Diva Challenge #117: " New Official Tangle: Schway" My own personal milestone

Before I get into the challenge, will address the latter part of this post title. I began this blog back in August, 2012.  Did not know much about blogs and was not really sure what I wanted to do. I was getting ready to attend the Zentangle® seminar in Providence and thought it might be a good way to connect with other Zentangle enthusiast. I have to thank my sister at Tinkered Art Studio,  for her direction and answering my numerous questions. She also did a little proofing of the text and caught some errors that I totally missed. Well, now less than a year later, this week I surpassed over 10,000 views. I want to thank all of you that made this possible and especially those who took the time to make comments on things that I posted. I really appreciate your support.

Now on to the reason that you came here. This weeks Challenge was to use the new tangle Schway/Aroz . I had not used this tangle before so that is always a challenge. If that is not enough, I decided to also try the "bubble effect" in a tangle since I had not tried that before either. Probably not a good idea to try two new things in one tile, or at least practice them both first. But I did not do that. I forged ahead. This is one of those tiles that I wish I had taken a picture of it before I did any shading. When I was filling it in I kept thinking, should I post this. After it was all filled, I still was not sure. I decided to push ahead as I was never one to waste a tile. Besides, there are no mistakes in Zentangle® only unexpected opportunities.  When I started shading, I was not sure what if any effect it would have due to the large amount of fill. I have to admit that after I started shading and blending, I was pleasantly surprised with the result. Still need to work on the bubble but for a first try I was satisfied. Here is the end result. I hope you enjoy it.

Tangles used: Schway/Aroz , 'Nzeppel, Eye-Wa, Static

If you have not all ready done so, would suggest you go to I am the Diva and look and the things others have  done. I have to admit I have not looked at a lot of them so far, but I have peeked at a few.

Thanks for visiting. As always comments are welcomed, encouraged, and appreciated.

Go Tangle!

Zendala Dare # 56: NO PENS ALLOWED!!!!

Boy this Dare brought back a lot of memories. When I first started doing tangles I did not have any of the Zentangle® tools. My sister introduced me to this art form and my first experience was folding a piece of white copy paper and using my mechanical pencil with 0.5 mm HB lead. As embarrassing as it is, here is a picture of one of the first things that I did.

I forget where I got the tangles from. I think that it may have been from my sister's blog, Tinkered Art. You can see some of her things here. It won't take you to her earlier pages, but if you are interested you can search her blog.  It did not take me long to add using a gel pen. One of the other things that had its roots was  not using much white space. I unfortunately still struggle with this as times as you can see in this Zendala.  This Dare made me appreciate the fine tools that I use now. For what it is worth, here it is. I think it is a little better than my first attempt.Hope you enjoy it.

Tangles used: Voxter, Paradox, Chillon, Knightsbridge, Fenetre, Flora (variation)

Erin this was a fun Dare and it provided me with a trip down "memory lane", but there is one thing that I am very sure about.  I WANT MY MICRON BACK!!!!!  If you have not all ready done so, would encourage you to visit The Bright Owl and look at what others have done. Visit often as things are posted throughout the week.

Thanks for visiting. As always, comments are welcomed, encouraged, and appreciated.

Go Tangle ! 

Adventures in Monotangles #9 - 'Nzeppel

One of the nice things about the challenges is that it gives you the opportunity to try new things. I think this is particularly true with the monotangles as you try to vary them in some way. I really like 'Nzeppel, and I use it frequently in tiles, however coming up with ways to vary it was somewhat of a challenge. I came up with two different tiles. I hope that you enjoy them.

In this tile, besides using a black tile I experimented a little with shading. I had seen in some of Maria's post on  Zentangle about using a gray Fabrico marker to shade on the black tiles. Not sure that it shows up that well in this picture but it leaves a bluish tinge. It is a nice effect. I used a white chalk pencil for the fill.  

On the second one I was trying different things with color. I used colored microns for some of it. I also used a white gel pen. The fill of the green is with an Apple Green Inktense pencil. This is my "N"zeppel. 

This was kind of fun to do but it did take longer than the typical tile.

If you have not been to Roy's blog to see the other tiles would encourage you to do so. Usually are some creative things submitted. If you are interested in the number 9 you will also get plenty of information about this as well.

Thanks for visiting. As always comments are welcomed, appreciated, and encouraged.

Go tangle!

Diva Challenge #116: "Blind Sighted"

This weeks Diva Challenge is another revisit of an earlier challenge. The first time I was not participating in any of the challenges/dares but was aware of them primarily due to my sister's involvement in Zentangle®.  I would primarily see things that she submitted. Anyway, the basic part of the challenge was to make your border, put your pencil on the tile and draw your string without looking. I must say that a lot of the ones that I looked at earlier as I was doing mine really drew some complicated strings. I purposely tried to do something simple. Here is what the string looked like.

I was actually quite pleased with the result. Was not that I had lots of ideas of what I wanted to do, but I felt that I had accomplished my goal of making a viable string, but keeping it simple. 

I am not sure why so many of my tangles have been more organic lately but it does seem that that has been the case.   Maybe it is just a phase I am going through. This tangle definitely has an organic flair to it.  I was pleased with the result. Hope that you enjoy it.

Tangles used; Betweed, Zander, Poke Root, Poke Leaf, Flux

If you have not all ready done so would encourage you to visit the Diva's blog and look at all the other things that people have done. There are some pretty amazing things.

Thanks for visiting. As always, comments are welcomed, encouraged, and appreciated.

Go Tangle.

Zendala Dare #55

Erin at The Bright Owl picked a unique template for this weeks challenge. She has not posted what she did yet. Am anxious to see what she does. I have to admit the first thing that I thought of when I saw the template was Auraknot. It was not calling to me, it was yelling at me. So I chose to listen. I was not sure what else to do but as is many times the case, once I start the tangles emerge. One of the harder things to decide what to do was the center. I did not want to leave it blank. The next struggle was to fight my urge to fill all the different spaces. the Flux around the outside was the last thing that I added. It looked okay without it but all that space just did not seem right. I did resist any urge to fill in the spaces between the Newell. I don't remember the last time I completed a challenge so quickly. I really enjoyed doing this and thought it was a great template. Hope you enjoy it.

Tangles used: Newell, Auraknot, Flux, Scrawlz(variation).  Not sure that the center, or the intertwined lines  is actually a tangle.

If  you have not all ready done so, would encourage you to visit The Bright Owl to look at what others have done with this template. Check back frequently throughout the week as there are always new additions. 

Thanks for visiting. As always, comments are welcomed, encouraged, and appreciated. 

Go tangle.

Adventures in Monotangles #8 - Phicops

Doing well for Challenges this week. I am 3 for 3. Phicops is this weeks Adventure in Monotangles. I remember when Laura aka The Diva introduced it. It was one that her husband developed. While I like it and it is a fun one to draw, I have to admit I have not used it a lot. Not really sure why. I did use it recently in the Diva Challenge as part of a tile. You can see that at this post on my blog.  I did not even think about using it for this challenge as it is not a monotangle. Here is what I came up with. For me the harder part is coming up with different embellishments. Hope you enjoy it.

Here is one that I did earlier using Phicops. This was actually a way of practicing the tangle.

This was a bookmark that I made and was part of the packet I gave to a student at one of my classes.

Go to Mindful Creations to look at the monotangles that others have done.

Thanks for visiting. As always, comments are welcomed, encouraged and appreciated.

Go Tangle!

Diva Weekly Challenge #115: "Amanda Day or Earth Day" 2nd Tile

Those of you who looked at my first tile are aware that I was not pleased with the result. It was okay but it somehow left me wanting. I posted it anyway. I am not sure if I just needed to get that one out of my head or what but this one was much easier. I also like the result of this one much better. It is still an organic tile, but the tangles seemed to flow much more easily and it seemed that I had a much better direction of what I wanted to do. The only thing that I did not include that I had thought about using was Helen Williams Leaflet tangle. You can go to her blog A Little Lime to see the step out for this. Just felt that did not need to add it after I got to the end. I still think it is a great tangle. Here is what I came up with. I hope that you enjoy it.

Tangles used: Chainlea, Flux, Phicops, and Mumsy

If you have not all ready visited I am the Diva, would encourage you to do so and look at the other great submissions by some fantastic artists. 

Thanks for visiting. As always, comments are welcomed, encouraged, and appreciated.

Enjoy some tangling.