This post was inspired by Chrystel’s post on her blog, Crafting from the Underground, using RubberMoon stamps as starters for Zentangles (a fancy name for the doodles we all did as children – we just didn’t know we were being fancy).  Brilliant!

On those days when I show up to my empty page and it stays empty, there’s nothing like having an idea for a jump start.  🙄

This piece features David Brethauer’s RubberMoon stamp db4263 Wishing Tree not once but twice.  No need to be constrained by size when doodling.  I practiced stamping it first to make sure my ink is still good – I use stamping ink so few and far between that I never know.  It worked fine!

For this piece I just twice stamped the image and joined it together with thicker lines to make it look like one larger tree, over some acrylic paint.  I laid the paint on smoothly this time, as opposed to dashing it on last time, because I wanted the focus to be on the tree and not the background.

This took about 10 minutes to finish after stamping the images.  It’s a nice piece for a small journal especially when completed with an inspiration quote on stars by Sarah Williams:  “I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night.”

Here’s a larger tangled tree from several years ago – no matter what size, or how you start, they are fast, easy and very meditative.  You can get some more ideas for “tangles” from my Pinterest Zentangle board.