My Christmas/New Years Cards For 2018

  I'm Eurasian- half French, half Singaporean Chinese... And let's just say my family is really mixed. My mother is Chinese with Christian leanings. My godmother is a black women whom is Jewish. One of my favourite uncle is African Muslim. I married into a Catholic family. And both of my best friends are Christian. I also have another uncle and a dear friend whom are both atheist.. So the holiday season is a little crazy for me... Some people get Christmas cards. The rest get New Years cards because they don't celebrate Christmas.

  But I love making hand-made cards. It's time-consuming but it's a labour of love. I also think in this electronic era, where people often opt to send text messages to say "Merry Christmas" or "Happy New Year", a hand-made card is all the more treasured.

  So here are all the cards I made this year for the important people in my life. I thought you might be inspired by them, somehow.

  What I'm showing you are tiles that I then slipped into plain square cards, and then I wrote messages inside the cards. So, for example... This is the tile I created....



  And then on a plain dark blue card, I drew Flux using a white pen, then used a penknife to cut slits along the Flux... Then I slipped the tile into those slits.


  And then I stuck a white tile on the inside of the card, so that I could pen down a message. :)


  Here are the rest of the tiles I created:

  The backgrounds were created using my faux watercolour technique with Tombow's dual brush markers. Here's a link to a video tutorial on how to create your own faux watercolour background: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GSeyh3CBeQ

  If you'd like to learn how to draw gemstones, I also have a playlist of tutorials right here.

  The gold paint is Kuretake's Gansai Tambi paints. Shading was added using Derwent's Coloursoft coloured pencils. And the white highlights were added using a Uni-ball Signo Broad pen.

  I hope you're having a great December... I know the end of the year can be a little crazy for some of us, but I also think it's great to remember that the holidays are about spending time with the people you love... making goals for the upcoming year... and being grateful for the wonderful memories you've made in the past year.

  May 2019 be your best year yet.

Much Love,
Stephanie

to the click of my heart

  Here's my tile for the fourth day of #InktoberTangles. Featuring Diva Dance Waltz and Aquafleur. I saw a tile done by a CZT where she drew Aquafleur in this way and I knew I absolutely had to draw it this way, too. I used Tombow markers for the colours.

  And here's my tile for this week of Joey's challenge, featuring Poke Leaf:


  The lower left corner of the tile was actually an oopsie... I tried something that didn't work out so I just drew over the entire area with black ink and added Printemps in silver Uni-ball pen.

  And here's the nine tiles that I've drew for her challenges over the past nine weeks:


  I'm completely thrilled with how it turned out! I tried to have each tile have its own personality but work together as a whole drawing, too.

  And here's my tile for Diva's challenge, featuring Striping. The little secret is that this was done in a page in my sketchbook. And what happened was that I messed up.... I was drawing a beautiful Waybop and having a good time, and then I made a bad decision that I really REALLY didn't like. So I just... I just decided to glue a white tile over the oops. haha

  But it fixed it, though. I absolutely love the colours that I picked. It's just two Tombow markers 725 bright pink and 676 purple. If you live in Singapore and you'd like to purchase Tombow markers (singles or in sets) visit this link. They're having a promotion right now all the way till' the end of this year!

  If you were wondering the process of how I created this drawing... I drew a string in pencil, then added the stripes in pencil too. Then I added the colours... Let them dry. Erased the pencil lines, and then outlined the outside of the tile and the loops that were sticking out of the tile with a black 0.8 Micron pen.

  Lastly, I wanted to tell you a little story... 

  Tuesday earlier this week was a tough day for me... It didn't go so great. And I was set to have a class that night. I'm a strong believer of leaving your baggage at the door of the classroom. People pay me good money to learn the Zentangle method from me, to learn new creative skills from me, and to have a good time in my classes. So when I step into a classroom, I make sure I'm 100% present in the moment. So all that hubbub that happened earlier that day... that all melted away when I stepped into the classroom.

  And I was genuinely happy to see my students. I am so blessed to have wonderful students who bring such great energy, creativity, and joy to every class. Then one of my students, her name is Diana, took out a small click eraser. "It's a gift for you," she said. And a huge smile spread across my face.

  See, last week, I saw that another student had a similar eraser in her pencil case. I loved it. I'm overly excitable and get happy over small things. I mentioned that I had only seen large click erasers- never small skinny ones. And I gushed over how cute the small click eraser was.

  So Diana had heard the conversation and gone out to get me a small click eraser. It was wonderful. I'm still smiling now as I recount the story to you. :) That small gift brightened up my crappy day so much. I love teaching tangling to others, and it's small moments like these that I hold close to my heart.

book and Kickstarter announcement

  I'm so excited for the new projects I'll be taking on soon. I'm planning to make a book (or rather, an art zine since it'd have a soft cover and will be about 30 pages only). This first volume will be A4-sized and will showcase Zentangle pieces from my sketchbooks. I have all the art works ready. They just need to be scanned and sorted, edited and then sent to print. I'm aiming to have them out by December, in time for Christmas. :) How quickly time flies.

  Aside from that, I'm planning on creating a Kickstarter project. It'd be small-scaled compared to some other projects on Kickstarter, but it'd be a pet project... something I've had in mind for quite a while now. And I want to make it a reality just to prove to myself that I am capable of great things as long as I put my heart to it. I'm aiming to have that up by the start of November.

  Fingers crossed that both projects will go without a hitch and be successful. I'll let you know via this blog and my newsletter when I make progress on them and they are up for you to look at and support. You can subscribe to my newsletter via this link.

  That aside, here are my tiles for the weekly challenges... Here's my tile for Joey's challenge:

Featuring N'zeppel.

  And a page in my sketchbook for Diva's Challenge:

Featuring crazy N'zeppel. Her example tile had basic tangles, so I went back to basics, too.
It's nice to do that once in a while.

  Anndddd~ The November/December school holidays are almost here. So I've been busy with coming up with new lesson plans for my craft classes. Here are samples for the greeting card class that I'll be teaching:

  They were made fully with Tombow markers. And during the class, I will be teaching different techniques on how to use your Tombow dual brush markers such as misting, colour blending, and how to create gradients. You will also learn how to draw beautiful gemstones that you can use to add a spark of magic to your art work. Here's a video, for you to see how cool they are. 

  I'm so excited to share with you how I created these greeting cards. If you live in Singapore and would like to find out when the greeting card classes will be up for registration, be sure to be subscribed to my newsletter.

  "Don't wait for opportunities. Create them yourself."

My Entry to UOB Painting of the Year Competition

  I joined the UOB Painting of the Year Competition this year. It's my first time entering it, and I decided to do a piece that showed tangles. My main idea was to have a girl surrounded by pastel colours and tangles. I knew that the pieces that would be submitted for the competition would be considerably large, so I decided to make my piece in a larger format. I found a frame that I thought was a good size then cut a large sheet of Fabriano paper to fit the frame. The art work ended up being 50cm by 70cm (19.6" by 27.5").

This was my sketch:

I inked the girl and the plants so that the camera would be able to capture what I drew. You can also see the light markings I did for the background segments.

    Then I added Winsor and Newton watercolours on the background. I stuck to blues, pinks, and purples.

  Making progress on the tangles...

  Tangles completed! Now onto shading! I used Tombow's dual brush markers.

  I also added details using a white Uni-ball Signo Broad pen, and the gold finish was added with Finetec paints.

  Moving onto the girl and the flowers, I used Derwent's Coloursoft coloured pencils, sticking to the colour scheme of pink, blue, purple.

  And finally, after three full days of working on this piece, I was done. I really do prefer the quicker gratification I receive when I work on a regular Zentangle® tile.

  Here are some detail shots:

  The results will be out this week. I'm excited. We'll see how it goes. Prize or not, I'm extremely proud of this art piece, and it's shown me how far I've come artistically in the past two years and what I can achieve.

with love, Stephanie

  I received a request from one of my Zentangle friends to create art works/cards for someone who was going through cancer treatment. I decided to make a card with a quote of hope inside of it.

There's a tile in the card that is held in by transparent photo corners. The gemstone is a sticker.

  Onwards to other tiles... I tried my hand at illuminated letters. I'll actually be teaching classes on this technique this month. :)

  These next ones are all for Travelling Tangles.

This was from Lin Laidler, featuring Fracas. I added Hollibaugh, Flux, and Fe-Ba. It was great to go back to basic black-ink-on-a-square-tile.

  This next one was from Aleesha Sattva.

I saw a lotus in her start.

Tangles featured include: Diva Dance, Striping, and Printemps.
I used the stippling technique to add shading on the outside of the tangles. 

All shading was done using Tombow markers. And highlights were added using a Uni-Ball Signo Broad pen.

  And this last beauty was started by Lin Laider, too. It's a Bijou tile (1 inch square). Lin did the tiny Printemps and the Crescent Moons, I added Shattuck and Diva Dance Waltz.

  Thanks for looking!

Tombow Art v1

  I've been having so much fun creating lovely things using my Tombow markers. Here's what I've been up to...

ATC sized. Featuring My Swing, Knightsbridge, and Printemps.

Isn't this so lovely?

Keeping it simple with Aquafleur and Zonked.

  If you live in Singapore and would like to buy Tombow markers for the cheapest price you can get island-wide, visit this link.

where flowers bloom, so does hope

  I've been really crazy about my Tombow markers lately.   If you live in Singapore, I supply Tombow markers! Find out more via this link: http://stephaniejennifer.com/tombow

  Here's an ATC tile I did for the Travelling Tangles Project with Michele Wynne.

String Rose with Flux around it, Yin-Cut in the background, and some Diva Dance Rock and Roll Simplified.

  And another ATC! This one was just done for fun. I tried to copy the colour scheme that Michele uses. Featuring "My Swing".

  And here's my entry for this week's Diva and Joey challenge. Featuring "Aquafleur" and "Zonked". Here's the initial background that I did with Tombow markers:

  And here's the finished tile with shading (still done with the Tombow markers) and highlight (done with a Uni-ball Signo Broad pen).

  If you haven't heard yet, I'm part of an eight teacher team of artists that will be teaching an online course titled "The Black & White Journal: A Minimal Approach to Artful Journaling". There will be some live lessons (with replays of those lessons), and some pre-recorded lessons. All the teachers will be a part of a Facebook group that will be created specifically for this course. In the Facebook group, you will be able to connect with other students, ask questions, and get feedback on the things you draw and create. :) It'd be so much fun, I'm sure you'll learn something new.

  It's also your last chance to get an early-bird special. It ends on the last day of this month. Find out more about the other teachers that will be teaching the course via this link: http://bit.ly/stephaniejournal (And sign up if you'd like to be a part of it!)

  In my part of the course, I will be teaching you how to merge tangles in your sketchbook to create more complex and interesting pages. Here's the final product that you'll get from my class:

  Tangling AND shading will be taught. Other things that the other teachers will be teaching in the course include learning how to make your own journal, gesture sketching, stamp making, and other tangling fun. I hope you'll join us.​

  And until next time, keep tangling~