it's Spring

  It's Spring and I think that's why I'm currently obsessed with a tangle called "Lanie"... We're also experiencing a heatwave in Singapore... Up to about 37 degrees Celsius (that's 99 degrees Fahrenheit). It's insane.

  We took part in a Mother's Day event at Bukit Batok RC Zone 3. Mr Desmond Lee was the guest-of-honour for the event. Joni and I taught a few Zentangle workshops during the event and with our help, the residents created beautiful Mother's Day cards using some tangles.

  I created this drawing on a canvas for the event:

I first sprayed the entire canvas in gold.
Then drew out the word "Zentangle" in pencil.

Then I drew the tangles with a black Identi pen.

And finally, I added white Printemps to the "Zentangle" with a white Uni-ball Signo pen and added a silver outline to the words to make it pop even more.

  If you haven't seen the photos yet, you can view our photo album for the Bukit Batok event over on our Facebook page. See whether you can spot the canvas drawing in some of the photos. ^-^


  There are times when you'll draw on a tile... only to end up not liking it. I have the habit of keeping those tiles just so I can paint over them with acrylics and then re-using them. Most often, I end up being able to create something beautiful the second time around. Here's one of those tiles:

Black acrylic paint and sweeping brushstrokes; paired with Bunzo. I never quite liked Bunzo when I first learnt to draw it, but I think I've grown to like it now.
This tile is now on its way to New York as a gift to my godmother.

  Some tiles from the Travelling Tangles project:

This one was done with Glenys Sykes. I did very little on this tile: only the basic shape of the Arukas plus the border of Luv-a. Everything else was added by Glenys. I love the Art Nouveau-inspired colours! I was blown away by how beautiful the tile turned out when it started out so simply.

And here's a tile I did with Lynn Noga. She did the jewels; I added the tangles.
This tile was done for the March Monthly Swap but I didn't finish it until now because I didn't know how to make the five jewels link up with one another. It wasn't until last week that I thought to add a border so that it'd look like a little frame around the large jewel.

  Sometimes, you just have to give yourself a little time to figure things out.

I'm working on something. You just can't see it yet.

  Some projects take time to complete. And basically, that's what has been going on for me for the past week or so. Added to the fact that I'm experiencing.... (What do I call it?) I wouldn't call it a creative slump because I still am full of ideas. Just that I don't have the motivation to complete all of the ideas that I have. I know that it seems like I've been doing a whole lot less creative work than usual. However, I really am still keeping myself quite occupied, and I'll show you the projects I've been working on as soon as I'm done with them. I promise. ^-^

  For now, here's a late tile that I did for Diva's Challenge #262. We had to work with "Fassett".

You can't see the shimmery acrylic I laid on the tile very well... But it's there.
The tile was left without shading on purpose.

  And here are some lovely tiles that I completed for Travelling Tangles:

  ... I still have one more jewel tile to complete. And I think Joni has a tile or two to show you, too... She'll probably have a post up tomorrow.

  We did a Poetry Themed April Swap over at Travelling Tangles. It inspired me to make this tile for a friend. I don't think he follows my blog, so I'm posting it here (wow. so exclusive preview...)

Done with watercolours on a Zentangle® tile.

"Hold fast to dreams; for if dreams die, life is but a broken-winged bird that cannot fly. Hold fast to dreams; for when dreams go, life is but a barren field frozen with snow."

Moonstone Tutorial

  Moonstones have lots of different colours in them. So you're going to have to do some noodling around with your own gemstone even if you decide to try following my tutorial. I do hope that my video would help you in some ways, though... To get a sense of the colours you can use, or the ways to colours the gemstone. Because moonstones look so pastel and have such soft colours, I decided to use complimentary colours for the stone's shadow instead of using black like I usually do.

  The materials I used are:

1. Original Zentangle® tile
2. Uni-ball Signo Broad Pen for highlight
3. Prismacolor coloured pencils

    The colours I used are as follows:

1. White PC938
2. Sky Blue Light PC1086
3. Non-Photo Blue PC919
4. Periwinkle PC1025
5. Indigo Blue PC901
6. Lilac PC956
7. Lavender PC934
8. Pumpkin Orange PC1032
9. Beige PC997
10. Jasmine PC1012

  And here's the photo reference I used:

Link to where I found this picture.

  If you liked this tutorial, here's another jewel tutorial that you might like: (click here)

  If you have any questions or requests for future videos, let me know in the comments section below.

Joni's Jewels

  Joni says: Most of the posts on here are written by Stephanie Jennifer. But for a change, here are some of the works I've done over the past week... Starting off with some Zengems:

Playing around with Printemps.

And here's Sharla-Rella.

  If you haven't already heard, Stephanie started a new project called "Travelling Tangles". Travelling Tangles is a collaborative project that aims to show how the Zentangle® method can bring people from around the world closer to one another. The idea is that you will draw on an original Zentangle tile but only finish the drawing half-way. Then you will send it off to another person for him/her to complete it. In exchange, they too will half finish a tile and send it to you for you to complete. Both you and the other person will then each have a tile to keep. 

  If you'd like to be a part of the project, you can join the Facebook group for it here: https://goo.gl/FW1OiX

  Stephanie and I have been busy with Zentangle® classes, but have still managed to find time to create tiles to send to others. Here is the first batch of tiles that I sent out:

  Stephanie also posted a video of her showing off two Zentangle cards that she made. The idea was thought up by Grace Mendez.

  Here are some pictures of each layer of the cards:

  She didn't show this part of one of the cards in the video, but the two sides of the flaps actually converged in the back of the card. I thought it was very creative!

  And that's it for now. 8)

too many choices equals to not doing anything

  I really did try to think of tangles/strings to use for this week's Diva Challenge... But I just felt so overwhelmed by choices. Does that happen to you, too? I'm like a kid at a candy store... If I can do anything... Then there's so much to do! Gosh. Where do I start?? So, unfortunately, I don't have a submission for the challenge. If I do get around to doing it, I'll be posting it in another post.

  My mother, however, did complete the challenge. Here's Joni's tile for this week's Diva Challenge: Back to Basics...

I love the way "Hollibaugh" grows out from "SeZ".

  I did complete my tile for Joey's challenge, though. This week featured Knightsbridge. Here's Joni's tile:

  And here's mine:

  Onwards to other tiles that I did.

Molygon with a gemstone.

Molygon again. Giving credit to Lynn Shelton Mead. She did a tile with this shading idea and I loved it so much I had to try it out for myself. I'll definitely be doing different patterns with this method in the future.

This week, I taught my students how to create this beautiful flower thing with Flux.
All of them loved it.

A tile I did for a promotional video for my Zentangle classes. You can watch the video below.

A tile featuring a new tangle I learnt: "Mumsy", with some soapstone and charcoal highlights.
I don't like how the black tile literally drink all of the ink up, and I'm probably going to be layering my tiles with black acrylic paint from now on to make them more enjoyable to work on...

This was a white tile that I painted black with acrylic paint. Look how much brighter the whites are.
I shouldn't have used "Pebble Flowers" on the inside of the circle... But we move on.

Here's a commission I'm currently working on.
Nine jewels to represent abundance. Four birds to represent the number of members in their family.

Mooka! Want to know how I drew this version of it? Link to step-outs is right here.
I'm still trying to figure out whether I should add "Roxi" or "Tipple" in it... Or use "SharlaRella" instead. What do you think?

Lastly, a pretty Zendala that I did.
There's "Reticulated", "Yuma", "SeZ", "Betweed", "Inapod", "Crescent Moon", and a Zengem.

  I hope you're having a good week so far. Stay inspired, and keep tangling! ^-^

and so the fox fell in love with the rabbit

  a continuation of this week's tiles...

Starting off with a very cute Bijou tile.
Done with Derwent's Coloursoft pencils.

Here's another.
All the jewels I draw will have mod podge over them to make them more three-dimensional.
You can find a tutorial of how to do it if you click this link.

   Now for some Zendalas:

Amber jewel?

Cute little red heart in this one.

Here's my tile for Joey's Challenge. "Retro" with "Heartswell".
"Retro" is such a delicate tangle. Reminds me of Victorian style gates.

Here's "Paradox" with a jewel in the middle.
Haven't added mod podge, shading, and some small details to it yet.

Lastly, a drawing from my sketchbook.
I have a friend who calls me "Bunny", so he must be the fox.
My mum said that rabbits and foxes can't be friends, and I told her that is what makes this drawing charming.

  Now, close your eyes and make a wish. I'm hoping next week will bring just as much creativity as the last week did. ^-^

Making Zengems/Jewels 3D

  I posted a video on my YouTube channel earlier this week. In it, I showed you how to make your Zengems/jewels look literally three-dimensional. It's a really simple and easy method. In case you missed the video, here it is:

  I've completed quite a couple of zengems using this method. Here are some of them:

The one you saw in the video.
Also, notice the really pretty "Mooka" that I used as a border. I'll be posting a "Mooka... and then some" tutorial soon.

I love this emerald green.

  How did I do it? The answer is that I used Mod Podge's Dimensional Magic. It absolutely has to be Dimensional Magic and not any other glue. I tried using normal white glue, and also Mod Podge Gloss, but they both dried with bubbles in them and ended up looking horrid.

  The back of the bottle says to allow 3 hours of drying time, but I usually let them dry overnight. You can draw multiple jewels and then set them aside till' you collect a good amount of them. And then mod podge them all at one go. It's more convenient that way.

  Do not shake the bottle as doing so will cause bubbles to form in the glue. If you cap the bottle properly, the glue will remain runny. If you must somehow shake the bottle, don't shake it up and down, but instead roll the bottle between your hands (like if you were to start a fire with sticks). You can keep a pen knife and some tissue handy so that if there are bubbles in the glue, you can poke them/remove them before you let the glue dry.

  I hope you create many beautiful things with this new knowledge. Leave me a comment in the comments section below if you'd like, and don't forget to keep tangling~