DC #320 ~ UMT: Dansk by Margaret Bremner

I actually managed to tune in while Laura was streaming last Sunday to find out the challenge was. This week we are challenged to use a tangle my Margaret Bremner called 'Dansk'. I have been tangling on and off since summer of 2014 and have seen this tangle used, but I had actually never tried it. So I watched carefully as Laura was explaining that it worked best if the auras were the same width. Well, I DID try to do that, but my hands were hurting, so they might not be equal. But no matter, it was relaxing to make the shapes whether they were perfect or not (aside:  most of my stuff is NOT perfect, although that's what I strive for after I have actually learned the exercise). I finished up the linework just as Laura finished streaming.

It was very comfortable to tangle along with the other folks that were online, especially since I wasn't able to go to my Tangle Meetup on the 11th. It was my son's birthday and he had hurt his ankle, so we were babysitting his ankle. I fully intended to finish the shading and highlighting on Monday, the 12th, but instead I spent all day in the emergency room with my son, because we thought that his cellulitis had maybe come back . . . that's how bad his ankle was hurting. I hadn't brought any of my tangling stuff with me except a few tiles and a pen.  Not even a pencil was in my bag! You can bet THAT won't happen again!

So here is my first challenge tile and actually the first time I had actually used Dansk:

DC #320 ~ UMT: DANSK
Media: 4x4 Grey Toned tile, Black Micron 01, White Gelly
 Roll, White General Chalk Pencil, graphite, grey fineliner
Tangles Used: Dansk, Diva Dance, Fescu, Chainey by
Gaylene Miller and Black Pearls.

So I finally finished this up on the 13th in the morning, but I had actually done linework on another one while I was sitting all day at emergency. I actually felt more relaxed doing this one because I had an idea of what I was doing with Dansk. I finished it up on the 13th as well with the shading and highlighting. I actually think I like this one much better. What do you think?

DC #320 ~ UMT: Dansk by Margaret Bremner
Media: Toned Tan hand cut 3.5 x 3.5 tile, Black Micron 01,
White Gelly Roll, graphite, white General chalk pencil.
Tangles: Dansk, Joki, Tipple, Flux, Moowa, Crescent
Moon (around the circle that looks like a flower)

So there you go for this week, I'm glad I finally had some time to post them to my blog [and before Sunday night too :)))]  I think I will be using this tangle more and incorporating it into some of my work. I need to go check out everyone else's offerings, so thank you for stopping by and checking this out.

As always, comments both bad and good, are welcome as I always appreciate constructive criticism. If you want to check out the other artists participating in this week's challenge, you can find it here.

Thanks again for visiting and have a zen-ful day!

DC #318 ~ Diptych & DC #317 ~ Photo Tangle

I can hardly believe that it's June already - where is this year going anyway? I haven't accomplished nearly what I set out to do, but luckily for me, I don't have deadlines (thankfully) because I am retired. Pretty much things get done as they get done. We have had a windfall and were able to help our daughter get a new car when hers broke down. With 2 little girls, she HAS to have reliable transportation, especially since she is a single mom. The girls are 9 and 7 and were thrilled to have a car that nobody had owned before them. It really made our day to be able to help them out!

They are out of school now for the summer and want to come over a few times so I can teach them to draw "like Grandma Leslie" does. They are both quite artistic and imaginative, as are most of our granddaughters. As a matter of fact, our eldest granddaughter just graduated from a liberal arts high school and is going to Singapore to study design over there. She received a prestigious scholarship, and so will be heading off there soon. I am terribly proud of her and know that when she was little, we used to do "art" together every day.

So with artistic thoughts in my mind over the last little while, I have been playing around a lot with different ideas, but mostly trying to clean out my art supplies because I have some VERY old ones around from my college days. I kept a few sketchbooks and have one abstract painting I found. As soon as I clean it up, I'll likely post it here on the blog.

But this latest challenge from the Diva has really caught my fancy, so I made a few this week, but am only posting one right now, since the others are in various states of completion. When I read about the challenge

      "So, this week's challenge is to create a Diptych. A diptych is two panels joined with a hinge
                        - and the panels are mirrored - and i use the term 'mirrored' loosely" 

I too opted for a zendala, only because I like the way it is folded and decided to make a 'hobbit door'. I can only imagine that Bilbo and Frodo and all the other hobbits might approve of this and use in their little hobbit holes. So here is my take on this weeks challenge "The Hobbit Door"

DC #318 ~ Diptych "The Hobbit Door"
Media: Hand cut Zendala Tile, Black Micron 01 pen,
Grey marker, graphite pencil and Prismacolor pencil
Tangles: Moowa, Mooka, Trefoil, Huggins (?)

I didn't get a chance to take a picture of my last challenge piece, so here is my take on DC #317 ~ Photo Tangles. I was going through some of my old magazines while trying to shovel the garage out and came across some of my artist doll magazines. At one time, I tried my hand at making and making over dolls into art dolls, So I found a lot of inspiration in those magazines. The picture I chose to use was in an ad for another magazine and the image and position of it really inspired me. Here is my challenge piece for DC #317

DC #317 ~ "Balancing Act"
Media: Yellow Photo Mat, Micron Pen 01 Black, Graphite, Prismacolor
Tangles: Molygon, Flux, Mooka, Diva Dance, Crescent Moon

I hope you have enjoyed my offering this week and thank you for stopping by! If you would like to see what other artists have shown, just head over to the Diva's place (here) and take a look at what everyone is showing for these challenges.

Again, Thank you for stopping by and all comments, good and bad, are welcome!

DC #316: String Theory ~ STRIPES!

Wow ~ it's not even late Sunday night and I actually have my challenge tile ready! Will wonders never cease? This week has kind of been rainy and dreary here, so I didn't feel like running around much, so as a result, I was at home more and decided to take time for myself to just play and I did!

Mother's Day was wonderful for me since I got art supplies for gifts -- new Micron pens (which I desperately needed - thank you son!), new white gel pens (the ones that I had been using quit working, so my son bought me two 3-packs in hopes that at least one would be a good pen), Distress Ink pads (6 minis from hubby), and Distress Ink sprays (3, also from hubby). I also bought myself a stamp and stencil package that was on sale, since I love stamping as well. So with all those goodies, I have been trying out different background effects and used one of my round pieces for this week's challenge.

Our challenge this week was to create our string with stripes, and although they aren't in a straight line, they ARE stripes. The first picture here is the penwork (I decided to change the central stripe so it's a good thing that I used a gray pen the first time around...lol) and the second is the completed zendala. I hope that you enjoy!

Linework - before adding color and shading
Background using distress inkpads and sprays

Completed challenge tile
Tools used: 01 Black Micron, graphite, Prismacolors, Grey Tombow Marker
Tangles (the ones I can remember...lol): Crescent Moon, Copada, Flux,
Joki, Ovy, Zinger, Springkle, and the last one may or may not be a real
tangle.....my pen just took over!

Thank you for stopping by and as always, I look forward to comments and critiques. If you want to see the other submissions, stop by the Diva's blog (here) and see what all the other artists have shared this week.

Happy tangling everyone!

DC #315 ~ Molygon & DC #314 ~ UMT: Scallamps

Since my post is so very late this week, it will be quite short. The challenge this week was to explore the tangle "MOLYGON" which is a tangle which was created by Rick and Maria, who created the Zentangle method for us. I have been playing with this all week and have scraps of paper all over the house with bits of Molygon on them, but really couldn't find one that really pleased me. So here is the one that I persevered until the end with and I think I like it a bit. Anyway, here it is for you to see.  As always, comments are welcome and creative criticism is always appreciated.

MOLYGON
Black Micron, Sepia Micron, Grey Fineliner, Graphite

Since I didn't get my challenge piece posted for last week, I would like to include it here as well. This is the piece I did for the UMT Challenge ~ Scallamps by Sarah Uram. I quite enjoyed this one and you can probably notice that this one does flow a lot better than my Molygon challenge.

SCALLAMPS
Black Micron and Graphite
Tangles: Scallamps, Pokeroot, Flux, Joki, Tipple, & Pinbawl

I really enjoy the Diva's challenges, and always do something whether or not I get it posted. I have decided that I need to start getting on the stick and getting my pieces posted when they get done regardless of whether they are current or not. During one of the Twitch live sessions, I mentioned to Laura that I am generally late, and she said that is fine, just add it to the week where it belongs. So I may post one from time to time that belongs in an earlier challenge. For those of you just stopping by, you can see the Diva's weekly challenge and the pieces that are submitted at the Diva's blog (here).

Thank you for stopping by and comments are always welcome!

DC #313 ~ Amanda (Earth) Day!

On the very first Earth Day in 1970, I was a senior in High School (now you know my age...lol) and there was a big rally up at the college in my town. I went and listened and thought about what they were trying to do. It all made sense to me and I have since that time, tried to do things that were earth friendly. There have been times that I haven't always been as conscientious as I should have been, but I always try to remember that this earth that we live on won't last forever, especially if we don't take care of it.

Along those lines, I have been going through some things that need to leave this house and came upon a few books that were falling apart. I had always wanted to try "found poetry" and this particular book has a replacement copy in the house so I used a page from it to tangle on. It is a page from "Renegades of Pern" by Anne McCaffery and one of my favorite books (the whole family loves fantasy and sci-fi). So I hope you like it, I think it turned out well. The small piece was a piece of scrap paper that I just didn't want to throw away because of course it was big enough to use for something, I just didn't know what. I tried to do them both in earthy tones with colors that might be found in nature. So without further delay, here they are!

Amanda (Earth) Day #1
Click to see larger

Amanda (Earth) Day #2
Click to see larger

Thank you for stopping by and as always, comments and critiques are always appreciated. If you want to see how other artists approached this challenge, check out the Diva's page (here) and see them all. And remember, you too can come and play with us and show us your interpretation of the challenges each week.

DC #307 ~ ZINGO!

On her blog this week, the Diva (Laura Harms) challenged us to use a tangle introduced by Maria's (Maria Thomas ~ co-founder of Zentangle) granddaughters Indy and Mazzy. These two young girls were very professional in their instructional video and you can find the link of the Diva's page (here).

As I watched these two young ladies, I was reminded of a few weeks ago when a couple of my own granddaughters came over and we had a good time talking and coloring. They spotted a few of my tiles and decided they wanted to learn to draw like "Gramma Leslie". So when we can get all of the schedules to sync, I am planning on showing them Indy and Mazzy's video. Here's a picture of Gramma and her two sweethearts (they look great ... gramma not so much).

Gramma talking again ... as usual!

I had a lot of fun with ZINGO this week, and have several attempts in my sketchbooks, but since I am running late, I will just show my final for the submission this week. I was debating whether or not to darken the color and decided I just wanted to leave it pastel, so here it is.

Media: 3.5 x 3.5 tile
Tools: Micron 01 Black pen, Graphite pencil, Prismacolor
Pencils, Grey fineliner
Tangles: Zingo, Zinger, Flux, Fescu

Thank you for stopping by and if you want to see all the other submission for this week's challenge, head on over to I am the Diva and check them out. It's a lot of fun and we'd love to have you join in the fun.

Have a wonderful week!

DC # 302 ~ Hamadox (UMT) & IAST #183

First of all, thank you all for your kind words last week. They are always appreciated. I don't always get to everyone's blog or posts, but I have seen all of the submissions for this week. I hope to make it around this coming week to add my comments.

Well, late again as usual, but I just couldn't pass up posting my Hamadox because I really liked how they turned out (I did 2 different ones). And I also actually finished a challenge for Adele Bruno's IAST and also did 2 for that one. So short and sweet tonight and here we go!

Diva Challenge #302 is a first of the month Use My Tangle (UMT) and we have the delightful Hamadox by Diana Schreur CZT. I love this tangle and how my pen can just take over without me coaxing it much. Here is my first tile:

Diva Challenge # 302 ~ Hamadox
Tangles used: Hamadox, Flux, Moowa, Fescu, Tipple
Tools: Micron Pen, Prismacolor colored pencils, graphite 

Tile # 2 is a bit simpler, but only because I had a few oops! moments and couldn't decide how to finish it.

Diva Challenge #302 ~ Hamadox
Tangle used: Hamadox, (ghostly Printemps were the aforementioned
oops! and they showed through the black that I covered them with -
but it's okay, it kind of gives it a unique effect
Tools: Micron Pens, Prismacolor colored pencils

Adele Bruno had a heart themed string this week and I did 2 submissions for this, although I am not at all sure they made it in time. These are 2 entirely different looks and I'm not at all sure that I like this first one. My son does though and thinks it would make a great tattoo.

IAST # 183
Tangles used: Zenith, Caught, and Pearls
Tools: Micron Pens, Calligraphy Marker, Prismacolor
colored pencils, and graphite 

My 2nd submission for this challenge was a bit more to my liking. I tend to prefer flowery looks when I can actually get it mostly right.

IAST #183
Tangles used: Zenith, Caught, Moowa, Luv-A, Fescu, Beadlines
Tools: Micron Pen, Prismacolor colored pencils

Thank you for stopping by and if you get a chance, head on over to the Diva's place and see what everyone else has done!

DC # 301 ~ DuoTangle: Paradox v.Diva Dance

First off, thank you very much for visiting my blog last week and a big thanks to those that left comments. I am not the best person in the world for posting comments, but do try to get around to all of the blogs. I am so inspired by all the artists at the Diva's blog, so I go through all of the blogs a lot. Thank you all for sharing!

I'm SO glad that Artoo had a successful Moebius Syndrome Awareness day and that his school and community are so mindful of the disorder that he has and that he is able to show the world that he is, in fact, perfect just the way he is. What an amazing family that the Diva has!

In the Zentangle Newsletter this week, they had a new video entitled "Kitchen Table Tangles" and Rick and Maria were demonstrating a duo tangle of Paradox and Diva Dance and showing how to intertwine them. The Diva decided that it would be a good challenge for this week and so we were challenged to do just that ... a DuoTangle of Paradox and Diva Dance. I loved that way that Rick had tangled his piece, but intertwining the two tangles just didn't seem to happen for me, but that's okay. I have never been fond of my Diva Dance, but I loved how this tile turned out . . . AND I think that the shading almost shows up nearly as dark as it is in person. Hope you like this and as always, comments and critiques are always welcome.

DC#301 ~ Duotangle: Paradox v. Diva Dance
Tools: Micron 01 Black pen, Graphite pencil for shading

I was going back through my blog and realized that I had not posted some of my challenges, so please indulge me as I post these. This first one is using the new tangle, "DraWings" and I must say that I really love drawing this one. It just seems to flow for me.

This next one is Icanthis. I wasn't sure that I was going to like this one, but I found it fun to work with as well. Here's what I did with it on a recent tile.

Please take some time and check out what the other fabulous artists have been doing with the Diva's challenge here and perhaps you may get inspired to join us in this fun. Thanks for stopping by!

DC # 300 ~ Congrats on 300 Challenges AND Moebius Syndrome Awareness Day

Wow! Our awesome Diva (Laura Harms) has challenged us for 300 weeks to join her in this tangling world and strive to grow. She has encouraged many people to settle down and find their zen with this wonderful meditation technique. And in all that time, we have also been fortunate to hear about how this technique is helping her to deal with some everyday things that the majority of us probably don't have to deal with.

Her youngest son, Artoo (his internet name) was born with Moebius Syndrome, which is a disorder that inhibits the ability of those with it to be able to move their face and make normal facial gestures. It is not a disease, but a disorder that concerns the nerves in the face. Laura describes it very well on her blog, so if you would be interested to know about it, please take a look at her blog here. Those of us that follow her blog have followed little Artoo through his babyhood and toddler years through the pictures we have seen and through Laura's descriptions. He is now in school and doing very well, is smart as a whip and absolutely adorable.

So every year, we celebrate Moebius Syndrome Awareness day by using the Moebius logo as a string or inspiration for our challenge. Here is my offering for this year.

Diva Challenge #300 ~ Moebius Syndrome Awareness
Tangles used: DraWings, Achey Breaky Heart
Tools: Micron 01 Black Pen, Prismacolor colored pencils, Prismacolor
Alcohol Marker Blender

The color for Meobius is purple, so I mostly used that in my tile, but since Artoo's favorite color is green, I tried to incorporate a bit of it in there for him.  This one's for you ARTOO!

As always, thank you for stopping by and any comments, critiques or how do you do's are welcome. I know I'm always a bit late getting this in, but it seems that Sunday is the only day I can actually do anything. Looking forward to seeing your remarks and see you again soon.  Don't forget to stop by the Diva's place (click here) and see what she has going on!

UMT ~ Orbs-La-Dee (DC# 298) and IAST# 179

Happy New Year, my friends!  I can't believe that I didn't post at all since the first part of December, but it was a real busy time trying to keep everyone well here. I suspect that everyone else was busy as well. At any rate, it's good to be back and this year, I am going to TRY to keep up with at least the Diva's Challenge. I am thinking of trying a couple of others as well, since I have decided that this year, I am taking time for myself more than I normally do. I definitely need to de-stress and my artwork tends to do that for me.

So this week, since it is the first week (technically the second, but the first one with a challenge), it's time for a UMT (Use My Tangle) and Laura has chosen Orbs-La-Dee. I have only tried it a couple of times and that wasn't in a composition, just trying the tangle on for size. Well, I found that it's all kinds of fun and I think that this will become a new favorite of mine.  Anyway, without further adieu, here is my Diva Challenge tile. I was just playing with Ogee grids and thought that this worked well for me.

UMT ~ Orbs-La-Dee
Tangles used: Orbs-La-Dee, Joki. Moowa, Tipple
Tools: Sakura Micron 01 and 08 (for coloring)
Graphite pencil for shading (darker that it shows here)

 I also decided that I was going to try other challenges this year from time to time and will post them here as well. This week, I decided to try Adele Bruno's IAST #179. Adele used a double spiral string and had us use the tangles Betweed, Dust Bunny, and Curl. I had used Betweed before, but the other two I had never used. Although I like all of the tangles separate, I'm not at all sure that I like the way this turned out. I can't seem to find the string, although I do know it's there. But I did finish it, even though I wanted to toss it. I may revisit it at some time, but for now, here it is for what it is!

IAST # 179
Tangles used: Betweed, Dust Bunny, and Curl
Tools used: Sakura Micron 01, graphite pencil and Derwent colored pencil

Again, I'm not real sure I like this one, but here it is anyway and I at least made the effort to try the new-to-me challenges. The color that I used isn't showing up as brightly as it is in rl, but that's the best I could do with my camera. Hopefully, I will get ink soon since my scanner is also my printer and it won't even scan when the printer is out of ink :(.  Anyway, I enjoyed getting back into tangling after the holidays and am going to try to be here more often this year.

Thanks for dropping by and as always, comments are appreciated. There are many people that do these challenges, so click HERE for the Diva's Challenge and HERE for Adele's It's A String Thing Challenge. Take a look at all the wonderful submissions and come play with us if you want to try it yourself.

Have a Zen-ful day!

DC #290 ~ Duotangle ... 'Nzeppel / Flux

Just a short post this week ... my computer chair gave up the ghost and decided to break on me and toss me to the floor when I was leaning over to pet one of my kitties. So I am kind of in a world of hurt atm. Laura Harms, the Diva, challenged us to a duotangle of 'Nzeppel and Flux. But I had never really tried 'Nzeppel before and Flux is one of my all time favorites, so I decided that I had best do what I could. After trying 'Nzeppel several different ways in my sketch book, I was finally ready to work on a tile or two.

Media: 3.5" plant-dyed tile
Sakura Micron 01 Black
Graphite pencil for shading
Grey fineliner for additional shading

For this first tile, I used one of my experimental backgrounds. I had read about "boiled books" right here on the Diva's website and decided to give it a try. There weren't actually many leaves left on the vine out back when I tried this, so the colors weren't the greatest and I wasn't exactly sure how to proceed. Turns out I need a whole lot more steps to get it looking fabulous, but I kind of liked the way this one turned out. I tried to include a couple of Flux (Maria-style) as well, but I don't do as well with those.

Media:  3.5" self-cut tan tile (Used Creative Memories
Scrapbooking page and cut it up)
Sakura Micron Sepia pen 01
Sakura Micron Black pen 01
Prismacolor Premier colored pencils

This is my second tile and I like it much better. This utilized my favorite form of Flux. I like the combination of colors here too.  My favorite color combination is sepia, black, and white on a tan tile. For this one, I actually used a very light pinky beige for the 'Nzeppel. It doesn't show up well here, but it's just a hint of color on the actual piece.















Thank you for stopping by this week, and as always, comments and critiques are welcome. I try to get around to all the blogs, but I may be a bit late this week, due to not being able to sit at the computer for very long right now. For those who haven't checked out the other submissions, you should go see what has been posted for the Diva's challenge HERE.

Have a zen-ful day!

DC # 289 ~ Leafy Goodness! (and a few late goodies to share too)

Apparently I'm back again...my computer decided to play nicely for awhile (actually the computer plays perfectly - it's the wireless connection that doesn't want to play nicely!), so I can get my challenge tiles posted. I'll try not to bore or overwhelm you with a long post, since I have really been gone now for a few weeks. But, before I get started, I just HAVE to share this picture of my 3 adorable kitties with you. First though, a little background ... on my old computer hutch that I haven't used in a very long time, there are cubbies that I normally put the grocery bags in and in front of that my craft sewing machine on one side and my printer on the other. There is room for 2 kitties to sleep perfectly on the bags and the normally do. Salem, the youngest, is usually the only one up there anymore and he sleeps behind the sewing machine. Nicky, the middle fur baby, originally had that spot, but apparently Salem won the toss. Mistoffellees, our old man, usually sleeps next to me in one of the dining room chairs. Anyway, this particular day, everyone's routine got upset and Salem was upstairs longer than normal...when he came down, and was about to go to his hidey hole, he found it taken. Well, normally he will just go to the other side, but Nicky was there because Mistoffellees was in Salem's spot. So Salem started telling me about it and when I turned around from my computer, I just about died laughing at the scene going on, so I grabbed the camera. Anyway, these are my 3 wonderful furbabies!

An indignent Salem...with Nicky and Mistoffellees totally oblivious to
the outrage of our youngest kitty...lol

I loved our challenge to tangle autumn leaves (at least they are autumn leaves in this part of the world right now - my inlaws would have spring leaves). I had a maple leaf cutout and a oak leaf that I used for my strings and tried to use the techniques from 2014 "Tints on Tan" kit that I had bought at that time. I liked the way it looked, but there was far too much 'white space' for me, so I was going to just add a little grey tipple around the leaves, but got carried away. I didn't really like the way it was looking, so I used graphite to color between the tipple and hated that even more. Then when my husband was looking at it, the angle that he was holding it at made it look to me like the leaves were floating on a puddle or something like that, so that's where I went with it. I added blue which greyed the background so that it wasn't so obtrusive and the leaves popped. Guess if you just keep at it, eventually it will satisfy. Not to say that it didn't...I loved drawing this one and really got lost in the tangles, but I really wanted to make this ZIA out of it. Anyway, this is my submission ...

Media:  3.5" square tan tile
Brown Micron 01
Black Micron .005
Sepia Micron .005
Prismacolor colored pencils

Media:  3.5" square black tile
White gelly roll pen

Diva Challenge #288 challenged us to use the tangle Gourdgeous on our tile in honor of Canada's Thanksgiving. Gourdgeous is one of my favorite tangle patterns, so I did two. The first one is just white on a black background, but I had fun doing it.

Media: 4" square watercolor paper
Dye ink background
Micron Sepia Pen 01
White Prismacolor

The second one is done on a watercolor washed background, which really wasn't what I had intended. I had decided to try some watercolor backgrounds and this one just really didn't work, but that's likely because I couldn't find my watercolors and used some dye inkpads for my pigment and the tile wasn't nearly wet enough. But I used it anyway, so it is what it is!











And here is the last one (I promise).  I loved Daniel's stepout  for Dreamcatcher, especially since when I was in high school and college I used to make them for my friends out of wool roving and bits of turquoise, so I really did love the wonderful stepout he did for it. My version is done on a tan tile with what I thought was terracotta pencil shading, but I have a light out in the kitchen where I do my tangling, so it was actually a mulberry color. When I discovered that is was the wrong color, it actually worked out well as I wanted the outside ring to be a bit darker, so I used the terracotta for that and it worked out well. But that's okay, pink is my favorite color anyway! So here is my last submission for this week and I will not be nearly so long next time. That's a promise *grin*

Media: 3.5" tan tile
Micron Black 01
Micron Sepia 01
Prismacolor colored pencils ~ Mulberry/Terracotta

As always, comments, critiques, messages, or just a "Hi, how are you" are appreciated. And please do the same for everyone that has joined in the Diva Challenge this week. If you want to play with the challenges as well, you can find them at the Diva's blog (click here) and join us sometime. It's a wonderful group of people and very informative. I've learned a lot participating in this. Have a great week!

Relax, Bro! DC # 285

It's been awhile again since I posted, but at least I'm here now! This challenge really spoke to me because I find I do things much differently when they are done just for me. I tend to fill a lot more space and just let things flow wherever they want. In fact, the one I did for this challenge just happened one day when I decided to do absolutely nothing except what I wanted with the day. I actually started this one in mid-afternoon and finished up well after midnight. But then, I do most of my work well after midnight because that's when there's nobody awake to make demands on my time...except for one or two of the cats and they tend to mostly leave me alone. Anyway, I couldn't even begin to tell you about this one except I decided to use my sepia pen to do most of my drawing (could also be because my black one is about to give up the ghost). I did start with Ellish, because I love it and also because my name starts with "L", so it appeals to me. Then my pen just kind of did it's thing with Flux and Tipple and a few others that I'm not at all sure what they are. Anyway, this was a most relaxing piece for me and I know that I need to do more of this kind of exercise to really find the "zen" in my life again.

Thank you for stopping by this week and as always, I always love remarks and comments (as everyone does). I try to get around to the blogs of everyone and leave feedback, but my hands don't always cooperate these days. Hopefully, I'll be back in the swing of things soon so I can play again with these challenges. If you would like to join in the fun as well, please stop by the Diva's blog and check out all the wonderful challenge pieces. You can find it here (click here) and you may decide you want to join us each week. Until next time .... Have a 'zen' ful day!

Duotangle~ Auraknot vs. Meer and Weekly Tangles

Well, Friday night here and I actually have tiles to post this week! This weeks challenge was a duotangle using Auraknot and Meer, both of which I really enjoy since they are so relaxing to me to do!  I have actually had them completed since Wednesday night but have just been too tired and lazy to get the camera out.

I decided against scanning because I haven't been liking the way the scanner washes out the shading and I think the camera shows it up much better. So without further adieu, here are my efforts....

 I did a few Duotangles, rather, started a few Duotangles, but finally ended up finishing this one and I am rather pleased with how it turned out. It was very relaxing to do and seemed to just flow from my pen without any help from me. The second picture is kind of blurry, but I loved the depth it showed, so included it anyway!

 I didn't get a tile posted for Daniel's great UMT, so I decided that I would post a couple that I completed. I love Knightstar, probably because it was easy for me to get into the rhythm of it as soon as I figured out how to not do it backwards.  Again, I photographed it at an angle to show the depth that it has.

 And this one is a WIP, I suppose because it doesn't look finished to me. I definitely need to do something with it, but I wanted to see how Knightstar would look in color.  I probably should have finished it before I colored it, but I had a new blending tool that I wanted to use with my Prismacolors, so now I just have to see what else I can do with it.

So there you have it, some of the things I have been busy with in the last couple of weeks. If you have any suggestions on what to do with that last one, please don't hesitate to leave comments for me. I can use all the help I can get!

Once again, thank you for visiting and as always, I appreciate each and every comment that you leave here. I don't always reply, but I do always read them. There are many other artists that are showing their work and have posted links at the Diva's place (Click here) , so do yourself a favor and check out all the wonderful work being done by artists all over the world. Maybe you will try your hand at Zentangle too...it's fun and relaxing!

Have a zen-ful day!

Circular World ~Diva #277

So.....I haven't been here for a couple of weeks due to my computer dying, but my darling son and husband bought me a new laptop that exceeds all my wildest dreams. It's a top gaming computer and breezes through the internet so fast that sometimes I can barely catch my breath...lol. But now I can hopefully get a few things posted.

It's been a very HOT couple of weeks here in Utah. I guess that Mother Nature needs to remind us that we DO live on a desert and that's how it's supposed to be in the summer. But in the last couple of weeks, we have only had a handful of days below 100 degrees F here. So I have spend my time indoors and have been tangling and playing with new techniques...it's been fun, but as I look at my meager output, I wonder why I don't have more to post. Could be that I am a blasted perfectionist. I had 3 or 4 great ideas for the Peace challenge, but seems I couldn't even get one finished. I'll just keep them in my "to be finished sometime" box.

Tangles used: Onamato (variation), Copada (I think),
Hibred, Arukas, Tipple, and a couple I don't know if they
are actually tangles.

But this week, the Diva (Laura Harms) is back home and has challenged us to "Go Round in Circles", with a circular inspired string or circle tangles. I really enjoyed this challenge, because I LOVE circles and I love circular tangles. Just something soothing in drawing orbs, maybe because they are infinite...no beginning and no end, just smooth infinity. Anyway, here is mine for this week. I wasn't able to do any editing on this so that the shading actually shows, but it really does and is actually beautifully shaded. My hubby loves it (which is  unusual) and suggested that it cried out for brilliant colour, and not pastel, wimpy colours. What do you think?

Tangles used:  Leaflet, Cat-Kin, St John's Cross, and Zen Bud

I also did an It's a String Thing challenge by Adele Bruno, but didn't finish it in time to submit it, I plan on using this one for a card front. I like this one too, but again, the shading doesn't show up well. I've got to find a way to load my Photoshop program onto this computer ... it doesn't have a drive for me to load from, so I guess I need to get a high capacity USB memory stick to load it.

Tangles used: Static, Tipple, and Crescent Moon

My birthday was earlier this month and I bought myself something that I have been debating on getting for a long time ... the book "One Zentangle A Day" by Beckah Krahula. I have started working in it, but I am not likely to do it daily like is outlined. I will do it in order, it's just that I like to take longer. At our last tangle get-together here in Salt Lake with the Intermountain Tanglers, we were talking about how our attention gets diverted, something that my family and I call "Bright and Shiny Syndrome". You know, you're in the middle of finishing or doing something, and something else catches you eye, so you stop what you are doing and do something else. Well, that pretty much sums up my life, so it kind of takes me forever to get things done, and that related to everything, even my tangling! But I did finish the first day and actually quite liked the result, so here is is without further ado...

So there you have it, my small submission for this weeks challenge and a few more goodies.

Thanks for stopping by and if you have the chance to see what all of the other artists have submitted, head over the the Diva's blog  and check them out. As always, I appreciate comments and helpful critique on my work. Thank you again for stopping by!

Have a zen-ful day!

Diva Challenge 273 ~ Tangle Remix and Playing Catch-up

Would you believe it? It's only Thursday and I am actually posting today  instead of Sunday night! It's been a pretty good week for me and I have a huge stack of tiles that need help badly. Our challenge this week was to take an old tile that we had in our stash and find one that could be helped by a remix or fresh coat of ink. I picked 2 and sadly, only 1 of them actually looks better. So I think I will show you that one first *giggle* I hate to show my worst work first....

So here it is initially....minimal shading and pretty much just Plain Jane. I suspect this was one for a stripes challenge and was done either in late 2014 or early 2015. When I looked at it, I felt it could be helped by a bit of a facelift (I could use one too, but that isn't quite so easy as it is to change artwork). So here is the modification that I did on it - mostly shading and just a few additions.

I really like this one much better, even if it doesn't show the shading as well as it looks in person. Sometimes I think that I prefer taking pictures to scanning, but at least they are getting finished by using the scanner.










This second one was done in July 2015 for a Simplicity challenge for the Diva. I really thought that I could help it out by adding to it, since it looked rather empty to me. I love simplicity, but sometimes even the simplest ones could use a bit more. So here is the original tile from 2015...

Just a bit too bland for me and I don't think I liked it even then. The shading on it is really that poorly done, so I thought I would dress it up and shade it a bit more. But I think I just made a mess of it. I may try to redo it again one day, but you can make up your mind.





Here's the remix, such as it is....

It really didn't turn out anything like I pictured. Oh well, sometimes I like them and sometimes I don't.















I missed the Black and White and Red all over challenge and I did a few of them, but this was the first one that I did and I did it in my sketchbook. I really wish I had done it on a tile as I really like it. But I am going to try it again on the front of a card and see if I can get it the way I like. There are several people that I really need to write to, and it's so much easier to send a card than to find my stationary again.

Thank you very much for stopping by. I always appreciate seeing some traffic here. As usual, I appreciate ALL comments, good or bad, and any creative criticism is appreciated. I have learned so much from this group and am so glad that I have joined in these challenges.

Now I can go back and see everything that everyone else has submitted, since there are so many talented artists here. If you would like to see what everyone else has done, please head over to the Diva's blog (HERE) and check it out. There's always time for you to start joining us. Come try it....it's fun!

Beads of Courage - Diva Challenge #271

Here we are again....late as ever, but at least I am actually posting this week. I can't believe that it has been what, 3 weeks since I posted? I don't know where the time goes; one would think that since I am retired, I would have more time to play, but it just doesn't work out that way. But, at least I am here for this challenge.

I have, over the past couple of years, made ZIA's for Laura's Beads of Courage challenges, but have never posted them. I asked myself this year, what's wrong with me that I don't get things posted? Since I couldn't answer that with any kind of an answer that actually sounded plausible, here I am.

This week, we have been asked to use the Beads of Courage program as inspiration for our challenge. Beads of Courage is an arts in medicine program to help sick kids deal with their chronic or life threatening illnesses and be able to better share their medical journeys. Whenever these children have a medical related procedure or appointment, they are given ceramic beads rather than lollipops so that they can document their specific challenges. It sounds like a wonderful program to help these kids be mindful of just what they have overcome in their lives.

I chose to use a stamping technique for my background for my bead tile. This is called "Bokeh" technique and gives a soft muted background with flashes of bright white reminiscent of photographic lights. Anyway, I like the way this background looks and you can Google bokeh technique to find out how to do it.  Without further adieu then, here is my tile for Beads of Courage.

I also have some older challenges that I have finished and would like to share with you. Up next is my take (after tons of tries to get it right) on Skye. I love the way this tangle looks and am going to try to include it as I get a bit more proficient.

And since I missed posting my Ellish tile, I have GOT to post that one. Of COURSE, I love it, after all, it resembles my initial "L" and makes a beautiful monogram!

For our local Tangle group, we have just started with monthly challenges, and the challenge for our last meeting was a monotangle of our choosing. I have been playing with Aquafleur lately and trying to get it right (finally), so here is my Aquafleur monotangle.

For any tanglers or tangler wannabee's, our local group meets on the second Sunday of each month (unless notified). We have a very nice group, which is headed by Dave Hunter and Heidi Sue. Check out the Tanglers blog HERE to see what we do.

Also, for those of you new to this blog or to Zentangle, check out all of the artists that have submitted their artwork for this challenge. The Diva posts a new challenge each week and they are a lot of fun. There is always so much diversity and inspiration in the work we see.  Check out the Diva's Challenge HERE. Feel free to come join in the fun any time you like.

As always, I am thrilled that you have chosen to visit my blog and always appreciate any and all comments. They make me happy. Have a great zen-ful day!

Diva Challenge # 268 ~ "Bit-o-black"

Just a short entry tonight because we've all been a bit under the weather here. I loved this challenge, but since I tend to use quite a bit of black anyway, I was hard pressed to know what to do. So I decided to try to play a bit with a Mooka monotangle and darken the spaces. Also, I tried to draw it a bit closer to the way the stepouts indicate, even though I tend to normally do mine a LOT different.  Anyway, here's my entry for this weeks challenge....hope you  like it :)

I did this in black ink on a Strathmore toned tan 4" tile and used graphite to shade with with accents and a few highlights with a white chalk pencil. Not quite what I had in mind, but still nicely dramatic, which fit with what I had wanted.

Thank you for stopping by and, as always, CC are always appreciated. If you want to see what the other artists submitted for this challenge, please check out the Diva's blog (click here) and see what everyone has done for the challenge.

Have a zen-ful day!