Diva Challenge # 196 ~ All Dolled Up!

Sorry I have been a bit haphazard posting for a few weeks, seems my hands don't want to work too well for me. I have been doing a few tangles though and this particular challenge really hit the spot for me! For those who don't follow the Diva's Challenge, the challenge this week was given to us by Emily Classon who has a 4 year old daughter that loves dolls.  She challenged us to "... be inspired by dolls like I have been.  Awaken your inner child, and add some playtime to your tangling with a doll-shaped string, a tangled paper doll chain, or a tangled fabric doll.  Do you have an old Barbie stuck in a trunk somewhere?  I bet there’s a way to tangle her too." 

You see, I am a definite doll-a-holic.  I also have 5 granddaughters and they all love stuffed animals and dolls too. I have all the dolls that I had as a child and some of my mother's dolls too. Dad traveled around the world in his civilian job with the Air Force and he always brought me back a doll. So I have quite a collection. When I grew up, it didn't stop there either...I got dolls for most gift giving occasions, and made clothes for Barbie and her friends for co-workers when I was older. After that, I made all kinds of dolls from mophead dolls to sculpey dolls and then expanded to stuffed teddy bears. So, you see, when I saw the challenge was for dolls to inspire me, I couldn't decide which direction to go in.  I had thought of an articulated paper art doll, but the torso just didn't work for me. Then I was going to find one of my old Barbies that I bought just for art projects, but couldn't find where I put them. Then I thought of just using a dressmakers form, but in the end, I was looking through some of my old doll and stamping magazines and saw some beautiful fairies and decided that I would make a winter fairie that I could also use as a Christmas card for someone special.  So that is just what I decided to do.  The picture doesn't do her justice, but I think that is partially the paper - it really wasn't smooth enough to do what I had intended. But, here she is for your perusal:

Diva Challenge #196
Media:  Art Cardstock, Micron pens, Derwent colored pencils, #2 lead pencil
Tangles:  Shattuck, Hibred, Cadent, Verdigogh, and my black pearls are actually red...lol

I've got a few more ideas in mind, and I have some past challenges that I want to post when I get all the pictures taken, so I hope to get them posted before the end of the year.

But now, I need to go look at all the fabulous work everyone has done. If you would like to take a look, you can find the Diva's Challenge here.

As always, comments are welcome and I have appreciated all comments in the past. I don't always respond but I do always read them.  Thank you very much!

Diva Challenge #194 ~ Embrace the Yuck!

Phew! I started this one out on Monday (several times!) after I read the Diva's Challenge by her guest blogger this week, Elisa Murphy. She wanted us to use our non-dominant hand to do our tangle this week to show our solidarity and support to the Diva while her youngest son, Artoo, recovers from eye surgery. In this exercise, we show our frustration and powerlessness over things that happen in our lives. But as we pick up our pens and pencils in our non-dominant hand, we can learn to deal with the things that cause these feelings and know that we can overcome them.  Well, that's the theory anyway.....  As I said, I started this one several times, but I mostly just sat there with my pencil in my left hand and trying to will my brain to just draw. Do you know how hard it is to think in reverse?  I finally got some scratch paper and picked a few tangles that I liked and practiced drawing them with my left hand until I finally figured out how to draw it "backwards" for me. Apparently, I crochet and tat left-handed or so my grandmother used to tell me, but I just did what was comfortable. And in picking up my pen, which I was reluctant to do until I have managed to actually draw my border on my tile with my left hand, I took a little while to figure out how to hold the darn thing! But I found a way that was comfy for me and regardless of what my son and hubby thought, it was comfortable for me.  I was holding it like a chopstick so that I could control the movement...otherwise I wouldn't have been able to draw as well as my 2 year old granddaughter.  But all that background aside now......Here it is!

Challenge 194~Embrace the Yuck!
Media ~ 4" Tile, Micron Pen, pencil and shading stomp
Tangles ~ Shattuck, Cadence, Y-Ful, and a couple of others I frankly don't remember!

So hurry to the Diva's Place and check out the other submissions for this week right here.  As always, any comments are appreciated and constructive criticism is ALWAYS welcome!  Thanks for visiting my blog!

Diva Challenge 193 ~ Thank YOU!!!

Phew!  I am horribly late (in fact, clear into the next week) but I did want to get something up for THX to say thanks mostly to our veterans and current serving military personnel. I worked for the DoD for 30 years, most of the time with a unique group of individuals in an Army Reserve unit that was a helicopter ambulance and service unit. These men and women showed me what dedication and service really was. When they were deployed to Iraq, Iran, and Afghanistan, I would talk with their families they left back home and reassure them that their soldiers were alright. I was right there with the families to welcome their heroes home. Many of our pilots were also Vietnam veterans and they often compared the reception they got coming home from the Middle East and the reception coming home from Vietnam. It was heartbreaking to hear the stories of rejection after Vietnam. But I do want to thank military worldwide for being able to defend the things they believe in. My entire career (and in fact - my whole life) was spent around military folks. My grandfather served in WWI and received a Purple Heart after being gassed in France. My father served in WWII and Korea. While I did not serve in the military (I wanted to join the Air Force, but due to physical problems, could not), I worked for DoD all my life. My last position was as the secretary to the General of the Regional Army Reserve Command before the finally closed the command. But I could probably go on forever with stories from and about "my guys", but I need to get to the tangles.

So here they are (I got a bit carried away, because I didn't like most of them).  Just a small note on colors, I chose to use red, blue, and purple because they represent colors of military to me...red and blue (along with white) for our US flag and purple for the prestigious military medal ... Purple Heart. I hope you enjoy and if you would like to see all the ones that were finished on time, just drop in to the Diva's blog

First attempt
Media: Micron Pen, Pencil, Prismacolor Watercolor Pencils
Tangles: Trio, Huggins, Xyp

Second Try!
Media: Micron Pen, Pencil, Creative Memories Fine Tip Permanent Markers
Tangles: Trio, Huggins, Xyp

Third Try (My Favorite)
Media:  Micron Pen, Pencil, Creative Memories Fine Tip Permanent Markers
Tangles: Trio, Huggins, Xyp

Unfinished Starts

Diva Challenge #190 ~ Pink for Ardath

First off, thank you again everyone for your remarks last week.  I always read them, but since I never know how long I will be on the computer, I'm afraid that I don't get to respond to you all.  Just know that I appreciate all of you and your comments...they are much appreciated.

For this challenge, the Diva challenged us to use pink in memory of her grandmother who died from complications of breast cancer as well as all those have passed or are cancer survivors.  My mother had several lumps that thankfully weren't malignant, but my aunt wasn't quite so lucky.  She had to have a double mastectomy, but they got it all and she survived the cancer. However, both she and my mother ended up with Alzheimer's, which contributed to both of their deaths. I also have friends that have survived breast cancer, one of whom was a male friend that got it very young and is now a survivor for over 8 years. A girlfriend developed breast cancer, but beat that only to develop bone cancer, which thankfully she beat also. Other cancers have plagued friends and acquaintances over the years, so this is for ALL cancer victims.

Pink Tile 1: Dragonair, Luv-ya, Mooka, Tipple, Bunzo

Pink Tile 2: Pearls (?), Fiore, Juke, Zinger

Was trying out Carol Ohl's connection tutorial on this one.  I like the way it turned out and will have to use some of these techniques in future.

 I'm sorry that this is so late this week, but my son's girlfriend is here from Tennessee, so things have been a bit hectic getting things ready for her visit.  As always, I appreciate feedback and comments.  And be sure to visit the Diva's blog (here) to perhaps join in on the challenges and see all the beautiful work that is submitted.  Who knows? Maybe we will see YOUR work next week.

Diva Challenge #189 ~ UMT - Yuma

First and foremost...thank you all for your very kind comments over the last week.  I don't always get time to answer each one individually.

Home seems to be a bit hectic even though my husband and I are both retired. He is getting older and doesn't always remember how to do things, so it usually ends up that I do most things around here. He also doesn't drive, so it is up to me to run all the errands or take him or our son where they need to go.  My son is an autistic adult and we didn't find it out until about 4 years ago.  He is now 30 and does well, but he doesn't drive either. So life does tend to get a bit hectic some weeks. We are getting ready this week for the arrival of his long distance girlfriend from Tenessee and so I really haven't done much with tangling this week.

When I looked at this challenge, I thought that it was going to be great fun because I had been looking at tangle patterns and come across Yuma. I hadn't tried it yet, but it looked like it would be a fun one to draw, since I usually like flowing, botanical type tangles.  Then I sat down and tried it....looks are deceiving. Mine didn't seem to want to cooperate or maybe I just didn't get it, but I finished my tile and will likely try to do a couple more this week if I can figure out what it is that I am not liking.  I didn't know where I was going with this one (ops normal), so I can't explain it.  Anyway, here it is for your perusal.

UMT ~ Yuma
Tangles used: Yuma, Shard, X-Did and a couple of my own doodles

For those of you that may be interested, the Diva Challenges can be found here, so why not give it a go and see what you can do!

Diva Challenge #188~Coming Out Day

The Diva's Challenge this week was to create a tile for Coming Out Day ~ Oct 11 for LGBT. This was such a wonderful challenge for me and I intend to do more tiles when time permits using these colors and theme.

 My son and I have many friends that support and belong to the the LGBT community! We have, for a long time, had many friends that were gay or lesbian and to tell you the truth, I never really thought much about it at all. When I was in high school (eons ago), I had a very dear friend (in fact my first boyfriend) that was gay and had a hard time telling anyone. So after high school, he followed his heart and became a nanny to a good doctor and his wife and they introduced him to many people in the LGBT community.  I think it was the first time in his life that he was actually happy.  We remained close throughout his life, which unfortunately ended far too soon. But knowing him to be so happy when he was allowed to be himself prompted me to do my tile in rainbow colors. I had meant to get this posted sooner, but this week I have been a bit sick.  But here it is now

A Joyous Coming Out

I actually like this one and it is much brighter than this picture shows.  The tangles I have used are:

L - Luv-ya

G - Golven

B - Blooming Butter

T - Twenty-One

The only tangle pattern that I had ever actually used before was Luv-ya. In actuality, it was my son that chose these particular tangles.  His reasoning was that all of his LGBT friends are a bit flamboyant and he thought that these would be perfect to describe them.  I agreed with him, thinking particularly of one of his good friends that also worked with him when he was doing makeup for a local Haunted House for a few years. This particular friend and I got to be good friends and like most of the kids over there, he called me "Mom".  His own parents had thrown him out of the house when he told them he was gay and so I always a special spot in my heart for him. So I dedicate this joyous and bright piece to all of my good friends, LGBT or otherwise, and ask that people just embrace the joy of loving each other with no strings attached. 

If you would like to see the rest of the pieces created by many other artists, take a look at the Diva's blog here and perhaps start joining in with us.  Happy tangling and love to all :)

Diva Challenge 187 ~ Don't Look!!

First of all, thank you everyone, for your comments on my tiles last week.  It is always appreciate, and I love constructive criticism...it makes us stronger.

Well, the Diva has given us a challenge to do a string with our eyes closed.  I don't normally do strings anyway, since most of what I do is mostly ZIA rather than Zentangle, at least in my mind.  Anyway, I forgot to take pictures of my string and I'm still working on one that my son did for me, so I'll likely post that one next week. But here are the two that I actually did.....the first one I didn't really like until I did some shading on it and I decided it was ok.  The second one I was finishing up last night (late!) and my son and I managed to get on a laughing kick .... you know, the kind where all you have to do is look at each other and you can't stop laughing?  Well, we were having a cup of coffee at the time and as you can no doubt see, we managed to spray coffee all over the tangle I was working on.  I kind of liked where it was heading, so I finished it up today, coffee and all (tangle #2).  Anyway, here they are!

Challenge #187 ~Blind String 1

I rather liked this one once I shaded it, and I didn't even make too many mistakes, but I did manage to have to use Bronx Cheer (I had never tried it before). I don't know for sure the tangles I used in this, but They seemed to work ok.

And here, in all the coffee soaked glory, is tile #2

Challenge #187 ~ Blind String #2

I kind of like this one too, but I need more practice with strings, I can see that.  Anyway, here they are and as always, any comments are always appreciated.  Now I'm off to check out the other tiles submitted this week.  You can find them here, on the Diva's blog.  Why don't you enter the challenge too?

Diva Challenge #186 - Leaves, Leaves, Leaves

The leaves I have chosen for this challenge are very special to me.  They are from an indoor Ficus tree and my long suffering Philodendron plant. Both came from the love of my life and I have managed to keep them alive since he died. I normally manage to kill most plants I try to grow so I was amazed that these have survived 2 moves and almost 6 years now. I was going to head up to the mountains to take some pictures and gather a few leaves, but unfortunately I have been under the weather. So I used these two. I was just getting the feel of tangling them when my pen apparently took over and finished for me. It took me a luxurious complete day to do this one in my sketchbook, so it's not on a tile until I start it again. But my son agreed with me that I should just submit this one and I do kind of like it, so here are my leaves!

Not the best picture, but I quite like the work this time!

As always, comments (good and bad) are appreciated.  I'm off now to check out the other offering's at the Diva's place (here)

Diva Challenge #185 ~ Duotangle - Phycops and Diva Dance

First off, I want to thank all of you who commented last week on my submissions. I appreciate all the comments.

Well, it's been an interesting week here, we seem to have some rather agressive fish in our tank that have been eating my favorites :(.  But one of the new ones is doing great and I hope he survives...a very pretty Angel Fish. I don't know the actual names of them, because they are hubby's domain.  Then son decided to fall and hurt his back and hip when he slipped and hit his head on the tub. He's been pretty much in pain for a few days. But my biggest challenge this week was actually getting anything I like out of this duotangle. While I absolutely LOVE Phycops and all that you can do with it, I have never done Diva Dance before and I am just not real thrilled with anything I did. I probably filled a dozen pages trying to get something I actually liked, but in the end, just decided to post these two.  My son suggested that maybe I was having problems is that the parameters of using just two tangles may be inhibiting me. I think it is just that I am still trying to find my style of tangling. But that's why I try these tangles....to challenge myself. So without further comment, here they are!

The first one I sort of liked...my son thought it was my best

I actually liked this one better, in spite of all the mistakes.

So here are my humble offerings this week and I am still going to attempt them some more.  If you would like to see the other submissions for this week, head on over to the Diva's place to see what everyone has done.

Diva Challenge #184 - Just play-ING around!

It's been a long week with a few challenges on the home front, but getting better. I am sorry that I am so late getting this up this week, but while I absolutely LOVE this tangle, finding things to go with it proved to be quite a challenge for me. I probably filled a half dozen pages in my sketch book, just playing with the steps in ING (which I must say is really quite fun!), and trying how to best use it.  The very first thing I saw when I did ING was the Olympic Cauldron here in Salt Lake for the 2002 Winter Olympics, as well as the Hoberman Arch details. So I played around with that idea for a bit and came up with this tile to remind me of the great time we had here during the Olympics. Not my best work, but it was a lot of fun even though it didn't quite come out the way I had intended.

Olympic Cauldron in SLC - Color actually looks better in person

Tile #2 using ING, don't know the other tangles because the pen took over

The I tried a not quite so straight ING and I love the flow-ING lines here. I may have to copy this one and try it with some color

Tile #3 - Just let my pen take over on this one ... LOL

This last one is probably my favorite because I just let it free flow and anded up making lots of mistakes, but tried to cover them and make them into something else.  Hope you enjoy my offerings this week!  And don't forget to check out all the other on the Diva's blog

Diva Challenge #183 (X-did) .... Almost didn't *giggle*

This week has been a bit hectic with out anniversary and all and my dad's birthday (and yet again, I ask myself why I wanted to get married on his birthday....oh yeah, it was so I wouldn't forget my anniversary!) But anyway, it's been 32 years for us now as man and wife with lots of ups and downs, but we have stayed the course *grin*  Hubby doesn't get my Zentangle hobby because he is an art purist who also loves classical music and paints miniature figures. But he strives for realism and doesn't get anything abstract. So when I ask him what he thinks about my ZIA, he just says "....interesting....". At least my son is of a more artistic and creative bent, so he gives me some wonderful criticism. Although I majored in graphic design in college, I never did anything with it, so needless to say I was thrilled when I stumbled on Zentangle in June of this year. I'm trying to keep up with the challenges and have been going through the old challenges to try some of them.

This particular tangle (X-did) gave me fits because I could see in my minds eye what I wanted to do with it and for some reason it wouldn't translate to my hands. I am a big fan of Art Deco and Art Nouveau, so that's more or less how I saw it.  Although I was very hesitant to put my first attempts on here, I saw that others were doing that, so (deep breath) here goes!

ZIA Tile #1 is done on some chocolate brown paper I had laying around and I decided to try it with the white pen. Not my favorite and I have absolutely no idea why i decided on putting the purple in *shrug*

ZIA Tile #2 is mostly along the same lines, but the pattern for the X-did got so small it is barely discernable

But with ZIA Tile #3, I think I got the look I was looking for. This is also the first time I have actually used a Zentangle Tile and I actually may have to break down and buy some to work on. The paper is fabulous and I'm afraid that I am a paper junkie.....have been all my life, I'm afraid *grin*

Well, that it for this challenge, but I want you to know that I worked on finally getting this pattern right in my sketchpad almost constantly since the challenge was posted.  Thank you all for your comments on my other submissions....it always helps to have feedback, good or bad, to help one improve.  Thanks again!

Stripes of a sort! Diva Challenge #182

I've been playing with Blogger, so for the next little while, I am playing around with different templates and colors. I think I know what I want, but expect to see changes whenever the mood strikes. Since I have a thing for pink, it will likely stay with a pink theme of some sort *grin*

Well, I had so much fun with the challenge last week, that I thought I would try again. The first one I tangled really didn't feel all that great to me and it just felt kind of awkward but I at least finished it. I was just kind of grasping at tangles that I thought might look pretty good, but somehow they didn't want to cooperate. I like the Brayd (sort of), but it wasn't quite what I had in mind. The Scrolled Feather ( I think that's the name anyway) didn't quite manage to come out at all.  And then when I took the picture tonight, it looks all tan but I think that's because I didn't use a flash. I guess I need to work on that too.  But anyway, here is Tile #1 for this challenge:

So, I tried again and I think I like this one much better and for some reason, the picture turned out better too. Strange because they were both on the same background, but I think this second one is a lot better anyway. Anyway, here is my submission for this week.  Can't wait to try the new challenges.

I know the tangles in this one because I actually wrote them down as I was doing them *giggle*. They are: Bunzo, Paradox, Shattuck, Onamato, Ciceron, and Hibred.  I think that Bunzo is quickly becoming a favorite of mine, just because it is so adorable and just plain fun to draw.  Enjoy and check out the others out at the Diva's place.

Finally . (Diva Challenge #181)

Well, never did get my scanner working, but my son and I managed to sit down and actually take a few pictures. I wasn't sure I was going to get them done before next week because with all the storms going on, I have hardly been able to move. Storms tend to make everything hurt and my knees and back have been driving me nuts.  Age, accidents and fibromyalgia seem to have taken a bit of a toll, but it's all good because I have my computer AND loads of blogs to explore.  Anyway, here it my submission for the Diva's Challenge # 181... Water. Didn't quite turn out the way I envisioned it, but it's not half bad, I don't think for my first submission.  I've done a few of the others, but this is the first one I have actually submitted to the challenge.  Any and all feedback welcomed...good and bad!  I am so new, I need all the help I can get. I just started this in June.  So without further ado, here is my Tangle

Tangles used: Mooka, Flux, Bunzo, Mssst, Phicops, Angel Fish, and I don't know if the others are even tangles or not...*giggle*  So forgive me please. I will definitely learn them as I start to tangle more. :)

Still no pictures! :(

Well, I tried to scan some of my tiles to try to enter one or more of the challenges, but apparently my scanner doesn't like me anymore. So now I have enlisted the help of my son (who is very good at helping me with all things electronic) to see if he can figure it out. Otherwise, we will be trying to take some decent pictures. I am really new at tangling, but am so excited to get some feedback and suggestions that I really need to get the pictures up. Please bear with me.

I am also going to try to get some pictures up of the jewelry that I make. I've been crafty all my life and have so many interests that it is hard for me to keep up with everything I am interested in. But for now, I am mostly interested in tangling because it relaxes me very much. My home life tends to be a bit hectic and I find that if I can even just tangle for a few minutes to take myself "out of my head", I can relax more easily. So here's hoping that I can finally get something posted up here within the next couple of days.

Just starting out in the blog world!

Well, since I needed a blogspace to go ahead to post my artistic endeavors to, here I am!  I'm just starting into Zentangle@ and loving it for relaxation mostly. I have only done a few, but I am busily doing research on all the beautiful tangles that people have introduced. So please bear with me while I get going with this.  Happy Tangling all!