Zentangle® Gourdgeous, Verve, and an Inchie

The Diva Challenge this week is to use the new tangle Gourdgeous. I used a black tile for this and added a bed of 'Nzepple. I used my Slicci pens to tangle, Conte pastels for shading, and a white gel pen for the dotted lines.

The focus tangle for Square One was to use Verve. Since I use Verve so often, I thought I would see what happens when you start with a square instead of a circle. These squares were turned into Cubine. I also ended the shading with squares to balance out the piece.

Every Inchie Monday had a prompt word of "emotion". This was so interesting to research. Tibetan Buddhist psychology believes that there are two types of emotion: one to express and one to control. Sensible. I also read that some emotions are actually cultural! My image is not original, but it really represented the swings of emotion.

Thank you for stopping by. I love reading your comments!

Zentangle® Your Lemons into Lemonade

So, are you here to see the Diva Challenge? Did you expect to see Dex and Bunzo? What is this, you say. A CZT that doesn't even know how to do Dex?

All right, let's get back to the basics of Zentangle. There are NO mistakes. Are you listening? There are NO mistakes. I always tell the story of Suzanne McNeill (she has written many wonderful Zentangle books and done several fun videos) when I teach. Suzanne was doing a live video. "Oops" she says. Then, she immediately chants the CZT mantra "There are no mistakes in Zentangle, only an opportunity to come up with a new tangle!" Then, she looks straight into the camera and says, "Now you know why I have come up with so many new tangles!" The first time I saw this, I laughed so hard. I love you Suzanne!

Anyway, I do know how to do Dex. But, the phone rang, the hubby needed something, the dog had  to go out.... you know the drill. Concentration lost and when I returned, my tangle just went where it wanted. First thought = throw this out, start a new one. NO!!! Suzanne to the rescue. And so you get.... well, I don't know what, but at least maybe encouragement not to let any Oops get in your way of the true meaning of Zentangle. Relax and enjoy where your pen takes you :)

Square One from Facebook had us doing Cubine, to which I added Brella and a variation of Fracas.

And, the prompt for Every Inchie Monday was Diagram. Remember those pesky English teachers and those annoying sentence diagrams?

Thanks for stopping by. Remember to enjoy your artwork and think of the fun you had doing it. The end result is not the goal unless you are trying to make money with it LOL!

Zentangle®, Cubine, Pokeroot, Bunzo and an Inchie

This week, the Diva challenged us to do a duotangle of Cubine and Pokeroot. These are basic beginner tangles but I'll bet we see some masterful adaptations from our talented group.

 Can you see the three Pokeroot tangles?







Square one, on Facebook, gave us Bunzo to work with. I really enjoyed this one. I added some Mooka.

And, over at Every Inchie Monday, the prompt was "Egyptian". The eye of Ra was passed to each Pharaoh and was thought to be all seeing and protected the King by repelling all evil!


 
And, just for fun, I thought I'd share some tiles that I just did for a class I taught using alcohol inks on tiles. If you are local, I would love to do this class again. We sure had fun. Check out my Workshops page above that lists the classes I can arrange for you.

Thanks so much for stopping by. I love reading all your comments!

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® with Scratch Paper, an Ichie, a Challenge, and some ITSO Cloisonne

Don't run screaming away from this post; there's a lot to see :) It was a busy week, good kind of busy, with lots of tangling. The ones I really had fun doing were some Zendalas done ITSO (in the style of) Cloisonne. (Which I can't remember how to say well, but , oh what fun doing.) I really love these dares and challenges and swaps because they make me do things I would have never thought of doing. This swap is for my Yahoo group, Zentangle Inspired Art. Look up Cloisonne on Google and then make some fun for yourself. I made my own circles and, using a compass, divided the sections. Gel pens were added for the color.

Jetties, Cadent, Cubine, Chartz, Jonqal

For the Weekly Challenge from Laura, we were to use our initials (JC) as a string. I decided to only use tangles that start with my initials as well:







Inchie: for Every Inchie Monday, I wanted to do some kind of medal of honor, but I was so overwhelmed by the intricacies of them that I went back to my school days before "happy faces" were invented and we got a gold star for good work. I, of course, seldom got the gold LOL!
And finally (you still with me?) the group that I meet with monthly did some scratch art together. It is so much fun to work in a group.

I  promise to be lazier this week and not make you look at so much. Well, maybe........

But It's a Dry Heat

This week's Dare from Erin at The Bright Owl was to do a Zendala using tangles that start with letters either in the word Hot or Heat. Well, living in the Phoenix area of AZ where it was 118 degrees last week, that was a fun one to do. I settled on Hollibaugh, Efilys, Arc Flower and Tidings:

 I also had some fun with some Celtic Knots that were freehand stye a la Patrick Gallagher.

I used Copics and Sharpie pens.



Then, I pulled out some tiles that I had drizzled some rubber cement on. After it dried, I watercolored the sections. After that dried, I rubbed off the rubber cement and tangled.

Footprints, Dyon, Hurry, Diva Dance, Sez, Rain,  Flux

Still trying to do different tangles.

Snail, Cubine, Facets, Stricles

As you can see, I was still in the Celtic Knot mode a bit.

If you've never tried this, it makes for a fun string.



And finally, a few ATC that I did as a trade for my Yahoo Group done in the style of In the style of Karin Kuhlmann. If you have not seen her work, do look it up. 



She does beautiful digital work. I haven't even come close to representing her, but I enjoyed trying.


Aqua Markers, colored pencils, Sharpie pens.