The Diva Dance...I'm liking it.

Ahhh, this week's Diva Challenge is hosted by Rick and Maria of Zentangle for Laura's 100th challenge! This pattern is a lot of fun; it's the Diva Dance! Wooo Hoooo! Congratulations to Laura for giving us 100 challenges! We are all the better for it.

I decided to incorporate the Diva Dance with the request for zentangle, zendalas, or ZIA (Zentangle Inspired Art) tiles for the Newtown, CT school. Every stroke of the pen I thought of those who lost their life on that terrible day. I wished for healing for those who remain. I sent my angels down to CT to help those in need. This tile will be sent to CT to be put in the new elementary school.

I really enjoy Diva Dance since it can be incorporated just about anywhere. Fun, fun, fun. I can see that I will be using this a lot.

I hope you all have a wonderful holiday. I'm very fortunate to have both sons home for Christmas. Time to kick back and enjoy their company. Be well.

Looped Border String Challenge #99

Welcome to my 100th blog post! Yikes!

This week's Diva Challenge #99! is from guest blogger/CZT Margaret Bremner. She has challenged us to creating a zentangle tile using a "looped border string". Well, I've been feeling a bit loopy these days, so why not create a tile?

Here it is, using Nightsbridge, Purk, Scallops, Bales, Sand Swirl, Jealousie, Wisket Gloven, Tripoli, and Zedbra. Click on photo to enlarge.

I taught a Zentangle class this week to 3 nice ladies. Here's their wonderful work:

My heart is heavy thinking about the families and community of Sandy Hook, CT. May you find the strength to carry on. My thoughts and prayers are with you all.

Very Inspirational Blog Award

What a nice email I got earlier this week. It was from Alma, a woman from Sweden who has a nice blog at http://almafication.wordpress.com. She was nice enough to nominate me for the Very Inspirational Blog Award. Thank you Alma! It warms my heart knowing that I was inspirational to you. You do lovely work.

To accept this nomination, I must:

1. Display the award on your blog.
2. Link back to the person who nominated you.
3. State 7 things about yourself.
4. Nominate up to 15 bloggers for the award and link to their blogs.
5. Notify them that they have been nominated and link to the post.

Okay, 7 things about myself:

1. I love teaching Zentangle.

2. I enjoy laughing with my friends.

3. I love spending time outdoors in nature.

4. I need to create.

5. My family and friends are very important to me.

6. I'm finding that meditation is something I need to experience more.

7. I love life!

Hmmmm, 15 bloggers, in random order, from all over the globe:

http://iamthedivaczt.blogspot.ca/

http://poppygall.com/blog/

http://www.woolnimals.blogspot.com/

http://dobriendesign.blogspot.com/

http://alittlelime.blogspot.com/

http://www.bystephanielynn.com/

http://ana-white.com/blogs/ana-white

http://preciousworker.blogspot.com/

http://thebrightowl.blogspot.com/

http://enthusiasticartist.blogspot.com/

http://www.minieco.co.uk/

http://timetotangle.blogspot.com/

http://beezinthebelfry.blogspot.com/

http://kalligrafix.blogspot.com/

http://xploreandxpress.blogspot.com/

Challenge #98 and #97

Playing catch-up. Last week Laura asked people to create a tangle without a string, this week we were challenged to use a tangle called Keenees (it's an itsy bitsy,teeny weeny, yellow polka dotted bikini...). Here's my tile:

I used Fungees, Jacki, Keenees, Bubble-Bobble-Bloop, and Etcher

Funny how my tiles transform. I didn't use a string because of Challenge #97 that I never got around to last week. I knew I was to use Keenees, so I drew those first. Then I put an aura around them and added a little Bubble-Bobble-Bloop ( I still need to put the directions for this one on this blog; it's the pattern my son made up for me on my birthday in Oct) then Jacki (Sandy Bartholomew's). I got a nice email from a past Zentangle student who has just discovered Escher and I told her that Sandy Bartholomew has a tangle called Etcher, so here it is. I was looking at a video showing Fungees, a tangle I have enjoyed drawing, so I decided to add that one too.  Phew! Now it's done.

Last week I drew this snow globe for the Yahoo ZIA (Zentangle Inspired Art) group:

It's beginning to feel like Christmas! I also made a bunch of these wooly xmas trees:

They are made from upcycled, fulled, wool sweaters (washed in hot water in washer). I love them!

Hope you are getting in the holiday spirit as well.

A Zinger

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving, for those of you living in the US of A. I was very happy to cook Thanksgiving dinner for my family (husband, both sons, sister and brother-in-law) and I'm very thankful for the gathering and the help in the kitchen. I'm also thankful for my extended family, friends, my job, our art gallery (even though we have so many floods, including two this week), and Zentangle!!!

This week's challenge was to use Maria's Zinger. I've always enjoyed throwing in a zinger now and again. This time I also used Waft by Bessamy Snoderly, Purk by Rick & Maria, a version of Lotus Pods by Margaret Bremner, and a design I found on an African dress in a giving catalog. I do like it a lot and shall call the pattern Giveagoat. Watch the blog for step outs later on.

Last week I taught a class at Black River High School to some teachers. It was a great group and they did an awesome job! Here's their work: Nice job, ladies!

Have a great week. Hope you come back next week.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Well, you never know...

I started this week Diva challenge: Mickey Challenge #95, celebrating Disney's 1928 release of "Steamboat Willy" by guest blogger, Courtney Frantz. I watched the clip and decided that I would begin with a string of Mousekateer ears. Then a funny thing happened. I wanted to watch something light while tangling and decided to watch "The Secret of Kells" on netflix. I knew that it was going to have a lot of celtic artwork in it so how perfect would that be? So my tile ended up being Disney with a bit of Kells. Both were animated, but wow, the patterns in the Secret of Kells were wonderful! My tile? Well, you can judge for yourself. It's pretty mixed up. Perhaps I'll have time to create something again later in the week.

Some of the patterns I used: IndyRella, Joy, Mickey, HypKnotix, and some Kells inspired art.

Enjoy!

Zen Leaves

I realized that I never got around to tangling a tile this week, but I did tangle on 3 leaves. The Diva Challenge this past week was to use Socc, created by Erin Olson, CZT. The top leaf in the scan below has Socc in the middle and Hurry and uh oh, I can't remember what's on the right side, and Avreal on the stem. The next leaf has Finery. The bottom leaf has Florz, Eke, Orlique, Pepper, Crescent Moon, Nekton, Braze, Rain, and BB. At least I have 3 more leaves to add to my birthday zen tree.

Yet another Bunzo tile

Hah, and to think I didn't like Bunzo in the beginning. I guess I just wasn't free enough in my mind. I learned. I played. I watched. What really got me thinking was KN Malathi's blog post showing her entry to Diva's Challenge. She showed a couple of pictures that had inspired her. One really inspired me. It's from the book "The Beauty of Fractals: Images of Complex Dynamical Systems " By Heinz-Otto Peitgen, Peter H. Richter. Fractals really fascinate me, but this really moved me. Take a look at the Xplore & Xpress blog and see for yourself.

Here's my take on it.

Tangles used: Bunzo and Galaxions (I just created this one today).

Enjoy. Thanks for stopping by.

Bunzo, challenge #93

So we survived Tropical Storm Sandy here in Vermont. Thankfully it wasn't as bad as last year's Irene. We lost our power last night around midnight and when I got home from work this afternoon I was pleasantly surprised with having power. Phew! There still is a windblown tree sitting on our wires but the power company has been contacted and when they can get around to it, I'm sure they will come. My heart goes out to the folks who lost their loved ones, homes, and businesses.

While the power was flickering yesterday, I started in on a tile and finally finished it today. The Diva Challenge was to use the new tangle pattern from Rick and Maria of Zentangle, Bunzo. The challenge for me was to figure out what to put with it. I'm satisfied with the Australian Helen Williams' Leaflet tangle (I really like that tangle and have been using it a lot lately).

Here's a tile I created using just the Leaflet tangle.

Have a wonderful week.

Introducing Bubble Bobble Bloop

As Hurricane Sandy is approaching, I have the day off from work and I can devote some time to my blog (before we loose our power). Yay.

I had a birthday recently and my youngest (22) gave me a wonderful present....a new tangle! It's called Bubble Bobble Bloop and looks like this:

Directions for Bubble Bobble Bloop are:

Keep going around in a spiral with the ascending and descending lines until you feel you are done. Then fill in with the bubbles.

Here's a tile I created with Bubble Bobble Bloop, Liken, Leaflet, BTL Joos, and Vertigogh. It's a tad busy for me, but I still like it. I used the larger Zentangle Apprentice tile and the Pigma Sensei pen to explore them both. The pen is not as fine as the Microns, but I think that it did a good job. It does  have a sturdier tip.

He also made me a tree to add zentangle leaves to. Well, I'm guessing that was the idea; there were no instructions, just a nice white tree with a bunch of white leaves. I tangled one leaf with the Bubble Bobble Bloop and one with Boomerangs, Chordin, and ???. The tree should look great once I get all the leaves completed and attached to it.

Chordin, Boomerangs, ??

My Z Tree

Lining up

This week's Diva Challenge was to create tangles in lines. Earlier in the week I saw an awesome paper pumpkin and decided to combine the two. First  I got out my new set of Inktense pencils and put some color down, then I created 6 lines of tangles. You can click on the image to make it bigger.

I then cut the strips, put in some holes and put it all together with a couple of brads. A little green paper and a tangle or two and I got a leaf and pipe cleaner for the tendril.

Have a fun, safe Halloween!

Beads of Courage

Laura's Diva Challenge this week was to create a Zentangle with "beads". Her son has Moebius Syndrome, a rare neurological disorder. He is two now and has been through an awful lot since birth. Beads of Courage is a charity which helps little folks by having them pick out a bead for each test, shot, treatment, therapy, whatever they have endured. Each time they get a bead of courage to add to their string of beads to represent what they have gone through. I love it. Here is my zentangle:

Happy birthday Artoo!

I belong to a Yahoo group called Zentangle Inspired Art. I decided to join in on a swap which ended up being a lot of fun. Each participant of the 4 in 1 swap was sent a sheet of card stock with a "string" on it. Everyone got the same string. The picture on the left is what I created and sent in to be cut into 4 pieces and 3 of my pieces were sent to other people. I got 4 pieces back, one of which is my own. Don't you just love it? It is so cool to see how the pieces all go together so well. Can you find my piece?

     


The group has many different kinds of swaps and it's great to look at their albums to get inspired. Go check them out and join in on the fun!

Challenge #90....I'm back

Well, life got in the way a bit. No troubles, just busy. Work, buying a new car (Plug-In Prius), VT Open Studio Weekend, and I made some scarves.





I missed a couple of weeks of Laura's challenges but I finally got one done today. Here is my response to Challenge #90:

Tangle patterns are: Arabel, Henna Drum, Strircles, Cockles N Mussels, and Cirquital.

And I have been playing with the iPad Studio online workshop and put together some of my pictures using Photo Collage app. If you own an iPad, I highly recommend this workshop. It has taught me a lot and I am only on the 4th workbook! You can still sign up as there is no time limit on the workbooks.

Have a great week.

Pinwheels of Peace

This week's Diva Challenge is to create a pinwheel for Pinwheels for Peace and the International Day of Peace (September 21st). It was interesting to figure out how to show movement in the zentangle. I like the simplicity of it.

Today my husband and I got the Zen Piano out of storage and brought it to our local art gallery. It was great to see it again after working so hard on it in June! It looks great in the gallery, too. Stop on by if you're in the neighborhood. It's at the Mountain Painters and Artisans Gallery in Londonderry, VT.

Have a wonderful finish to your week and enjoy the last few days of summer.

Peace.

Break Free, Challenge #86 plus more

I surprised myself today. Not only did I finally finish the autumn leaf that I started last Saturday at our New England CZT group get-together, but I also got to this week's Diva Challenge. This week we were to "break free", jump the fence, go beyond....  I wasn't sure  how to go about this, but I began with Squid and extended it a little. It wasn't much of a jump, but it's a start. Here's the result of the tile:

 And here's my leaf:

I like the leaf, and will do some more. It has a background of watercolor with added salt.

I had a very busy week. Last weekend I went to that NE CZT get-together over in New Hampshire on Saturday then taught a small class locally at the Blue Gentian Lodge. One of the women from the class taught at the Jr. High School in Bethany, CT where I went to school! I never had her as a teacher (I don't think), but she taught my friend Cindy. What a hoot! We had a wonderful time tangling and reminiscing.

Wednesday I taught a zentangle class at the Northshire Bookstore in Manchester, VT to 7 women and 1 young man. Another wonderful class. I do enjoy teaching. Luckily my friend Dana came along to help me out. It was great to have her there and she was able to take some pictures!

And of course, I also went to work this week at our local elementary school. It was a busy, but pretty quick week. Thursday I go off campus with a student and I was able to learn how to use the hydraulic machine that makes ceramic plates. Way cool.

Tomorrow I travel to Brattleboro to meet up with a friend, Barbara Gunion from CO.  We met at the CZT training in May 2011 and she happens to be visiting her parents for their anniversary. It will be wonderful to see her again! We will be meeting also with another VT CZT, Sadelle Wiltshire.

Here's to a quiet week......

Challenge #85

The Diva Challenge #85 is to create a tile trying out Copada designed by Margaret Bremner, CZT.  I also used Camelia, Zedbra, Purk, Flux and Hazen.

I kind of got lost in my Camelia pattern and didn't quite get it, but close. Actually, I kind of like it the way it is. I'll give it another try later.

Have a great rest of the week!

It's September!

September. Back to school. Vacation is over. Sigh.

I did get tangling time in to complete the Diva's weekly challenge #84. This week we created a tile using a blind string. Interesting, as always. I closed my eyes, felt where the corners were and put a dot in each. Then I went back to the corners, connecting them with a line, well, I tried to. I missed one, not bad. Then I drew a loopy line around the inside. Sorry that I didn't scan it before drawing in the tangles, but here is the completed tile:

Let's see, I used Purk, Oof, Dutch Hourglass, Radia, Finery, and Cruffle. Thank goodness I was able to open my eyes to do those!

Time to work on my 4 in 1 tangle swap (Zentangle_Inspired_Art yahoo group), this week's Zendala Dare, and maybe even the Celtic Challenge. Or not. We'll see.

Have a fabulous week.

Trying to catch up

Hi folks! Thanks for stopping by. I almost made this post Saturday night, in time for the Diva's challenge, but after realizing I needed to get it done, I got out of bed, went upstairs, turned on the computer then I  couldn't find my tiles! Yikes. It has been a very busy extended weekend with family visiting, spreading my mom's ashes, catching up with everyone and today the septic tank replaced and the beginning of our driveway being redone. Phew! Well, today I found my tiles. Here's last week's Diva Challenge #83. It is a duo-tangle, using only Mooka and Assunta.  Here 'tis.

I enjoy making Assunta but still haven't felt all that great about Mooka. I'll have to create many tiles of Mooka before I can master it.

Here is Diva's Challenge #81 which was using Bright Owl's string on a zendala tile. It just took me a long time to get it going, then I finally finished it on 8/16. Thank goodness I had to take my car in for service since it allowed time for me to get a lot done! I like this one.

Now, back to school this week for Kinder Camp then the next for the real start. Summer just whizzed on by, but I certainly got out and enjoyed most of it.
Have a wonderful, creative week!

Brayd Challenge

I'm back. Summer is just too much fun. I've got a lot going on and seem to not get to Laura's Diva Challenge, BUT this week I did manage it.....tonight, with just minutes to spare. Our challenge was to create a zentangle using the Brayd tangle by Shelly Beauch. Shelly said that we start with a Mooka - like string, so I did. I'm not sure I did it justice, but it is the beginning.  I was beginning to create a grid pattern but wanted to keep it simple. Less is more. The brayd reminds me of almonds. I will be working on this tangle again in the near future.

Here we go:

Last week I taught an ALL DAY Zentangle class at Fletcher Farm School for the Arts and Crafts in Ludlow, VT. Yes, all day.... 9-5. I had three wonderful students and we had a great time. I do enjoy teaching a longer class, usually Zentangle classes run for 2-2 1/2 hours. Seven hours gives us a chance to delve a little deeper. It is amazing how quickly the day goes.

Monday I started an online class by Carla Sonheim called Watercolor Transfer Paintings. It was great fun to create something entirely new using mixed media and t-shirt transfer paper. Here are some of the work I made:

Watercolors and pen then ironed canvas.

Collaged transfer paper ironed on paper then watercolor added.

Pieced together face using scraps.

Four layers of transfer paper ironed on canvas.

Yes, I did enjoy trying something new. I think that it's good to step outside the box. I've got some good ideas that I want to try. I think that I need summer to last a few months longer so I can do all the things I want to do.

I'll be back soon with some different creations.

Have a wonderful week!!