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*

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!