Team Training for May ...

Welcome to our May edition of Team Training brought to you this month by team member, Di Hasthorpe.

Each month one of our team will inspire you with a little tutorial, tip or trick to help you in your scrapbooking pursuits.

My Diangles by Di Hasthorpe

The art of zentangling and adult colouring has taken the world by storm, it seems. Everywhere you go, you see books devoted to these art forms popping up.

My diangles are my version of doodling, something I've done for way too many years to count and something that I have readdressed more frequently over these last months.

I've used my doodles to alter ho-hum or plain cardstock to turn it into a background to suit specific needs, moods or whims in a fun and quirky way.

 This is my diangle based around a fern tree in a local rain forest.

The paper I started with was very pale green with some small brownish dots. I've had it for some time and decided it was time for it to get a life.

To do this I simply randomly smooshed over the surface with various green and grey-toned distress inks.

When dry, I sketched in the design, thinking about the vines, fungi and ferns I'd seen during a recent walk through the area. These certainly don't have to be realistic. In fact I enjoy giving the plants some human or animal qualities.The patterns were added next. That's where you can continue to unleash your imagination. For the drawing I usually use an ultrafine black Sharpie.

Apart from using the diangles for backgrounds for layouts I've also used them for bookmarks, pages ready for colour,and card fronts.

A bookmark on heavy watercolour paper, coloured with Colourburst and then drawn on.

Ready for colour: bookmark and 12 x 12 design. I've done some of these for friends and have just supplied the outline sketches so they could do whatever else they liked to them.

A bit of fun... a fungi fantasy. This was done on white cardstock. Drawings and patterns were done first and the background added afterwards by painting with aquarelle crayons and a waterbrush.

A card front. Again this is a fungi fantasy with a fanged twist. The colour from distress inks was added afterwards. When dry I dipped the piece into water and let the colours flow into each other and then dried it. This particular piece was done after a chemo session!!

I hope you have enjoyed looking at what I've been doing and want to give it a go yourself.

Cheers, Di

These are just so quirky and such fun Di, thank you for inspiring us to get our doodle on.

Don't forget to have your entry in for our challenge this month.  Some lovely prizes on offer - one prize by vote, another completely by random draw and a guest designer spot with RAK to offer one lucky entrant. You have until 11.55 on the final day of the month to have your submission linked.