Nontraditional Holiday Zentangle -- December with the UnstampaBelles

This month at the UnstampaBelles challenge we want you to Zentangle something for a Winter Holiday, with the optional twist of Nontraditional. You can make whatever you like without using any stamps. You need to follow the twist to be considered as the DT Favorite, but you only have to follow main theme to win our prize.

I got really creative with this challenge! I made a Festivus card for my best friend. I used a fairly traditional Zentangle-inspired design for the top line of text, but I used my own doodle for the larger letters.

I created the sentiment with the font Fat Outline by PizzaDude. I doodled/filled int he letters with a fine black pen. For "season" and the black portions of the doodle in "grievances," I used a black stamp marker & heat-embossed it with a shiny black powder. It was time-consuming, but worth it!

I made the "Festivus pole" by heat-embossing a chopstick with silver powder. I used my black pen to draw little lines on the white-and-silver ribbon.

Inspiration/Challenges:
4 Crafty Chicks #380: Monochrome
Crafter's Cafe #186: Embossing Wet or Dry
Fab 'n' Funky #374: All Tied Up

Be sure to check out the fabulous projects by my teammates the UnstampaBelles this month!

Thank you for visiting,

Zentangle + Black & White Card - New challenge at Crafting with Dragonflies

This fortnight at Crafting with Dragonflies we're challenging you to use the Zentangle technique to create a Black & White Card. This is my first time using this technique, and I was inspired by the tutorials at Tangle Patterns and the beautiful creations by the Crafting with Dragonflies Design Team.

This challenge is sponsored by Bugaboo Digi Stamps and Eureka Stamps, and I had fun doodling inside two different sizes of Eureka's Stained Glass Sun:

Although I've always admired people who do beautiful the Zentangle designs, but honestly I didn't feel like a good enough of an artist to do such design-specific doodling. It seemed overly complicated, but once I started looking at Tangle ideas and projects, I found that it sort of simplifies doodling.Once I got comfortable with some basic designs, I kinda just did my own thing. I was specifically inspired by the Knightsbridge Zentangle, Ko'oko'o by Mary Kissel (the braid pattern), and Reticulated by Livia Chua. The doodle on the wood owl is based, very loosely, on Warangaie by Sandra Strait.

The sentiment, a quote from The Rocky Horror Picture Show, was printed and heat-embossed directly onto the shiny black paper. I hand-cut the frame and doodled in it. The big sun is on a large bard, so it spins!

Thank you for visiting, and hope you'll join us at Crafting with Dragonflies,