Zentangle® Dare/Challenge, Inchie and ATC

What a great week it was. I got to teach not only a class in Zentangle, but a class of enthusiastic beginning art journalers. I also got to teach a group of wonderful ladies how to use a compass to make perfect squares, triangles, and other shapes just begging to be filled with tangles. Next week, I am presenting Zentangle to a retirement community where I could have 40 to 100 attendees. That should be fun too.

Let's start this week's show and tell with saying Happy Birthday to Erin at The Bright Owl.
Erin's Dare was for us to use our favorite tangle as a gift to her. My favorite tangle is Paradox and I especially love making it adapt to any shape. I used only a partial one on the open tangle.

On to the Weekly Challenge #153 where the Diva challenged us to use Sadelle Wiltshire's Jailed Johnny. I paired this one up with BB and wound up with:

This week's Inchie was the word Cathedral. A bit of a stretch for me to think of something unique. That didn't happen, so I just did a cathedral both inside and outside:



And, Cubism was the prompt for doing some ATC trades with my Yahoo buddies. 

Square stamping, collage and tangles.

Stamped squares, cut up drawn key, added Paradox square.

Splattered inks, stamped squares, cut heart with Verve, Mooka added and additional squares drawn.


(Visitors from "Grow your Blog, please click here.)

Postcards, and Roy's Fengle Challenge

I finished up my postcards today and mailed them out to my swap partners. They were done on 300 pound water color paper. The only problem with this swap is there was no room for "mistakes" ( I know there are no mistakes in Zentangle®; however, these are ZIA's and that's different, yes?) I tried some new techniques and some new pens and I am not thrilled with the results. If I had more of the paper that was sent to me, I probably would have done a do-over on these. I know I should try out new ideas before jumping right in, but I guess that just isn't my style LOL!


I got some AquaMarker pens this week. I think they are a bit overpowering. Not like the delicate work that I admire in other people's work. It is bold though :)







This one was for the swap host,

I also worked on Fengle, which was Roy's challenge this week from his Mindful Creation's Blog. Fengle and I have not played well together. But, since I HAD to do it, I kept working on it and all of a sudden it worked! Seems to be the way with some tangles:

Lots of Swaps for April

Here are a few of the things I have been working on lately. My Yahoo group had an ATC swap for flowers in the style of Georgia O'Keefe. The first one was just too traditional, not O'Keefe enough. I'm still not too happy with the following ones, but it seems like doing a "tiny" O'Keefe isn't quite right anyway :)

The second swap was for a "Hippie Bear". I quite like her. If you have an imagination, like I do, you will see the peace sign on her left paw. She has a diamond in the middle of the flower that she holds in her right hand. Her vest has little teeny tiny fringe that I glued individually. (I really need a life, yes?) She was a lot of fun to do.

 And, finally, the last swap was for a zentangle that has an animal or part of an animal in it. I probably have too much animal as it is fairly clear what he is, but it's Zentangle, right? (Actually, a ZIA.)

Steampunk Bear was such a fun project. She has moveable arms and legs and will be shipped off to a new home. In return, I will receive someone else's little bear. I colored her with Copic markers and shaded with colored pencil.

Zentangle® Swap

I joined my first Zentangle® trade on my Yahoo group. It is to be a sunrise. What do you think?