Diva Challenge 178

Well, after her incredibly busy few weeks, Laura, the Diva is back on her blog again. Her guest posters have been inspiring and engaging and I for one am very glad she invited them to offer their challenges! And it's lovely to have Laura back and have a glimpse of her life and her lovely family. Looks like they've all been enjoying themselves, which is good to know.

And a challenge this week that I've enjoyed very much. I recently discovered Margaret Bremner's lovely 'Prestwood' tangle and have managed to sneak it into almost everything I've done since. And for my initial tangle this week, I found another, very similar tangle to this one called 'Tipz' and it's given me much the same sort of pleasure! Thank you, Faith Cohen!

So - 'Tipz' was my choice for my surname initial...but oh, how difficult it was to choose one for 'Annie'....so many of my favourites begin with 'A'....Ahh, Agua, Aquafleur, Aura-leah, Aura-knot.....I could go on but I won't. SO! I decided to do one I've never done before and I chose it for the name. Arundel. Designed by Arja de Lange-Huisman during a visit to this lovely place in the south of England. It used to be a place I visited when I lived not too far away and I don't think I ever went there without falling in love with it a little bit more. So Arundel is another new favourite. 

And here they are together. Arundel and Tipz - AT, that's me!

Thanks again, Laura. Lovely, lovely challenge! As always, it is now my pleasure to go and see what everyone else has done with their initials!

Diva Challenge 177 - Truffle!!

Wow, this is so my sort of tangle - even the name is delicious. Well done Caroline - the youngest ever CZT - she's come up with a great guest post and a lovely tangle for us to try whilst the Diva is taking a well-earned break.

I did two tiles this week, just because I was enjoying the flow.

One on a Renaissance tile with some of my new pens bought in a recent visit to the UK.

And one white on black - just as it came out of the pen, no shading, nothing, just a pleasure of line drawing.

Check out all the entries to this great challenge on Laura's blog 'I am the Diva' and enjoy the amazing takes on this lovely new tangle.

Thanks for popping by - feel free to leave me a comment! Axxx

Diva Challenge 176 BYOB!

Hardly any time seems to have passed since I completed the Diva's Challenge for last week - the lovely tangle, Crux - when suddenly, it's new challenge time!! Hurray!!
And the Diva herself is very busy and this week, she and her family will be at the Moebius Syndrome Conference. So we have another guest challenger...and what a great idea it is this week. Amy Broady has challenged us to do that thing we usually dread doing....spilling a drink on our precious tile!

My favourite (and necessary fix) is always coffee. I love it strong, neat, with milk, with ice, hot, foamy or cold....you name it, I'll drink it - as long as it's not instant!! It's difficult to see the 'spill' on my tile, but it's there and visible above and below my tangling space...trust me; I spilled too much!  I chose to tangle in the vague style of a Barista....using Heartstrings, a variation on Flux and a variation on Echoism - and of course, a few 'Ahh's in appreciation of the delicious taste!

I used sepia, black, gold and white. It had to be a quick one this week as I'm off to the UK for a little holiday with my children the day after tomorrow - very excited - and my chance to write up and post will be limited. I will, however, have a whole three hours on the plane to enjoy a bit of uninterrupted tangling!

Enjoy the other submissions - I have a feeling there's going to be some great ideas springing from this challenge. Thank you Amy - thank you Laura!

String Thing 48, Tackle it Tuesday and some special tangles..

Why is it that some days, the tangles just flow out and others, it feels like I don't know where to begin?

This week's String Thing Challenge by Adele Bruno was one of the former. Most definitely. I LOVED doing this one.

This week's Tackle it Tuesday, posted by Cheryl on Artful Creations, has reached the letter 'R' in the alphabet of tangles. I've started doing the Derwent Art Academy course - an online set of classes - and so far, we've concentrated on shading and perspective....you may see the influence of this in my tile here!

Rouche, Rixty, Raindotty, Rosé, Reticulated, and Rags

I held my regular 'Zentangle' class with a small and dedicated group of people, here in my home town, Alcala la Real in Spain - a long, long way from Rhode Island and with little chance of me every becoming a CZT - but where I have to say, my group produce some wonderful tiles!! This week, I included the four tangles used for the String Thing - plus one or two others - and even on my rubbish phone camera, you have to agree that there are some great pieces here! Well done my group - you know who you are!

Diva Challenge 175 - UMT Crux

I have been so busy doing non-tangle things recently that I haven't had time to do many challenges - but how could I possibly not do the Diva's Weekly Challenge - especially on UMT (Use My Tangle) week?

I love this tangle and was tempted in many ways to do something creative and clever with it...tempted, but in the end (OK, after several dreadful attempts at cleverness that looked less than clever at the end!) I decided it was more important to master the basis tangle. And it's lovely enough just as it is, I think.

Black on white for a change. Great fun. Thank you so much, Laura (I am the Diva) and Henrike Bratz who is the creator of Crux.

Axxx