Lighting Our Tree

In our 12th Day of Christmas blog we "lit" our Christmas tree. We told you we'd tell you how we did it in our next blog.

Here is a view of three Christmas trees Maria tangled on Zentangle Zendala tiles:

Here they are lit:

We accomplished all this by tangling them with Sakura® Gelly Roll® Moonlight® pens. Certain colors of these pens fluoresce under a UV light.

For instance, here is a view with a UV flashlight turned off:

And here is that same view with the UV flashlight turned on:

We discovered another neat aspect of UV light as we were playing around. If you use a regular white Gelly Roll pen on an original white Zentangle tile, you can't easily see it in regular light.

But when you illuminate it with a UV light you can see the "secret" message!

In this case:

Merry Christmas

Happy New Year

Seasons' Greetings

Happy Holidays

and two of our year-round favorite words:

Passion & Gratitude

Such fun!

Check out the newsletter associated with this blog post for a list of the prize winners of our 12 Days of Christmas blog series.

All of us here wish you and yours a wonder-full year in 2014!

Click images for larger views.

Day 12

On the twelfth day of Christmas

My true loves got from me

Twelve tangled placecards

Eleven tiles festooning
Ten tangled heart-strings

Nine hand-y tangles

An eight penny wallet

A seven-finned Fan-tangle

Six letters dancing

Five Golden Things !
Four puzzle pieces

Three bottle gift tags

Two Yuletide ornaments

From my Treasure Box of ATCs!

-----+-----

Rick's Notes:
Molly made these placecards for our family Thanksgiving meal. And yes, for those who counted, there are thirteen placecards. It makes sense though. After Molly made twelve for everyone else, she needed one, too!

She used rubber stamp letters for the names and pasted a folded card to the back of each Zentangle ATC tile to hold it up.

Since there's always an elf on the twELFth day, Elf joined us for this photo shoot. When evening came, Elf lit the tree that Maria tangled from a black Zentangle Zendala tile.

(We'll show you how he did it in our next blog.)

See you soon!

Click images for a larger view.

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Day 11

On the eleventh day of Christmas

My true love got from me

Eleven tiles festooning

Ten tangled heart-strings

Nine hand-y tangles

An eight penny wallet

A seven-finned Fan-tangle

Six letters dancing

Five Golden Things !
Four puzzle pieces

Three bottle gift tags

Two Yuletide ornaments

From my Treasure Box of ATCs!

-----+-----

Rick's Notes:

That festooned frame hangs on our porch . . .

. . . and the late summer pink of those now dried hydrangea will linger throughout the winter.

Maria created each "bead" from a Zentangle ATC tile by free hand slit-scoring each tile into quarters with an X-Acto® knife, either lengthwise or width-wise. She then tangled three facets and used some double sided ATG® tape on the fourth facet.

She also uses this particular X-Acto blade to slice open the tubes of gold gouache to use every last little bit . . . hence the golden blade. That candle holder with the wine cork is how she keeps her X-Acto blades safely close at hand.

A "festoon" is described as "a string or chain of flowers, foliage, ribbon, etc., suspended in a curve between two points" (dictionary.com). We had carefully chosen this word to describe this day's contribution before Maria put this festoon together. But, I didn't expect her to festoon the festoon!

First she threaded each ATC "bead" with silk ribbon and a knot between each "bead." The she threaded a fine green mesh ribbon through those knots, adding a red glass crow bead between each knot.

You may notice some tangling on the glass over that tree. We put a piece frosted glass over the painting, frosted side out, and we're tangling the image. Notice in the first image how we "repaired" this damaged frame!

Click images for a larger view.

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Day 10

On the tenth day of Christmas

My true love got from me

Ten tangled heart-strings

Nine hand-y tangles

An eight penny wallet

A seven-finned Fan-tangle

Six letters dancing

Five Golden Things !
Four puzzle pieces

Three bottle gift tags

Two Yuletide ornaments

From my Treasure Box of ATCs!

-----+-----

Rick's Notes:

Take a closer look at Maria's beaded heart on that last Zentangle ATC tile:

She created those radiating circles with a grey Fabrico® marker.

She secured that tangle of beads with some Fire Line® beading thread . . .

. . . a strong heart-string indeed.

Click images for a larger view.

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Day 9

On the ninth day of Christmas

My true love got from me

Nine hand-y tangles

An eight penny wallet

A seven-finned Fan-tangle

Six letters dancing

Five Golden Things !
Four puzzle pieces

Three bottle gift tags

Two Yuletide ornaments

From my Treasure Box of ATCs!

-----+-----

Rick's Notes:
Maria tangled these Zentangle ATC tiles as borders to frame pictures. Instead of pictures of faces we decided to do hands. Well, that led to taking pictures this morning of the hands of everyone here today - Mary Lou, Sue, Martha, Molly, Maria and me (and more) - and then some Photoshop® fun!

I took the pictures at tea time. Every day we stop work around 10 am and have a pot of tea with our traditional toasted rice cakes with butter, salt and pepper.

Today Sue brought in some tiny tangerines as an added treat!

Click images for a larger view.

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Day 8

On the eighth day of Christmas
My true love got from me
An eight penny wallet

A seven-finned Fan-tangle

Six letters dancing

Five Golden Things !
Four puzzle pieces

Three bottle gift tags

Two Yuletide ornaments

From my Treasure Box of ATCs!

-----+-----

Rick's Notes:
Molly created this wallet using white and black Zentangle ATC tiles, clear packing tape and a snap.

These pennies are ones that Maria and I found as we walk together. We treasure every little thing we encounter and these pennies, full of color, character and history, are some of our favorites.

Click images for a larger view.

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Day 7

On the seventh day of Christmas
My true love got from me
A seven-finned Fan-tangle

Six letters dancing

Five Golden Things !
Four puzzle pieces

Three bottle gift tags

Two Yuletide ornaments

From my Treasure Box of ATCs!

-----+-----

Rick's Notes:
That button was from my grandmother's sewing box. Maria used an awl to punch a hole through the layers of tiles large enough to push the button's shank through.

She attached it with the same clevis hairpin that originally held the button on its display card. You could also use a paper clip.


Click images for a larger view.

See you soon!

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Day 6

On the sixth day of Christmas

My true love got from me

Six letters dancing

Five Golden Things !
Four puzzle pieces

Three bottle gift tags

Two Yuletide ornaments

From my Treasure Box of ATCs!

-----+-----

Notes:
After Molly tangled these Zentangle ATCs, she sandwiched a silk ribbon between the tangled ATC and a blank one, added a couple beads, and ta-da!

Click image for a larger view to enjoy each beautiful letter!

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Day 5

On the fifth day of Christmas

My true love got from me

Five

Golden

Things

!

Four puzzle pieces

Three bottle gift tags

Two Yuletide ornaments

From my Treasure Box of ATCs!

-----+-----

Maria writes:

Not everyone has these tools, but it's what I work with on a daily basis. I used one of my pointed pens, dipped in (actually "swiped" with a brush loaded with) gold gouache. 

Gouache is a watercolor-like paint in a tube with a little more gravitas than the usual watercolor. I used a Turner® Gold Orange and a Holbein® Brilliant Gold. Both of these tubes of paint (approximately 0.5 ounces each) are a hefty investment . . . each around $20 a tube. I tell you all this because, well, someone is bound to ask! 

I have yet to find a gold marker capable of producing this effect. Maybe someone out there in this Zentangle universe has found one. If so, give it up to these passionate tanglers!  :-)

- M

Click images for larger views and . . . 

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Day 4

On the fourth day of Christmas

My true love got from me

 Four puzzle pieces

Three bottle gift tags

Two Yuletide ornaments

From my Treasure Box of ATCs!

-----+-----

Puzzle Solved!

Click images for larger views and . . . 

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