Colour, colour everywhere! Distressed tiles....but a happy me!

Over on Facebook, there's a burst of colour, partly due to Eni Oken's amazing technique of tangling over distressed tiles...well, the tiles are not distressed but the colours used include Distressed Inks. This is a range of inks, pens and sprays produced by Tim Holtz and whilst I'm not endorsing any products here, the results that can be seen on Eni's blog are incredible.

Personally, I only have a limited set of Distress Ink marker pens that I purchased on my last visit to the UK. However, at my local Lidl last week, I was able to pick up a box of four acrylic spray paints which have proved quite adequate for my purposes.

I have been making my own distress backgrounds and have spent almost the whole week working obsessively on them,,,, and now, I am beginning to really enjoy myself, At first, I found my colours seemed muddy and my tiles without much light but now, whilst I would never say I am an expert, I am much happier with my results.

For posterity more than anything else, I am going to post a selection of my efforts here...

A work in progress - and quite gentle colour tones

I liked an idea that Eni gave me - put a frame around one section to see how it looks

Another section with frame...

I really love the colours of this one. I am preparing something for my sister and sent her this to check out the colour scheme. Her husband thought it looked like E.T. fetching a stick....I can't see anything else now....

I have improved the highlights on Narwal and Marasu since I took the photo...they don't look too good here...

I wasn't too happy with the original tile as it seemed like just a bit blog of red....but I am happy with my tangles on it. 

Some distresed tiles awaiting tangling...

Pure fantasy! 

My favourite so far...a friend said she could see dragons in this one...

Not so very long ago, I was nervous about using colour. It seemed too difficult. Now I am so in love with the inspiration it creates in me...it may be some time before I go back to black and white! (But I know I will one day...because I love Zentangle!)