Out of my Comfort Zone – Have a Heart!!

Aloha, all!

     I am finally back at my computer after having been gone for two weeks.  I definitely missed writing my blog posts live, but enjoyed reading comments and e-mails about my vacation projects while I was away.

     This blog post was originally part of a Blog Tour for the group, VC Rocks with the theme, Have a Heart!  Among activities on the VC Rocks blog are weekly challenges.  And this week's challenge was a doozie.  A doodling doozie!  We were to make a project that included doodling.  Well, then someone mentioned "zentangling."  Huh?  But, oh my, when I started googling zentangling (try saying that fast 10 times!) I discovered this fun doodling for myself!  And I got carried away!

     And this card is just full of it!  I won't bore you with all the details about the machinations through which I went as I tried to figure out how I was going to put the zentangling together with the Blog Tour theme, which is Hearts.  But I finally settled on the Stampin' Up! Stamp Set, Sweetheart, which is retiring at the end of this month (sob!).  That nice open heart shape was just perfect for some beginner zentangling/doodling.  Here's how I set about filling up my heart shapes.

     Starting at the top and moving clockwise, I first divided the heart into 4 quadrants.  I originally thought I'd do different zentangles in each quadrant, but finally decided on something that linked all the quadrants together.  So the second step was to draw lines and curves that followed the lines and curves of the heart shape.  Once I did that, and moving on to the 3rd shape, I crosshatched all of the original lines.  Finally, I colored in the square shapes that had been formed in a fairly repetitive pattern.  It's the repetitive part that's the jewel of this technique!  First of all, I said to myself (repeatedly!), "This is hand-drawn; there are no mistakes."  Then I just let myself relax and color the squares.  Time just flew by and I was in a "zone."  Comfort zone?  Yes, finally!

     Now about those colors.  I used three of the new In Colors that Stampin' Up! will be featuring in the new catalog:  the darker red color with which I stamped the hearts and drew the lines is called Raspberry Ripple; the lighter red color is Primrose Petals; and the green color is Gumball Green. I used the new colors' Stampin' Write Markers to fill in the squares.  I also used Gumball Green and Raspberry Ripple card stock for the project, both of them as mats for the main stamped layer, and the Raspberry Ripple for the card base.  The very lightest pink color in the doodle squares is Pretty in Pink, a current core color in the Stampin' Up! collection.

     And the pearls?  As you can see in my sketch, I drew a dark line with the Raspberry Ripple to separate the quadrants of the hearts.  When I was finished with the card, I decided that I did not like the effect.  So out came my supply of Basic Pearls to cover the lines. Over the top?  Maybe.  But I love the overall effect of the square center of the heart pattern formed by the pearls!

     If you'd like to try this stamped layout, here's one hint for getting those four hearts aligned pretty perfectly.  Use a pencil to make four dots in the center of your stamped layer.  Two of the dots should be centered 1/4" apart on the (imaginary or lightly drawn) horizontal line, and two of the dots should be centered 1/4" apart on the (same deal) vertical line.  Then, using your Stamp-a-ma-jig, stamp each heart so that the bottom dot of the heart is stamped over one of the pencilled dots.

     Here's the full card layout to help you complete your project if you'd like to try it out!