Tile Preview

"Boldly dare to be a pop of color in a black and white world."    Unknown

I've been spending tons of time making new colored tiles for tangling. I recently introduced some of the new tiles, and while I'm preparing the rest of them to be ready for my Etsy shop, I'm sharing some of the new ones along the way. These are tiles I created with alcohol inks, and then twisted, swirled, waved, and otherwise played with in Photoshop to create some very cool and unique effects.

This one is a blue and green swirl.

I decided to follow the swirl, using just Cubine, and added shading with green pastel pencil. But instead of just blending it with a tortillion, I dipped the tortillion in mineral spirits first, and then blended. I think that this helps set the pastel pencil so that it doesn't rub off at all. 
 

I love the waves in this next tile.

I ignored the waves when tangling, so that they form the random coloring behind the tangles (using Static, Sand Swirl, Jobowtie and some orbs.)

Purple and pink pastel pencils were used to shade.

Here's one more tile that I've already shared on Facebook, but in case you haven't seen it there...

Just lots of pretty colors, tangled with Organic and Pokeleaf. And a touch of graphite shading.

It's so much fun tangling on the very varied backgrounds of the tiles. Stay tuned for more samples, including Zendalas.
And I'll be sure to let you know when I actually launch them on Etsy.

And to let you in on a secret, for you paper crafters out there, I am also making these into digital papers for scrapbooking and other crafts, as well as lined writing papers. I'm so excited about this! 

 

New Alcohol Ink Zendala Tiles

"Life is a circle. The end of one journey is the beginning of the next."   
 Joseph M. Marshall

I love the black and white format of traditional Zentangle. The contrast of black and white is what really drew me to the Zentangle method in the first place. But, oh what fun color can be!

A few days ago I shared my new alcohol ink colored tiles made to create interesting backgrounds for your tangling. I'm back today to show you what I've done with some of the Zendala tiles. The first one is a pretty blue and white.

I decided to tangle with a blue Micron pen. I used a stencil made by Genevieve Crabe, which has lots of holes through which you mark dots, using them as a guide to create your own Zendala design. You can see these stencils here. My theme was triangles and I tangled them with lots of Munchin and a little bit of Phroz.

Next, of course, was shading. Now if you follow me regularly, you probably know of my love affair with pastel pencils. So you think you know what's coming, but no.... this was not shaded with pastel pencils. I used Prismacolor pencils and blended them with a tortillion dipped in Gamsol odorless mineral spirits. It was the first time I've used this method, and I'm happy to say that it worked really well! In the past, the few times I've used colored pencils, I blended by layering and layering and layering and going over and over and over it with a colorless blender. Maybe some of you like that way of doing things, but I found it to be very long and very tedious and very tiring on my hand. Using the mineral spirits was so much more up my alley, much quicker and much easier on my hand. It may have been my first time using this method, but it won't be the last, as you'll see in my next tile.

I love the way the white parts of the background make this tile appear to be glowing.

Next up was a pinkish-purplish tile.

I wanted to give this one a more organic look and used Flux (one of my go-to tangles recently) and Betweed.

As I said, I again used Prismacolor pencils and mineral spirits for shading this.

I added some sparkle to it by applying a clear Stardust gelly roll pen over the shading in the Flux, but you can't even see a hint of that in the above picture, so I took a closeup at an angle to show you the sparkle.

The last tile I have to share with you for now has shades of yellow, orange, and green.

I used a stencil from Acadia Laser Creations for this one. Since it is more earth-toned, I tangled with a brown Micron. It took me awhile to decide how many patterns to include and which parts of the stencil should be tangled with which pattern. This is what I ended up with, Knightsbridge and Baton.

 

Then I agonized over what materials to use for color, and after testing several things, I went with Tombow markers to fill in some areas, but no shading on this one.

I am liking this tile more than I expected to as I worked on it. Always a pleasant surprise when that happens.

Remember, if you're thinking about trying out some of these new tiles for you own tangling, you can still get 10% off until the 18th by using the code NEWCOLOR in my Etsy shop.

 

 

New Color Tiles

"Color! What a deep and mysterious language, the language of dreams."   Paul Gauguin

I'm very excited about the new line of tiles I'm introducing. About six months ago I started selling what I call my pre-strung pathway tiles. They are made with alcohol inks which form pathways for tangling, or tangling between, or tangling over, whichever you prefer. They were so well received by all of you, that I started thinking about making more tiles with alcohol inks, but different from the others. And thus were born these tiles that I am introducing now.

The difference is that my new tiles don't have pathways. They just having interesting colors and designs that meander and mix and flow all over the place. You can use the designs that the inks make to define the spaces you want to tangle, or you can just tangle over the whole background however you want. The unpredictable nature of the inks is what gives such an interesting look to the tiles. 

Here is my first example of a tile.  

 I decided to outline some of it first.

And then fill that area with tangles (N'zeppel, Diva Dance, and Btl Joos.) I used some pastel pencils for shading to add extra color. It's kind of a weird and wacky piece.

Here's the next tile I chose. I love the combination of pink, purple, and teal in this one.

I let the colors serve as an overall background this time, and tangled some Garlic Cloves, Pais, and Tipple. I love the way it turned out (all those soothing lines!) and thought that it looked best turned like this.

I used pastel pencils (of course) to add shading and give it a more 3D look. I matched the shading to the color in the background, using pink, purple, and teal. A touch of highlighting was added with white in the centers of the petals.

The next tile has a more textured look to it.

When I saw the tile turned sideways, it reminded my of the ocean (good imagination), so I thought of the pattern Sea Wave.

I added some Henna Drum flowers to it.

And then added shading, again, with pastel pencils.

Love this one too. The great colors and textures on the tiles make it almost impossible to end up with something I really don't like.

I was going to end my post there, but I did another tile that I really like, so I'm adding it here. Untangled tile...

Tangled with Sand Swirl, Meer, Florz, and Maryhill.

The shading didn't show up in this picture as well as I would have liked, but here it is...

I've had so much fun playing with the alcohol inks and coming up with these new tiles. Although they look very different than my pathway tiles, the thing that is the same about them is the process: designed with alcohol inks on yupo, then printed on bristol vellum paper and cut into 4 inch tiles. I love the slightly larger size of the tiles compared to traditional Zentangle tiles, and I love the vellum surface for tangling with Microns and shading with most anything. 

If you'd like to take a look at more of these tiles, or the pre-strung pathway tiles, you can check them out in my Etsy shop here. They are available in both square tiles and Zendalas. As an introductory offer, if you order any of these new tiles between now and January 18th, you can use the code NEWCOLOR to get 10% off. I'll be back soon with a post showing you some of my new tangled Zendalas. 

Thanks for stopping by and taking a look!