Category Archives: Wonder Wednesday

Because wonder means to be filled with adoration, amazement, or awe and I’m always amazed at the things I create

Two Ratoon Tiles and Inktober

This week I chose to tangle Ratoon on two different distress stained tiles. I tangled with a black uniball pen so as not to harm the nib of my microns.

I wasn’t feeling very creative in the shading and color department, so It is pretty much just some lineart on stained papers.

Here are the scans of the tiles.

Wait, they look better a bit smaller. ;)

I just kind of went with the flow for both tiles, adding more lines and auras and even loops where desired. It didn’t work out so well on the first tile. :D

Here are the pictures I took outside in the good old sunshine.

You know, looking at them now, I think I might be able to shade them a bit. We’ll see. If I do, I’ll add in my finished pieces later.

Tomorrow is the first of October and Inktober starts. :) I understand there is some major controversy surrounding the official inktober but I usually follow the tangle prompts. :)

Here is the link I followed to the tangle prompts for this year.

My goal is to do the prompts each day but I may combine some. I’ll share the week’s tiles with you each week throughout the month.

Until next time, God bless,
Michele ºÜº

Bob Ross Season 1 Episode 4

This week Tiffany and I decided to do the next Bob Ross video. It’s been a long time since I’ve done one of these and I must say, I’ve really missed it.

I bought some retarder with birthday money, to use with the acrylic paints and the Bob Ross method. This was the first time to use it as well.

Here’s our start.

We taped down our paper, spritzed it with water, and spread retarder on it. You can see the retarder in the picture below. It is the tall wide jar to the right of the blue water spritzer.

Then we realized he had his canvas turned different than ours. Thankfully we rotated our paper before we started. :)

I have decided not to use the wells on my pallet again; it was a bear to use because the brushes I’m using are too big. :D

The first step was to do some clouds. I forgot to get a picture of that. It was a bit touchy and I don’t feel I did it justice. :) Next up was to add some distant mountains. Then we followed that with more clouds and more mountains.

That blue was laid down, according to Bob, to provide some shadows as we go.

Here’s Tiff’s at this point.

After that there were trees, now drifts, bushes, more snow, more trees,  and more bushes.

Bob has you blending paints to make your own shades. This is why Tiffany’s and mine look sooo different. (Well, it’s one of the reasons. ;) )

We had to pause around this time because I had two pre-scheduled phone calls. So when we got back to it, I spread some retarder over the parts I thought we’d be working on next and proceeded. I think it muddied it up a bit.

After the trees, bushes, and snow, Bob surprised us and added in a cabin. Now I really didn’t have room for this cabin, so this is where we differ pretty much from Bob. But we kept going all the same.

After the cabin, then he added a fence. By this time, I was using rather thick paint but knew it would eventually dry.

Somewhere along the line I smeared some of the paint. I thought it happened later but this picture proves it happened early. I pulled the tape and will be getting some better tape for this because it ripped part of my paper. :(

We took our paintings outside and the sun decided to peek out at just the right time.

Not too bad!

Here’s Tiffany’s.

Oh, I just realized looking at Tiff’s that I didn’t put the highlight on the trunks of my trees! That would have made a huge difference. I like the icy look to Tiff’s version. Mine looks a bit stormy. :D

In case you are wondering, they really are that dark. We used mostly gray, created by brown, blue, and a bit of white and a lighter gray. :D

Well, that’s our attempt at Winter Mist. Have you tried this one? I hope you enjoyed this; we enjoyed doing it. We’ll be doing them more frequently.

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº

Purk Monotangle

This week I decided to go back to basics with my tile. Color stresses me a bit, so I wanted to keep it simple.

I started with one of my blank artist tiles, put down my four dots, borders, and a string. Then I checked the prompt over on Today’s Tangles: Keeping it Classic on facebook. Turns out they are keeping it simple this week too.

The prompt was to do a monotangle with your own choice of string. Of the tangles suggested, I chose Purk. It’s a tangle I like and I haven’t used it in a while.

Here’s the tile with my dots, borders, and string.

I added Purk in most of the sections, leaving only the middle and border empty. I should have added a bit of a border between the sections but it is what it is. ;)

Here is the scan and natural light picture of the tile before shading.

I just kept the shading simple too. I had considered using my gray copic markers to do some shading but really just wanted the simplicity of pencil. ;)

Here are the scan and the natural light pictures of the finished tile. Unfortunately the sun went behind a humongous cloud, so it isn’t as bright as I’d like.

It was a fun little tile to do and it felt good to do some art. :)

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº

Color Tile with Annie, Echo Lines, and Quabog

This week I decided to use another of the tiles that I made from the practice of my distress stains. The colors are a bit dark, so I wasn’t sure how it would turn out.I used Ian McDowell’s Tangle Library app based on Sandy Bartholomew’s tangle cards to decide what tangles to use. I picked Annee, the middle tangle, from it.

Then I remembered I had Eni Oken’s Art Raffle app too. So I opened it and raffled away. Echo Lines showed up on one raffle and Quabog on another. ;) I’d already thought about using Quabog and then it came up on the raffle, so I went with it (or at least part of it, as I didn’t do the upside down part).

Here is the tile after tangling, first the scan and then the picture out in natural light.

At this point I wasn’t sure what to do. I got out my prismacolors and used them to add some shading. I ended up adding a brownish red color too, other than the yellows and greens. All I did to Quabog was add some white ink for highlight, although I did thicken the right side of each one just a bit, as Maria had mentioned in a project pack (spinner). I also added some white pencil to the echo lines but I think I did it too early and too scratchy but it is what it is. ;)

Here is the finished tile, first the scan and then the one taken outside in the natural but overcast light. :)

I’d love any pointers you can give me for working with color and “shading”.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you have a great week.

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº

Bullet Journal September and Habit Trackers

Well, we started yet another month this week. I decided I wanted a pretty page for the month even if I don’t have new goals to note.

I searched through my washi tape and stickers to decide which ones to use. I liked the green floral first. Then went with the pastel green to go with it.

I had some letter stickers to use for the month at the top. Then I decided to put another light floral tape along the right side and add some stickers.

I do have a few things I want to accomplish this month, so I did note them with a little sticker at the top. I then chose a scripture sticker and more accent stickers.

I like how it turned out. :) It is pretty and has both the cool and warm colors that I like right now. It’s funny that I’m not drawn to glitter right now.

In the past, the six week from the first of September through the middle of October is a time I’m usually successful with “diets.” So, I’ve decided to be extra diligent over this next six weeks and thought a few habit trackers may be beneficial.

I chose to use some of the same tapes that I used on the monthly page.

I’ve left the center area for some journaling. I have habit trackers for exercise, water intake, eating fruit, and eating vegetables. I also made one for eating a fuel pull snack or meal in the day. I also have one for staying away from eating fatty cheese, tostadas, tortillas, Dreamfields, and other such items. I have a tendency to snack on cheese and lunch meat; since I found the lime treated tostadas, I’ve been snacking on them a bit, which isn’t a good idea for weight loss. :p

I’m hoping these habit trackers will help keep me motivated. ;) I hope this gives you some ideas.

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº

 

Ratoon on Colored Tile

Remember those papers that I shared last week? Well, I cut them into 3.5″x3.5″ tiles and some ATC. I decided to use one of the cut pieces for a tile today.

I wasn’t quite sure what to do but finally settled on tangling Ratoon. It’s a favorite of mine and I hoped htis paper would make it look nice.

You can see the sparkly bits from the Lindy’s Magicals. It’s hard to see in the picture but is subtly sparkly and pretty.

Because of the mica in the Magicals, I thought it would be best to keep from using one of my good pens with a nib. I went for one of my Uniball pens. :)

Here is the scan and picture I took of my line drawing.

The clouds had come out, so it isn’t a very bright picture.

I felt like it looked a bit  drab. So I decided to add a bit of colored pencil for shading or added depth.

I picked some greens but wish I’d have picked some blues . . . I’m not very good with color yet.

Here’s how it ended up, both scan and picture in natural light.

I really like the shimmer but using this method is unpredictable. ;)

I am going to have to try the other method, of using the magicals when shading and coloring a piece instead of before. But for now, I have all these tiles, so I’m going to have to figure out how to use them.

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº

Playing with Distress Stains and Lindy’s Magicals

While Stephanie was here, I got out my Tim Holtz Distress spray stains for us to play with a bit. Since she is into all the paper crafting/card making, she is familiar with products that I’m just dabbling in. ;)

I got the three little bottles together in one package a couple of years ago when I was a part of Eni Oken’s facebook group. She’d mentioned them and I found a good deal on some (40% off too). The colors looked like a red, a blue (my favorite shade of blue), and a green. Unfortunately when I used them the first time, although they were lovely colors, they were not what I was wanting. So for Christmas one year I got the bigger bottles of stain, hoping to get the shades I wanted.

You can see my first uses with the stains here (and distress markers here and here). For reference, here is a scan from that first use.

The smaller green is more of a minty green and the pink is coral, as is its name. I was very happy with the candy apple red and mowed lawn colors I got for Christmas last year. :)

Here’s a picture of the one I did with Stephanie.

They are brighter. :) I like it. I do have to be careful about overlapping colors. I just used plain cardstock for the paper. I’ll use a black unibal pen when I tangle on it. Oh and I will cut this down into smaller pieces before tangling. :)

I also got some Lindy’s Magicals that we played with too.

I’m told you only need a few grains of the powder for it to work its magic. So we tried several things.

I love the sparkle! I also like the fireworks-like burst of color that you can see in some of the colors.I tried different amounts of the powders. I’m interested to see how this looks after I tangle over it. Next time I’ll tangle first and then use magicals afterwards.

I’m really pleased with my supplies. :) I’m looking forward to using them more and earning just how to use them efficiently.

I do have to say that the colors are much more vibrant in person though.

I hope this encourages you to try your hand at some new art supplies. :)

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº

Stamping and Embossing

My friend Stephanie was here last week. She has been making cards for years and they are quite lovely. I think she started with stamping.

I’ve had a number of stamps for years but have never been very successful using them. They usually end up with light bits or the edges of the stamps showing on the finished piece. :( So, I asked Stephanie to help me.

One of the things I learned was to use a thick piece of foam under the paper I want to stamp on. This helps with the light spots. I’m not completely clear on why it helps but it certainly does.

Here are some of my practice stamps.

With the trees, she was teaching me about 2nd generation stamping and beyond to push things into the distance.

Then she taught me to use the embosser I got last year. Turns out I got a really good one for an incredible deal. All the embossing powders I got were glittery. :) I had been in a glitzy mood for quite some time.

I started with the black glittery powder on this fence stamp.

As you can see, there was some smudging from my fingerprints on the tile. So, she taught me about the little buddy . . . I didn’t take a picture of it yet, but basically you put baby powder or cornstarch in a baby sock, secure it, and then swipe it over the tile before you stamp the tile with the embossing stuff (the glycerine stamp pad stuff; one brand is VersaMark).

We used my adorable mouse stamp with the white glitter embossing powder next.

I know it is hard to see. Here’s the stamp.

Steph said I should color it with my grey copics I learned earlier in the week.

It was hard to see. So we moved on to some color and used this ribbons stamp. It’s smaller than the mouse. I love the colors though!

I have no idea what I’ll do on the rest of that tile though. I’m sure I’ll be afraid to mess it up. :D

Then we tried something new to Steph too. We used the embossing pad (not the right term probably) and the bonding powder. Then heated it up and then used brushed on old eye shadow and used a tissue to wipe away the loose bits/parts not on the bonding powder. Pretty cool use for those old eye shadows. :)

It definitely shows up better on the black tile than the white one but it is definitely something I’ll play around with more in the future.

We also played with my distress stains and magicals but I’ll share that next week. If you’re interested in more details of any of this, just comment and I’ll get a tutorial done. ;)

I hope you have a great week and explore some new materials.

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº

Learning Copic Markers

Our dear friends are here this week and Stephanie is a big crafter. She makes amazing and beautiful cards. She does stamping and has used Copic markers for years and years.

Several years ago I got a set of gray neutral copic sketch markers for Christmas. They were suggested in a book by Eni Oken on shading Zentangles. I got them and was intimidated by them and have never used them. (I didn’t get that book back out and see what Eni suggested.) So on their second day here she gave me a bit of a training session on using the copic markers.

I grabbed a 3.5 x 3.5 bristol vellum tile (one I cut from a larger sheet of vellum), put my corner dots, border, and then drew in a quick string without thinking about it. I decided to use several different kinds of tangles to try out some different methods of shading.

I was so focused on learning how to use the markers that I completely forgot about taking a before scan or picture. :D

I used Shattuck, Umble, Zander, and some Tipple (?) or at least that is what I think the tangles were.

The first shading I did was on the right hand side on (straight-line) Shattuck.

Here’s part of the scanned tile.

I was pretty happy with the shading there. Then I decided to try something a little different with Umble, there in the white center section. I did the overlapping areas and then decided to try shading the top most parts to be rounded. It didn’t work so good. Then I added a line of white and that only made it worse. Then I shaded the curved zander on the side and it was okay.

The last thing was the orbs on the top and I wasn’t too sure about them. I figured they were going to be the hardest and I wasn’t expecting much.

I was amazed! Here’s the whole scanned tile and then the picture I took outside in natural sunlight. :)

As usual, the scan is a bit harsher and shows all the flaws. ;) But it looks pretty good from a normal distance. :D This was definitely something that was worth doing and I will try it again in the future.

It’s not easy trying something new, but it is very rewarding. I encourage you to take time for yourself and do something artistic, even if the first results are as nice as you’d like. Go easy on yourself and let it help you de-stress from your day. :)

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº

Practice Tile: Twing, Tidal, Indy-Rella, and Marasu

After Christmas I tried out the Lindy’s Magicals on a artist tile. I wasn’t real pleased with the outcome but put it in my stash of tiles after it dried. And there it has sat for about 6 or 7 months. ;) Clearly there is a learning curve with these and I have not yet taken the time to play with them any more yet.

Since the Zen-Untangled project is over, I haven’t decided to keep playing along with the Tangles All Around facebook group. Honestly, I needed the break and I don’t like that I cannot share my blog page link when I share a tile there.

Any way, I was upset one evening and didn’t feel like playing a game, so I got that tile out and decided to tangle on it. Since I wasn’t in the best mood, I didn’t care how it turned out, so it was safe to use that tile. :D

In the largest section I went with Marasu. I didn’t want to think too much and that one is pretty easy. Then I’d made friends with Twing and so decided to add it as well. Indy-Relly is another one that isn’t complicated and so I added it but didn’t like it when I was finished; we haven’t become friends yet. ;) Finally I added Tidal because it is easy.

So here is my tile before shading, both the scan and the picture taken outside on an overcast day.

You cannot see the sparkles very well in the scan or pictures, for that matter, but it is there. :)

The orange and the blueish sections are the most sparkly. :)

I used my prismacolor pencils and attempted some shading. I’m not very good with color shading yet, so this is definitely a practice piece any way you look at it. :D

Here is the scan of the tile after shading.

I probably should have put some kind of highlight on Tidal to make it look a bit less bland. :D

Here it the picture I took outside in natural, but overcast, light.

In this one you can see the sparkles a bit more.

Well that is all for me today. I hope you take some time to play with some kind of art this week. :) It really is good for you.

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº