Diva's challenge, Teabags, and Coloring Pages

Diva's Challenge #158: Duotangle: Diva Dance + Crescent Moon

I had never tried to stick to 2 tangles on a tile or ZIA (Zentangle Inspired Art).  I must say it was challenging!!  I kept wanting to add others for interest and contrast!  Well... I did it, but now looking at it, I would have liked to have left some space between the shape in the middle and the one on the right.  Oh well... I keep learning :).  For instructions on this challenge and to see the beautiful art others have created for it, please click here.

Teabags

Since I love tea, I have a lot of used teabags around :).   I keep wanting to experiment with them, so here are my latest created a couple of nights ago.

The flowers were printed from hand carved blocks with acrylic paint.  The red in the front, and the white in the back.  The outlines were also added some in the front and some in the back.  This is a "one-ply" teabag - meaning, I opened it up completely.

Same process as above.  Ah!  Forgot... the pinkish tone around the border and flower was added with  colored pencil.

These are "2-ply", meaning the tea bags are intact except for a torn piece along the top where I got the tea out.  Again, I used some of my hand-carved blocks to print the designs with acrylic ink.  I then added some details with black and white pens, colored pencil, and a touch of copper paint.

I may also to varnish them or use gel medium so they are not as fragile.  I do like the feel of them as they are, though...

Now the question is... what do I do with them?  Cards?  Put a bunch of them together and create one piece?  Any ideas?  I'm completely open to suggestions.  

Coloring Pages

I love to color and paint, and I often use the same design to try different color combinations or media.  I decided to create pages of some of my designs and add them to my Etsy shop.  People can just download them and start coloring or painting right away.  So, yesterday I added my first coloring page from one of my tile designs inspired by Portuguese tiles called Azulejos.  I have a blog post about those here.

Tile design "Swirls" in my Etsy shop ready to be downloaded, then colored or painted.  It would look great tangled, as well!  Click the picture for the link

Diva's challenge #157 Charlie (2)

I was not so thrilled with the other entry for the challenge; it was one of those days where everything you try isn't quite right.  So, I gave it another try today and I'm happier with this tile.  For instructions on how to draw Charlie by Erin Olson, please click here.

Diva's Challenge (#157), junk mail houses, and meet Rainbow!

Diva's Challenge

This week's challenge was to try a new tangle created by Erin Olson called Charlie - instructions here.  I've seen some amazing art created with it in the Diva's blog!  Check it out; it is worth it!  I'm always so inspired by all the creativity!

After another day of looking for a job (hardest job I have ever had!!), my mind was spent, so it was time to relax a bit and try this new challenge.  I'm not thrilled with it, but... it will have to do for now :) (ATC size this time)

Junk Mail Houses

In the last couple of weeks I have been saving some junk mail and using it to paint backgrounds.  I have lots of painted papers created with many different techniques, but unfortunately they are in storage at the moment, so... needed to create some new ones.  With limited supplies as well, this has been a challenge, but a very fun one.  During one of my short breaks (sometimes as short as 10 minutes), I will gesso a piece, or paint it, or stamp it, or add some doodles.  Little by little my stack of junk mail is becoming quite a colorful and interesting collection of painted papers. 

So... having my great-niece's 4th birthday party last Sunday, I grabbed some of these painted papers and made her a card.  I had a lot of fun with it, as you can tell!  The houses open and the sky and clouds are on the inside of the card.  The sky is actually a piece of tissue paper.

Meet Rainbow

As I mentioned last week, I made another bunny.  This one was for Rowan (the now-4-year-old great-niece), and they met last Sunday.  Within a minute, the bunny had a name: Rainbow :).  This one was much easier to make than the first one as I didn't have to undo and redo pieces of it quite as many times :)

A Moose, a Bunny, and a Challenge (Diva's #156)

Diva's Challenge #156 - "Curvy Gridlock"

If you feel like you can't draw a straight line, this is the challenge for you :)  The idea is that you don't need to be able to draw a straight line to be able to create grid tangles.  So... the challenge is to use grid tangles in curvy lines.  Here is my tile:

MOOSE

One of my kids likes everything moose :).  So, I decided to make him a card for his birthday with a moose.  Well... I got a bit carried away and it ended up being a lot larger than card-size, but I had a lot of fun.  I'm not confident enough to do it with tangles yet.

BUNNY

My 3-year-old niece just became a big sister, so I decided to crochet her a bunny I saw in a book and absolutely loved.  It took me a little while with a lot of doing and undoing (as I am a crochet beginner), but I finished it and it is on its way to Portugal for my little niece to enjoy.  I will post another one I just finished this week for another little one.

Diva's Challenge #155 "A Little White Space"

This week's challenge is to leave a little white space in your Zentangle Inspired Art, instead of covering the whole string with tangles. 

The first few tiles I tried were absolutely packed with tangles, then I left a little white space in one of my tiles and loved the look.

Give it a try if you haven't already!  Here are my tiles for this week:

For some reason I was having trouble with my strings this week; they just would not cooperate!  Oh well... hopefully that will pass :)

I have been playing with block carving and decided to try one of the grid tangles: Well.  I then printed the carved block on ATCs, and finished each one differently.

I think I will have fun with these :)

Hearts

Since my youngest son was born on February 14th, Valentine's day became Jeremiah's birthday from then on.  Still, I do like hearts and to create art with hearts in different shapes and sizes.

This one was created for this week's Diva Challenge: #154 "Valentangle".

I have also been experimenting with using tea bags in my art, so I created these in the last couple of weeks.  They were painted with watercolors (left), and inktense (right).

And here are some more experiments on white paper:

I've also been carving little hearts on erasers.  I will post them here once I create something with them :)

The Diva's Zentangle Weekly Challenge #153

Jailed Johnny - by Sadelle Wiltshire, CZT

Since I want to keep learning new tangles and keep drawing and relaxing with Zentangle, I decided to try to participate in the Diva's weekly challenges.  You can find her blog here (or click on the Zentangle Challenge button on the right side of my blog).

This week's tangle is called Jailed Johnny and it was created by Sadelle Wiltshire.  You can see the instructions here if you want to try it yourself.

This is my entry (you can see the tangle in the center and around the top left corner):

Every time I learn a new tangle I write down the stepouts and keep them together so I don't have to search for them again.  It is a way to practice a tangle and also a reference anytime I want to use it and forget exactly how it is done.

What I also like is the display of tangles I have on my cork board.  When I draw a blank on what pattern to use because I want a certain value or shape, I look at my display and choose.  Each little square has the name and creator in the back so I can refer back to the stepouts if I need to.  I'm sure this collection will grow, but not my space, so I will have to switch them on and off as I start using them more and more.