Blue Owl for the Boy

While I was making the zentangle owl for my internet friend, my 4 year old asked for his own owl but he wanted his to be blue.  I had several different owls he could choose from but he wanted the same owl.  It took me a little while to get this owl done, I kept getting distracted, but he is all done.  My son loves it and we're going to hang it up in his room.

Punzel

This week there is a new tangle from Rick and Maria called Punzel.  Naturally when I saw the email I knew that the challenge this week would be to use Punzel. This was a double challenge for me as I did not know Changing either.  I still need to work out some kinks in both of these tangles but I think I have the gist of it.  My swoops are a bit narrow and come out looking more like crescent moons than ribbon but that's OK.  I think the effect makes it look a bit sci-fi.

I used my scanner to get this week's zentangle posted so please forgive the harsh quality to the image.  There is no sun today and I don't think we'll see it for a few more days, so taking a good photo is out of the question.

I'm Beginning to think a lot on Christmas

I guess this year I have joined those that start thinking about Christmas before Halloween is over.  Normally I wait until later in the season but the mood came early this year.  It all started with Christmas cards.  The last several years, I have been super about getting cards but not sending them.  Last year I didn't even get around to it.  But THIS YEAR, I will do better.  These may be famous last words but well, that wouldn't be the first time.

I am working on a Christmas project with a friend and that made me think of cards.  This year I am going to make our cards. I have tangled some ornaments on a card, added a bit of red and green and voila! I have cards. My work place even offered a deal on getting them printed at 40% off. Sweet!  They are prepping for printing now.  I am also having the inside message printed to make it even easier on myself. Next I will just get a family photo printed so I can put it in the card. Then all that is left is to get them addressed.  I may even tangle a design and have the stamps made at one of those online places.  That may be over doing it a bit.  We'll see when my steam runs out.

I may do a few more holiday patterns. I bought some snowflakes and trees to trace and tangle so I might as well give them a try too.

I'm quite pleased with how it turned out.  If they look good printed up, I may make our card every year.  Also, I bet it will be a good incentive to get my other card designs made.

Tangled on the Inside

This was a fun challenge.  The Diva and Jo had us use one tangle pattern as the string and then fill the string with different patterns.  I had done something similar with Bales in a previous challenge, so I wanted to try something different this time.  I ended up using OOF as my string tangle and then went crazy inside.

Hopefully it isn't too busy to see OOF in there.  I like the stripe on the sides of the tile itself as well as framing each tangle.

Sunflower!

To honor The Sunflower Fund, the challenge this week from the Diva was to draw a sunflower.  The Sunflower Fund to support the South African Bone Marrow registry.  This is a great cause and we should have something similar here in the USA.  Maybe we do and I don't know about it.  My Mother died of acute myelogenous leukemia in 2007.  She battled to beat the disease so that she could get a bone marrow transplant but unfortunately, was unable to get to that point.  As soon as I heard that she may need a transplant I was ready to get tested to see if I might be a match.  My Uncle had already volunteered to be tested and was found to be a match.  He did this without being asked.  This makes him my hero, I guess I should tell him that huh?  I think that those who have volunteered to join the registry in ANY country is a hero.  I want to say thank you.

Now, on to my challenge tile.  I copied the Sunflower Fund sunflower and used it as a template for my tile.  I REALLY love Laura's sunflower that she tangled.  It is stunning.  I wanted to draw one just like hers.  But, after a bit of brainstorming, I figured out which tangles I wanted to use.  Drawing this tile went quite quickly for me.  I have gotten really bad at tanking my time while tangling.  I take a lot of breaks, sure, but when drawing, I just move slow.  It was nice to get this one done at such a quick pace.

I used a micron for the drawing and a yellow colored pencil for the well, yellow.  I opted to shade the outside of the sunflower and skip any shading on the tangles.  I may go back and add some, but for now I like it as it is.  I may do a few more of these this week and if I do, I'll add them.

Thanks for taking a look and visiting my blog.  Say Hi sometimes.  :)

New Pattern: Leafly

I "created" this pattern while working on my Housewarming piece for a friend.  I was in search of patterns that would mimic nature to use in this piece.  If I was drawing bugs and animals, I wanted them to sit in a pattern that makes sense.  I'm kind of surprised that there isn't a pattern like this already.  Maybe there is, but I didn't see one in my searching.  If you have one like this, please let me know and I'll take it down. 

The basic shape is really easy.  It's a leaf with an outline around it.  Then just fill the remaining space with more leaves until you have as many as you want.  I shade the middle line as well but it is a bit hard to see in this scan. I have put a few variations on this example.  Leafly can be as busy as you like, or as dark as you need.

I hope you enjoy this one.  It's so easy.  

New Pattern: Ticking

I call this new pattern Ticking because when shaded, it looks a bit like stitched fabric (to me anyway).  It is really quite simple.  Steps 2 and 3 can be combined but I do them separately so that I can make the space divisions as even as possible.  It helps if I have a starting point.  I tend to get carried away with lines if I don't start from a divided location.

It's a little like Bales at the start and you can start with a grid or just make your ovals at even distances and go from there.

I hope you like this one.  I haven't seen a pattern like this out there in the Zentangle universe but if you have please let me know.  Also:  I had one heck of a time coming up with a name for this one.  If there is another pattern named Ticking let me know and I'll rename it.  I googled and didn't find one, but you know how inexact Google searches can be. 

Breast Cancer Awareness

October is National Breast Cancer awareness month.  Did you know?  I didn't until this week's challenge from The Diva.  I have had 3 women in my life to battle breast cancer.  One was my Godmother Cam.  She fought bravely but sadly was taken by the disease in the late 1980's.  Another is my Aunt who has successfully battled breast cancer with a minimum of side effects.  The last is someone I met on the Internet and who I think is truly the definition of hope, strength and courage.  Julie is battling cancer currently and I have every hope for the best possible outcome.  She is a beautiful person and I am proud to call her a friend.

It is these three women who I thought of as I drew my zentangles for this week's challenge.  I will get to send Julie and my Aunt their zentangles, and will keep the one I drew for my Godmother as a reminder of her and her strength and love.

I started each of these tiles with on outline of a ribbon. After deciding on what tangle I wanted to put on the ribbon, I divided the remainder of the space behind and finished the tangle.  I used the micron pen, a white and pink gel pen and pink colored pencils.



Tangle for Cam




Tangle for Aunt Susie



Tangle for Julie