Diva Challenge #210~Spiralstring - That's the Thing!

Once again, thank you for your comments, it is much appreciated.

Sketchbook Spiralstring
Tangles: Flux, Printemps, Tipple, Bunzo, Cruffle, Fescu

Our Diva challenge this week was to use a spiral for our string and tangle away! I never realized just how difficult that would be; it's very definitely a challenge. I wasn't at all sure how to go about it, so I did this first one in one of my sketchbooks to see if I actually could do a spiral string. It's not too bad, but I could see where some changes needed to be made, and I decided to post my first one.

Challenge #210 ~Spiralstring
Media: Micron Pens - Black, Brown, Sepia, Pencil, and Dove Blender
Tangles Used: Flux, Printemps, Cruffle, Fescu

I liked the way this looked, but I really wanted it on a normal tile, so here is my official offering. I do like the way it turned out. Unfortunately, there is also a kitty hair or two on here too...lol. They manage to get into everything! But I love them anyway....

Diva Challenge #210~Spiralstring
Media: Tile, Black Micron Pen, Pencil, Green Watercolor Pencil
Monotangle: Amphora

This one was a practice of Amphora, which is a new to me tangle and I thought it might look good as a spiral...what do you think?

So my blog entry is short and sweet tonight, but late as usual. I really am going to have to get my pictures taken earlier so I can get my post up sooner.  But I always seem to manage to get them up on Friday or Saturday. *shrug* Go figure...lol.

Well, I hope to go check out a few more of the challenge pieces...I cheated this week and looked at a lot of them before I got mine posted. And checked out some of the previous year's entries as well. There is just so much talent out there. If you want to check out some of the beautiful work done for this challenge, head on over to the Diva's place (CLICK HERE) and if you are so inclined, come and play with us and show yours off too.  As always, comments are highly appreciated. Thank you for looking.

Diva Challenge #209 ~ Green it Up!

Well, here it is almost the end of the week ... again. I really have had this done for a couple of days, but was running here and there and when I had time to take pictures, it was after dark and the pictures really don't come out well, so I managed to take pictures this morning BEFORE I started wandering thither and yon.  Anyway, this week's challenge at the DIVA'S PLACE was to green it up for both Spring being on it's way and of course, St. Patty's Day. I only managed to do one green piece this week, but it was kind of a busy one and my hands weren't working for a couple of them too, so I basically took it easy.

 But first, I want to introduce you to our oldest kitty, Mistoffellees, but we call him Puppy Cat usually.  He turned 15 on Sunday and he is a pretty special old boy. We got him at about 6 months of age, back in October of 2000 because the people that had him had just had a baby and the baby was terribly allergic to the cat. That's what his name was....Cat. Anyway, I brought him home and we named him after Magical Mister Mistoffellees from the musical "Cats", because it just seemed to fit. He got the name Puppy Cat because he is really a big cat, at his highest weight, he was about 20 pounds, but his tail is about the size around of a lab's tail. And he is polydactal on ALL of his paws. All in all, he has 24 toes and 25 claws. When I watch him now, I often wonder at how much it must have hurt him to walk, because some of his toes are bent under under his regular ones.  Anyway, here's to my Puppy Cat...Happy Birthday Mistoffellees!

This is Puppy Cat posing happily on his birthday  for me.  I love his "eyeliner" around his eyes. This boy is a beautiful tuxedo kitty 

Here's a closeup of one of his front paws showing his multitude of toes and claws. He is such a sweetie! 

But that was at the first of the week, and I was playing with a bit of tangling, so here's a couple I finished before I went to work on the challenge.

 I had actually finished this tile mostly at our local group meeting of the Intermountain Tanglers, which David Hunter and Heidi Sue started here in the Salt Lake area. One of our members had brought some hand dyed paper tiles for us to play with and I had never done the tangle Niuroda before, so I played with it at our meeting. David scanned the tile but it looked differently than this on our group website. I brought it home and decided that it wasn't finished, so I added a bit to it and now I DO consider it done. It reminds me of a jellyfish but now I really do like the tangle. I'll have to play more.






I decided that I should get used to using strings because I very rarely use them and chose one to play with. I like the way it turned out and so I shaded it. But when I got finished shading it, I didn't like the effect, so I had just found my Dove Blender that I used to use with my colored pencils with my rubber stamping and used it over the pencil shading and loved the way it smoothed out the shading. What do you think?

Going Green
Media:  3.5" x 3.5" tile, Black Micron 01, Various Green Derwent
Watercolor Pencils, and Water, Gold Pitt Pen
Tangles: Shattuck, Hybred, Mooka, Wud, Sh'rock

..... and Finally...here is my challenge piece for this week. I am guessing that my wee little lephrecaun lost his hat in the Sh'rocks and Mookas, and must have turned a couple of the rocks into gold.  If you hurry, maybe you will find them before he comes back to collect them!  Happy tangling all!




And it you want to see all the rest of the challenge pieces for this week, just head to the Diva's blog (click here) and see what everyone had to offer. Would love to hear comments, as always, since feedback is always good and helps me grow!

Diva Challenge #208 ~ Cubine vs. Pokeroot

Interesting challenge this week from the Diva...we were to do a duotangle (term coined by the Diva meaning using two and two ONLY patterns in a piece) using Cubine and Pokeroot, both of which are official Zentangle tangle patterns. I have only dabbled with either one of them, just getting the mechanics of each down, but not really using them in anything, so this was very challenging. I actually played with this one more in my mind than on paper before I actually sat down and did anything. And...(I don't know if I should admit this or not), I actually looked at what others had done before I took a picture of mine, but in actuality mine was finished before I walked through all the blogs *grin*

Anyway, I had fun with this one and when I showed it to my son (as I always like to show him before I post it), he mentioned that it looked like something from "The Secret City". Now the Secret City was a fun show on TV that we watched when he was younger that taught kids to draw in cartoon fashion. Whereas I used to watch Walter Lanz and John Gnagy (I know, I am dating myself horribly if anyone even remembers these names), and they tried to teach realistic drawing, the Secret City was hosted by Mark Kissler and he has a playful, cartoony style that we both loved. As I looked at it, I could see where he would think that. But if you have ever seen Secret City, you might agree...I know I could see it.  Here it is...

Pokeroot Invasion
Media:  3.5" x 3.5" tile, Micron 01, pencil and tortillon
Tangles:  Cubine and Pokeroot

Margaret Bremner's Cubine tutorial was invaluable to me to come up with this as I could easily visualize it as an otherwordly piece, so make sure you notice the "stars" that you can see through the cubine windows. I hope all the little Pokeroots make themselves comfortable here... lol.

As always, thank you for looking at my effort and any feedback is always welcome.  Thank you for your comments, good, bad, or indifferent...they are ALL appreciated.  If you would like to see some more challenge pieces, check out the DIVA'S PAGE and if you are so inspired, come join the fun. We are a great group and love to see new ideas. See you soon!

Diva Challenge #207 ~ UMT (Umbatz)

Another full week and another challenge from the Diva. Since it is the first week of the month, she has chosen a tangle from those submitted to her. This month our UMT is Umbatz by Sandy Hunter. This is a fun tangle that I could probably draw forever since it has so many possibilities. I have pages and pages of variations that I played with and even came up with a tile that I like...lol. For now though, I will just jump in and post my efforts. Hope you enjoy!

These are just a few of the samples that I came up with. There was just so much that you can do with this fun little tangle! I think it will become one of my favorites very quickly. My only problem was finding what to go along side of it.

As you can see, I was playing with various tangles to go with it, but it was evading me with a vengeance! I couldn't decide if I needed to do straight lines or what, but I finally came up with one....

Diva Challenge #207
Media: 3.5" x 3.5" tile, Micron Pen 01, Pencil and Stomp
Tangles: Umbatz, Hollibaugh, Flux,  Tipple, and a few
floating pearls

This is the one I chose to complete and submit for the challenge this week. I found that I absolutely zenned out doing this one, and it surprised me because it really wasn't that complicated...it was just a simple little design. Goes to show you, that you never know what will really relax you in the end, so you just gotta keep trying!








I've also started to make a few smaller sized tiles to start leaving around for RAZ (Random Acts of Zentangle) and here are my first two:

This one is done on watercolor paper 2.5" x 3.5" using black Micron 01, pencil to shade with, white colored pencil over shading and white Gelly Roll for highlights. Tangles are Narwal, Bunzo, Mssst, Hibred (sp?) I think, and some stippled shadowing. I still haven't decided what I will put on the back, but at least I have it done and ready to place.

This is another RAZ on 2.5" x 3.5" cold press board using black Micron 01 and pencil and stomp only. Not sure about these tangles either, since I just let my pen do it's thing, but I see a bit of Diva Dance, Hollibaugh, Betweed, Tipple, and I'm afraid I can't remember what the circle ones are called.  I really DON'T like getting old...lol.




But anyway, I realize it's late in the week to get these in, but at least I have them and I do enjoy participating in these challenges. They force me out of my box and get me going!  If you want to see all the other posts to this challenge, please stop by at the DIVA's CHALLENGE here  and join in the fun!  Thank you for stopping my to take a look at my efforts this week and if you can, please leave a comment ... I love to read all your comments!  Thank you for all your wonderful comments last week and hope to see yours on the challenge too!

Diva Challenge #206 ~ Tools/Trade

This week, Laura Harms, the Diva, has challenged us to expand our horizons and try our tangles with new tools, or on new surfaces. This challenge came about when she hurt her thumb and was unable to use her normal pen and so chose to also use a larger paper with a brush tip pen. Fortunately, I didn't have an accident, but I found it challenging to use my chosen tools and surfaces.

For many years, I have dabbled in all kinds of crafts, since my mother taught me to crochet when I was a child and my grandmother taught me to tat and to sew. I have pretty much tried the gamut of crafts available and used to make a lot of stuffed animals and dolls and doll clothes. More recently, I have made jewelry and repurposed jewelry that was left by my mother and grandmother when they passed away. I have tried many kinds of surfaces and techniques, one of which was rubber stamping on dominoes and using the domino for a pendant. Well, I thought that I might try to tangle on one and see where that went. Actually, it was kind of funny, because the night before the challenge, I had found my dominoes and my alcohol inks and glimmer sprays and set them out to try on Monday. So....Monday came along and voila! I had what I was going to use for this challenge.

Now you may wonder why I am not posting this until the last minute....all I can say is "That seems to be the way my life goes". This has been the first day this week, I haven't had to run errands, take someone or myself to the doctor, or go grocery shopping. And since there are many days when I can barely walk, when I get home from these challenges, I am 'too pooped to pop' and just sit and read or veg.

But anyway, these were actually finished on Monday, but I haven't had a chance to get a picture taken, cleaned up, and posted until now. The are not quite ready for jewelry yet, they still need to have the hole drilled for the bail and strung on either chain or leather - I haven't decided which it will be. The pink one was colored with Glimmer Spray and had to dry quite a while before I could tangle on it, The green one was colored with alcohol inks applied with cotton balls and blended and pounced until I liked the color. I hope you like!

Diva Challenge 205
Media: Dominoes, Glimmer Spray (left), Alcohol Inks (right), Micron 01
Tangles: L-Cirque, Flux, Wud, Pokeleaf
R-Cirque, Flux and miscellaneous sketches

All in all, this was a fun challenge, but I need a lot more work if I am going to do this type of jewelry to actually wear ... it will need to have a coat of sealant on it and bails made, but there are many sizes of dominoes to play with. This set was my largest...the smallest I have on hand right now would be suitable for earrings, but my hand isn't near steady enough for that yet. So just let yourself go and try your hand at whatever is available, but most of all, HAVE FUN!

Thank you for looking at my blog and if you would like to see how others have answered this challenge, just check out the Diva's Blog (HERE) and if you are so inclined, try something yourself. Comments are always welcomed and I do appreciate feedback.  Thank you and have a great day!

Happy Chinese New Year!

The challenge this week from the I am the Diva Challenge asked us to show our version of the Chinese New Year for 2015, which was ushered in on Thursday and is the Year of the Goat/Sheep/Ram (depending on which site you look at). I did a lot of reading on this and it was fascinating to say the least. I have been sketching goats and chinese designs all week and couldn't settle on anything, so I decided to just take the horns and tangle them and draw the chinese symbol for what I thought was ram.  The only problem was, I wasn't wearing my glasses and apparently my video card is going south and I ended up drawing the wrong symbol. I didn't really care for this one, but I decided to post it anyway.

Year of the Goat (2015)
Diva Challenge # 205 ~ first try
Media: Fabriano Tiepolo tile, Micron Pens, Black and Brown
Tangles: Wud (sort of), Athitzi, Pearls, andCO2

So I finished that one on Tuesday and spent a lot of time drawing  goat symbols the rest of the week and came up with a few designs that I liked but didn't quite come together. So I just let it go for awhile, and Thursday night before dinner, sketched up a new tile. My son looked at it and said that I "had to do that one, because it was a great design". My son is autistic, but I have learned to listen to him and his insight on many things, so I drew it up in about 15 minutes and the time just flew by.  Apparently THIS wanted to be drawn. So apparently, this is my submission for this week's challenge!  Enjoy...

Chinese New Year (2015)
Diva Challenge #205 ~ 2nd try
Media: Red Scrapbook Paper Tile, Black Micron 03, White Gelly
Roll, PITT Artist Pen Gold, Pencil and shading stomp

I like this one much better, other than the fact my poor goat can't hear because I left hiss ears off :(  But other than that, I quite like this one. There are many more to be seen at the Diva's site, so find it here and watch her blog for more fun every week. Thanks for stopping by and thanks for any comments that you leave. Happy New Year of the Goat!

Diva Challenge #204 ~ Valentangle!

I can hardly believe that this year is moving by so quickly...it's almost Valentine's day already. But I am trying to start out this year on a positive note, so I went to the Intermountain Tanglers group for the first time last Sunday and it was a great time. Got to meet David Hunter and HeidiSue, who started this group up. I had actually been trying to get there since they began the group, but one thing or another always seemed to prevent me from going. But it's a wonderful group and I can tell that there is an abundance of talent there, so I hope to learn a lot *smile*

And this week, I actually have something done before Saturday night! I know, I know....I even amazed myself, but with the new paper stock that David ordered and cut for us, I was thrilled to be able to draw on this beautiful paper. This is the same stock that is used for official Zentangle@ tiles, so it is delicious for me just to be able to make marks on it. David had actually cut some heart templates for the group as well, so I had my string with those.  So, without further adieu, here is my offering this week.

Diva Challenge 204 ~ Valentangle
Media: 3.5" Fabriano Tiepolo stock, Black and Red Micron Pens
Tangles: Florz, Flux, Bunzo, and Rain (sort of-around hearts), as well as some red pearls

So I decided to try to do a Zendala also starting on Sunday, and finished it on Tuesday. I liked the way it turned out; it was easy to make the divisions using the template that David made for all of us. This was my first attempt and I wasn't at all sure how to do any of it.

My first Zendala attempt
Media: 3.5" Fabriano Tiepolo tile, Black and Red Microns
Tangles:  Not exactly sure since I just started drawing without thinking *giggle*

And last, but not least, I was searching through some of my really ancient sketchbooks from college (1970's) and found this doodle that I had started and not finished.  I rather like it, so perhaps I will start it again and make something of it this time. If nothing else, it is bright and fun!

Vintage College Doodle, c. 1972

Ok, I've probably talked entirely too much now, so I'll quit for today. But if you want to join in the tangling crowd and see all the wonderful designs that everyone posts on here, check out the Diva's challenge HERE, and think about joining us. We have a great time here!

Just a note to those that have left comments for me in the past ... I always appreciate your comments and read them, but I don't always post a reply. Please note however, that comments are always appreciated and I try to get around to all the blogs and leave comments for others.  So if you feel so inclined, leave a comment below...it will be appreciated *big grin*