably going to remove it with a pair of deckle-edged scissors. Please head over to the Bright Owl and check out this week's zendalas. There is plenty of time to join in the fun and add one of your own :).