Blind Sighted

Tangles used = finery, n'zeppel, purk, shattuck, featherfall, meer, printemps, flux, tipple

That Laura is an incredible woman. This week in her blog she has a video posted. It is from a performance that she gave. She sings like a broadway star. You can find that video and the challenge for this week here on her blog site. 

She encouraged us to let go and just find our Zen. Don't worry about the outcome. So I played along, because she is good with games. You should see the extreme hopscotch her son is playing this week.

I started out with the dots and the border, placed my pencil on the string and closed my eyes to draw this blind string. You can sort of see where I went out of the border. I went with it and tangled those areas too. 

I am taking a colour class with Marie Browning. We are using the Irojiten colour pencils. Rather than think too much about colour I just grabbed 4 pencils from one volume. They are designed to work together. The first tile was scanned before I added the colourless blender from the Tombow markers. Here is the second tile after the blending. Can you see the difference?

Earth Day/Amanda Day

Tangles used = Agua, Mist, Dansk. and a variation of  Sun Ray

It would be so great if every day was Earth Day. It was sunny but cold here in my part of the world. I made a point of doing something extra for the planet today. I gave my composter a stir to get it ready for another year. There is lots of nice black gold in there, it's ready, but still a little bit frozen.  

The Diva has asked us to do a tile for Earth Day. Her son affectionally calls this Day Amanda Day.

I think it's so cute that he has given the planet a name. Laura is teasing us to say that she may just let us hear her sing. That would be grand. 

You can see the challenge and others work here. Thanks Laura for all that you do to inspire me. 

I have signed up for Marie Brownings class which started last Thursday. I plan to learn to use the Irojiten pencils and the Tombow Markers. I have done a couple of assignments and learned a bunch about what not to do and a little bit of what to do. I learn by doing. You will see some of my learning here in my happy tangling space. The image below was part of the first lesson. It uses the Dual Brush Markers. I'll use it as a greeting card. 

Be inspired by stars, whatever that means to you.

Tangles used = Auraknot, spiteria, ahh

When I look at the night sky I think of those that have left us here on this earth. I imagine that each time we loose someone a new star shines.  Sometimes I just want to gather them all up and hang on tight. 

Tangles used = variation of cadent, printemps, crescent moon

This ones for you Frankie. 

The Diva has inspired me again. Thank you Laura. Have a peek at her blog post here to see the challenge and all of the beautiful tangler's entries that she inspires. Hmm... Tangler's is that what we are?

Tuxedo Challenge #112

Tangles used: Tuxedo, In a pod, Bunzo, Camelia, Palrevo

This weeks challenge from the Diva was to use a tangle called "Tuxedo"created by the very talented Ledenzer. You can find the "steps outs" for her tangle here and the Diva's challenge here.  This is a very detailed tangle that required good concentration. I can see that with some practice it could be very fun to add tangleations. Thank you Laura for the challenge and Lee Ann for the tangle. 

"More-Mooka-Madness Monotangle-Mania" from The Diva

Mooka is such a fun tangle to draw. It doesn't always look the way you would like it to, but it sure feels good to draw. That's what I love about it. You can get so un-intentionally mindful while drawing this pattern. I focused on the spaces in the V shaped area to try to get them consistent and parallel. The curvy parts just flow.  The shading, well that's a wonder with Mooka. I just gave the v area a little shade and then added my chop. I used Margaret Bremner's technique with a looped border which you can find here. My loops don't overlap, but rather touch in the centre. Thanks again and again to The Diva for her weekly challenges. You can find this one here.
In her post she mentions a Facebook conversation in our CZT (Certified Zentangle Teacher) page, where someone wondered which tangles we don't do because we have trouble with them.
I decided this was a good time to work on tripoli. Argh, It does give me trouble. I have figured out that if I really concentrate on keeping the lines parallell between the triangles it helps to improve the outcome. I like the bottom left part of this monotangled tile. The process was as it should be, a wonderful adventure. :)) Happy Easter.

Ode to Jazzy

A sad thing happened on the weekend. My neighbours had to put down their beautiful dog Jasmine. She really was a great dog.
Margaret Bremner posted a wonderful set of templates to use on a  Zentangle® zendala tile. You can find that post here on her beautiful blog. Thank you Margaret for sharing that super cool idea.  I really wanted to try this technique, and got to thinking about what to put in the template. With Jazzy on my mind I created this tile. I wrote on the back of the tile "Ode to Jazzy, It's a dog bone world" It's not technically and ode but it felt right at the time. I gave the tile to my neighbours. She will be missed by many. Pets are such a wonderful part of our lives and when they leave us our hearts are touched by the joy that they gave us. She loved to come to my place for a visit. It always included a dog treat. That was my way of ensuring I would get visits and it worked. She came to see me regularly and I got to pet her and tell her how pretty she was. Such a joy for me and for her.

Out Of The Box Challenge #110

Out of the box and the attic......

.....came my fathers very old watercolours. I have been meaning to go in there and get some things for a very long time.  Thanks to Laura for getting me there today. It's Friday so I almost missed the deadline for her submissions. You can find her challenge here.

She asked us to do something we have never done before. I have not done a Zendala or used watercolours on my tiles. In fact I have not used watercolours in over 25 years. I started with a pre-strung tile and thought I would change the centre a little, so I got out my pencil and drew some lines to split up the centre. I immediately saw a box. What? Where did that come from. I went with it. It was meant to be. Out of this box came some new found creativity. It looks very green in this scan, but in reality it is lime green, which is one of my favourite colours, and perfect for spring. Will it ever get here. I am still skiing. 

Patterns used. Lotus Pods (or a variation because there are no mistakes), Croon, Meer and Shattuck.