Thursday String Idea, #11

 Welcome to Thursday String Idea.

This is week #11 and it's a fun string!

To print at 3 1/2" tile size,

click here.

I enjoyed this string! That top left section is a new tangle I've been working on  and I'm calling it corn rows. Step out to come soon, but there's really nothing to it. It melds right into a variation of merryweather, then frost flower. The little bit of rounding comes with those first two tangles.
To print out the string, simply click here. I hope that you might consider posting your completed string art in our Facebook group  Zentangle All Around where we have fun tangling - - - in the round!

And, if you are looking for some more tangle fun, head on over to Ina's Tangles here and check out her Pattern-a-Day posts for  Inktober.  Bermuda is one of Ina's new tangles.
Ina makes up one third of Simalina, our book publishing team of Simona Cordara, Ina, and myself. If you haven't picked up your copy of Tangle It! Journal yet, you can do that by clicking here. We are still the #1 Hot New Release on Amazon!

To those of you who already have your book - thank you so much for supporting us! 

Wonky Stacking

There has been a lot of interest in stacking tangles lately, as well as using papers other than zentangle tiles. This little piece of art does both!
This is a small piece of scrapbook paper I had left over, about 5" x 4". I made some wonky, non-straight string lines with my pen, and started laying in tangles.   From top to bottom: diva dance, printemps, merryweather, meer and cootie.
All the color in this tile was part of the scrapbook paper. Super easy to do and what a great way to use up some of that paperI still had in a cabinet!
Do you have leftover scraps you could tangle on?

Stepping Up the Game

I have been working on some ideas for my tangling, some new patterns of my own design, trying some patterns that are new to me, trying to step up my game, so to speak.
In this stack of tangles, I started at the top with shattuck,  then ballenchain - that dark one with the circles,  then a variation of merryweather I've been working on, printemps, and another one I'm working on that has no name as yet.
And I have been evaluating my shading. I remember a friend telling me to shade more than I thought I should and it would be perfect. Did not do that here, I am just now remembering. Hahaha! Story of my life!
How are you coming with your shading? Is it time to step up your game?

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.

Trip to Paradise

My life just doesn't seem to slow down. I thought when I retired that life would be easier, that I wouldn't feel pulled in so many directions. Boy! was I wrong! I seriously need to learn the meaning of the word 'no' and start using it occasionally. Actually last night I did send an email to a friend who runs an ATC swap  through facebook and asked to be left out of the next swap. I have too many irons in the fire.

I just got back home last night from visiting up north. On Thursday I head south to a zentangle retreat at Paradise Beach. I can not wait! One of the fun things Jo-Ellen arranged for us to participate in is an ensemble tile swap. What you see above are the straight lined ensemble and the curved line ensemble that Zentangle® carries. I sell them in my Etsy store :). There are nine tiles in each ensemble with a running string throughout the nine. For this swap we were instructed to tangle each tile independently - that would be why they look a little strange next to each other. When we come home from Paradise, we will have 18 new tiles - from 18 of our fellow artists. Pretty amazing! And what a great way to collect artwork from other tangle artists! Retreat to Paradise? Here I come! (After I wash clothes, pack, find my supply lists and probably make a trip to Michael's, repack because I will have forgotten something. . . well, you get the idea ;) )

Pink is Where It's At

I had a good week in Maryland. Kali and I went to see the movie Divergent on her night off. I recently read the trilogy and the movie was excellent! Stayed very true to the book. Can not wait for the next installment - in one year. Also, I've been working on book submissions. Kind of hard to do when all my cool supplies are at home, but I'm giving it a shot. And of course I have been readying all 53 of my little twinchies to go out in the mail. Just have to get to the post office and buy a bunch of postage. These were so much fun to make and I just used scraps of color that came from previous projects. (And apparently I make a lot of pink projects.) I hope to show you a few more tomorrow.

Time to Create

It has been a crazy few weeks. Due to an injured achilles tendon, I have been spending a lot of time sitting with my foot propped up on an ice pack. Trying to draw when I could , but finding it hard to keep my concentration and focus due to pain. Then Kali had some issues which necessitated a trip to the hospital for her and a plane flight for me. I took a rough spill in a dark movie theatre and smashed a knee, shoulder, and hip, and twisted the bad foot - setting me back to ground zero on the healing achilles problem. I spent two weeks there and just returned home last night. I am sooooo tired!!!

I still have ATCs to complete for the CZT Deck Swap, but I am closing in on being finished :). Here are a couple closeups of one of the larger sheets I am working on. It will eventually be cut down into 16 ATCs.
As a side note, now that I am back home I hope to start doing some massive overhauls on the blog, my Pinterest boards, my Etsy store, and setting up a Facebook group to make things more cohesive and easier to access. I believe I need a focus for the facebook group. There are many zentangle/tangle pages already out there. And in all truthfulness I am more of a Zentangle Inspired Art person than a Zentangle person. Do you have any suggestions for a focus in a facebook group? Something that isn't already being done to death? I have some ideas, but I'd like to hear what some of you might suggest. Thanks :)

A New Year's Coming

These are the last three of my New Year's post cards for the swap. I used mixed media paper and cut my own 4" x 6" postcards - rather than buying them. In the last two cards I tried something new. Not sure how I like it yet. I used pen nibs and a speedball wand, which I dipped into Liquitex Acrylic Ink to draw the pink string and the green vines. Other colors in the cards came from Grumbacher Translucent Watercolors, Wink of Stella Glitter Markers, and At You Spica pens. It's almost new year's day. The cards are in the mail. It's a new record :).

Pkok Tangle, Sandhya Manne

Currently, I am working on postcards.  A few of us are involved in a New Year's postcard swap and I'm trying to get mine done and in the mail.  You might have seen yesterday's post where I listed how far behind I am.  I am one step closer now, haha!
Pkok is a new tangle from Sandhya Manne, one of our CZTs from India. Her work is always so beautiful and delicate.  I love this new pattern of hers! It just really wanted to mix it up with some merryweather (Sandy Hunter) and bales (Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas).
I cut my own postcard from mixed media paper. Color came from my Grumbacher Transparent watercolors. The sparkle is from Wink of Stella Glitter markers (which unfortunately doesn't photograph well.)

Accent on the Pink

I love the accents made with the pinks! I could be all about the pink! Or teal, or purple, depending on what day of the week it is.

I am getting ready for another ATC swap. The theme for this one is black with one accent color. Of course, I chose pink to be my accent color.

Once again, I drew this on a sheet of 11" x 14" Bristol smooth surface paper from Strathmore. For the pink accents, I used At You Spica Pens (2 shades of pink), a pink copic marker, and some pink watercolor.

I really love the colors! Lower left you see the tangle Sindoo by Sharon Robinson, England. That strip on the lower right is Ragz from CZT Christina Vandervlist. That long skinny one with the openings is Beanpodz from Neil Burley. I love the spiral in the middle - that's my favorite part!

Sliding across from lower left to upper right is Liberty 100 from ~ once again ~ Neil Burley. Mix in a little Kuke from Katy Abbott, some zander, some bunzo,  a variation of tagh, and something I totally made up - those circle thingies. 

I love finery! It is one of the 'official' zentangle® patterns. 

At the top right is Stella, I don't think the step-outs of that one's been released yet. Then I tried a little Undling (yes! it worked), which is Susie Achter's new tangle. In the middle are those cute little circles I made up, along with Sandy Hunter's Cruffle. I think the two work pretty well together!

Yes, I really do like these two together! Anyway, these are some closeups of the detail work! I cut this sheet down into 16 ATCs that I will mail out to sixteen different people in the new swap that starts on the 1st!

I am really having a ball drawing large scale this way! Next up? A 53-deck of card ATCs for a swap amongst the CZTs. I can not wait!

Making the Most of My Day

I've been having some issues with my daily life. Some questions I'm trying to answer. Some peace I'm trying to find. Some quietness in a life that is too full of stuff and doing. I had gotten lax in my tangle time each day. Now I realize that tangle time is exactly what I must make time for each day.

This is one thing I can do without thought. Without feeling guilty because I'm not doing something else. Without worrying about how the house is going to get clean. Without worrying about what I have to fix for supper when I don't like to cook. Time for just me. Time to wind down and relax. Time to zone everything else out and just enjoy my time alone. Time with my pens and my paper.  Ahhhhh! Getting in the zone! It's sweet!

Trying to Find the Groove

Yesterday I showed you the start of this 11" x 14" piece I'm working on. This is destined to be cut down into fifteen separate ATCs for a swap I am participating in. In this one view you can see three brand new tangles - merryweather, stella, and crezn't. These pink links will take you to step-outs for two of those. Stella hasn't been released (I don't think). It is the pretty poinsettia looking flower in the center. 

This bold band across the middle is something I made up. I was trying to draw Caren Mlot's new tangle spokes and got lost in the first two steps. It isn't a hard tangle, I just wasn't paying attention. So I just kept drawing and that dark band from lower left to upper right is what I came up with. You can also see some printemps, Sandy Hunter's cruffle, cirquital, Sandy Bartholomew's msst, Jane MacKugler's henna drum, knase, and a few random other tangles. 

In this photo you see more of merryweather and crezn't. The fan shaped tangle near the top right is called S Wich Blade and it's by Carol Ottaway. She's an awesome artist, you should check out her blog here.  That dark wavy line and circle tangle is beanpodz from Neil Burley. A little footlites, more stella, a little munchin, and a variation of rain. 

I hope to finish this up today.  Still having some issues today with creativity, but trying to push through. Trying to find my groove once more. Thank you to everyone who sent me warm wishes and encouraging words, and thank you to those who offered to pray for me. You are loved and appreciated!

Life Got You Down?

I don't know about you, but life has certainly got me down right now. It has for awhile. Trying to figure out how to deal with certain things. My creativity has certainly taken a hard shot to the arm! 
What you see above is an 11" x 14" sheet of mixed media paper that I've been tangling on for over a week now. This is all I've accomplished. But I'm trying to do a little bit each day. 
Once it's completed I will cut it down into ATCs for a swap I am woefully behind in. Lots of drawing left to do, then shading. For those of you who are still learning about zentangle, when I am done this entire sheet will be covered with patterns. Hopefully it will be a site to behold. Hahaha! Hopefully. So, stay tuned.