Doodling on Glass plus Diva Challenge 197: Arukas

Wow, I see it's been nearly 6 weeks since I posted for the Diva Challenge! There's just been too much on my plate around here, not least of which was an emergency trip to Fresno CA for my Granddad's funeral just before Veterans' Day. It was hardly a surprise: he was 94 and ailing. And then again, death is always unexpected somehow...
In any case, I took just my youngest along since she is by no means ready to spend the night without Mommy. It's only a couple of hours by air, although the way airports work post 9/11 it's about 1/2 the day by the time you're done. The one-night trip went well, though, and I'm very glad to have been there: I was able to reconnect with a aunts, uncles, cousins and cousins' children that I rarely get to see.  In fact, as one cousin just adopted this year I got to meet her new daughters for the first time.

Believe it or not, this does have something to do with Zentangle! A trip to the craft store coincided with the news about Granddad and I had a brainstorm to decorate these porcelain cross ornaments with Granddad's dates for each of my family members. They were very well received, and I enjoyed doing them.

Wow, this post is really going to seem like a downer because when I got home I realized that I really ought to decorate similar ornaments for my husband's 94 year old grandmother who died in February, and my sister-in-law's baby who was miscarried in October. Finally, my remaining grandmother (age 92) was moved to hospice at the beginning of the week and almost certainly will not make it to Christmas. So many, many more ornaments are in process.  (Update: Grandma passed away Friday the 12th.)

A couple of these I decorated with Arukas, which I really enjoyed playing with: it was perfect for this particular project.

While the doodling has been instrumental to my processing of these sad events - having a project always seems to help! - the promises of God have helped much more. Inscribed on the back of each of these crosses is John 11:25

"I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies." 

For a happier project, I also decorated about a dozen mugs in a similar fashion as gifts for friends at our Bible Study.  I am quite happy with these!

I used a variety of tangles on this project: Indy-rella, Betweed, Afterglow, and many others. One thing I didn't try, though, was to do more than one per item. The pen lines are too heavy and the surfaces too curved: I just wasn't confident!

By the way, I got the ornaments at Michael's. They were on sale every time I went looking for them so I paid somewhere between $0.64 and $1 each. I used an Identipen for the black lines. I used a variety of gold pens, but my favorite is the new oil-based "Craftsmart" pen also from Michaels: a a 40% off coupon got me an 8 pack (black, white, gold and silver in two different weights) for $6. The mugs are from the Dollar Tree. I went ahead and baked these at 350 for 20 minutes according to advice from a variety of sites, but I will be recommending they stay Out of the dishwasher!