Tangled Treasure

Tangled Tile Treasure

This weekend my daughter and husband and I went digging around in a closed tile store and picked through old samples to find some fun treasure...Immediately, I felt the need to bring it home and pick up a pen and do some zentangle. My daughter [age 4] also got into the spirit and created a tile for my friend Dedra, who invited us on this adventure! We hope you enjoy our tangled treasures!

 

Zentangled Tumbled Marble Tile



Small Composite Vinyl Tiles Tangled

 



Dedra and Emma Dog by Samantha



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An Award!!! I'd Like to thank...

Meighen over at ♥scrappin_3rdeeschik♥ blog honored me last weekend with a blog award! Such a nice suprise! I'm so honored!!!

 

After receiving this award you have to give it to 8 other bloggers and tell us 8 things about you. :D

I Award this honor to the following bloggers

1. Laura at I am the Diva--she inspires me with her Zentangles each week!

2. Tina at Live, Love & Stamp--fun cards, and co-lover of all things BigShot!

3. Lisa at Lisa's Scrap'n Shack--crafty diva, innovative cards and a scout mom!

4. Sigrid at Love Scrap Reflect--such cute cards, such a BIG ♥, very thoughtful crafter!

5. Cynthia at Cynchronicity--I love her upcycling and creativity--great crafts for kids too!

6. Mary at PinkFlamingo16--Great steampunk inspired art! Love everything she does!

7. Susan at Sometimes Susan Scraps--she inspired my scrappy creativity [blog rather newish--followed her at LM]!

8. Emily at FaithHope&Art--mother, teacher,crafter, artist!



8 Things About Me

1. I went to clown school and I have 2 higher education degrees.

2. I am a travel agent by day at Cowboy Way Travel.

3. I am an only child, an aries, and have stayed married to the same man for nearly 19 years.

4. I had my first child 1 month before turning 31 and my last child at 37.

5. I love the small town I live in and usually am humored by its quirks.

6. I can't knit.

7. I usually read 3 or more books at the same time--usually non-fiction.

8. I don't know what I want to be when I grow up.

Thank you Meighen!! Show all these bloggers some love!

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You Had Me at M♥♥!



You Had Me at Moo with digitaldelightsbyloubyloo



This Friday Freebie Digital Delights by LoubyLoo digital stamp made me smile when I saw it. I knew I had to use it in a card! I printed off several of the same digital stamp on my HP Inkjet Printer. I trimmed out one to a 3×3" card and colored it in with my BIC Markers. I then colored a few elements that I wanted to add dimension to and cut them out [the ears, hair tuft, hooves and nose]. I made the parts dimensional with 3M foam tape.

I used the Stampin' Up Classic Ink Soft Suede to distress the edge of the cardstock base and the sign that Claudia Cow Topper holds. I wrote the sentiment with BIC markers and added Stampin' Up punched hearts for accent and for the Os in M♥♥. The Claudia base was matted on red Bazzill cardstock. Pen-stitching and dotting was added with a glitter pen, white pen and red BIC marker.

For the inside of the card, I cut a thin strip of white distressed with Soft Suede, matted to red Bazzill. I added another Stampin' Up heart punchie and added the sentiment "Happy Valentine's Day!" This element was added to the bottom part of the inside of the card leaving room for a sweet message for your Valentine!

Thank you for looking!

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Weekly Challenge #6| Using IXORUS

Laura at I am the Diva did an amazing zentangle over her baby's leg casts to jazz them up a bit this week. I hope baby Artoo heals swiftly...the love and energy you put into his cast tangles will surely help that.

She was inspired this week by the founders of Zentangling newly posted IXORUS tangle and challenged us to break out of our figurative casts by trying something new...go past our confort zone. Since the past few weeks I have been doing just that, taking on a new tangle was very refreshing. I really love this tangle! It brought me great joy...I think I'd really like to attempt this with paper! You might see more of me later!

But for now, I bring you my challenge piece: IXORUS





IXORUS explored

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And the Winner is....

First of all, let me just say WOW! This was my first ever blog hop to participate in and I am in awe. What a great bunch of ladies to hop with! And of course, kudos to the birthday lady herself for hosting such a great hop! Thank you Jess!!!
I am humbled by the outpouring of kindness from everyone who came to visit me and offered such positive words. Thank you all.
Now...let me get to what you came for. I have entered the numbers at Random.org and the winner is....
#55 Scrappy Jackie!!!
Congrats!!! I have a kit for you which includes the book, the papers and embellishments and the instructions printed out for you. I hope you enjoy making this book as much as I.
Also, I had several of you ask for a tutorial. I have created the written instructions and made them available for free on Scribd here.
Thank you for looking!
Have a super day!
and Jessica...

HAPPY 34th BIRTHDAY!!!

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KinderStampO's 34 Birthday Balloons and Counting Blog Hop

Hi everyone and Welcome to KinderStampO's 34 Birthday Candles and Counting Blog Hop. Today we have over 40 designers sharing atleast 40 fun birthday inspired projects too. If you arrive from Krista's Paper Cafe then you are in the right place. If you are just here visiting and want to start from the top click here

For Jessicas 34th birthday, I wanted to make her something special that could commemorate her special day and provide her with a space to write and document her thoughts on this occassion. I created a mixed mini album using diecut chipboard, coasters, and upcycled toilet paper rolls as the base. I assembled these items with my Bind-It-All, used beautiful Coordinations and Basic Grey papers, and included quotes that I specially formatted for everyone to download for personal use only. This book incorporated some of Jess's favorite elements including butterflies, chipboard, and the color brown! I hope you enjoy it Jess as much as I enjoyed creating.

I will be giving away a kit on Monday 24 January 2011 to do this very project yourself in honor of Jessica's birthday! To enter to win, follow my blog [either by selecting to follow my blog through the google button on the right, or through networked blogs on facebook] AND by leaving a comment below!

Thank you for looking! The next stop is PSA Stamp Company

List of Blog stops along the way:

KinderStampO

Scrappin Pink Piglet

You Had My At Craft

Handmade by Angelica

Crafts From Miracle's Table

Canadian Nickel Scrap'n

Nana's Creative Corner

Scrapbooking Technique

Bug Lover Cards

Crafting With Cristina

DD's Crafts

Designs From My Heart

Taylord Concepts

Created2Bunique

Crafty Card Gallery

That'z Uneek

The Creative Stamper's Spot

My Scrap Diary

The Scrapoholic

Karla's Love Blog

Krista's Paper Cafe

Leslie, leslierahye  me

PSA Stamp Camp

Krazy Quilling

Lisa's Scrap'n Shack

Bit By the Cricut Bug

Liset, HailEmNat

Made by Momo

Purple Lily Studio

Enjoying the Little Things

Dream of Crafting

A Scraping Time

Beyond Scrapin'

Scrapbook Flair

Pink Cricut

Scrappin_3rdeeschik

LoveScrapReflect

Stayce DeWid

Always Crafting

The Scrapbooking Queen

Scrappergirlie Inky Goodness

KinderStampO

Funky Cards

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Weekly Challenge #5 | Orbs

This weeks challenge inspiration is all about orbs. I am the Diva explains nicely what orbs are and how they have influenced her work this week. I too am influenced by that marvelous spherical shape. I was hoping I would not be once again faced with a brain stump. As I explored what orbs meant to me, I recalled spending a great deal of time while in undergraduate school studying Wassily Kandinsky and in particular being attracted to his more geometric art during The Bauhaus. I've included a few examples here of what I'm talking about:

Kandinsky's compositions have had a great deal of influence over my own art. It was an honor to get to see these paintings up close and in person at The Kimble while taking an art history course on the 20th Century.

Below is my tangle for this weeks challenge. Additionally, I incorporated the challenge made by Linda Farmer at TanglePatterns.com  to tangle your name! What a fun way to explore new tangles!  So off I went to choose what tangles from the indexed website I needed to use with my orbs to tangle LeslieRahye.

The Tangles I choose were as follows:



LeslieRahye rotated

 
[L] Limpitz

[E] Efilys

[S] Sooflowers

[L] Laced

[I] Inapod

[E] Emingle

[R] Raindotty

[A]  Ahh

[H] Hepmee

[Y] Yang

[E] Eye-wa

I'm secretly amused that many of the elements of the letters of my name possess circles/orbs. Perhaps it is fate! In any case, I hope you enjoy my Orbs and thank you for looking!



LeslieRahye Orbs



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KinderStampo's January Tag Swap | Wishing You a Peachy Birthday!

Jess at KinderStampo.com has a monthly Tag Swap Challenge and beginning in December, each themed challenge has a guest swapper from a particular company. This months challenge guest swapper is the Peachy Queen, Kathy.
For my birthday inspired tag, I used Outlines Rubberstamp Co. Package stamp, Basic Grey 6×6 paper stack, Bazzill Basics and Stampin' Up cardstock. After stamping the image onto Basic Grey papers, I used quickie glue and Pearl Ex to add some silver sparkle to the packages. I created real ribbons and beaded wires for the package trim. I built up the packages with foam tape to add dimension to them.
The built up packages were placed on a lime green Bazzill cardstock that had been embossed with a provocraft emboss folder and smeared with Pink Pirouette Ink. The pink cardstock was punched on the side with a Martha Steward Deep Punch to create the scalloped lattice. The tag was layered and topped with a SU tab punch and pink brads. One last element was the Buttons Galore Buttons stacked and connected with wire and beads and glued onto the tag with Beacon's all-purpose craft glue. Thank you for looking! I hope you enjoy!

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House Mouse Happy Birthday

Birthday card

House Mouse is probably one of my favorite stamp companies and I love this stamp with the daisies. This was a Birthday Card that I created for my boss Dedra for her 50th birthday. She loves flowers and this stamp just looked like her.
The card stock is Die Cuts With a View Birthday MatStack and Bazzill Basics and Bazzill Bling. I colored the image with prismacolor pencils and used Gamsol to blend in the colors. I used a Stampin' Up punch to create the border edge and a TimHoltz Texture Fades folder to create the embossed mat. The brads are Queen & Co.
Thank you for looking!

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The Process

There's been a great deal of talk about the process lately from my co-bloggers in the Diva's Weekly Zentangle Challenge. Afterall, the key ingredient in the tangle is the process it takes to get there. The process helps with the Zen of it all.

a few ingredients for an upcoming tag project

For me, all of my creations are a process. I gather about me my favorite tools and beautiful papers and inks and embellishments. I have background music playing if I'm in the mood but often times I'm in a quiet environment with the background noise being the kids or the silly cat. I've sketched or developed an idea in my head that I've almost completed--although the creation hardly ever resembles how it looks in my head! HA!
Then I sit and begin to play until I like the results. There's no divine intervention, no super big ideas, just trial and error. Sometimes while playing I discover new techniques that are fun and intriguing and garner awesome results...sometimes it's just a mess...but the process, the journey I take to get there provides the same kind of zen that I get with tangling.

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Weekly Challenge #4 | Starry Eyed Surprise!

This week I am the Diva challenged us to be inspired by stars! Anyone who knows me knows I L O V E stars! I have a James Avery Star charm that I wear dangling from a silver box chain around my neck every day. I have stars on my front porch, I have star dies for my diecut machine, I have star punches for crafting, I buy star paper, I have stars on my tree...I love stars. So naturally a star challenge would find me drawing...circles.
Yes, I said C I R C L E S! I don't know what to tell you. The star challenge was a challenge for me, the star lover. After much distress over why my mind wanted circles and nothing but circles, I decided to stand back and wait. As the news unfolded this week about the continued shift of the Earth's axis resulting in the introduction of a new astrological sign, it became clear to me what my fixation on circles was about. No, nothing so deep as discovering astrological bodies, but, the biggest star I know is well, a sphere.

SUN (sŭn) n.

1. often Sun A star that is the basis of the solar system and that sustains life on Earth, being the source of heat and light. It has a mean distance from Earth of about 150 million kilometers (93 million miles) a diameter of approximately 1,390,000 kilometers (864,000 miles) and a mass about 330,000 times that of Earth.
2. A star that is the center of a planetary system.
3. The radiant energy, especially heat and visible light, emitted by the sun; sunshine.



The "star" I was needing to draw was the sun! Once I wrapped my brain around that and embraced it, I could tangle! So, co-tanglers, I give you my Celestial Bodies! Thank you for looking!




Celestial Bodies 1

 

rotated Celestial Bodies 1





Celestial Bodies 2

 

rotated Celestial Bodies 2

side note: AFA Accredited Astrologer Maria Kay Simms discusses the viral news in a chat archived here.



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Weekly Challenge #3 Eyes Wide Shut. [revisited]



Eyes Wide Shut #2 as drawn

Monday I am the Diva announced the new Weekly Challenge for Zentangle on her blog and I immediately tangled my challenge. I enjoyed my process and was happy with my results. I enjoyed looking at all of the other offerings from the many tangle artists joining the weekly challenge now--beautiful work and inspiration. And then the week just got boring. I was done with my tangle. I had personal tangling I could do...I had other paper crafty projects to work on, but my mind longed to re-tangle the challenge more than anything!

to the left...


So Friday night I found myself retangling the challenge! My original string appears above and was tangled as such. I stopped hoping not to fill in all of my white space as I'm still practicing leaving more white. I kept exploring why I felt this tangle was not "finished." Then I began turning it...a trick I learned in design class nearly 24 years ago. Sometimes seeing things at a different angle can change your perception.



to the left...



I like how different the tangle looks from each direction and am intrigued how different the white space looks from each direction. The organic tangles go from looking like fern fronds to tentacles in on an ocean creature to roots reaching deep into the earth. The center goes from looking like an eye with delicate eyelashes to the opening of a conch shell.

I liked all of the turning attempts but my tangle still just seemed a little on edge, like it was needing *something*. And then finally I made one last turn to the left.  YES! That's it! 

Weekly Challenge #3--revisited.

Thank you for looking! Have a peaceful day!

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Blinged-Out Birthday!

It's one of my bosses birthday today and she is a very sparkly type of girl! I created this Blinged-Out Birthday card for her using ultrafine glitters, Basic Grey Bling and an amazing stamp from Outlines Rubber Stamp Co.

I love Outlines Rubber Stamp Co. stamps because of their similarity to Zentangle designs. That is what attracted me to them in the first place! This stamp has SO many possibilities, but I thought for my dazzling friend it would look best in GLITTER!!!

To get the amazing detail with the ultrafine Martha Stewart glitters I used the Sakura Quickie Glue Pen [available through http://www.cutnpastememories.com/]. It allows ink-pen precision when placing glue.

I layered Die Cuts with a View Birthday Mat Stack paper with Pink Stampin' Up Cardstock and Bazzill Craft. I stamped the image with Marvey Black ink and quickly dusted it with clear detail embossing powder from Ranger. After heat setting the embossing powder I began glittering with my Quickie Pen.

For final touches, I used Basic Grey Bling, created a little acryllic tag with a Tim Holtz Fragments Charm and the DCWV paper. Simply use Crystal Lacquer to adhere the Fragment to the paper and the Queen & Co. Crown charm to the Fragment. I added a wired Ofray purple bow to the top left corner with a 3D Glue Dot from Zots! All adhesives available through CutNPaste Memories.

I hope you enjoy my Blinged-Out Birthday Card! I know my friend will! :)

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Weekly Challenge #3 Eyes Wide Shut

Certified Zentangle Teacher [CZT], Laura Harms of I Am the Diva blog, has begun a weekly zentangle challenge to inspire weekly tangling. This weeks challenge is to draw the beginning string with my eyes closed as described here.

So this week, I moved out of my "thinking pad"--a notebook I carry around with me to jot down the many ideas I carry around in my head--to a smallish drawing pad. I traced a 4×4" coaster to make my "tile" [actual Zentangle tiles are 3½" square by design]. Eventhough I approached this tangle thinking I was going to leave more white space--I REALLY like the filled in look--I still filled in my whole "tile."

Nonetheless, despite initial intentions, I am pleased with my tangle. I like the new-to-me patterns I attempted. AND...for the record...I didn't fill EVERY empty-ish space with dotties...therefore in the end I gues it could be argued that I did leave more white space! :)

I hope you enjoy my tangle for Weekly Challenge #3. Thank you for looking!

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Warm Wishes!

As we get some chilly weather here in Texas, it reminds me of a cute snowman tag I did back in December for my papercrafty pal Kinder Stampo's Tag Swap the theme was "Wishing you a pink winter wonderland."

This 3½" wide tag is acryllic embossed with Stampin' Up's Northern Flury Textured Impressions Embossing folder on the Sizzix Big Shot Express. The cardstock is Bazzill Bling, and white with some Die Cuts With a View Embedded Glitter Paper. The brads were also Bazzill. The nameplate diecut was a Sizzix Die. The punches were various Marvy and EK Success Punches in my collection. The fibers and ribbon were miscellaneous finds at local discount and craft stores. The beads were from Fire Mountain Gems and Crazy Crow. The Turquoise ink--Bic. Adhesive was Xyron 250 and Zip Dry! Both are great for adhering paper to acryllic. Thank you for looking!

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