One Last Hurrah for the Sake of Love

Since I taught two classes in February that included the heart theme, I'll post my newest "Botangle" that I developed for the class at the Denver Botanic Gardens for my last February post. Last Saturday's class was held at the beautiful historic Waring House on site and my students worked up some incredible designs. We didn't get finished with the shading and coloring so I'm only posting my sample piece; a Bleeding Heart Botangle.

I'm also showing you another coffee mug I tangled with hearts that were inspired by Maria Thomas hearts I've seen in the Zentangle Newsletter. I love the wrapping  "Umble" pattern. Unfortunately, it's impossible to shade the cup designs as they are only drawn on with Identi Pens and Sharpies in varying sizes.

I cleaned my cups thoroughly with spirits of some kind before drawing. After completing the drawing, I let them dry overnight and baked them at 400 degrees in the over for about 20 minutes to a half an hour. I must say, that's what I read on line about how to do this and they are definitely NOT dishwasher safe. I learned the hard way and lost one cup that I spent a couple of hours tangling. I've been washing my cups by hand and that seems to work fine. I am researching better ways to make these designs dishwasher durable.

I hope these heart tangles inspire you to continue to experiment with the design that speaks to our own hearts and keep love in your lives!

We LOVED Super Bowl Sunday so much that . . .

we made hearts to prove it. And the Broncos won!! Yes, though my Zentangle class at Two Hands Paperie was competing with the Broncos and the Panthers (and we're local to Denver) I was surprised that the class filled! My lovely lady students produced the most beautiful Valentine's cards - each having someone special to gift them to. Their hours of tangling and shading paid off. Here are the results.

I'm so proud of everyone's results!

The class participants minus one diehard Bronco fan
who left a little early to catch the start of the game.

Sybil's gorgeous card that she finished at home. Notice the special heart
 bead detail garnishing the flower.