Diva Challenge #203 ~ UMT "Athitzi"

Well, here it is Saturday again, and I really had intended (once again) to have my challenge finished the first half of the week. My life tends to be haphazard at best most of the time, so I can never tell for sure when I will have things done. But I love to sit and draw or tangle whenever the moment presents itself. I do have a bad tendency to stress over my submission for the challenges, but I am making myself a promise that from now on, I refuse to compare myself to the real artists that post their beautiful artwork.

That being said, this week the Diva challenged us with a UMT by Seven called "Athitzi". When I looked up the steps on how to use it, I drew a blank, even with her beautiful rendering. So I've been playing with it all week and not really liking most of my trials. So on Thursday night, I was just browsing the internet and sketching things of interest when I came upon some Polynesian tattoo designs. Some of them really spoke to me (my husband is of Polynesian descent) and inspired my ZIA for this week. I won't call it a tangle, because I think most of the design is not tangles but just designs that my pen decided to draw. That be as it may, I now offer you my submission this week. To me it looks very Tribal, so I guess that's what I will name it ~ Tribal!

Tribal
Diva Challenge #203
Media: 3.5 tile, Micron pen, pencil and shading stomp
Tangles: Shattuck, Athitzi, and others my pen drew

For those that are visiting here for the first time, these challenges come from Laura Harms blog "I am the Diva" and many other submissions can be found here on her website. So take a look and come and join in the fun with us.

As always, thank you for your comments, they are always appreciated and I thank you for visiting.

Diva Challenge #202 ~ Duo-Tangle

Another week and another challenge from the "Diva" .... a duo-tangle using two tangles only two tangles: Chebucto and Copada, both by Canadian CZT, Margaret Bremner.  These are both lovely tangles, probably more suitable for edges or frames than main tangles, but still beautiful. That is, until I tried to put them together on one tile. They fought me and I fought them ... I think that I must have used half my sketchbook trying to get them to play nice on the same piece. But I finally managed one that I deem is okay, so here it is ~ along with a couple of unfinished ones that I may use for inspiration at another time *or not*

Chebucto/Copada Duo-Tangle
Media:  Micron Black Pen, Pencil, and shading stomp

Unfinished challenge tile ~ I just could seem to get this
one to work with me at all.  Maybe one of these days I
can figure out where to go with this; if not, well, it was good
practice!

Another unfinished challenge tile. I didn't like the thick lines
around the Chebucto, and I have absolutely NO IDEA why I
stuck the brown bit in there.  But there are some parts of it I
like, so maybe I will just put them into another design one day.

I just couldn't believe the problems that I had in getting these two to play together. But now that I know how to do them both and found how versatile they can look, I plan on using them more.  Thank you Diva and thank you Margaret!

If you want to join in the fun or see what the other tanglers have done with this challenge, just take a look at the Diva's blog "I am the Diva" . There are a lot of talented artists there and I'm going to go take a look at them now.  Thanks for looking at my attempts and of course, comments are always welcome.

Diva Challenge #201 ~ Moebius Syndrome Awareness

For our challenge this week, the Diva, Laura Harms, would like us to remember that Moebius Syndrome Awareness Day is today, 24 January and tangle something to support this organization.  You can read more about the challenge HERE and see what Laura tells us about the syndrome that affects her and her family daily.  Her youngest, Artoo (blog name), has this syndrome and is overcoming challenge all the time. He is a wonderful child from what I can see from the Diva's pictures as I have been following the blog.

I had fully intended to have this posted on Wednesday, because it was mostly finished, but again life got in the way and I have been living on pain pills since about Tuesday. I finally was cognizant enough today to finish it and get a picture of it.  One of these days, I fully intend to get my scanner hooked up, but until then I guess I will just have to rely on my camera.  This isn't too bad a picture, but not the greatest either.

I used a paper that probably should have been used for watercolor and it really wasn't suitable, but I think that the tangle turned out fairly well in spite of it and me fuzzy head!  So here it is!

Moebius Awareness
Self cut tile
Media: Micron Pen, White Gellyroll, watercolor pencils, Creative Memories Fine Tip Pen
Tangles: Luv-A, Leaf and a twist

As always, your comments are always appreciated and I want everyone to know that I always read the comments, but quite often don't get back to you. Thank you for your comments :)   If you would like to see what other tangles have been done for Moebius Awareness, check out the Diva's blog HERE

Diva Challenge #200 ~ Bi-Zen-Tennial !

Wow! It's hard to believe that our beloved Diva has been posting challenges for 200 weeks. That's a whole lot of inspiration and that's why I admire her so much. Given that she has a young family and is busy, busy with them and still finds time to let us out here in Zentangle land keep in touch with her is amazing to me. I haven't been a steady poster but I try to keep up with the challenges when I am able to and I only started in May of 2014, I believe.  Zentangle was something I just saw in a post from one of my Artist blogs and I ordered the book and kit and I was hooked.  When I looked up Zentangle blogs on Google, first I went to the official site and then the one that caught my eye was the Diva!  I followed it for a few weeks before I decided to be brave and post an actual tangle. I have learned so much from Laura and her guest bloggers, as well as all of those who post here each week, that I am very glad that I found this place to call home.  It feels like a big, warm family and I'm glad to be here.

The challenge for this week was to use your "Mac and Cheese" tangle on the whole tile, with no borders and the number 200 somewhere on the page.  It took me a couple of readings to realize what she meant by "Mac and Cheese" (your go-to tangle or a favorite tangle), but this old lady finally got it right *giggle*.  I really don't have a true favorite tangle, but I find I tend to use either Flux or Luv-A a lot of the time. It was just so hard to choose which tangle is my current favorite......so I just picked one ~ Luv-A.  Here is my first submission for this week...I may do another one if my hands hold out...lol.

Diva Challenge #200
Media : Moleskin Sketchbook, Micron black and red pens, Graphite pencil
Tangle:  Luv-A

As always, I appreciate any comments - good, bad, or indifferent and I invite you to take a look at all of the beautiful work done so far for this challenge.  It can be found on the Diva's blog "I am the Diva - Certified Zentangle Teacher". Take a look at all the beautiful tangles and ZIA there and why don't you come play with us too!

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