Happy New Year With a Zentangle® Ahh and an Inchie

Another Divaless week, so all you get is a couple of things to see. I'd like to wish you all a happy and healthy New Year with lots of time for art play. I have joined way too many challenges starting in January so we'll see how well I can keep up. Several of the challenges are for art journaling, so do remember that you can click on the tabs above to see what I am up to with my different interests.

This week, on Square One, the tangle of the week was Ahh. I added double lines for the radiating arms and then let it grow into Laced.


For Every Inchie Monday, the prompt was "Magical". I have no idea why I like those silly quizzes that are available on the Internet, but for some reason I do. So, I decided to take the quiz that lets me know which kind of "magical creature" I am. And, it turns out that I am a fairy.
I used a free digi stamp from Dearie Dolls and reduced it so it would fit on a one inch square and colored with colored pencils.

A Zentangle® Christmas Post

This week = busy busy busy, for many of us. The Diva is off doing Christmas things, so no challenge this week. I'm kind of glad because I have been making my 4 grown boys tons of their favorite Christmas cookies. My hubby, of course, is right behind me eating them almost as fast as I can make them. I guess I'll need to make another batch today since my grandkids also expect a tin full waiting for them! Here is a link to them. I've been making them for Christmas for over 40 years! EASY. Do double. I tripled and still will have to make more LOL! (The fun part, for kids of every age, is that you use your hands to play with this dough to mix, although I do start with a mixer. The more you play, the better.)

I had a wonderful class this week, and since I don't have a Diva Challenge, I will share what these two fun ladies accomplished as new tanglers. You can always see student work on the Workshop tab on the top of my blog.

For Square One on Facebook, the tangle chosen was Crescent Moon. As you can see, I always teach this fun tangle at my beginning class.

And, finally, Every Inchie Monday had a prompt of ZigZag. Nothing "out there" for me this week. Toooo much to do LOL!

I hope that you all have a wonderful holiday, whatever you celebrate. Hugs to all of you, my friends!

Zentangle® a KISS Mooka, Some Indy-Rella, And An Inchie

The Diva is back and her Challenge, #198, is to KISS, or keep it simple silly. Just about the easiest tangle, for me, is Mooka. I did it on a tan tile with an 05 brown and added red chalk and white charcoal. Simple!

For Square One on Facebook, the tangle was Indy-Rella. I made one huge one and then put little ones as a background grid.

 And, finally, for Every Inchie Monday, the prompt word was "yellow." Sometimes I amuse myself in seeing what direction I go. Somehow yellow fever, not a very nice thing, came to my mind. I hate (oh, that's a strong word, maybe dislike immensely?) mosquitoes.

Zentangle® Arukas, Gneiss, and an Inchie

I am a proud mama (teacher) as one of my students has just signed up to become a CZT herself this spring. Amy has taken many classes from me and we quickly changed from teacher/student to friends. She is soooo very talented and I know you will want to hop over to her blog and cheer her on! Her blog is Living Simple to Simply Tangle. She also has a Tangled Kindness Project that might interest some of you.
I have been loving this tangle, Arukas by Molly Hollibaugh. And, as you know, I love to stretch my tangles and see what else they can do. I did a "real" one in the corner so that you can see that I can actually do the tangle "properly" and then went for different ideas. I've played with a square before, but really thought a star would be fun. It wasn't Arukasing very well so I switched over toward the end. What fun is this one! Prompted from The Diva Challenge, # 197.

For the Square One group on Facebook, the tangle of the week was Gneiss by Sandy Steen Bartholomew. This is another tangle that stretches itself well to make variations. I deepened the V and got this:

And, finally, for Every Inchie Monday, the word was "yoyo"! A perfect opportunity to do some quilling but for some reason, I began to think of my diet/weight LOL!

Zentangle® All Dolled Up, Ing, and an Inchie

Emily Classon, CZT, is the guest host over at I Am The Diva for challenge #196. The prompt is "all dolled up". This is indeed a fun one for me. I love doing tangles on clothing and I have quite a collection of dolls and doll stamps and such. I have no idea why then that this odd character jumped out of my pen today, but she did.  I used a manilla tag to work on.
Don't you just love her dangle earrings? I used Paradox, Nekton, Tipple, Crescent Moon, Meer, and Hibred.

For Square One, the tangle was Ing. I, of course, had to mess and soften one of the angles. I did some "real" ones on the edges just in case you might think I really don't know how to do these tangles. Then I added some Tipple and rounding for some drama.

And, finally, for Every Inchie Monday, the word was Xenon.  As I researched the word, I settled on the fact that xenon is used in fancy headlights. Headlights I understand, and I got to do a bit of quilling too.
White circles with a thin blue then over both with black and glued to a black 1" paper with white gel pen accents.







Thanks for stopping by :)

Zentangle® Mooka in a Box, a Zendala and an Inchie

Well, it's Monday morning, and the first thing I do is head over to I am the Diva to see what this week's challenge is (#195). Visiting CZT, Sandy Hunter, came up with a doosy. At least I think so. She asked us to take something that is usually in a grid and take it out of the grid, or take something without a grid and put it in one. I'm not really fond of grid based tangles most of the time. I find them better for borders and backgrounds. I often take grid based tangles and yank them out of their confinement any way. My favorite tangle is Paradox, but I think that taking it out of the box still looks like it is in a box, so that wouldn't do. My second favorite is Mooka. Put Mooka in a box? Horrors!!!! But that's what I did. I went for a tan tile this time and I also added some perfs and rounding for a bit of interest. Thanks for the push, Sandy!

For Square one, the tangle this week was Assunta, to which I added some Arukas. (Don't know this one? Find a CZT and take a class to learn how to do it!)

I have an In the Round class coming up, so I was playing with Zendalas this week too.

XYP, Betweed, Paradox

To get started, I used the little plastic toy, Ravensburger Mini Mandala Make, that I ordered through Sue Jacob's site. Read about it here. If you do decide to order one, do it through her site so she gets a few pennies on the sale. I'm fairly proficient with a compass, so I probably won't use it much, but it was something different and fun. I got one for my granddaughter for Christmas also.

And, finally, this week over at Every Inchie Monday, the prompt was X-Axis. So, I made the blue and red cross and guess what jumped in? Paradox, of course!

Thanks for stopping by. I wish all of you, who celebrate it, a very Happy Thanksgiving. I am thankful for all my friends, including all my readers, who make getting up each morning a joy.

Zentangle® Lefty, Hurry, and an Inchie

Well, this WAS a real challenge. The Diva has a guest host this week, Elisa Murphy, who challenged us to use our non-dominant hand to do our tile today. It stressed me quite a bit, because, as some of you may know, I have developed trigger finger in my thumb from all my tangling. So, I have such a fear of this becoming a reality that I was completely unable to find my "Zen" in this tangle. And, I think it shows. This will be a fun one though to see what others have done. Check them out here.
I used Purk, Ixorus, and finally, I thought, just go for it, and I bravely? used Static. And, it's funny, but I think I did Static best as a lefty :) 

For Square One, the tangle of the week was Hurry, to which I added Poke Root, Cubine, and BB.

And, for Every Inchie Monday, the prompt word was weapon. I think the most harmful weapon that we all carry is our words. Be careful what you say and to whom you aim those hurtful things. I know I have done that in the past. You can never "unsay" those things and they will haunt you forever. (Wow, that's kind of a downer way to end a post. Just go back up to the first picture and laugh at how terrible I am with my left hand and then leave me a happy comment!)

Zentangle® Challenges and an Inchie

This week, over at I am the Diva, the guest CZT for the week is Holly Atwater from ha! designs. She has selected a trio of tangles for us to include in our tile this week. They are, Trio (Hanny Waldburger), Huggins, and Xyp. I will be interested to see how others combined this grouping of tangles. I decided to "play" with Trio and then do the other two straight up.

For Square One on Facebook, the tangle of the week is Swarm. I added Scarabou, and Mooka to this one.

And, for this week's Every Inchie Monday, the prompt was "Wheat." As you know by now, if you are a regular follower, I have a hard time going directly for a representation of the word and have the need to look for something interesting.

Now, I am not a beer drinker so I couldn't tell you much about this. I even looked it up but the recipes for beer used words like "hops" and "mash" and such that mean nothing to me. All I can tell you is that more wheat is included in a wheat beer and I thought this looked like a mug of something sudsy!

If you missed my post this weekend, I did a short recap of my presentation, Mindfulness Through Zentangle, at the AZ Art Teachers' Convention. Click HERE if you'd like to read about it.

Thanks for stopping by. I love reading your comments!

Zentangle® and Sakura Presentation at AZ Art Teachers' Conference 2014

I was a presenter at the AZ Art Teachers' Conference yesterday in Tempe. My presentation was "Mindfulness Through Zentangle" and I had 20 wonderful students. Sakura and Zentangle kindly sponsored me and supplied all the materials (Apprentice Kit) and some raffle prizes. Participants were enthusiastic, receptive, and did fabulous tiles.

Here are some pictures of the event:

Me Teaching

Students Working

Second Tile (we didn't have time to finish)

Busy Tanglers

Class Mosaic

Zentangle® with Seton, Punzel, Heart Vine, and an Inchie

The Weekly Challenge, over at I am the Diva, is being hosted this week by Cris Letourneau. She offered up her tangle, Seton, as a UMT (Use my Tangle.) This tangle just lends itself to so many variations. It looks complicated but, if you follow Cris' links, you will find that it is actually quite easy. My first thought was a climbing trellis, so I went with a ZIA (Zentangle Inspired Art) and pulled out my Sharpies and Prismacolors with just a touch of a gray Fabrico pen for shading. A bit lopsided, but you know I didn't use a ruler!

Punzel was the tangle for the week at Square One. I added some Heartvine by Lori Howe as well.

Did you know that violet was the royal color during the reign of Cleopatra? Our Every Inchie Monday word was "Violet".

Friday is my "big" day. I have 24 students signed up already for my presentation "Mindfulness Through Zentangle" at the Arizona State Art Teachers' Conference. I am all packed up and ready to go. Wish me luck :)

I'm also a guest designer over at House-Mouse & Friends and have become part of the design team for The Outlawz Twisted Thursday. If you have any interest in Copic coloring or card making, click on the tab on the top bar and see what I am up to.

Thanks for stopping by. I look forward to reading your comments.

Zentangle® Betweed, Beelight, and an Inchie

I have had such a wonderful week. Friday, I was lucky to have been able to give a class to one of our Diva Challenge participants from the Netherlands, Kay. She was visiting here in AZ, looked me up, and we had so much fun tangling together. It is so amazing to me how we can be from all over the world, yet friends through this shared love of Zentangle. You can see the ZIA's (Zentangle Inspired Art) she did in creating a tangled garden and exploring fractuals on the Workshop tab on the top. Hers is the first picture under student works.

For the Dive Challenge #191, we were to use Betweed as a monotangle. I think this is such a graceful tangle. I decided to push it into different shapes and go in different directions too.

For the Square One group on Facebook, the tangle of the week was Beelight. I also pushed this one a bit and used more of curved rectangles rather than squares.

And for Every Inchie Monday, the prompt was "Vegetable." I have no idea why this was the image that popped into my head, but it did, and I went with it!

Thanks for stopping by. I love to read your comments. It makes blogging worth all the time that goes into it. Maybe you too will visit AZ one day and we can meet :)

Zentangle® for Breast Cancer Awareness and an Inchie

Verdigogh, Finery, Angelfish, Cirquital, Tipple

This piece is in honor of Ardath, the Diva's grandmother, and all whose lives have been touched by Breast Cancer. I used a pink gel pen, sprayed with pink Copic marker using an air brush, added some white gel pen and rose madder colored pencil. Go over to the Diva Challenge to read more.




For Square One on Facebook, the tangle for this week was Aquafleur. I did one behind another and added some Yincut to the background.















 
And, finally, for Every Inchie Monday, the word was 'Umbra". Boy, I just keep learning more and more by doing this challenge. It really applies most to the sun and the moon and shadows, but I was looking at my shadow, umbra, when I had my dog outside in the dark. Spooky!

Zentangle® Yuma and Fengle, and Inchie, and an Apology (of sorts)

The Diva Challenge for this week was a UMT (Use My Tangle) from Tina (AKUA), called YUMA.  I went with a tan tile and added sepia and white chalk.

The Facebook challenge this week was to use Fengle. I stayed traditional with the first and let the second one grow out of itself and added a few black pearlz.
  
 For Every Inchie Monday, the prompt was "Ungual", meaning claws. This time of the year, this is what I saw. Can you tell what it is?
 

Carpet Pattern from The Orleans Hotel

 And, finally, a bit of an apology. My hubby and I have been out of town for a bit. We took a trip up to Las Vegas to visit our friends. We had a lovely time and I came home three pounds heavier and I found all kinds of wonderful tangles in the wild, like this one which is the carpet in The Orleans Hotel! I apologize because I am way behind in all my normal daily activities, one of which is to try to leave comments on all of your lovely blogs. Probably isn't going to happen for last week and maybe not even for this week as much as I LOVE to see what you all do. I sure will try though :)

My friend took me to a lot of fun places. This is part of a wonderful display at the Bellagio. There were tons of beautiful flowers, but this is the guy who stole my heart.

From a display at The Bellagio Hotel Las Vegas

I'll be back on track after this week..... I hope :)

Zentangle® Rainbow Style, Pendrills, and an Inchie

Color! I do love color, especially when I get to play with my Copic markers. So, when I saw today's challenge from the Diva and the word "rainbow" was there, I had to jump in. I used my air brush to make the rainbow and then I did use the letters requested: LGBT =  Laced, Girdy, Beadlines, and Tipple. This tile is in support of National Coming Out Day. More details at the Diva Challenge.

For Square One on Facebook, we worked with Pendrills. I ended each one with a Zinger. Does anyone know the name of the tangle that looks like washers? I know I've seen it, maybe one of you?

And for Every Inchie Monday, the prompt was "Thistle." Did you know that, although a weed, is the emblem of the Scottish nation? I pulled out my gel pens for this one.

Zentangle® Strings, Tipple vs Perfs, and an Inchie

For this week's challenge, # 187, the Diva asked us to do our string with our eyes closed. This is the string I made.





Which turned into this.

Half a Verve, direction changing Facade, Mooka, Onamato, Squid, and some embellishments. 













Square One: Purely Zentangle®,  had us working with Betweed. I had someone ask the difference between Tipple and perfs, so I added some perfs (pearl like dots around a tangle as used in old manuscripts) and a couple of auras.

 And, for Every Inchie Monday, the prompt was "Throne". Well, you know I wanted to do the porcelain throne, but thought too many would go that direction, so I had to dig deeper. I found some interesting things about angelic hierarchies and throne angels. I did the first one using oil pastels with the scratch method of layering black over lighter colors then scraping off. But, I wasn't sure it cold be seen as an angel, so I did another with a Copic sprayed background and gel pens.

Thanks for stopping by and I love to read all your comments.