Zentangle revisited - Wednesday 12th March 2014

Good Morning Blog Friends!

I do get blog withdrawal (lol), when I haven't been here for a few days or more and hopefully will be back to normal blogging patterns next week..I'm having a great week off  work; loving being in the craft room, busily preparing for the craft fair Saturday (today is going to be a sewing day), but I can't believe that it is already Wednesday.

I have been managing to get around most of your blogs and leaving comments, if I have missed you - a thousand apologies! I did notice that quite a few of you mentioned that you went to the craft show at the NEC last weekend and were disappointed by the fewer exhibitors etc...I have a theory of my own about this...I used to go to the NEC November show regularly, but always found it way too crowded. Then  about four years ago, Tom and I decided to try the Alexandra Palace show, mostly because we could factor in a weekend in London. It was smaller; I love stamping, so all the major stamping companies were there and I loved it! We decided not to go to Birmingham any more and have been to Ally Pally ever since. 

Last year, they sold tickets for the first time on C&C and all of a sudden, the show was as busy as the NEC and not nearly as fulfilling as previously. We are going in April, but I've noticed on the list of exhibitors that quite a few 'names' are missing, so I'll let you know! But I actually think that there are too many shows now..I'm seeing them advertised all the time and only the massive companies, can afford to attend them all... It's gone from one show a year at the NEC and Ally Pally, to virtually one a month! 

It's getting a bit of a case of same old..same old...isn't it? Or is it just me? There is one big Company, that I go out of my way not to buy from, that seems to dominate, which never attends Ally Pally, so that's something at least! Creative Expressions organises it, so it's mostly stamping, die cutting and altered art and I hope it stays that way!

We actually feel quite 'deprived' down in the Southwest - we have a few shows at Exeter (which somehow I never manage to get to) and that's it really; but then most of the companies are from the North, I guess. Let's hope that when Bristol eventually gets its arena, things will change!

Anyway, this was going to be a short post! See I have got blog withdrawal! Ha! On to the card....

I still have several Zentangle cards from when we did the workshops, that I haven't posted as yet - so today is my owl. 

For the owl, I simply drew around a circular Spellbinders die for the outer shape and a smaller one for the eyes, the rest I created myself. I actually prefer the freehand style to using stamps and stencils, but you have to be in the mood and this one did take rather a long time. 

I used an 8x8 card and decided to create a bit of a wacky shape, just for fun! The flowers and leaves are cut from Spellbinders dies and just given the Zentangle treatment!  So that's it for today, no special materials, stamps etc...just a shape to draw around and a pen!

Have a good day everyone! No WOYWW for me again: you really don't want to see my desk at the moment...no really you don't!

Love and Hugs,
Carole X

Venetian Carnival Mask - Thursday 30th January

Hello Friends,

Hoping you are well and getting lots of craft time this week! Thank you for visiting and commenting on my blog. Yesterday was a card with quite a bit of colour, I love colour and when Hels Sheridan set the  theme of 'orange' for this week's Sunday Stampers I was really pleased - Spiced Marmalade is one of my favourite distress inks and I got to use it in abundance! I love the browns, oranges etc, which is why autumn is also one of my favourite card making times of the year - and seasons.

Today however it's back to monotone and another Zentangle inspired card made as an example for the ladies at our class tonight, the second of our Zentangle workshops. I've been making a lot of examples over the past few weeks and I do confess that the ones where I've added colour are my favourite - but that's just a personal thing, I always feel the need for colour! For work I wear a black sweatshirt or polo shirt with our logo on it, so with it I wear black trousers..but I always have to at least add some colourful earrings!

For our class we are providing an assortment of dreamweaver stencils for the group to use. Stencils are brilliant to use as a base for Zentangle designs and there are several books available that show you how to achieve lovely results using them - I have several more cards to post over the next few weeks that use stencils.

However, you can of course draw your own designs (I'm working on one at the moment), use masks, rubber stamps -anything suitable - and for this 

card I drew around a Spellbinders Venetian Mask die for  the basic outline.     

 

Before starting my tangle design, I partitioned areas of the mask by drawing  'strings' between two areas. This gives you a guideline in which to draw each different pattern (or leave blank). The strings can be anything you like - swirls, zig-zags or just lines.

For the background to the easel I used the 'Venetian' M-Bossability and die cut the image using Labels 17 and the 'outside the box' method to allow the 'feathers' to hang over the side.

I  shaded some areas of the design with pencil and used some black ribbon through a ribbon buckle die to the side of the image and added some gems and black and white hat pins.

For the base I drew a tangle design around the edge and added a sentiment (stamp by Indigo Blu) as the stopper with a diamante brad.

Apologies for the close up photo above, I haven't added pink gems in an effort to add some colour - I was wearing a red sweatshirt when I took the photo and somehow got a bounce of light back on this one!

Off to work now for a morning of the one thing I really don't like about my job! Sitting in a meeting all morning, when all I am thinking about it what I could be making better use of my time doing back at the office (or even better in the craft room)!

I'll be back tomorrow with that Zentangle inspired card that has a bit of a twist to it!

Thanks so  much for stopping by and have a great day all!

I am entering this card in 

Country View  Crafts current challenge with the theme of

"Monochromatic"  

-http://countryviewchallenges.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/read-on-for-this-months-theme.html

Love and Hugs,

Carole X