Tangled Worship Flags

Okay, the girls had their surprise today at church so I can show these now. They were very excited to receive these flags made just for them from words they chose after the Furious Love Event. I challenged them to each pick one word that would describe something they received from the Lord at the Event and that they would also like to give to others. Marissa chose Love, and Alyssa chose Health. The girls are both 11 yrs. old and love to worship Jesus.
The flags are on white silkessence fabric with a metallic fabric on the side. The lettering was designed on the computer then transferred to the fabric using a black Pentel Gel Roller for Fabric. The drawing was just made up as I went along. The colors were added using Fabrico Dual Brush tip markers. Those need heat set with an iron. The black Pentel doesn't. Neither bleed much at all into the fabric.

The girls during worship. Marissa is my granddaughter, but so is Alyssa. I call them 'twins by different mothers' so Alyssa calls me grandma. Sounds fair to me! They are both wonderful young ladies!

Tangled Fabric Sampler

I've been working some on fabric with a few different brands of markers and thought it might be good to do a little sampler and post it here. It's pretty self-explanatory. Four different fabric samples showing the effects of the different markers in black: Pentel Gel Roller for Fabric (my favorite, but it does get used up fast - buy extra!); Pigma Brush Marker, labeled Graphic 1; and Sharpie. And for the colors: Marvy Fashion Fabric; Fabrico Dual Brush (my favorite for color); and Fabrico Brush in black.

All of them worked fairly well on the cotton sateen. On the silk and silkessence the Pigma Gel Roller for black combined with the Fabrico Dual Markers for the color seemed to be the best combination.

The Gel Rollers and the brush tipped markers work well on fabric: the harder tips like on the Sharpies and the Pigma Micron .01 black commonly used for zentangle do not work well on the fabric. They make it pull too much instead of gliding across the surface.

Of course, an alternative is always to do the drawing on paper, scan or photograph it, then print it on fabric with a good ink jet print printer that uses an archival ink such as DuraBrite or the K3 Ultrachrome inks in some Epson printers.

Just wanted to share some thoughts on this.

Challenge 19: Light on Dark

For Challenge 19 on the Diva's site (see sidebar), More Morris (light on dark).
We're only allowed to enter 2 images now and I did 3 I really liked (and a few I really didn't...) so this is my 'cheater' way to enter all 3. It is still just 2 images to upload!
And I didn't have a good white gel marker so I used black but also gold and silver markers for the light effects. The markers are Pentel Sunburst Metallic Gel, gold and silver. I like them a lot and they are permanent and archival. They are very smooth to write with and covered the black very nicely. The top drawing was black and gold over a watercolor wash.
I really enjoyed this particular challenge. I love light on dark effects.

Challenge 18: Easter Eggs (and ATCs)

Challenge 18 for the Diva (see sidebar) is Egg. So here are my Easter eggs.

ATCs for the ZIA Forum May swaps. (not the eggs - I just photographed them all together.)
They have to go out early next week to be there by May 1st.

Tangled Gourds and a Teaser Photo

I haven't posted or been online in the world of Tangles for a while but that doesn't mean I haven't been doing anything (for once!). In this case, it means I've been too busy cranking out drawings to do anything online. But here are a few show-and-tells. There were 8 gourds in all, but I forgot to photograph them before I sent one to it's new home.
They are made as wren houses with a 1" hole, and it's almost time for the wrens to come back - so I decided to just do a tangling blitz and just get them done. I had a ton of seeds from inside them that are mostly now on my compost pile - so maybe I'll have a ton of new plants for next year! (These are saved large enough to see details if you click on the photo to make it full sized.)

They were fun, but I'm glad they're done and ready to go. My husband sprayed an outdoor clear spray on them and the marker I used had a wide tip, but it was a garden marker so made for outdoor usage. I hope to hang mine under some kind of awning or covering so it will not be quite as exposed to weather - but I do hope birds use them (not wasps!). There are 2 very small holes drilled in the bottom of each one in case rain gets in them.

And...two teaser photos of something else I'm working on but can't post yet because they are a surprise for someone. After the recipient sees them I will post full photos and more details. But it's been lots of fun - I am very pleased with the technique and results - and there will be more play with these things in the future for me. Another week or so and they will be delivered. Actually the one below is the 'failed' attempt, a third version followed but I don't have any photos yet at all from that one yet. The failed one will be used for something else.