Thursday, March 27, 2014

Tangled Thursday: An Unusual Substrate

When Dave saw me taking pictures for this week's Tangled Thursday challenge, he pondered the subject matter and said "Oh, that's your substrate."  Well . . . sure - if you say so.  I had to look it up.
Substrate:  The base on which an organism lives; a substance acted upon.
Or in carpentry lingo, the plywood base underneath the shingles on your roof.   

Heather's challenge was to Zentangle on something other than paper - an unusual substrate.  I knew instantly what I was going to do.  I saw an idea on Pinterest, using Sharpie markers on wax paper to create a stained-glass look to be hung in a window.  How cool would that be with Zentangles?  Well . . . not that cool, as it turns out. 
The wax coating keeps the ink from covering well and makes the colors - even black - look faded.  I tried on both sides, but wasn't happy with it, so I moved on to . . .

Easter eggs!  That was another idea that was better in theory than in practice.  The back two eggs are mistakes.  The front one was relatively successful, so I guess the idea is feasible, but the curve and the textured surface made it challenging.


Third time's a charm . . .  My unusual substrate of choice is mini-paint canvases. I bought this package of six 3" canvases as part of a craft challenge for my daughter (more on that later).  Again, the rough texture made it difficult to draw a straight line, so that's where the gold paint-pen came in.  I filled in the flower petals to cover all the places where my pen jumped.  I applied 4 coats of Mod-Podge to seal the ink and - voila - a coaster.

I wouldn't mind trying more of these, but they need to be slightly bigger to hold your average coffee cup.  I'll be watching the bargain aisle for 4" or 5" canvases.

Visit Heather @ Books and Quilts to see what other unusual substrates got Zentangled.



1 comment:

  1. You certainly were adventurous. Instead of the wax paper, what about parchment paper or drafting paper. They would both give the translucent effect but with the paperness for writing on. The eggs must have been difficult to even hold let alone draw. Great concepts both.
    I have seen the tiny canvases but felt they were so small it would be hard to get any detail, but you have shown me wrong. Those are so cute and actually, almost the same size as an official Zentangle Tile. These are great examples of different substrates.
    Thanks for linking up with Tangled Thursday.

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