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

a splash of colour

Here's my sketchbook page for this week's Joey and Diva Challenge. The Diva wanted us to use our hands to create a string, and Joey wanted us to use the tangle "Breach". I added Flux and Crescent Moon. The background was created using Finetec paints. The white pen is a Uni-ball Signo Broad.

  In a similar fashion, I created some Bijous with my Finetec paints to complete last week's of Joey challenge. We had to use Mak-Rah-Mee, which is a lovely tangle. I added lots and lots of Mooka to the tile, draping outwards and downwards.

  For Travelling Tangles, I completed a tile sent to me from Jules Mack.

  I added Fe-Ba as a background to try to echo her flowers. I think it worked well.

  I also sent out my tiles for April's Kite Swap. I created hand-made envelopes for this swap, and had a lot of fun with it.

(Addresses have been blurred out for privacy purposes.)

  Here's a mosaic from one of the classes I taught last week. :)

The bottom left tile that has no shading is mine.
The top right tile was done by an adult. The other two were done by kids.

  And lastly, here is a page from my sketchbook of a flower I drew in ballpoint (Biro) pen. Lots of fun.

she sells seashells by the seashore

  Here's what I've been up to in the past weeks... First off, some tiles from the Travelling Tangles Project.

  Let's start with this beautiful circle tile from Elena Greer...

  A tiny Bijou from Yvette Campbell. 

Shading done using Peerless watercolours. White highlights done using a Uni-Ball Signo Broad pen.

  Joey van Oort sent this tile to me for the June 2017 Flower Swap.

I tried to have the tile look like a flower. It was coloured using Peerless watercolours, and the white highlights are from a Uni-Ball Signo Broad pen. 

  I did some prep-work for my Zentangle classes... Tiny coloured squares made using watercolours.

  Which I think inspired what I drew for this week's It's A String Thing #235 (top). My tile for the Diva challenge is below it. We were asked to use our name as a string.

  Lastly, here's a pretty seashell I drew using Caran D'ache's Neocolor II. I really like how it turned out and am looking forward to creating more of such painterly drawings using my Neocolors.

In case you were wondering: the ballpoint pen is included in the picture because that's what I used as the outline for the shell.

  Thanks for dropping by. I hope you're having a great weekend.

I'm doing swimmingly well.

  I have so many things to show you this week!

  I thought I'd spend February filming videos, and doing more personal projects... But I ended catching a terrible case of the flu that took me three weeks to recover from. :( 

  Other than the flu, February has treated me well enough. Chinese New Year happened. I had reunion dinners with both my in-laws, and at my mum's place. Here are some fishes I painted using Peerless watercolours to celebrate the holiday.

  I had a workshop at Bukit Batok East Community Club. The CC's staffs who attended the workshop were very creative and engaged in creating beautiful Zentangle art works.

  Here's their class mosaic. One of the tiles is mine. :)

  Group photo!

  I completed a couple of tiles for Travelling Tangles. Here's one from Jules Mack.

I had to black out the lower left circle because the watercolours made the black ink bleed.
I do like how the coaster turned out, though.

  Here's one from Sandie McClellan for the September Cadent Swap.

  And this lovely tile was from Debra Huff.

  I added watercolours for the background and then pushed the “bracelet” forward by adding Diva Dance Waltz. Subtle shading was added using Polychromos coloured pencils.

  Debra also sent me a tile for the Embedded Letter Swap.

  I was very tempted to add a frame around Debra’s tangles. But eventually decided to expand her work outwards. I thought about filling the tile out, edge-to-edge... but I chose to stop here. I’m very pleased with how it turned out. :)

  Over the week, I found a new gelato place at Bedok...

  Today also happens to be my first year wedding anniversary. ^-^

  Alex and I celebrated it early, last Sunday, by going to watch "Black Panther" at Cathay Platinum. The theatre had extra wide, plush seats, that could recline! The theatre's staffs also served us some finger food (directly to where we sat). And there was a little lamp that you could switch on if you needed to see what you were eating. It was a great experience.

  That day, I wore a peach-coloured vintage tulle dress that used to belong to Alex's grandmother. :)

  Lastly, here's a tile I did this morning for Diva's challenge. We were supposed to use a heart-shaped string on a Zendala.... I did do that, but I didn't exactly follow the string.

The background was created using Caran d'ache's Neocolor II.
I bought a set of 30 for $20! What a steal!

  Thanks for popping by. I hope the year of the dog has begun just as well for you as it has for me.

catching dreams

  Here's my submission for Diva's and Joey's challenge this week. Featuring Dreamcatcher and Relly-Telly-One.

  Here are some recent tiles I completed for the Travelling Tangles. The first two ones were from Sue Zanker.

  And this one was from Anne Marks.

  Here's my completed Tanglelendar for September.

  And some details...

  I used Finetec paints for the shimmery-ness.

  You can download your own template for October, November, and December via this link. I am currently working on getting next year's pages done. :)

  Thanks for dropping by. Have a great weekend.

colours speak all languages

  I'm the admin of the Travelling Tangles Project on Facebook where lots of artists swap their beautiful works with one another. And for this week of Diva's challenge, I thought I might start a tile to swap with someone who comes visit my blog. If you'd like, I can send it to you and you can complete it. You'll send me a half-completed tile and I'll complete it, too. If you're interested in that, let me know in the comments section below!

  If you'd like to see what other artists have created for the Travelling Tangles Project, visit this link.

Featuring Paradox in a Tripoli grid.

  I recently started doing these little art works. They were done as a little fun side-project. The colours were added with Peerless watercolours. Some tangles were too small and my waterbrush was too big, so I'm going to need to "save the whites" with my Uni-ball Signo white pen. hahaha

  Here's my Tanglelendar for September so far:  (I'm a little behind schedule... Time flies by so quickly, doesn't it?!

  Want to start your very own Tanglelendar too? Here's where you can download the blank templates for FREE: linky link right here. You're welcome. ^-^   I really need to start creating pages for 2017 soon, though....

  I also recently posted a video tutorial on how to draw Meer as a border.

  I've been planning on what I'm going to teach next month for my Zentangle classes... It's exams period so Joni and I think there's going to be a drop in how many students we have. :(  But then the school holidays period will arrive and we will be drowned in so much work it'd be hard to catch a breath. That's life, isn't it? Either you're bored out of your mind, or you're so busy you can't breathe. hahaha. I take it to stride.

And lastly, here are some ATCs I made to sell when we hold workshops. The purple one is completed. I've titled it "Memories". The second one still needs shading, and the last one needs its background filled in. The colours were added with Peerless watercolours.

  Thank you so much for dropping by. I hope you leave a little more inspired than when you first arrived. See you next week!