I am the Diva Challenge #156

Curvy grids this week from Laura, on I am the Diva! Apparently someone had problems drawing straight grid lines - well, guess what! So do I! But that's one of the things I've loved about Zentangle from the start - it doesn't matter!

My grids are always a bit wonky and I love them all the more for being so... However, strangely enough - like all challenges - the challenge was to make them curvy or wonky ON PURPOSE!

Well, I enjoyed this one so much, I did it twice and then another!!

I've caught a glimpse of some of the other entries and they look absolutely FANTASTIC!! What a great challenge...and what a lot of exclamation marks I've used this week....!

Hope you like mine - off to look at what others have done now in greater detail.

This is actually the last one I did - again, great fun to do!

This is my first one, and the one my boys liked best. 

And this was my last one, which I think I like best.

Thank you so much for looking. Let me know what you think - I do appreciate it.

String Thing #27

This weekly challenge is posted by Sue over on Tickled to Tangle and is called 'It's a String Thing'. I enjoy this challenge because we're given all the 'tools' to deliver a tile - a string and suggested tangles - within the week. The results that emerge from the same instructions are amazingly and wildly different.
The latest tangle was based on the 'quilt' idea, based on the lovely quilt patterns used at the Winter Olympics - an unusual string, made up of straight lines:


and using tangle patterns that begin with the letter 'E' -

Echo by Sue Clark, CZT  Be sure to look up Sue's variations of the pattern - there are so many it would be possible to complete this challenge as a monotangle!
Efilys by Sandra Strait

5 official Zentangle® patterns:
Echoism 
Eke 
Emingle  
Ennies      
Eye-wa
and
Equerre - by Genevieve Crabe, CZT 



In my rather prosaic way, I decided to use all the tangles as most of them were unknown to me and this is what I so like about the challenge. And I stuck to my early Zentangle lesson of using the string to separate one tangle from another - and quite liked the final effect:

I do urge you, if you haven't already, to look at the results produced by others too. They are - as always - fantastic, inventive, imaginative and skilful. Thanks Sue for such a lovely challenge. Looking forward to the next one.

Diva Challenge #155 - White space

I had a moment of panic when I saw the Diva's Challenge for this week - leave some white space! A real challenge for me. I'm happy to do it if I get to 'the end' and there's some space left...but my problem has been to intentionally leave the space.

I'm not overly happy with the result - it looks contrived whereas I know others make their white space incredibly 'artful' but it's been a 'good' challenge as I have an area I can really work on. And this morning, I received a package from my sister with 10 white gel pens, a pack of black cards and a pack of white cards. So I have plenty of motivation!

Pokeleaf, Flux, Myst, Cubine, Printemps. Nzeppel, a pretty rubbishy Sanibelle (which I should have done BEFORE the Nzeppel bit but didn't) and Lirik - my new find this week.

Ah well - we must live and learn....watch this (white) space!

Zendala Dare #92

I've had a lovely day - thanks in a great part to Erin for getting a wonderful Zendala out on a (for me) Sunday morning. After putting in the washing, doing a token tidy and clean-up, playing with our new puppy (you can see some photos of him on my other blog, Being Here) and doing my share of preparing a delicious Sunday family lunch, I felt a bit of tangling was quite in order.

I've done all three this week and really did reach a Zen-like state of concentration, relaxation and focus which was wonderful.

The first one with lots of fine lines and dots:

I'm not sure what the outside pattern is - anyone know?
I used Beadlines (or a variation of them) and Echo in the star shape.

Then I started on the circle template. I wanted to get a different effect here and was inspired by a little silver Turkish plate I have on my lounge wall. I say it's Turkish - it might not be but it was my granny's and she always called it her Turkish plate, so I continue to do so now it's mine! The very middle pattern is one I made up based on a Turkish design I found on the internet. I also used Archer and Crescent Moons. I'm really pleased with how it turned out and think it looks quite different from my usual tangles.

And then, in amongst watching the Marx Brothers in 'Duck Soup' and laughing more at the guffaws from my Spanish husband than at the daft antics of the film, I started filling in the third template. At first, I began with a red pen and made a few strokes inside the 'star' shape...then I thought 'Aura Star'...so I blanked out the red pen and re-did all the stars in black. You can just see where there's a bit of 'overdrawing' that's gone on. The hearts (yes, more hearts!!) were the real Zen bit and I just kept on going around and around them until they reached the right size. Then a little Cruffle for good luck - and I think it has a totally different character from the other two.

Thank you Erin - a most satisfying Zendala template! What did everyone else think, I wonder? Check out the other submissions at The Bright Owl - I'm looking forward to seeing what other people have done with this one. 

Zendala Dare #91

Well, over on The Bright Owl this week for the Zendala Dare, Erin mentioned 'lettuce' and salad - and that was it! I could only see tomatoes and lettuce and baguettes...this isn't really a Zendala Dare per se but shows how the mind works sometimes!

But I did do another one too - I enjoyed doing it but this wasn't my favourite Zendala of all times - I felt rather hemmed in by all those 'baguettes'!  

Here's my entry - don't forget to check out all the other lovelies over on Erin's blog if you haven't already.
Thanks for popping by!!

With Flux, Nzeppel, Tipple, bands from Aquafleur and Chard...

Diva 'Valentangle' Challenge - #154

Well, it IS almost St Valentine's Day and hearts really do lend themselves to Zentangle. This week, on the Diva Challenge, Laura has asked us to Zentangle what the day means to us - to do a 'Valentangle' - great name, created by Nancy Lubin CZT.




I have done a lot with hearts recently, including this one that I did for the String Thing #26, where I poured all my romantic soul out with immense pleasure. It was a heart-shaped string and I used many of my favourite tangles, old and new.


I was momentarily tempted to submit this one to the Diva Challenge this week until I realised that meant I was depriving myself of the challenge!


So - I did something I have wanted to do for a while and which pops up occasionally in some of the pieces I do...




A slightly steampunked heart...HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

What do you think? Zentangle can be so adaptable, can't it?

String Thing #26

Adele on Tickled to Tangle gave us a lovely hearty string this week for the 'String Thing' Tile challenge. It was created by Jo Farmer.



I have been feeling a little uninspired recently but perked up a bit for this one. Not much of a romantic, I was tempted to steampunk this one at first - and may well do - but decided to submit a tile that was full of  LOVE. And the love is truly for the tangles that I enjoy doing - and which have so changed a big part of my life through the discovery of Zentangle.

Thank you Adele, thank you Jo - and a big thank you to everyone else involved in Zentangle, from Maria and Rick outwards! It's a lovely community to be part of.

Loving:
a bit of Fassett, lots of Ornamato, Flux and Florz;
Mooka and Tipple, Heartstrings, Aquafleur and Ditto
(and cheating just a bit on the String...)

Diva Challenge and Zendala Dare

Oh dear, it has been a most uninspired week for me. Still full of cold, still feeling incredibly lethargic and rather miserable - and very like my Aquafleur of last week!! I've struggled with both the Diva's challenge and Erin's birthday Zendala....but it's important to me to keep going. To keep tangling and to keep learning. I do feel as though I've slid backwards this week though ... hope the mojo comes back soon!

I have loved looking at other entries to these two challenges and there's a lot of really lovely tangles that should have given me lots of inspiration - but unfortunately, when you're down, instead of feeling inspired, there's more of a tendency to feel inadequate.

BUT enough of the wallowing in self-pity (I find a little does help though, so forgive me.)

Erin - I wish you a very happy birthday and I have included in my Dare #90, two new tangles that I have really enjoyed learning and using. I don't have a single 'favourite' but at the moment, I am really loving 'Fassett' from Lynn Mead and 'Ditto' from Sue Jacobs. So, with a few candles (there are 28 - it's a nice age) from me and very best wishes, Erin, here's my Dare.

As for the Diva's Challenge to 'Use My Tangle' - oh dear, did I struggle! I know it's a lovely pattern and not difficult - 'Jailed Johnny' by Sadelle Wiltshire - but I couldn't get anything decent to emerge from my many attempts. Not wanting to give up, my last and final attempt was in the form of a Zendala, which I did free hand, and you'll just have to believe this is the best of a bad lot!! I have to stress again, having seen some of the other stunning submissions, I know it's me and not the tangle - I suspect it appeals more to the really artistic amongst you. I'm not too bad at drawing one line at a time and that's about it!

Thanks for popping by.