Catching Up with Hitch/Oke and a whole lot more

Oh boy, it has been way too long since I last posted. Life just marched right along and I must have been caught up in it all. Well, it's 2015 and I'm ready to try to get back to blogging.

I'm going to go backwards a bit here, I hope you can bear with me. The reason I got back into it is because of wanting to tangle this week's Diva Challenge. This week we are to use Heidi Sue's Hitch pattern. Here I used it with Oke by Michele B:

Last month was Christmas and all the preparation that goes with it. I decided to give my mother-in-law an advent calendar that I tangled every "door" and put a photo behind each one. It took a long time but it was well worth it. She enjoyed her present very much. Here's the finished piece (click on it to see larger version). I bought the calendar from Gardener's Supply. You can see a close up of all the tangled doors by going to my Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/MacKugler.

DIY Advent Calendar

I bought 2 calendars but only got around to tangling one this year. I guess that I better start now for next year's. It really was a lot of fun to create and even more fun to share photos of the doors with my friends.

Sometime during this creating frenzy of mine, I bought a cool drawing toy. It's called an Original Mandala-Designer by Ravensburger. I got the classic design. Oh what fun it is to play with! I've been having fun creating fun mandalas. The Zendala tiles fit nicely in the designer.

A bit of zentangle and color added, put it in a frame and took it to the gallery and it was sold! Fun stuff.

I better stop while I'm ahead here. It's good to be back on the blogging scene again. Hopefully I will be chatting with you folks again soon. Thanks for stopping by. Happy new year.

A little Plaid

Back in the blogging saddle again. Wow, it seems that time just goes whooshing by. Summer is such a wonderful time to get out and enjoy nature's creativity, and time with family and friends. Actually, all year round it's wonderful but it's just easier, perhaps, in the summer.

 

 


You might have heard the big news in the Zentangle world, the introduction of Bijou® tiles. They are 2"x2" tiles, fun to tangle on. The idea is to tangle on your tile like a snail, slowly, simply, pausing often to admire the view, etc. They are available in a tin of 55 tiles with a couple of "Bijouism"s, like Breathe, Relax, Savor, Comfort.

Here is the tin of Bijou® tiles and some characters I made from the packing peanuts (don't ask)

There is so much excitement around these fun-sized tiles. Cherryl Moote, CZT has come out with directions on how to create a cute tile folder, which I had to give a try:                                                                  

 


I took a class on Tangled Labyrinth Journals with Sadelle Wiltshire, CZT with a wonderful group of folks. What fun! We first created a beautiful meandering journal then began to learn to draw different types of labyrinths. I can see making these with some of the kids at school…it just might be good for them!

Meandering book

My first filled in labyrinth

Goddess Labyrinth

This one on the right is called the Goddess Labyrinth and so I decided to create the goddess as well.










On to this week's Diva Challenge #180, using Anneke Van Dam's pattern "MacDee". Being a Mack, then MacKugler, I knew that I'd love this plaid pattern. I was going through my e-books and decided to work with Helen William's Flips, Folds, Ribbon and String book. I'm pleased with the result of this one.

It's spring with Camelia!

Phew, Spring is here. I love to hear the birds and frogs and smell the earth and rain. Spring in Vermont after a looooong, coooold winter is so amazing. Our snow is gone in our yard but the ski trails on the local mountains still have the snow. It reminds me of my oldest son when he was little. He was so excited for his birthday to come (May 16th) and I told him that it wouldn't be his birthday until all the snow has melted. Not yet, Cam! He will be 27 this year, once the snow melts.

I have been neglecting my blog and my Zentangle classes this winter. I guess that life just got in the way, but now I'm back. I spent 3 full days of tangling with over 100 CZTs (Certified Zentangle Teachers) in Portland, Maine at our second annual Tangle University. It was such great fun to see old friends and meet new ones while learning and getting inspired. Such wonderful and talented folks from all over the world!

On to the Diva Challenge #165, a UMT (Use My Tangle) challenge using Camelia by Anne Marks. I've enjoyed this tangle pattern in the past so it's a great one to help me get back into the swing of things. I also bought some Zentangle supplies and broke out the tan Renaissance tiles with brown and red Microns in addition to my black one. This is the first time trying the Renaissance tile and I had fun exploring it.

 At TangleU 2014, many of us had brought our CZT trading cards which we had ordered from Zazzle. When I opened my pack of cards I expected to smell the bubble gum, but the smell was not there. Funny how our brains work. It was fun to trade and collect the cards and later set them out on a table to revisit everyone. Not everyone had a trading card, but enough did to have some fun.
Enjoy your week!

Merry Happy! Challenge #148

This week's challenge is to create a piece for the holidays using Zentangle & the holidays as the inspiration. Since I was in need of creating neighborhood presents, this came in handy. I wish that I had taken a picture of the series of votive covers I made, but I just didn't get around to it. You know….a crush of time to get them done. I also made a few cute birch bark ornaments, but those too, did not get photographed. Ah well. They were well received.

I got a pad of Dura-Lar by Grafix which are like mylar, but not. It was wonderful to tangle on using a Pigma Sensei pen by Sakura and adding some color with either Tombow markers or Prismacolor Premier colored pencils, again, a delight to use.

Here is what is left from the presents: These were used with the markers. They do look better in person, but at least you get the idea.

I wanted to make some more, so I cut up another sheet and created these using the colored pencils. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with them, but I do like the light behind them. I lined them up, keeping them flat, so you can see them all.

Merry Christmas!
Happy Holidays.
Merry Happy.

Different challenges

This week I had to focus on my needle felting more so I could have more product to sell at the Mountain Painters & Artisans Gallery. I did get some tangling done as well. I got a pad of Dura-Lar which is like Mylar. It is wonderful to tangle on and colored pencils work well with it. What a joy to play with it. I bought some battery powered tea lights and put three behind my tangled piece. Here it is:


And here are most of my felted pieces completed:

Sled full of Needle Felted Creatures.

Felted stacked barnyard animals…framed.

Pea-Nuckle and Well Challenge

Hi folks!

Well, Thanksgiving has come and gone. Our family had a fabulous dinner which was cooked by my husband, 2 boys, and myself. Believe it or not, we had 9 different kinds of animals for dinner, so it was a good thing that the girlfriends weren't vegetarians. Duck, turkey, 3 kinds of fish, cows (butter, beef jerky, cheese), chicken (stock), venison (in stuffing), and pig (bacon). Most of the food was local. The duck was the freshest as my son went hunting Wed. morning, my husband caught the fish, my other son and I harvested the cranberries from the local bog, a friend got the deer, cheese was made by one of the girlfriends, and we all stuffed ourselves. You know, for not knowing what we were going to be doing for Thanksgiving on Monday, we really pulled it off pretty well. I am very thankful for having a wonderful family, friends, and for all the farmers from where our food came from.

Cam's black duck

On to this week's Diva Challenge. It was to create a tile using Pea-Nuckle and Well inclusively. I've been so busy trying to make some needle felted creatures for our gallery, that I haven't had a lot of extra time, but here is what I came up with:

Pea-Nuckle and Well

And here's some tangling I finally got around to. This is my front license plate:

And here's my needle felted santa. I have decorated his tree since this photo:

created by me, Jane MacKugler.

Zentangle Challenge #145

Hi folks!

It's done in the nick of time. Phew. Here's my response to the Diva Challenge this week using Quib. It was drawn fairly quickly, and I used a new tangle pattern I just came up with, "Skyfall" (we were watching the James Bond movie, Skyfall, while I was tangling and I saw the pattern in one of the scenes). I think it has some potential. If it wasn't so late, I think I might have done some more patterning inside the Quib. Perhaps I'll add some later.

Quib & Skyfall

I got some wonderful mail today! I was the lucky winner of the complete set of Sandy Bartholomew's tangling cards from Sue Jacobs' blog: http://www.suejacobs.blogspot.com. I am so excited. Thanks, Sue, and congratulations on crossing the 400,000 page views! These card decks are filled with 40 tangle patterns with their step-outs (drawing directions) plus an awesome 9 card puzzle! I got all three decks: YOGA for your BRAIN, Totally Tangled, and the Kidz Card Decks. PLUS a set of 20 blank tangle cards. I can see that these will really come in handy. Wooo hoooo! Fun, fun, fun.

That's the Point!

Weekly Challenge #140! "Monotangle, Pointillism style!"

Well, I was almost going to forego this round, but I finally attempted the pointillism-style zentangle tile and surprise, surprise....I had fun! I didn't quite do a monotangle, but I did use the pointillism.

So, what do you think? Do you see spots before your eyes? I certainly do.
I will definitely try this again sometime. Thanks to Laura for coming up with a fun, different, and creative challenge for us. Yay!

Watching for borders

Hiya folks!

This week's Diva Challenge is to look around and start noticing potential borders to tangle. I have an old mirror I got at a tag sale and wanted to use the frame as a tangle border. Here's the frame (sorry, I see that it's blurry):

Frame on mirror

It has an interesting pattern and I attempted to recreate it, zentangle style. Here's my attempt:

Mirrormirror border

I might have to work on it a little more, but I do like the idea. We'll see where it gets me.

Earlier in the week I created the following tile, using Kuke: 

Kuke border

I do like the boldness of it. It has a nice balance of black and white.

I wonder what next week will bring!

Tangle on......

Color me Zentangle

This week's Diva Challenge was to create a tile using color. I'm of the traditionalist, liking the black and white look of Zentangle, but I began by taking a tombow marker and a water brush and began to put color down on a blank tile. I then started the tangling. It was basically all one color and bland so I took out some more markers and colored pencils and added more color. Phew!

Here's the end result:

Looks like I should try playing around with color more often; I need the practice.

Last July/Aug I completed my 9 piece Zentangle ensemble to join an ensemble swap with some fellow CZT's. Here's what I created:

I sent the tiles out in the mail to be mixed up with other people's tiles and this past week I got a new ensemble made with 9 tiles from 9 different people. Here's what I got:

How fun is that? It's all so very cool.

Tipple over

Challenge #133.....using Tipple. I waited until the last day to get this one done. The reason? School started and I have been very busy and very tired. (Not quite as tired as one of our little 1st graders who fell asleep during Library the second day of school - poor little guy) It certainly is hard to get back in to the routine of school. Up early, going to work, home and exhausted, dinner somehow, a little netflix, then off to bed. Phew! I did have a meeting or two to go to as well, somewhere in there. Yikes. Good thing that we have a three day weekend! We need to ease our way in to this.

So, Tipple. Lots and lots of spheres. Lots of them. I did this one while on the boat while my husband and son, and his girlfriend, were fishing. It's a beautiful lake with Stratton Mtn in the foggy distance. There seemed to be lots of love in the air....so here is what I came up with:

Here's some pics from the fishing trip:

Yummmm Dinner!

More dinner!

Non-domonotangle Challenge

Hei Folks,

This week's Diva Challenge is to create a tile using your non-dominate hand and use only Bales for the pattern, a mono-tangle. I always surprise myself when I try to use my left hand for something important; it's not as bad as I think it will be. It takes more concentration, and is a bit shaky, but it is doable. My hand cramps up and I tend to not blink as much, but I think it was a success. It had fun trying to think of different variations, or tangleations.

Here it is:

Alas, it's my last full week of summer vacation. It seems to be a very busy week as well, but the good news is that we're going to be getting some new windows!! I'm so excited; I think that it will make a huge difference with the look of the house as well as keeping the heat in this winter. Oh yay.

Hope you have an awesome week. Don't forget to take time out to breathe and go explore nature. That's what I'm planning on doing. Enjoy.

A whole lot of Dex

Greetings Folks~

Here it is Saturday night...again. I can't go to bed until I post this. Yikes. I'm tired, I do hope that you bear with me. This week's Diva Challenge was to create a Mono-tangle tile; that is, a tile using only one tangle pattern which this week, is Dex. I like using grid patterns although they look a bit rigid, I know where they are going and I don't have to think too hard. Using a mono-tangle, one just have to figure out how to mix things up a bit, giving them all a slightly different look.

I was sitting at a craft fair with my Zentangle booth, demo-ing how to create a tile for those walking by. It wasn't very busy so I had plenty of time to finish this one up. Here 'tis:

Dex, Dex, Dex, & Dex

This week I've been admiring Kathy Barringer's Lovely Loops and just had to try it out. What fun! Here's the tile:

My little Henna Drum

Wow! What a nice treat to have my tangle pattern chosen this week for Laura Harms' Diva UMT Challenge. It's so much fun to see what people come up with while using a pattern you came up with. Thanks Laura! There are a lot of beauties out there. I wish that I had a little more time to spend tangling this one, but I knew that I had to get something entered in. So, sweet and simple was the way to go.

This was drawn on - get this - elephant poo paper! Actually it was great to draw on; I enjoyed it.

Hope everyone is having a super weekend. The weather is just right here in VT.

Ah, the ol' 2-Pencil String

This will be a quick posting due to getting ready for a little drive...VACATION!
This week's Diva Zentangle Challenge #128 is to create a tile starting with a 2-pencil string. This is drawing a string with 2 pencils banded together so you have parallel lines. Mine isn't very fancy, but it's okay.

Vega, Snail, Kuke, Golven, Shattuck, and I can't remember the name of the background.

So, off we go. Hope this finds everyone healthy and happy.

Opus and Cirquital Challenge

This week's challenge was to endure the heat. Phew! The Diva Challenge this week was to create a piece using 2 specific tangles, Opus and Cirquital. It's the Challenge #127: Duo Tangle v. VII! So I combined both challenges: staying cool and tangling with the duo tangles.

I went kayaking at our local lake, about 5 miles from my house. I paddled around for a bit, then parked my kayak and went for a swim. Ahhhhh, much better. To dry off I walked around the island, picking wonderful wild blueberries, snacking while picking, of course. With enough berries to keep me happy for a while, I sat down at the picnic table and began tangling.

So here's the island on the lake with the picnic table.

MMMMM blueberries!

My view from the table.

My Zentangle!

Since it has been sooooo hot (I'm not very good with heat), I did the same thing yesterday but stayed at the lake even longer, and read instead of tangled. When I was ready to leave, I was paddling in and saw a friend out floating on a tube so I stayed out and floated around and talked, with my feet and hands in the water. Very nice. I then got home and got a call from a friend in need of a swim so off we went to another body of water...the Stratton snow-making pond! That was even more crowded than Lowell Lake, but oh, so refreshing.