Zentangle Fairy

Hi Folks, here's a Zentangle Inspired piece of Art incorporating some rubber stamps from Chocolate Baroque. Those of you who know me will know that I am on their Design Team, and when I saw these new stamps, they just seemed to fit with a project that I wanted to try.

I had recently received the new book 'The Art of Zentangle', and loved the fairies drawn by Norma J. Burnell. She has a step by step in there for one. I decided to have a go, even though I hadn't drawn most of the tangle designs before! I have drawn this piece on a 12" x 12" piece of Hot pressed watercolour paper, as I love the smoothness of this paper. It's very similar to the little zentangle tiles in composition. I drew out my rough guidelines, and then stamped the portions of the flowers that I wanted to use, before drawing my sections of Chainlea, so that the stems came out of the middle of them, rather than wafted around in mid air. By stamping the flowers with black archival ink, I could add sections of stem with my Micron pen, and the join wasn't noticeable.

I decided to add colour to the butterflies, flowers and the fairy's face, but to leave the tangles in black and white. I felt that this allowed the tangles to be more striking in the drawing as a whole, than if I had coloured everything in. I have simply used pencil shading in some areas. I could spend more time, adding and refining, but this is my first piece. I want to have the enthusiasm to go on and do more!

If anyone was considering purchasing this book, I can heartily recommend it. I love the workbook style, and the mixture of tuition that the four women bring. It has renewed my enthusiasm, and got me tangling again.

Thanks for stopping by, Judith xx

Alphatags a final flourish

Hi Folks, long time, no see, I know. I was very poorly before Christmas, aand this little blog was one of the things that got neglected, I'm afraid. Anyway, I'd like to show you a tag that I made recently for the Chocolate Baroque Alphatag swap. You wouldn't have to guess too hard, that I made a 'Z' for Zentangle tag this time around!

I used some stamps from Chocolate Baroque of course, as the basis of my design, choosing a large open flower, and a smaller clear stamp in the shape of a butterfly that is already decorated with designs. I covered my tag, using the wrinkle free distress method, picking up colour from my craft sheet. I also coloured a second tag to use for stamping elements for decoupage, like the butterfly, in a slightly different colour.

I stamped a portion of the flower onto my tag, as it is too large to be stamped as a complete image. I filled in the various sections of the flower, and then added some colour using pencils. I also added pencil highlights to the butterfly.

I chose to add a border to the tag which symbolises good health. The outer petal design symbolises happiness. So, hopefully, my recipient will get a little bit of both in 2013. I already know who has received my tag, she was the organiser of the entire swap, and she put so much work into the whole thing for us all.

I hope to be back sooner than the last time, as I really enjoyed putting this tag together. Thanks for stopping by, Judith xx