Tis the Season

Well it's official. If you let yourself get caught up in the bustle of the holidays, it began yesterday. With family members slowly trickling back to their homes after feasting and fun, my frosted mountain home is nearly empty again. Today's falling snow-globe snow put me in a creative mood, and the quiet allows me to reflect on the time spent with my loved ones; rather rambunctious. But the settling peace compels me to tell you about a craft project I finished months ago; one that could be a nice gift for you to bestow on your friends and family. If you've read my Tangle Teaching Tree posts, you'll know I like to tangle birds. I wanted to see what one would look like in 3-D. So I began creating paper mache birds to hang and set around my studio and tree mural I painted for my Botangle Studio.

With minimal tools, you too can make this paper finery. I was inspired by Mollie Greene's Sweet Paper Crafts. Instructions on how to make the "Percher Bird" are clearly laid out with wonderful illustrations in her book.

After completing the frame, I painted my cheerful swallow a plain white and used my trusty two-pointed Identipen to tangle on the patterns. Here is just one bird shown in different angles so you can see what fun it is to use the body planes created in the construction as your established string. So many Zentangle patterns work perfectly for feathers, tails, wings, head, and breast. Have fun experimenting with your ideas! And just imagine how fun it would be to make some colorful ones as well. My two dictionary birds shown last are waiting to be embellished.

This percher hanging out in my teaching studio.

Breast view

Under belly and wings

My "Word Birds" waiting for another layer of embellishment, or not . . .

Sunrise over our neighborhood.

Tangling with Stamps

I love the versatility of Zentangle patterns; like combining them with rubber stamps. Getting ready for my upcoming class at Two Hands Paperie in Boulder called Tangling with Stamps, I use various rubber stamps as contours or "strings" to fill with patterns. Completing the vignettes with shading, color work ( either colored pencil or watercolor) and gel pens is so much fun. There are no creative boundaries!

Here you see some fall-themed ideas, but the holidays are upon us and using stamps themed for them could yield beautiful Christmas and Hanukkah cards. This class will certainly help you unwind and de-stress before the holiday season rush and help you get a head start on card and gift ideas. You can also fall back on the Zentangle method of drawing any time you need to catch your breath. I will provide everything needed to create a miniature stamped art piece for class, but you are welcome to bring your favorite rubber stamps to work with. As you will see in my samples, the stamps need to have generous open spaces to be able to fill in with tangle patterns.

"Time, time, time, see what's become of me. . ."

"As I look around, for my possibilities . . ."

"I was so hard to please . . ."

"So look around, leaves are brown, and the sky is a hazy shade of winter."

"Look around, leaves are brown, there's a patch of snow on the ground. " Do you remember these lyrics from Simon and Garfunkel's song?

Apple composition waiting to be tangled.

Masks and More

Had a fun Halloween this year with my own "tangled" mask. Here are pics of "how to" and the mask in action. I started with an inexpensive paper mache mask from the kid's section of Guiry's art store in Boulder. I simply painted the mask with a base coat of acrylic paint. Then I got out my black Identi pen and went for it! I used some of my favorite tangles; Mooka, Nzeppel, Betweed, Perfs, Auras, a touch of Beetlejuice and Crescent Moon, and the ribbon one that I call "Hills and Valleys." Not sure what the official name is and or who created it. Sorry. Most of the other tangles are from Rick and Maria.

After the fun of tangling and watching my mask take on a life of its own, I shaded with carbon dust and sprayed it with a matte varnish. The final touch; adding glass beads (with a glue gun, of course) and ribbons for fastening.

I can't wait to make more. Want to have some ready for Mardi Gras!

Could be Carnival in Venice!

This was a pretty poor quality photo to begin with so I "Photoshopped" it for a better look.