The Challenge of Borders

April's Challenge (Number 13) for the Chocolate Baroque Zentangle Group is a tangle based challenge focusing upon borders.

I drew my own string (above) & then watched the tile evolve totally dispelling my preconceived ideas about a sun with rays.

tangles: Barberpole (tangleation), Wire Wrap, Zig Zag Border

Spring Tangling

Firstly, thank you for all your thoughtful wishes - my migraine control has improved over the last month & after catching up with some essential organising about the house I shall hopefully have some more time for artwork.

I had some very old papers with a rather large floral looking design which I thought might work as a framework for tangling. I outlined some areas of the pattern until I had what looked like a very large flower & then tangled the petals using a selection of tangles from Suzanne McNeill's book Zentangle 3 plus Cubine from Zentangle Basics. The resulting artwork was then mounted onto black cardstock & a scalloped edge card blank. The inside is simply decorated using die-cut elements from Spellbinders Shapeabilities Lace Doily Motifs & Accents.

tangles: Bubbles, Chaingang, Cubine, Droplets, Loops,
Rain (tangleation), Scallops, Yincut

inside of card

Challenges Entered (card above)

Everybody-Art Challenge 228 - Spring (a floral theme plus the green of Spring flowers)

Simon Says Stamp Challenge - Easter/Spring (the Spring theme of flowers & the colour green)


As I had a second large card blank (but without scallops) I made another card using slightly different tangles but keeping the same design for the inside.

tangles: Barberpole (tangleations), Bubbles, Droplets, Loops,
Rain (tangleation), Scallops, Strircles, Yincut

Tangling with Chocolate Baroque

The March Challenge (Number 12) for the Chocolate Baroque Zentangle Group is based upon a floral theme.

Chocolate Baroque recently released a sheet of rubber stamps, Tangled Garden, containing images for both tanglers & non-tanglers alike. I used the large open flower image for my tile which I then mounted onto a piece of black cardstock making it a ZIA (Zentangle Inspired Artwork - any artwork incorporating tangles which differs from the standard 3½ inch square tile). Chocolate Baroque also stocks other Zentangle Supplies (books, tiles & Sakura Pigma Micron pens etc....) plus a selection of Dreamweaver Stencils (some of which are featured in Zentangle 6).

tangles: Betweed, Knightsbridge, Opus, Tipple

I stamped the flower using grey ink as I wanted to have a framework for my tangles & yet be able to ignore the stamped lines if I wished to. I came to the conclusion that I had to either colour the flower or shade the tangles - I have much to learn in this department, besides which I'm also unfamiliar with watercolouring using the Distress Stains - & settled for colouring the flower. I actually watercoloured the flower first, dried it off with my heat gun & then worked on the tangles.

Recipe

Stamp Chocolate Baroque UA4SP0400 Tangled Garden. 
Inks VersaFine Smokey Gray; Broken China, Chipped Sapphire, Mustard Seed &Tumbled Glass Distress Stains.
Pens/Markers 01 Black Uni Pin Drawing Pen (tangles), Memento Tuxedo Black Dual Marker (edging tile).
Cardstock Winsor & Newton Cotman 190gsm Cold Pressed/NOT Grain Fin Watercolour Paper; Black
Punch Woodware (corner rounder).

I have lots of ideas for this challenge but my crafting time has been somewhat curtailed by a breakdown in my migraine control. As a consequence this blog & PEP & Paper have been rather lacking in posts, so my apologies if you have visited & found nothing new.

A String of Circles

The 11th Challenge for the Chocolate Baroque Zentangle Group is to use a circular string. It is up to each individual to choose how to draw the circle or multiples thereof which may be the same or differing in size.

tangles: Auraknot, Crescent Moon, Fishnet, Jester, Nzepple, Printemps

I simply picked up my reel of double-sided tape & drew around the inside of it 3 times moving the reel without thinking before drawing the portion of the circle that fell within the area of my 'tile'. When I looked at the result I immediately thought 'Auraknot' so that was my first tangle. The remaining tangles were chosen by throwing my Icosahedron dice & using the tangles corresponding to each number on a list I compiled whilst working through the MCC Zentangle course last year.

Tango Tangling

We have reached our 10th Challenge (now on a monthly basis)  for the Chocolate Baroque Zentangle Group. This month the challenge consists of only using two tangles for a tile.

I used TanglePatterns String 001 & varied both the size & infill pattern of the tangle Tripoli.

tangles: Purk, Tripoli

Wishing you all a Happy New Year

Star Auraknots & Keenees

The "Seasonal" theme for the Chocolate Baroque Zentangle Group's December Challenge can be interpreted in many ways but for this tile I wanted to make the Christmas star my focus. I had briefly experimented with how Auraknot looks when varying the number of points to skip when joining the edges for the first 'aura' sequence of the pattern & decided to skip two for my tile. I used one of Wendy Stenton's Tempting Templates for drawing the star shape.

tangles: Auraknot, Beadlines, Florz 

I have some Pinflair Stepper shapes which includes a star in various sizes. The smallest star fits comfortably onto a Zentangle tile three times so I thought I'd draw out the variations of the Auraknot pattern when skipping one, two & three points (skipping four points doesn't work terribly well on a five  pointed star).

tangles: Auraknot, Keenees

Although I'd not set out to join in Laura Harms' Weekly Challenge I found the little circular tangle pattern Keenees (by Donna Hornsby) she'd set seemed to want to fit into the indented points of my stars. A garland of Keenees baubles evolved as well so not only do I have another Seasonal tile for the  Chocolate Baroque theme, but I can enter Laura's Challenge too.

Challenges Entered
Chocolate Baroque Zentangle Group Challenge 9 - Theme: Seasonal (both tiles)
I am the diva Weekly Challenge 98 - UMT v. XI: Keenees (second tile)

MCC All About Zentangle - Wk 4 Final Project

Links: MCC (My Creative Classroom), Marie Browning

Marie finished the course by providing instructions for making a Tangle Board - a Zentangle decorated board with a clip forming a hard surface upon which to lean when tangling whilst travelling. I've not been able to find a suitable board but thought that I'd make a large rectangular (just under 10 x 7 inches)  Zentangle Inspired Artwork anyway & to ensure I used the remaining patterns for which Marie had given us intructions.

tangles: Barberpole, Cadox, Hollibaugh, Jester, Meer, Nekton, Purk
Scrolls, Socc, Spinning, Verdigogh, Wartz, W2

close-up of left section

close-up of central section

close-up of right section

I decided to decorate the central area with my initials (using chipboard letters to draw round) filled with the tangle Socc by Erin Olson that Laura Harms set for her challenge this week.

Challenge Entered
I am the diva Weekly Challenge 94: UMT v. X "Socc"