The Diva's Weekly Challenge 169

Pure Zen.....I've had another busy week but this lovely challenge (from Laura aka 'The Diva') made a big calm space at the end of the day. Her challenge to us was to 'make your string out of circles, then tangle!) And I did just that, drawing round a few round things I found in my kitchen and then just filling them with the first tangles that came to my pen.

Thanks Laura - I'm sure all the entries to this week's challenge will be as amazing as usual and so I'm off to have a look now.
Please let me know what you think!
Ax

String Thing 41 and 'M' Tangles

Another busy week for me but I have managed to complete Adele Bruno's String Thing 41, which is posted on her blog, Tickled to Tangle on Tuesdays. This week, using String 026 by Margaret Bremner, we were given tangles beginning with 'R' :


River  by Suzanne McNeill, CZT
River Stones  by Lori Howe
Rixty  an official Zentangle® pattern
and to add a grid based pattern to the mix,  Ripples by Helen Williams

I completed mine just after lunch today in a quiet moment and added a little colour as I thought my Rixty looked a little lost against the 'busyness' the lovely Ripple pattern by Helen Williams. I am quite pleased with how it turned out and enjoyed doing it very much.

And late last night, under the fascinated gaze of my eldest son, I did my tile for Cheryl over on Artful Creations. The 'Tackle it Tuesday' challenge has reached the letter 'M'. There's been a lot of overlap of ideas, if not tangles in the challenges this week. We had 'Rain' from the Diva, Rivers from Adele...and don't you think the string above looks like the letter 'M'??

I learnt a new tangle for the 'M' challenge and fell in love with it! Mi2 is definitely 'my' sort of tangle - and it was this that my son found absorbing to watch. I teamed it with Meer, Meo and a little touch of Mak-rah-mee.

Hope you like them - do let me know! Thanks for looking. 

Axxx

After the rain....Diva Challenge 168

'After the rain' - one of many of the songs by Sting, whose music I love! This and the challenge set by Laura on 'I am the Diva' this week have inspired this little tile. Having just started a new job, working more hours than I used to, I have found myself rather short of tangling time...so this was done very quickly last night, sitting in bed.
It was fun to do and I went to sleep feeling pleased with myself.

Rain and Raindotty tangles.
Drawn with black pen and 2B pencil; colour added via BeFunky photo editor - 'Cooler' effect

Hope you like it!

Thanks for looking - please let me know what you think. And as always, a big thank you to Laura for giving us these challenges.



Here's the song by Sting too....

A String Thing 40

Another week whizzes by and it's time again to submit my tile to Adele Bruno for the String Thing Challenge. Absolutely wonderful one this week - a tile within a tile.

Adele gave us this string by Beth Snodderley:


and - as usual - a set of tangles based on the String creator's name - tangles this week beginning 'Be'...

These include:

Beadlines by CZT Margaret Bremner
and three official Zentangle® patterns -
Beelite
Beeline and
Betweed 

I so love Betweed and Beeline that I stuck with those two, although if you look very carefully, you might just see a teeny weeny Beadline here and there. 

Great fun, love the tile within a tile effect and enjoyed this in a lovely, straightforward Zentangle sort of way.
Thanks Adele - as always, looking forward to seeing all the entries on Monday. 

Duotangle with Punzel and Well and 'L' Tangles

I can never remember which number challenge we've got to....I thought this was 140. Not that it matters!

Another wonderful challenge from Laura the Diva this week...number 167 (maybe I'll remember for next week). A duo tangle using Punzel and Well. My jaw dropped at Punzel as I have only made one miserable attempt at this particular tangle and have never touched it since! So a real challenge.

Well, I remember Well well from a previous challenge and I found it difficult to start with but managed to get into it - it was part of another duo tangle, with Peanuckle. You do push us, Laura!

I have worked at improving Punzel and in the end, I am rather pleased with my attempt. I left Well pretty well alone, making it the border and allowing a few 'single' editions to join Punzel in the main tile.

Many thanks Laura - I really can't wait to see what others have done with this Challenge!

Axxx

In addition to the Diva Challenge this week, I have done a tile for 'Tackle it Tuesday' over on Cheryl's Artful Creations blog. We're working our way through the alphabet and this week, we're at 'L'.

This is my 'L' tangle, which I really enjoyed, discovering some new tangles and using many of them to follow a string that I made up.

Hope you like it!

Leaflet, Laced, Lazy Eights, LaBel, Lantern Pho and LinQ - and lots of white space!

A String Thing Number 39

I love doing Adele Bruno's String Thing Challenge, which is issued on Tickled to Tangle on Tuesdays. It's always a genuine challenge, with a given string and a selection of known or unknown tangles. And the entries that Adele generously comments on and shares the following Monday is always a real eye-opener. The range and imagination of the tanglers is fantastic and wonderful to see - I'm always genuinely impressed.

This week though, I was stumped. It was a very interesting string Adele gave us, by Yamit Fridman along with a four tangles beginning with the letter M:



Mooka
Meer 
Msst - all official Zentangle® patterns
and
Mak-rah-mee by CZT Michele Beauchamp

...all of which I really love. However, try as I might, I could not get the tangles into the string this week. No way, no how, so forgive me if I stopped trying after a while! I loved doing the tile and am pleased with how I did it - even if I really do like Lily Moon's the best (see my previous post!) I'm still on the tan tiles....

Thanks for looking - DO go to Adele's blog and see all the other entries which usually get posted late Monday evening (Spanish time) and are great fun to see.

Axxx

Diva Challenge #166 (UMT), Wacky Zentangle Challenge and K Tangles

It's been a busy week but I've managed to find the time to do my usual set of challenges - must get my priorities right - (started a new job too...!)

For the Diva this week, as it's the first of the month, and the month is May, and May is when it's Laura's birthday, she asked us to Use My Tangle...and she really did mean HER tangle! Interestingly, it's a tangle without a name thus far. Hmmm....so tempting to try and find the perfect one...

It's a very simple tangle with circles and connecting lines and I chose a tan tile to tangle on. I immediately thought of planets and a sort of interstellar highway. I kept it very simple and added a couple or three 'Aahs' to the whole and the job was done. Thank you Laura - and here's wishing you a very Happy Birthday when the day comes.

The Wacky Challenge was 'Spring Flowers' inspired and we were challenged to tangle a version based on this concept. I decided to use all the tangles I could immediately think of that were vaguely flower-related whilst not actually BEING flowers. I really enjoyed it and am pleased with the final version.

Includes: Pokeleaf, Vigne, Wyst, Treadwith, Fungee, Pendrils, Zinger, Fern, Fescu, Clove, Buttercup and Verdigogh

Also a lovely one to do this week was Cheryl's Artful Creations - as we work our way through the alphabet, we have reached the letter 'K' and I discovered the wonderful 'Knyt'....I love knitting anyway but was ridiculously delighted to be tangling knitting!! Loved doing this one, Cheryl - thank you!

Includes: Kuke, Knyt, Krly-Qs, Knot Rickz and Kofeforn

I still have 'A String Thing' to complete but having seen Lily Moon's glorious composition already, I'm not sure I can do anything that I will like even half as much....she's done exactly what I had in mind, only better. If I get the time, I will do it as Adele's challenge is great fun each week and it's great to see the final tiles and how different they all are.

Happy tangling and thanks for popping by.
Axxx

String Thing #38, Wacky Tangle and J Tangles

Another trio of challenges which I have enjoyed doing this week.

The first one I did was for the Facebook, Wacky Zentangle Challenge, which this week suggested trying a monotangle. I wasn't sure what to choose but Knightsbridge sort of chose itself. I enjoyed it in a very simplistic sort of way....

Then there was Cheryl's Artful Creation challenge of tangling our way through the alphabet. This week, we're up to 'J' and I chose to use a couple of new to me ones, Jonquil and Jalousie - always good to learn new tangles!

Finally, for Adele Bruno's String Thing Challenge, we are celebrating four years of Linda Farmer's 'Tangle Patterns', the invaluable blog that contains so many Zentangle patterns and Strings and other wonderful information...what would we do without it?? Thank you Linda!

We were given 'A' tangles, including Aquafleur, Aura-Leah, both of which I know and love - plus two more new ones for me, Axlexa and AAs. We used Adele's own string which is a bit like a sideways '4' and so very appropriate. I let my pen do just as it wished and ended up with a rather strange piece! To me, it looks like three rather nosy Aquafleurs looking over a wall!

Check out the links to see what others have done - that's really the best bit of these challenges!
Thanks for popping by.
Ax

Diva Challenge #165

This week's Diva Challenge was a 'UMT' or Use My Tangle, and she picked 'Camelia', created by Anne Marks. It's a lovely flexible tangle suitable for a grid or freestyle and I really enjoyed using it. I decided to let it take centre stage in this ZIA.

I'm off now to have a look at what everyone else has done this week - so far, I haven't had a moment to see them, so am really looking forward to that!

Camelia, with a little Flux and Aura-Leah. 

Thank you Laura, for giving us such inspiration!!