Catching up on my Zendala Dare!

I've been busy and haven't taken the time to blog out my entries into the Zendala Dare by Erin.  I'll post this entry to Dare #18 even though it also has zendalas from Dare #19 attached.  Please forgive me.  Things won't settle down around here for a few more weeks, and I fear that if I try and wait until then, I'll never get these up.

Curiosity Zendala

OK, Dare 18.  I have to say that when I first looked at this pattern, I thought that I would do something floral and then this came out instead.  I love when my pen decides to do it's own thing.  I'm calling this Curiosity Zendala in honor of the landing on Mars.  The patterns here made me think of vortexes and worm holes and space travel.  My 11 year old son and I stayed up and watched the feed from NASA on the day the rover landed on Mars and I have to say that it was an incredible thing to witness.  If you haven't seen the video of what was done you should.  It is quite an amazing thing that the teams at NASA did.  I am so glad that I stayed up to see it happen, even if it cost me some sleep.

I think that I'll try my hand at this template again and see if I can't get something floral to come out on the second go around.

Cancer Awareness Zendala

Dare 17 was a personal one for me and for many others as it seems.  My Mother died of Acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) in 2006.  My Father has battled prostate cancer as has my Uncle and Grandfather.  Luckily, all were treated successfully.  So, for this template, I played up the ribbons in the design.

I first drew the background pattern of Bales and the edge of Ramykin and then made a photocopy of the basic design onto watercolor paper.  Using watercolor pencils, I colored the ribbons to remember those I know with cancer.  The Blue is for prostate cancer, pink for breast, (My God Mother died of breast cancer, my aunt battled it and I have a friend fighting now.) orange for leukemia and lavender for all cancers.  The lavender is more pink that I would like but no matter. After painting the ribbons, I shaded the design.

Awareness Zendala

I then went back to the original. I decided to keep it simple and let the ribbons stand proud.  I added red hearts in the center of the Bales as a reminder of/for those we know who battle cancer.  Leaving the ribbons plain, I also thought that it would be a zendala that could be for awareness of any/all diseases our loved ones face.

I have one more zendala to share with you all before I end this post.  I made a donation to Erin's team and received the Thank You gift of even more zendala templates.  They are all really wonderful and I can't wait to get pen to paper and explore them more.  One of the templates however really spoke to me and I sat down and got started right away.  My final piece is really quite simple and I love it so much!  I am calling it Spring Zendala.  For the first time I wish that I had the coloring skills that so many of you have as the desire to add green here is almost overwhelming.  I'll keep it as is though.

Spring Zendala

I hope you all have a great week ahead and thank you for stopping by, taking a look, and leaving a comment if you'd like.

(I totally see now, that the spring zendala is turned the wrong way. I love however that it doesn't matter!)

A Study in Purple

This week the Diva gave us the challenge to use purple in our tangle.  I went on and used all purple in this one.  I have several purple pens and wanted to explore with those a bit.  I used a purple Micron size 01, a Pentel Sunburst metallic gel pen and a Bic Mark It ultra fine point marker.  The micron works the same and as well as the black pens that we all use.  The ink is dark though.  You know it's purple, but I think I would like a lighter color if I was going to use it a lot.  The Pentel is a nice pen.  The point is not fine, it's medium.  The sparkle of the metallic is nice and I hope that you'll be able to see it in the photos.  The Bic was just used a little as it bleeds a bit.  I used a note card for this challenge.  It started as a trial and I just went with it.

This challenge became a chance for me to explore the ink more than the color.  I wanted to see how the inks behaved and worked together.  I really ended up exploring patterns as well.  The light purple is the Pentel and the Bic is in the lower left corner with the Pentel over the top.

There in the lower center is a new tangle that I've decided to call Whistler after James Whistler.  I saw this pattern in the Peacock room.  The peace sign looking one is another new one that has no name yet.  I'm working it out and once I think of a name I'll get the steps done and posted along with Whistler.  Any suggestions on a name?


This was a fun challenge.  I think the purple and the different pens allowed me to be a bit more free than I usually am.

Hope you enjoy!

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.  

Housewarming

I have a friend who loves nature and has just bought a new house.  While I haven't seen her new house yet, I think that she has more wall space than at her old house so I decided to make her some art!  Hopefully she will enjoy it. 

This piece was my biggest one yet.  At 12" X 18", it took a little wile to finish.  It was inspired by an album cover from one of Erik Friedlander's albums.  Since I used a standard size, I was able to find a really nice frame at Michael's right off the shelf.

I plan on giving it to her this weekend. 

The finished piece in it's frame.



A little closer look at the piece.