The Hyper Monkey

I joined a very interesting swap on Swap-Bot. The details are as follows:

For this swap you will go on a treasure hunt for tangle patterns! Keep your eyes open for potential tangle patterns in the things around you: maybe a swimsuit print, a rug, a flower bud, a wall ornament. Take a photo, clipping, or good description and illustration of your inspirational tangle pattern, and create a 3.5 zentangle square that incorporates your found tangle (you can use other tangles too).

Doesn’t that sound like fun? Well, I thought so!

For my inspiration I used my, rather embarrassingly dusty ol’ Vornado fan. This shows my lack of housekeeping skills. :P

Ew! Dusty!

At first I just went at it on a tile, doing this then doing that.

"Pinwheelz"

I wasn’t very happy with the results, but I did find a pattern in there that I liked, so I used that in a more organized tile.

"Secret Vineyard"

When I mail the swap out (hopefully tomorrow or Friday) I’ll also include the steps to the pattern that I’m calling “Spidert”. (Spy-dirt) Downloadable image here.

"Spidert"

I hope my partner likes it!

In other new, here’s a tangle I finished this week.

"Bitter Taste"

That tangle is a reflection not only of the kind of mood I’ve been in, but of the music I’ve been listening to. I’ve been a bit cranky for a number of reasons, I won’t bore you with them. Anyway, the point is  I’ve been listening to bands like Three Days Grace.

The quote I put in that tangle is from one of their songs, “Bitter Taste” and it’s from their album “Life Starts Now”.  I just downloaded it this week so I’ve been happily listening to it over and over again as I rarely get new music.

I normally listen to Breaking Benjamin when I’m in “a mood.” Actually I listen to Breaking Benjamin a lot. They’re just about my favorite band. :D

For some reason, groups like these two really calm me down. I think this is further evidence of my weird-ass brain.

Or it could just be because it’s so cathartic as one Facebooker put it.

Kitteh!

Peace out!

Or should I say crank out? o.O

My brain is weird. Lately it’s been going to very strange places and it’s been transmitting itself through my drawings.*

My bizarre brain, as seen with the new rubber stamps I decided to tangle around.

"Wonderland #1"

I didn’t mean for this to emerge in such a peculiar fashion. Like a lot of my tangles, this simply flowed and became what it was out of semingly nowhere.

Once it did, I decided to just run with it and do a series of tangles in this fashion.

"Wonderland #2"

No. 2 was a little bit more mapped out. In other words, I had a better idea of what I wanted to do in my noggin.

Both of these were incredibly fun to do and I plan on doing more of them. In fact, I just bought more face stamps to continue on in this vein. I also have one in the works only I’m recycling one of the stamps I’ve already used.

I love tangling around rubber stamps. It can be a bit challenging for me, but that may be what’s so alluring. I’m really looking forward to getting the new stamps.  In fact, I’m chomping at the bit.

Gimme! :D

Earlier this week, I had a bit of drama that took place in my living room. Quincy and Scheyer had a smack-down fight right in my living room. These two are normally the best of buddies. Only something outside really upset Quincy. His tail fluffed to twice the size and he started growling.

This is highly unusual. He’s an extremely gentle and nothing seems to upset him. Not even other neighborhood cats near his territory bother him. I’ve seen strange cats come straight up to the window and all Quincy’s done is kinda look at them with this “Hey. ‘Sup?” type of glance.

I have no idea what upset him.

While he was looking out the window, Scheyer jumped up and tried to see what was going on. He brushed up against Quincy and this was a big mistake. Quincy turned on him and BAM!  Claws-out knock-out fight. We had to douse them water to get them to stop fighting. :(

I was so worried that they’d end up bitter enemies. I had visions of having to separating them and slowly reintroducing them and all that horrible stuff for the poor furry ones.

Thank goodness that was not the case. As a matter of fact, they were back to being best buddies yesterday afternoon.

See?

Canoodling!

Have a great Tuesday!

*Okay, so maybe my brain has always been strange, weird, peculiar and bizarre. :D

First off, I’d like to thank you all for the wonderful comments I got about my little bunny. Thank you all! I’m sure he’d appreciate them too if he were the appreciative sort.  ;-)

Moving on.

Over the weekend I decided to take my Zentangles to a new level. I have a few friends I’d like to send cards to so I decided to actually make the cards.

The first is a “Thank You” card.

For that card, I used some Tim Holtz Masks and a stamp I got from our Megan, who’s blog has moved to I don’t know where. For the tag I used a Spellbinders Die Cut and my Cuttlebug.

This was the first time I used a Die Cut with my Cuttlebug so I was rather surprised that the thing cut up my plate. In fact I thought I was doing something wrong. Thank goodness FibreJunky set me straight. :P

The next two cards are pretty much clones of themselves.

No.1

No.2

I did use different tangles and I did use different embossing folders for the backgrounds and I did use different colors. So maybe they are a bit different. The stencils are the same though. To me they look like clones.  :P

This was the first time I used a stencil with my zentangles. I had a lot of fun with it! I hope to use more of them in the future.

I hope the recipients enjoy these cards as much as I enjoyed making them.

Over the weekend I also got a new phone. Here’s one of the photos I took with it. Sammy didn’t like the flash, but it shows him enjoying my handknits. As you can see I take really good care of them. :P

Not bad for a camera shot, eh?

Have a good Monday! Oh wait. I’m behind everyone.

I hope everyone’s having a good Monday! :D

(And yes! I enjoy sticking my tongue out at people!)

So this week’s weekly challenge by The Diva is to tangle an egg or eggs. At first I was going to skip this week like I did last week. (Fifteen minutes? No way!) Then I had some idle time between tangles and I decided to give it a shot.

It went well at first. I had happy eggs. I even decided to throw in a happy bunny.

Really though? I am not Christian so this isn’t a religious holiday for me and the thought of all those pastel colors that are associated with Easter? Not to mention all those little children scampering about on the hunt for those hidden pastel colored eggs? Blargh.

Suddenly, my eggs started filling up with black ink. Before you knew it, my happy eggs looked more Goth then Easter.

And my bunny? My bunny?! Ha!

See for yourself.

"Sinister Bunny"

That is definitely not the bunny little childrens want to see hopping about with their eggs and candy. I really like him though and I think he’s cute. :P

So Happy Easter everyone! Have fun with your eggs. ;-)

Don’t forget to smell the Hibiscus even if they don’t have any odor or if they’re not even in full bloom.

Have a great long weekend! :D

NOTE!: I am not bashing Easter as a religious holiday! I am simply stating my distaste of pastel colors and innumerable  amounts of scampering children! If you don’t like it, don’t read it.

I don’t know why I’ve been blogging pretty much every day. I know I’ve been flooding everyone’s RSS feeders. I just can’t seem to stop! It must be my addictive personality. :P

Oh well. It makes me happy. :D

Another thing I’m addicted to is Zentangles. I think you already knew that. :)

Lately I’ve been addicted to adding color to my tangles! You already knew that too. :)

Without further ado, I’ll just introduce my latest tangle. I tried not to get too crazy with the color this time around. :)

"Pansy in the Spring"

I’m not sure how well that turned out, but I sure had fun making it! That’s the whole point, after all right? :D

Another thing I’ve been having fun with is coming out with “new” tangle patterns. I came up with this one awhile back and never got around to writing the steps out or scanning them in or posting them or blahblahblah. I think this was right around the time my All-In-One died on me.

"japonicus"

It’s a variation of the kick-ass pattern Japonica by the kick-ass Sandra Strait aka Molossus.  Here’s an example of how it’s used in a tangle.

"Japonica Love" 3-6-11

That’s actually my very first tangle in my 5.5″ square Handbook Artist Journal. I can’t believe I’m over halfway through it already!

Ooh! Lookie! The orchid has one bloom! :D

Today it seems I’m also addicted to emoticons! :D

Happy Thursday, everyone! I sure hope it’s a Friday for you!

I’ve always viewed art as therapeutic, especially art journaling. It can be soothing and it can be cathartic.

On Monday I started a “soothing” page and was able to finish it up yesterday.

"zen"

My mother gave me these tiny books full of little quotes. I often look through them when I’m feeling down and these quotes lift me up. That particular quote is a favorite of mine.

The collaged “zen”? That happened to be a gift from my lovely friend Lisa, who’s blog I have lost the link to (mayshepleaseforgiveme). I think it’s a lovely memento of our long lasting, loving, and enduring friendship. :)

The next page was much more cathartic for me. Usually any piece that has “dark” elements is rather cleansing for my soul.

"isolated"

I decided to leave out any words and let the art speak for itself, so to speak.

Even though it’s a bit sad and woeful, there is some brightness! If only the poor girl would look up!

Sammy sees the hope! Maybe?

BTW, I gave the blog a face lift. I think this particular theme looks a bit like a tangle. :)

Happy Wednesday everyone! I hear it’s a short work week? Woohoo!

I’ve been so frenetic lately, it seems like my body can’t keep up with my ambitions. There are so many things I want to do. What happens is I feel like I’m being pulled in so many directions that I end up actually do nothing. I’d like to slow down. I’d like to pace myself.

We’ll see how that works out.

O.o

When I wake up, I like to have a cup of tea in bed and tangle. Yesterday morning, I finished this.

"Set Fire To The Rain"

The quote reads “I set fire to the rain…well it burned while I cried.” It’s from the song “Set Fire To The Rain” by Adele from her album”21″. It’s my absolute favorite song on that album.

Care to listen in?

Happy Tuesday everyone!

Contrary to what people think when they see me with my arts and crafts, I am not a patient person. In fact, I’m very impatient. (For those who know me well, you can stop sniggering.) Waiting for a certain leather to get to the bead shop and then waiting for that leather and then waiting for that leather. Well, it took a lot of patience on my part.

As luck would have it, I got an email saying it arrived on the very day I was planning on hitting the shop anyway!

Victory is mine. :P

Infamous Distressed Brown Leather (0.5mm)

My next stop was Ben Franklin. I had been trying to get there for weeks! I think I tried for a month. Since it’s usually our last stop on our way home from running errands, I’ve been too exhausted by then to do it.

Finally! This past Saturday! I made it!

I bought stencils! I bought templates!  I also bought some nifty eyelets!

Don’t ask me what I’m going to do with the eyelets! I’m really not sure!

That’s the way it’s been since last week. I’ve been going down this scrapbooking supply road.  I’ve got this idea into my crazy head that I can combine art journaling and Zentangles and scrapbooking all into one. I really don’t need to scrapbook. My family doesn’t take a lot of photos. The photos I take are mainly of my cats.

I wonder what that says about me.

Don’t answer that.

I do like to art journal and Zentangle though. Only I really want to play with the pretty scrapbook papers and maybe make some greeting cards. I thought that maybe I can combine all those interests into one big creative blob.

Maybe.

Hrm.

Speaking of Zentangles, of course I wasn’t idle since Friday/Saturday.

I really can’t think of a name for this one. Can you?

Untitled - 4/16/11

The next one is a bit of art jounaling and a bit of Zentangling.

"Life Is Short" - 4/17/11

I got the quote from a tiny book called “The Little Book of Buddhist Wisdom”. Unfortunately I did this in my tiny 5.5″x5.5″ journal so I couldn’t fit the whole quote in it. The whole quote reads:

“Try not to live as if time were a reality which can steal away your life.

Life is short, yet the moment transcends eternity.”

-Zen Graffit

Sammy says, “Ah. Very wise.”

I wish you a happy Monday! I hope you all had a glorious weekend. :)

I didn’t get enough sleep and I’ve give up on all attempts to get more sleep.  So please excuse any incoherency on my part! I’m a little bit loopy from all the sleep deprivation as this has been an all too regular occurrence.

Blargh.

Moving on.

After yesterday’s post extolling the virtues of my lovely watercolor pencils, I ended up doing a vanilla black and white tangle.

Isn’t that always the way?

"Zentangle Carnvial Ride"

Truth be told, I was afraid I’d wreck the tangle if I added color. I like it just fine as it is.

My next tangle really is a tangle in the true sense of the word. I was staring at my cat Sammy and I thought I’d try to make a sketch of him. Only I don’t really do that kind of thing. I suck at realism. :D

Sammy!

I tried to add watercolor pencils to depict his coloring, but I’ve never really tried that before so the whole cat portion of this drawing is entirely experimental. I have to say I’m happy that it at least looks like a cat. :)

However, I think I’m in a rut when it comes to the “egg” shapes. I’m always doing either “plurk” or “mooka” patterns.  I must make a note to try something new in the future! I’m also getting hooked on variations of “knightsbridge”. They’re just fun to do!

I’m wondering if it’s a bad thing when one starts repeating patterns for a period. There are so many variations and you can use them in so many different ways. It’s not like every tangle is a replica of another.

Hrm. Thoughts?

The real Sammy says, “Hrmph. I’m much cuter then that!”

The Real Sammy

For more feline cuteness you must visit my friend Jen’s Flickr site. She just got kittehs! :D

I hope you have/are having a fabulous Saturday! I get to go to some fun places! The craft store, the bead shop, and maybe even a scrapbook shop! Woot!

Pray I have the stamina. Mmmkay? :D

So I did get the pencils I wanted. I now have a multitude of pencils. I have an absolute plethora of pencils.  See for yourself!

That pencil case holds 48 pencils.

But wait! There’s more!

All my pencils don’t fit in the case! These lonely pencils are stranded with nowhere to go.

You would think with all those pencils I’d get the exact color I want where I want it.

Oh no. Not me.

"Tension"

“Tension”? Are you kidding me? Those pink areas are supposed to be red.  Red, I tell you. Not pink.

I’m going to blame it on the lighting, because I honestly can’t blame it on my scanner. :P

Sammy says, “Quit yer whining or I claw yer eyes out.”

Haha!

Have a great weekend folks! Although, knowing me, I’ll most likely torture you with a post over the weekend too. :P