Zentangle® Inlaid Die-Cut Cards

Follow along as I add Zentangle® pattern Purk to an Altenew Mega Love die cut. This inlay card comes to life with Curious Metallic Peacock cardstock & Altenew Dotted Washi Tape. 

The Zentangle® Method is an easy-to-learn, relaxing, and fun way to create beautiful images by drawing structured patterns. Once you learn a pattern, you’re likely to use it over and over. That’s how I feel about Purk. Click here if you’d like to learn more about Zentangle®. 

First, I die cut a piece of Curious Metallic Peacock cardstock with and A2 Rectangle Die & the Altenew Mega Love Die. Next I cut a piece of Savoy 100% Cotton Soft Gray cardstock with a rectangle die slightly larger than the love die cut.

The smaller rectangle can be any light color or white cardstock. I thought I was going to tangle on this piece, and this paper is yummy to tangle on. But, I decided to cover the piece with washi instead.  

I cut a piece of Altenew Dotted Washi Tape and covered the small rectangle panel. 

Tip: Trim off the excess vs. wrapping it around to the back. Trimming will eliminate excess bulk and ensure that you can inlay this panel. Run the covered piece through your Big Shot for maximum adherence.

Use the same small rectangle to die cut the center of the Peacock panel. Then use the love die to die cut the washi panel.

Tip: Keep the extra bits from the washi love die cut so you can inlay them back into the Peacock love die cut.

Cut a piece of cardstock slightly smaller than A2 size, cover it with adhesive, and inlay the pieces in the photo above. 

Next up we start to tangle!

Purk starts with some “s” shaped lines. Tangling will only be done on the thick down strokes of the love letters. Your “s” stroke will start on the inside of the downstroke & come down the outside of the down stroke. Then aura, or halo the line by repeating the stroke approximately 2 mm away from the fist stroke. 

This creates something along the line of candy stripes that look as if they wrap around the downstroke. These do not need to be perfect, they will somewhat disappear into the background of the pattern.

 Next, add 1 orb, in the center between two of the candy stripes. The orb will be oval or circular depending on how much space you have between your stripes. Add another orb to the left and right of the center orbs. These will be partial orbs and appear to sit behind the center orbs.

Fill in the empty spaces in between the orbs and candy stripes with ink. I drew 1 circle around a few of the dots on the washi tape to add some extra interest.

The card looked pretty plain, so I stamped a sentiment from Altenew Circled Sentiments on scrap cardstock. I die cut a circle from the panel in order to inlay the sentiment. It only cut through the top layer so I was able to adhere it to the underlying panel.

I used Copic markers BG18 & BG10 to add a gradient to the bottom of the letters in “hello” and colored “there” with BG10.

As a final touch I used a white charcoal pencil to add highlights to the orbs and tops of the upstrokes in love.

And that’s a wrap. I hope you enjoyed this card today and feel inspired to give this technique a try. Find some time to get creative and remember to Breathe · Ink · Inspire. 

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