First Zentangle

My first Zentangle

I have been doodling tonight or Zentangling.  I have had so much fun.  I have placed the image on a card for the purpose of photographing it - so it may end up on a card, or it may end up in a picture frame.  It didn't take very long (and in fact I did another one tonight - which I will share at the weekend - the reason for the delay will become obvious then!).

Whilst we were at Sandown, we watched a demonstration of Zentangle, which I already knew about having watched Barbara Gray on C&C.    My daughter had never seen it before, and I knew she would love it as she is a great "doodler" (as I used to be when I was at work taking notes at meetings, or taking dictation, etc  and doodles would appear on my notebook if the meeting was boring or whilst my boss was on the phone!).

The upshot was that I offered to buy her a starter pack and instruction book as part of her Birthday present.  Well I have been very very good, and tempted as I was to have a peak at the book, I have refrained !  However, I did this afternoon google Zentangle, and having watched some videos, my fingers were itching to pick up a pen!

I cut the shape of the paper with my Making Memories wavy cutter and created a random shape and then went from there, using the inspiration from videos and patterns I found on the net.   The demonstrator we saw at Sandown actually used pencil and a blender pencil to give some shading, but obviously as I don't have that mine are just black and white.  I used a Letraset 0.1 Fine Line Drawing Pen, and filled in some of the bigger blocks with a black Promarker, for quickness.  I also edged the finished design with the Promarker.  

Close-up  of the Zentangle

The pack I bought for my daughter also had some template patterns for things like Christmas Trees, Valentine Hearts, etc - so can't wait for her to open her present and learn more!  I am already thinking along the lines of using my Paint Fusion Stamps and Zentangling them!

The demonstrator also showed us examples of coloured Zentangles using jelly pens - and in particular using a white pen and also Sakura clear sparkle on black card.!   ooooo can't wait to try that - I have an Inkessentials White pen in my stash, as well as the Sakura Clear Sparkle  (I use it so much that I even know the number of that pen - 700!)  (Am also wondering if my old blender pen in my felt pen stash might work too on the pencil ..... ?)

Sorry for the rambling - but you will gather I am rather hooked!  Do have a try for yourself - I gather it is all the rage in the States, and is considered to be Yoga for the Brain!

Mags