Challenge # 173 Redux, Remix, Revisit Your Comfort Tangle

The challenge this week was to revisit some of our old favorite tangles, and try different things with them. (OK, I'm way over simplifying the challenge, but you can see it here).

So... I started out with something different: a grid as my string - I had never done it.  Then used some tangles I'm not too comfortable with - Top left and center grids.  Then some old favorites that I had not used in a while: all the others :)

The shading was painted with Inktense bars.

I'm not sharing anything else this week as I have not had time for anything else and it seems I won't for the rest of the week, either.  So... at least I did enjoy this challenge.

Challenge and Carvings

Challenge

This week's challenge was to use only the Mooka and the Auraknot tangles.  You can see the challenge and videos on how to tangle both of these here, in the Diva's blog.

This is what I created last night.  It's a bit crazy-looking with all the lines, but... it is what it is, and I'm not going to have time to do another one.  I must say, I have tried Mooka many times but I never know how they will turn out... they kind-a go crazy on me and I have no control over them... LOL

Carvings

As I only usually have a few minutes in the evening to create, this week I concentrated on making cards with the leaf stamp I carved from a cheap eraser.  

Since it is such a simple design I played with pattern.  I will still go back to these next week and add more color and pen and ink work - we'll see how they will turn out in the end.

And then last night I made this card with my new fish (you can see others here).  I think I like the one I made last week better, but still... since the dark blue of the fish below was painted with H2Os (shimmering watercolors), it does give it a bit of life :)

This is what the hand-carved fish look like.  

Next week I will be working on a seamless carving and I'm sure I will have lots of fun designing it.

Carve, Stamp, Play Workshop

This week I did not manage to enter the challenge; with the new job and trying to get adjusted to getting up around 5 in the morning, the week just got away from me.

I did manage to create a few carvings and prints for the Carve Stamp Play Workshop based on Julie Fei-Fan Balzer's book (her blog here):

The Flowers:

I think I mentioned here I wanted to create a coloring sheet with the flower carvings.  I did just that, and scanned it so I can print it in whatever paper I want and have fun painting or coloring it in.

Stamped flowers and leaves

Outlined flowers and leaves and added shapes to the background

It will be a lot of fun painting or coloring it in :)

Interlocking stamps - abstract shapes:

These are rather small stamps but I had a lot of fun with them.  The idea is to create two stamps to work together.  So, this is what I came up with:

Something simple:  background color (right) and shape outline (left)
I wanted to create them so I could use them together or separately

So, I tried printing them with different colors to practice aligning them, and to see which color combinations I liked.

Then I had fun :)

Both together in same cases, and then separately

... and even more fun!!

Same print after adding watercolors, pen and ink, and colored pencil

Patterns with a simple carving:

The idea was to use a simple carving and use it to create different patterns.  I decided to carve a leaf and created these patterns, although I could keep going :).  I haven't had the time to play with this leaf yet, but the little carved away spots inside of the leaf will be fun to paint or color, or even tangle in.

One Fish, Two Fish...

The purpose of this lesson was to carve a stamp that printed multiple times will create a continuous pattern.  I decided to do something different here... to create a tessellation Escher-like (or rather, the same type; his are amazing and fabulous!!).

So, I went online and created a tessellation, carved it, and added some designs inside.  I started with one fish, but it was really hard to print it and get everything aligned, so... I carved a second fish :)

Fish one (left) and fish two :)

Then, printed them together to form my tessellation:

The values are too close together so it is a bit hard on your eyes :)

And had some fun with a card:

All fish outlined
the darker ones had the carved away shapes painted with shimmering watercolors,
the lighter ones had the background lightly colored with coloring pencil

I think these are easier on the eyes.  I know I will have a lot of fun with these fish!  I'm already have an idea for a bigger piece.

Challenge #170 and Flower Stamps

Challenge

This week's challenge (on the Diva's blog) was to use Bugles by Joyce Evans (step outs here).  That is the darker tangle below.  I had fun with it, as always :)

Flower Stamps

After playing with the house stamps (I've shown them here) with my 4-year-old niece, she said next time we needed to play with flower stamps.  So, I grabbed some cheap erasers, designed some simple flower centers, petals, and leaves, and carved them on the erasers (see them below on the left side).

Then, we played with them and had a lot of fun.  At one point, she grabbed one of the leaf stamps, and created a flower with it.  Go figure!!  I had not thought of doing that, but see below right how they can look pretty cool!

When I got home, it was time for me to play with them :).  I got some Bristol paper, and went at it with the flowers and the leaves.  I then doodled all over the background to fill the empty spaces, and then painted the flowers, leaves, and background shapes with H2Os (shimmering watercolors).  Oh what fun!!!

I'm now working on a 8.5 x 11 in piece; I stamped the flowers and leaves in grey, and have started outlining them with black ink.  Once done, I will add shaped to the background (as in the piece above), and hope it will turn out to be a really fun page to color, or paint, or tangle in.