March 01, 2026

Zentangle® – February 2026

March 01, 2026/ Gwen Morrison

28 Zentangle tiles for February (not counting the 8 extra ones I posted just after Valentines).

I used plain cardstock – mostly black ink with a few bits of color using up some older Sharpie Ultra Fine pens. Now I am moving on to new set of gel pens for the color pops in March!

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The Zentangle® Method is an easy-to-learn, relaxing, and fun way to create beautiful images by drawing structured patterns. It was created by Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas. “Zentangle” is a registered trademark of Zentangle, Inc. Learn more at zentangle.com.

February 15, 2026

Valentines

February 15, 2026/ Gwen Morrison

I made a group of Zentangle® tiles that started with a heart shape string…chose 6 of them for this post I am writing on the 14th…

I am remembering the printed cardstock Valentines from early elementary school. Everyone created a paper bag to hold the cards, and we all distributed our cards to all our classmates – being more careful about who got each card as we got a little older. They were just cardstock and ink – no glitter or sequins or plastic coating. Is that something that still happens? Later the little candy hearts were exchanged/eaten on the day, but they aren’t part of my first memories of Valentines Day. There was a heart shaped box of chocolates that my grandfather bought for my sisters and I one year; it only happened that once and it might have been a spur of the moment purchase on his part. That kind of chocolate was not something anyone in our family craved.

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February 01, 2026

Zentangle® – January 2026

February 01, 2026/ Gwen Morrison

31 Zentangle tiles – one for each of the 31 days in January.

I chose to cut black and light blue cardstock for the month and skewed a bit toward the light blue as the month progressed. Most of the tiles I make are during the wind down of the day – the hour before bedtime. Many times my Garmin registers ‘rest’ during the time I am making them!

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January 04, 2026

Zentangle® – December 2025

January 04, 2026/ Gwen Morrison

31 days in December….31 tiles made during the month featured in this post.

I used red, green and white tiles in December…mostly black ink but some red and green; it was a Christmasy palette. The red and green cardstock was cut into rectangular and square tiles. The white tiles were Apprentice tiles that I’ve had since shortly after attending the Certified Zentangle Training in 2019. It also used some triangular tiles which ended up not scanning well unless I made a mosaic with 6 of them! Enjoy the mosaics of the various card types below.

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December 01, 2025

Zentangle® – November 2025

December 01, 2025/ Gwen Morrison

Thirty days in November…so I selected 30 tiles from the 101 that were produced in November.

They are all ivory cardstock with black ink patterns…color highlights. There are patterns I repeat frequently and others that seem to emerge for a few tiles only. I am using color pens that are several years old; I remember that I bought some of them at the Walmart in Carrollton TX in the year I started traveling to Texas again after COVID. It takes discipline to not buy new pens until old ones are depleted!

I was traveling for 11 days out of the month and kept two pockets (one for tiles and one for pens) of my laptop bag packed with supplies! My Zentangle time is part of my winding down routine toward the end of the day whether I am at home or in a hotel; almost all the tiles were produced between 8 and 9 PM!

I’ve already cut red, green and white tiles for December – and plan to use black and white inks.

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November 02, 2025

Zentangle® – October 2025

November 02, 2025/ Gwen Morrison

October was a busy month with 8 days away from home (Jefferson City and Dallas)….and getting my damaged car repaired and our hot water heater replaced. Making Zentangle tiles is my tried-and-true activity for calming down at the end of the day – even when I am traveling!

I have discovered that if I make two sizes of tiles (3.5 square and 5 x 3.5), there is not a much leftover after cutting the 8.5 x 11 card stock …..so each month will probably have some of both sizes from now on! I have been using bright colors during October….might change to off white tiles in November and more colored inks.

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October 01, 2025

Zentangle® – September 2025

October 01, 2025/ Gwen Morrison

113 tiles created in September ---- 31 selected to appear in this post.

The tile material is more varied this month:

Two corrugated cardboard tiles that were originally packaging around glass food storage containers I bought to replace my old plastic containers. I liked the shape as well as trying a new material. The bumpiness of corrugated cardboard makes the patterns more challenging.

There were 11 plain card stock tiles in pastel and bright colors (only two rectangular…the others square).

I enjoyed some new marble card stock – incorporating the marble lines as the string.

The watercolor tiles are old friends. I like the color changes. They make simple patterns look quite different.

Finally – 3 tiles were cut from magazine pages!

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September 01, 2025

Zentangle® – August 2025

September 01, 2025/ Gwen Morrison

I had 155 tiles from August to choose the 31 for this monthly post! I had 40 that I selected in my first pass and it was hard to decide which 9 to deselect.

My tile material this month was black cardstock – in two sizes: 3.5-inch squares and 3.5 x 5 inch rectangles. I enjoyed experimenting with different types of gel pens. I learned that some of the glitter pens don’t scan well. The white (with 3 different tip sizes) and bright colors work best on the black tiles.

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August 31, 2025

Road Trip to Dallas and Sustaining Elder Care – August 2025

August 31, 2025/ Gwen Morrison

My road trip to Dallas in August was over 3 days rather than 2 since the sister that visits my dad most frequently was taking a vacation. There was rain as I drove through Oklahoma on the drive down and then on the third day as I headed home….but the drive was dry on the ends (Texas and Missouri). It wasn’t as hot in Texas as I expected although the air quality was yellow the entire time I was in Dallas (and red in the later part of one day when I was, luckily, indoors).

The garden my sisters have maintained at the assisted living residence needs watering every day and we all take Dad out when we do that. He sits on the patio in the shade and enjoys the change of scene and outdoors in general. The house bought a new hose recently, so it was easier to maneuver without some of the plastic coming off the hose. There are peppers, tomatoes, and chives in a raised bed.

The sunflowers are at all stages of development. Next time I go, I will get some seeds to plant in my garden for next spring. I noticed that the miniature rose bush is surviving and there are some small Texas rock roses that my sister has managed to transplant successfully.

The temperature was pleasant enough that I decided to prompt Dad to do his PT in the patio chair. We were out long enough to see a lizard and katydid. On the last morning, I noticed there were lots of mosquitos, so we went back inside before finishing the round of PT…did the rest inside! I didn’t get any bites…and I hope he didn’t either.

The surprise at the residence was the staff finding out a company was coming to treat the kitchen for bugs…they quickly cleared the cabinets and asked if some of the things they weren’t using were ours. They were things we had brought from my parents’ house when they first moved to assisted living thinking it would help with the transition to have things they recognized. They did…but it’s been over 1.5 years now and my dad doesn’t remember any of them. My youngest sister packaged them up in reusable win bottle bags and took them home.

I enjoyed lunch with my youngest sister on the second day…splurged on a decadent dessert. I enjoyed the down time in the evenings – destressing with the usual Zentangle creation and reading and some exercise. The hotel breakfast was the same as usual: eggs with pepper, Cran raisins, walnuts, and a cinnamon raisin bagel.

Like always, I was glad to be home again.

August 03, 2025

Zentangle® – July 2025

August 03, 2025/ Gwen Morrison

31 days in July so there are 31 tiles in the mosaic below. I had 140 to choose from! I made 3.5-inch squares from magazine pages again this month (like I did back in June) and then made patterns over the images. It was fun to use aspects of the images for the ‘thread’ or simply the background of the pattern I wanted to make! I am forcing myself to resume using cardstock tiles next month but will probably return to using tiles cut from magazine pages periodically; they are so different than the other tile materials…and I like that challenge.

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July 01, 2025

Zentangle® – June 2025

July 01, 2025/ Gwen Morrison

30 days in June…so featuring 30 Zentangle tiles for the month. I had 170 to choose from so the choice was more challenging than usual. I made 3.5-inch squares from magazine pages this month and then made patterns over the images. In previous months, I had enjoyed the color variation when my ‘blanks’ were made from “Bright Splash” card stock and realized that images in magazines would have a different kind of color variation. The slicker and thinner paper was a bit challenging at times, but I enjoyed the June tiles so much that I will probably continue in July!

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June 01, 2025

Zentangle® – May 2025

June 01, 2025/ Gwen Morrison

31 days in May….31 Zentangle tiles selected from over 120 I created during the month! I am still enjoying the “Bright Splash” card stock for the tile material

although I occasionally work on a page out of a *Ruth Heller’s Designs for Coloring* book that I bought for $1 at the library used book sale. I was in pristine condition.

I bought a second pad of the “Bright Splash” card stock but all the tiles for this month – and probably for June as well – are still cut from the first one. The color variation over the surface of the tile appeals to me. Sometimes I make patterns over the variations…sometimes I use the variations as the ‘string’ to start or contain the patterns.

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May 01, 2025

Zentangle® – April 2025

May 01, 2025/ Gwen Morrison

30 days in April….so I chose 30 Zentangle tiles from the 93 I made during April. There were more to choose from that usual because I’m dedicating some time as I am winding down each day to creating Zentangle tiles and I made the tiles from a pad of Bright Splash card stock I found at Walmart. It was colorful and prompted some very different starting strings! I am probably going to stock up since it is imported from Vietnam…maybe won’t be restocked. This card stock along with the solid black are my favorites!

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April 01, 2025

Zentangle® – March 2025

April 01, 2025/ Gwen Morrison

31 Zentangle tiles for March….a single one selected for each day of the month.

After light blue and white tiles in February – I skewed to the colorful cardstock for the March tiles. Toward the end of the month I started making tiles as part of my daily wind down before bedtime – no blue light and some focused activity is a good way to end the day!

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March 02, 2025

Zentangle® – February 2025

March 02, 2025/ Gwen Morrison

28 days in February…28 ‘tiles.’

I cut light blue cardstock tiles and used them for half the tiles.

The two other groups started with a Flowering Dogwood coloring book page with a leaf and the flower. I am using it as the string for a ‘pattern art’ activity included in a Missouri Trees program (Flowering Dogwood is Missouri’s state tree) at a local library for children…so many experiments as part of my preparation. My scanner opted to make the page into two images, so I am including them here as a rectangle and square tile rather than the page with both. As you can see…starting with the same string can still lead to a lot of variation!

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February 27, 2025

Missouri Trees

February 27, 2025/ Gwen Morrison

The topic of the session at the two libraries in a nearby county was Missouri trees. Since it was the fourth (and last) event for our 3-person team of Missouri Master Naturalists, we managed to gracefully recover when one of us (the one bringing some small redcedar branches) had a tire emergency on the way to the first library. She managed to get there a few minutes before the children arrived, but we had already implemented a backup plan by cutting a few low branches from another tree! We were ready to go when the first 15 students (and 6 parents) arrived!

There were four activities:

Examining small branches of trees (river birch, redbud, maple, redcedar, shortleaf pine and eastern white pine). There were some extras that aren’t native to our area but are native to North America and that thrive planted in yards and gardens that we showed too (Southern Magnolia and Eastern Hemlock…the tiny cones on the hemlock fascinated the whole group).

Examining things left from last fall: glycerin and plastic sleeve preserved leaves, seed and seed pods, pine cones, and a white oak seedling.

Counting tree rings (everyone with their own tree cookie) along with some pictures that showed that the rings are not always neat concentric circles.

Looking forward to spring and the state tree – the Flowering Dogwood…with a pattern art project. The picture is of some samples I made beforehand, but the students did beautiful work on their pages…and were very focused (and quiet) while they worked.

The session was a great finally for our series!

February 02, 2025

Zentangle® – January 2025

February 02, 2025/ Gwen Morrison

31 tiles for the 31 days in January. They were all square, mostly done in black ink (a few white splashes), and lots of colors. I did quite a few while I was watching football games!

January 01, 2025

Zentangle® – December 2024

January 01, 2025/ Gwen Morrison

31 tiles for the 31 days of December.

They are all presented as square tiles this month. I segregated the ones I made in New Mexico for this first group of 12.

The rest were made mostly at home. I am using a lot of different colors of card stock…mostly black or white pens although there is a smattering of other colors.

Making Zentangle tiles almost every day is rewarding…and a way to create islands of calm in otherwise hectic days.

December 01, 2024

Zentangle® – November 2024

December 01, 2024/ Gwen Morrison

November has 30 days – hence 30 tiles picked for this post. I made slightly more square tiles than rectangular ones…and had almost 60 tiles to choose from. The black card stock is still my favorite, but I did some on recycled cardboard and other colors of cardstock. Each tile is unique…some with favorite patterns and some with new or experimental ones that appealed to me in the end. Tiles are like rivers…never the same twice.

Most of the time I ‘fill the tile’ but I managed to avoid the tendency for a few and they are probably my favorites…I’ll do more of this in December!

November 03, 2024

Zentangle® – October 2024

November 03, 2024/ Gwen Morrison

I made considerably more tiles in October than I did in September – acclimating to my increased activity level taking two classes (Missouri Master Naturalist training and Identifying Woody plants field class). I enjoyed the usual square and rectangular tiles – skewing somewhat to black tiles.

I did 6 tiles using simple tree leaf/fruit coloring pages for the ‘string.’ I found the pages to include in the educational materials I was collecting about our native trees for younger audiences. It was a fun experiment. I think I will make a version of the pages that has just the outline of the leaves (not the venation) to increase the variety of ways the spaces could be filled.