Like every year before him, 2011 has come with a list of good intentions and two entries on this list are (1) participate in more swaps/tags/etc. and (2) do more creative stuff. And look at this : 2 birds with one stone with this Tangle Hearts swap on swapbot :o)

Seasonal obligation, the first ATC zentangle swap of the year has a heart's theme and should ideally reach my partners by Valentine's Day. Considering the less than punctual postal services however, I have my doubts on their timely arrival, but well ... we can always hope, can't we? I certainly had fun making those and I hope my partners will appreciate them too.

Anyway, this cloud of hearts was sent to my partner ElsD in New Zealand. And she seemed to like it, because I got a ♥ too :o)

Below are two extra Zentangle ATCs I made but didn't send out. they are therefore still available for trade. If interested, drop me a line in the comments. :o)

Another Zentangle swap on swap-bot and I cannot resist the temptation to sign up ... These are the results of a few evenings of doodling. I like them but at the same time, I have the feeling that I am being repetitive. I know that's what zentangles are all about "repetitive patterns" but still ...

These six ATCs are on their way to ATC Artists in the US (Crochetjunkie & Pjay). I hope they will like them.



I already received three ATCs from flyraeven. You can see her work just to the left.

I became really hooked with this zentangle thing, don't let anyone tell you they're not addictive :o)

I joined a swap on swapbot for handdrawn black and white ATCs (send by date is end of August but I decided to start early) and since zentangles are allowed, I made these 4 ATCs yesterday.

These were fun to make so I'm sure that my zentangle ATC series will go on for quite some time (just like the Japanophilia series).

Today I will be working on a decorated fan that I have to send for a private swapbot swap. I guess that the result of this crafting will be the subject of my next post.

I have a week off from work this week as our office is closed for annual holidays, so I'll have plenty of time to do some crafting and catch up with my long overdue penpal letters. I also bought a book about beading this weekend, and I am eager to go to the beads shop and get some supplies to try some of the models I found in this book.

I'm also expecting my order from skybluepink to arrive this week with the charms, the bottlecaps and all the other trinkets I ordered. I received a lovely bottlecap pin but I haven't taken a picture of it yet. I definetely want to try this too. Oh, so many ideas spinning around in my head.

After having read all about zentangles, I decided to give this a try. While looking at them on the net, they seemed very complex but in the end they are quite easy to do (although they are time consuming). And I can confirm that these little doodling things can become very addictive. Proof : I started yesterday and I already made four of them :o)

The zentangle site sells a kit for $50 (special diecut vellum cotton paper, sakura pens and some other gadgets), but these ones are made on normal heavy weight drawing paper using staedler drawing pens (0,1 an 0,05).

Although zentangles aren't supposed to represent anything according to the "theory", everyone I showed the zentangles to kept asking "What is this supposed to represent?".

So to please my relatives, I tried a different approach : no abstract organic lines and curves, but an animal (at least what was the purpose). With some imagination you might see one of Dumbo's cousins in the top left corner of the mosaic :o)

Apparently my years of doodling while on the phone have had some results. My next move will be a zentangle composition I guess : lines flowing though several zentangles to create a harmonious whole.