Colored Tile Tangling and Sale

"Sometimes all you need is a little splash of colour."    Unknown

It was one year ago that I introduced my new line of colored tiles in my Etsy shop. These tiles were handmade using alcohol inks, and then many, but not all, were digitally enhanced to create all kinds of interesting effects. To celebrate the anniversary, I've decided to offer a discount on the purchase of any colored tiles for a limited time. You can get a coupon code at the end of my blog, but first I have lots of photos to share.

Here is some tangling I did on one of my pre-strung colored Zendala tiles. These tiles are not digitally enhanced... they come out looking like this just by using the inks with plastic wrap. First the tile before tangling.

 

These tiles are great for tangling inside the pathways formed by the inks, outside the pathways, or both! Here I added Florz inside the paths.

 

Then I decided to add some Diva Dance in a few of the open areas.

Finally, I did some pencil shading.

Next I took one of my square colored tiles, without pathways. Here is the before.

I chose the pattern Toodles, which I had not used previously. Not bad for my first time. I added some Printemps around the outside of Toodles, and then shaded using pastel pencils. One reason I love my pastel pencils so much is that no matter what color I'm trying to match, I always seem to have the perfect pencil. I couldn't believe how the pencil was almost an exact match to the ink color in the tile.
 

Next I went back to another Zendala, this time without the pathways... or I guess I could say this has pathways of another kind.

On this one I used the patterns Maryhill, Opally, Flux, and Tipple. 
 

Then I used a pastel pencil (an exact match again) to add red shading, as well as a graphite pencil for some additional shading. This was a really fun tile to create with a few of my favorite patterns.
 

I decided to add one more tile, another square one.

Here I used the patterns Knightsbridge, Sunbeam (from my e-book Step Out in Style), Tipple, N'zeppel, and Flukes. No pastel pencil shading here, just graphite.

These tiles give you an idea of the variety of tiles that are in my shop, but here are some other pictures to show you even more.

Square colored tiles:

Colored Zendala tiles:
 

Colored geometric tiles: 

Colored pre-strung (pathway) tiles:
 

Gray square pre-strung (pathway) tiles:

Gray Zendala pre-strung (pathway) tiles:  

I hope you'll check these out in my Etsy shop and help me celebrate my anniversary. If you use the code ANN10 when you check out, you will get 10% off your order, good through March 11th. 

Here's to happy times tangling with color!

Time for 9 and 10

"Creativity is intelligence having fun."     Albert Einstein

Another two Zenduos finished! 

The first one, my #9, combined the two patterns Baldosa and two variations of Bales. Baldosa is one of my own tangles which was introduced in my e-book Step Out in Style, which I published in 2014. If you haven't seen it yet, it contains 40 new tangle patterns not published anywhere else, and you can take a peek here.

I created this one on a tile that I colored using Dylusions paints. I scanned the tile to show it before tangling, but... I didn't save it immediately, and while I went ahead and did the tangling my laptop decided on its own to restart, and in so doing, the scan was lost. Frustrating! But here is the final tile, which includes some tangling and accents with a white gelly roll pen.

For the next one, #10, I used one of the colored tiles that I make using alcohol ink (also available in my Etsy shop). This time I was sure to save it right after scanning it!

Then I tangled using the next two patterns in my collection, Basketweave from Suzanne McNeill, and Baton from Carole Ohl (one of my favorite patterns). I added a little shading with pastel pencils.

Hmmm...looking ahead to what the patterns will be for my next Zenduo... it will be an interesting combination. Hope to see you back here once I've completed that one.

Colored Tiles Are Back!

"Color is my day-long obsession, joy and torment."       Claude Monet

I am so happy to announce that my Etsy shop is fully open once again after a long time of intermittent closures. And except for the week of Thanksgiving, it should stay open consistently. I hope. To celebrate the re-opening, I am offering a discount on all purchases for a short time, but you'll have to read, or at least scroll down, to the end of my post to get the coupon code for your discount.

I'm sharing lots of photos here of work that I've completed on my hand-colored tiles, showing them both before and after tangling. I love the colors in this first one and love doing lots of line work.

The next one has lots more line work, on a totally different type of background.

I also have a collection of what I call geometric tiles, and this one is part of that collection.

Another series I call pathway tiles. These are created with alcohol inks, just like all the tiles are, but using a special method that creates what looks like paths to me. I have them in both gray and colored. This one is an example of one of the grays.

Here's an example of one of the colored Zendala tiles.

This one has some of my favorite colors in a little bit of a swirl.

And another Zendala, this one with a rippled effect.

I completed this last tile a while ago, but it's one of my favorites, both in the colors and the tangling, so here it is again. It's an example of one of the colored pathway tiles, similar to the gray one above.

In addition to colored tiles, gray tiles, Zendalas, and geometric tiles, I've created a line of digital papers using alcohol ink backgrounds. They're available with lines for writing or unlined for an unlimited number of different uses. Please take a look at them while you're over in my Etsy shop perusing the various tiles. Here are just a few examples of the papers that you'll find.

And for those of you who stuck with me all the way to the end of this long post, you can get 10% off any order between now and November 15th. Just enter the coupon code FALL17 when you check out. 

Colors of Summer

"People don't notice whether it's winter or summer when they're happy."        Anton Chekhov

Happy summer to those of you in my neck of the woods, and happy winter to the rest of you. Summer is a time full of flowers and color, so this is going to be a colorful post.

The first tile I'm sharing with you is one of my alcohol ink background zendala tiles.

Just because it's a round tile doesn't mean it needs to be tangled with a zendala. I love the swirl in the tile, so I decided to tangle along with the flow. This is the first time I've used the pattern Floral Waves. I think it goes well with the swirl in the tile. Then I added some Mooka and Tipple to finish it off.

But (almost) no tile is complete, in my mind, without shading. So out came my trusty pastel pencils, and blues and pinks were used to add the finishing touches. 

Then it was onto another zendala tile, this time one of my "pre-strung" alcohol ink backgrounds. The designs formed by the inks can be used as a string to tangle inside or outside, or just tangle right over them.

That big shape going right up the center of the tile reminded me of a tree trunk, so after tangling that with Sand Swirl, I added Pokeleaf "foliage" to the tree. And once again, pastel pencils were my choice for shading.

In case you're interested, these colored tiles are available, along with many more, in my Etsy shop here.

Until next time, happy tangling!

Introducing my New Tiles!

"Every production of an artist should be the expression of an adventure of his soul."     W. Somerset Maugham

Hooray! The day has finally arrived when I can officially introduce my new tiles to you. You may have noticed over the last couple of months that I have been sharing a lot of my work on colored tiles. I've been developing this new line of tiles for a long time, and I'd hoped to have these ready a while ago, but life kind of got in the way! The tiles are now in my Etsy shop, but let me tell you a little about them. Warning: This will be a long post with lots of pictures.

I love playing with alcohol inks. I'm not very good at creating anything realistic with them, but boy do they make great backgrounds for tangling. I start with alcohol inks on yupo paper, play with them, manipulate them, and let them do their own thing. Beautiful designs emerge for tangling. I scan them and print them on Bristol vellum paper and cut them into 4 inch tiles, as well as Zendala tiles. But then I decided to take it one step further. I began editing the backgrounds in Photoshop and wow! Amazing special effects were created - waves, spirals, pond ripples, geometrics, zig-zags, etc. The possibilities are endless, and addictive too! So, after many, many hours of playing, I have created hundreds of new tiles to add to my Etsy shop. 

So let me share a few more with you now. 

Before...

And after...
 

 Before...

And after...
 

 Before... 

And after...

Zendala before... 

Zendala after...
 

Then I designed some with geometric shapes, but since these were so different than the others I decided to make them a separate group and listing in my shop.

Before... 

After...
 

Before...

After... 
 

But that's not all! I decided to also make these designs into digital papers for crafters to use in so many different ways: scrapbooking, invitations, origami, and on and on. Here are some samples of the papers...

And just when you thought I was finished... No! I also made these into lined papers for writing and journaling. Some examples here...

NOW I'm finished. That's all I've done....square tiles, zendala tiles, geometric tiles, digital papers, and lined digital papers. If you'd like to check them out in my Etsy shop, go here. (Where you will also find my pre-strung pathway tiles!) You'll be able to see many more of the tile designs in my shop photos, although not nearly all of the designs I have.

If you have tangling friends and family, or other crafty friends and family, or writing friends and family, I would be most grateful if you'd pass my shop information on to them.

And of course, if you decide to try any of these for yourself, I would LOVE to see what you do with them!