Diva Challenge 191 - Betweed

Laura has a busy month ahead and I do hope all the challenges she and the family face go as smoothly as a Betweed monotangle. This is the challenge she has left us and I am very happy to accept this - and although I am probably not the first, I've managed to do my tangle on the same day as the challenge was posted - a first for me!

Here is my monotangle - Betweed and nothing else at all.

I wish Laura and Artoo and the whole family all the very best. Take care and speedy recovery.

Thanks for looking - as always, I look forward to seeing what everyone else does with the challenge each week. Axxx

Diva Challenge 190, String Thing 63, Square One and Wacky Challenge...busy week!

Hi everyone - I've been doing a lot of tangling this week and have a variety of different tangles to share here.

First up is the Diva Challenge, which this week honours Laura's Grandma Ardath, who suffered from breast cancer and as October is Breast Cancer Awareness month, I can't think of any better inspiration than to honour Grandma Ardath's memory this way - and of course, promote the practice of self-examination and awareness of changes in our own breasts.

I had a mammogram a few months ago and all seemed fine - until I got a phone call asking me to go back. I was momentarily worried but in the end, I was reassured that there was no problem with me, but that the left X-ray hadn't been done as well as it could have been. The radiographer told me there and then that the new X-ray showed all was fine. Phew.

Laura said to use pink, which seems such a good idea, and here is my 'Pink for Ardath' tangle based on the pink ribbon logo, with just two tangles - Heartstrings and Crescent Moon - the background is a tangle of my own based on an optical illusion I saw - there are no curved lines in the drawing, but if you join the 'corners' of the squares and shade, then little circles 'pop' out all over! The stepouts are here and I call it 'Skwirl'

My second contribution to the challenges on the go this week is for 'A String Thing', run by Adele Bruno on 'Tickled to Tangle'. Adele gives us a string and a set of tangles - and off we all go. The results are always fantastic for their invention and diversity and I love this challenge. Especially as it included Quandry and Quib this week! What's not to like. Here is my tile. It went a bit skewiffy in the scanner but never mind. Also included are Quere and Quiltz.

Moving swiftly on, I think the Square One - Purely Zentangle group over on Facebook - has attracted dedicated Zentangle folk from all corners of the earth. This week we had the eternally inspiring and glorious Aquafleur to play with and I did enjoy it - and seeing all the wonderful contributions.

This is one of my entries, together with a modified Meer and Chillon in the background - oh, and a few beadlines. There have been some incredible variations on this lovely tangle and it's a very supportive and inspiring group.

Also on Facebook is the Wacky Zentangle Challenge, which is sort of opposite from the purist approach of Square One. This week, we were challenged to do teeny tiny tangles - as small as coins. I have here four that I did - and you'll just have to take my word that they are all the size of a 1 euro coin...which is not big! I really enjoyed them but wish I had made them into 'Inchies' with the borders around. Maybe if I have some time I will do this.

Aura-Leah and Tipple

Peanuckle with a hached background

Cyme and Fescu

Heartstrings and Florz

And that's it - if you made it this far, thank you so much for sticking with me to the end. Hope you liked what you saw. Axxx

Yuma - rescanned and another one!

Following the Diva's Challenge this week, I haven't been able to stop tangling with Yuma - I really love it!

So here is another one, together with rescanned versions of the ones I did earlier in the week - slightly better quality, otherwise, exactly the same! (Just so I have a good copy on my computer, really...)

Some great entries this week as usual - don't forget to check them out on the Diva's blog.

My Yum sprouted some Aquafleur characteristics in the bottom part but remained very prim and contained in the top. Cruffle decided to make an appearance too.


Here are the other two I did in scanned versions - the others were taken on my tablet. Thanks for popping by.

Diva Challenge 189 -UMT Yuma.

I've had such fun with this week's challenge.  Thank you,  Laura and thank you Akua for a very lovely new tangle.

This post is from my tablet as I'm rather busy this week, so apologies for the slightly odd colour of my uploads. I will redo the post when I get chance. The rush to post is so I can allow myself to see what everyone else has done!

 Shading is my 'thing' so you can imagine how much I enjoyed doing these two!

I may even do another one!

Thanks again - I did love this challenge! Axxx

Diva Challenge 188 - Coming Out and 'Tackle it Tuesday' tangles

I had no idea that 11th October was National Coming Out Day but can't think of a better way to offer my support to anyone who wants to be accepted for who they are, than to submit a tile to the Diva for this week's Challenge. Laura was moved to receive a suggestion by a young boy and it's worth reading what he had to say that prompted her to issue the challenge.

I have just read Maggiebee's blog, where as well as a great tile, she gave us the origin of the word 'GAY' when used in this context - Good As You - and coming from the revolutionary 1960s when concern for Civil and Human Rights were at the forefront of many minds. In the intervening 50 years of so, I think we have moved a little way from the bigotry and prejudice that was prevalent then but still not far enough. There is often great joy and colour in the movement to support Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender people - hence the links with rainbow colours and pink parades - but still a lot of barriers to everyone understanding the problems and the lack of understanding often handed out to this section of society.

We are all our own unique mixture of genes, hormones, chemicals and complexities and to show some solidarity and support, my tile is based on a rainbow string, has a little rainbow colour in each of the tangles and the tangles I have chosen all begin the letters L,G,B and T and include Laced, Linked, Golvern, Groovy (which went its own way..as it should!) BB, Beadlines, Trio and Trumpits.

Check out the Diva's blog to see all the other great contributions,


Another tangle I've done this week is for Cheryl's Artful Creation blog, where this week, she's challenged us to do a tile using three specific tangles that spell 'SUN' - and the tangles are SeZ, a Zentangle original that I have never, ever used; Up and Across by Suzanne McNeil, which I have used just once, and the new tangle based on Nzepple, called 'Nymph' by Melinda Barlow. I wasn't sure I would like SeZ as it seems so incredibly simplistic, but as always with Zentangle, I was very pleasantly surprised. So, without further ado, here is my 'Tackle it Tuesday' tile and rather in keeping with the above challenge, I can imagine someone wearing this combination during a 1960s protest march!!

Tackle it Tuesday - on Sunday!

Cheryl's Artful Creations offers a challenge each week and, as the title suggests, this is on Tuesdays! This week, we've been challenged to use tangles that begin with the letters - *  W, R, E, and B - one or all of them.

I selected one that I know but rarely use, Rouche, which is pretty and delicate and lantern-like. I also chose 'Wud' as I am totally besotted with this tangle at the moment. And two tangles that are new to me - Barney, which has a round variation as well as the original hexagonal version. Nice. And I have loved using Euca - a delicate, leafy pattern that I think could have a lot of use in the future. So thank you Cheryl, for keeping the inspiration coming!

* Ha, ha!! Just discovered on Cheryl's blog that she had intended us to just use B E and R - the 'w' stood for 'with'!! Oh well, as she says, no mistakes in Zentangle.

String Thing 60 and Square One - Purely Zentangle

This week on Adele Bruno's 'A String Thing', we had a lovely elegant string by Diane Sexton and some tangles beginning with the letter 'X'. 'X', 'Xplode', 'Xav' and 'Xeni'.



Well, I usually only do one tangle for this challenge but found I couldn't incorporate all four of these tangles into my first attempt.  Here it is with three of the four -

I enjoyed doing it very much and LOVE 'Xplode'. Adele's 'Xav' reminds me 1970s wallpaper but I found I couldn't do justice to 'Xeni'. The blank circle should pay homage to an amazing tile that Michele Beauchamp did recently using just Fescu - I was entranced by it and this is my diminished version of that. I can't provide you a link because it was on Facebook but if you took part in the Square One - Purely Zentangle challenge recently, you may have seen it. Awesome! 

Anyway, the tile didn't satisfy my need to try out 'X' again, so I sat down and gave it my all. And I'm really pleased with the final result. Very different from the first tile and a thoroughly enjoyable experience, so thank you Adele and thank you Lila!

As always, seeing what other entries look like is such fun when Adele posts on Mondays.