ZENDALA DARE #16

I've decided to do my dares on the front of blank greeting cards from now on.  My friends seem to enjoy receiving original artwork cards that I've made.  So, rather than put my zendalas in a box or book when they're finished now I can share them with others. Spread the love!  To join in the weekly zendala dare click here.  This is my first zendala greeting card......

Have a good week!

DIVA CHALLENGE #80!

It's hard to believe that The Diva is up to #80 in her Weekly Challenges already!! To find our more about it and to join in the fun please click here.


I was so sleepy when I did my challenge this week that it turned out to be pretty wacky.  But, it was kind of fun to grab a pre-toned tile and just go along and do it by instinct, actually.  It's certainly nothing extraordinary, but here is this week's results using the tangle Mi2, which was this week's challenge, and a few other tangles, too.

Thanks for looking in and have a good week...

ZENDALA DARE #15

As always this week's Zendala® Dare was fun to do.  I couldn't resist putting a bit of our new official tangle "Auraknot" in there, but mostly I used the tangle "Finery" this week.  Hope you like it......

Thanks for looking in!

ZENDALA DARE #13

This week's Zendala Dare was to use some sort of paper that we've never used before.  (For more info or to join in the weekly dares, click here.)  I was excited about this dare, because there are so many papers I'd like to try tangling on.


For the first one I went to an acid free scrap booking paper with a print of soft white roses made by Amscan.  The paper was of good quality, although it was not super heavy.  I thought for sure the pen would bleed through it, but it didn't at all.  In fact, it was very nice to work on, and I fully intend to purchase additional soft hued papers to tangle on.  

For my second attempt I used an 8 1/2" X 12" Barnes and Noble watercolor journal that I like to play around creatively in.  Although this journal takes a lot of different mediums I've never tried microns in it.  First, I splashed a watery wash of warm hued watercolors and let them dry overnight.  I added my zendala over the top of them the following day, and happily the microns worked just fine.  

And, now I'm on to trying to master Rick and Maria's new tangle, Auraknot!  To check it out for yourself you can go to YouTube to watch their video on how to do it.  Thanks for looking in!!

DIVA CHALLENGE # 77

UMT v. VI, "Fiore di Pietro"-This week's challenge (click here for more info) is to use a new tangle that Rho Densmore, CZT created to honor her recently deceased brother-in-law.  I already did one and sent it to her when she first requested it on Facebook, so I thought I'd post it for this week's challenge...

Thanks for popping in......

DIVA CHALLENGES #75 & 76

Diva Challenge #75, "Tangle Pattern, Cadent, Variations":  I'm late in getting last week's challenge in, so I thought I'd post it with this weeks.  I love doing tiles with mono tangles, so I had a lot of fun with this.

(please click on this to enlarge)

Diva Challenge #76 "Home":  The idea of this week's challenge was to tangle something that makes you think of home.  For a more detailed description and to join in this week's challenge click on: The Diva's Challenge.


We are retired and spend 6 months in the North and 6 months in the South following summer from place to place.  :-)  So, I did two tiles, one for each home.  


Long Island, New York is where I'm originally from and during the summers I'm there to see family and friends and to enjoy the lushness, especially the beautiful big shade trees, that abound in the Northeastern portion of the U.S.  In the first tile on the left, my NY tile, I used "Msst" to show the late spring rains that are common there, and borrowed two patterns from Sandy Steen Bartholomew's  books to show my two most favorite things about my summer home, "my" people and those big shade trees.  Our beaches along Long Island Sound are rocky so I've added a line of rocks, but like FL we enjoy lots of flowers, so I was sure to show that in both tiles, too.


Naples, Florida is a beautiful place to spend the winter months.  I used the tangle pattern Sanibelle in this tile because not only do we have lots of sea shells there, but we also live very close to the Island of Sanibel, where the inspiration for the pattern came from.  We have 10 miles of white sandy beach with gorgeous aqua water along the Gulf of Mexico in Naples.  The winter sunsets there leave a glow on the horizon much like I put on my tile.  And, we have velvety blue-black late night skies that make the Milky Way easy to see.  Of course I had to add palm trees and, yes, we really do have a Smiley Face moon there, too.  

(please click on this to enlarge)

Thanks for looking in to see where "home" is for me!

DIVA CHALLENGE #73

This week's Diva Challenge was to use the tangle "Bridgen" developed by Daved, Carole Ohl, CZT's friend.  My attempts are none too creative, but were fun to do and I plan to keep exploring this tangle, one I've never used before.  I love how the Diva's Challenges push me out of my lazy zone each week.  :-)  For many far more creative uses of this fun tangle, click on the link above to see the work of everyone else who has taken up this week's challenge.  Meanwhile, here are my attempts...

Thanks for looking in!

ZENDALA DARE #8

This week's Zendala Dare (more info here) is to only use tangles that begin with the letters "L O V E" in honor of Erin's friend who is getting married this week.  It was a challenge, but a fun one.  Congratulations to the happy couple!  I did a mandala and a tile and here's what I came up with.....

Lotsadots, Onamato, Vertigo, Euca

Lace, Organza, Vortex, Ennies

Hooray for Love!

DIVA CHALLENGE #72

I really enjoy doing monotangle tiles and simple basic patterns.  That puts the true "zen" in zentangle for me.   So, I was thrilled when our Diva challenged us with a mono tile filled with variations of the tangle Crescent Moon.  I really had fun doing this challenge and got carried away.  Amazing what you can do with one simple tangle!

Thanks for visiting!

ZENDALA DARE # 7

I really liked this week's template the moment I saw it and wanted to do something feminine and girlie with it.  So, this is what I came up with...

Have a great week!

A FUN WAY TO USE ZENTANGLE

I recently came across something new and fun to do.  I kind of think of it as making a Zendangle.  Joanne Fink, author of the wonderful book, "Zenspirations", is the creator of this idea.
She made a fantastic YouTube video showing how she does it.  You can watch her video by clicking here.  Meanwhile, I thought I'd demonstrate the steps I use to make my Dangles below:

Materials

Black Micron Pen

Ruler (if needed)

Colored pens, pencils, markers of your choice

For the sake of this demo, and because this is a rather large Dangle, I used a ruler to make my lines, but it's really far more fun to freehand it if you can.  Although, I admit I've never done one without a few ruler guidelines to "keep me in line" overall.  LOL

Step 1

I always begin with at least some main horizontal lines to establish the top bar and then begin adding my vertical lines (where I'll be hanging my dangles later on) before I've completely finished that top bar.  If you'll notice, I've placed a few of my vertical lines into the horizontal lines to form boxes (that I'll later be adding color to) in the top bar.  Many of the verticals will be attached only to your bottom horizontal lines though.  You get to choose where you want to make your boxes.  There are no rules for it.  So, as you begin, it pretty much will look like this:

Step 2

In this step I've continued to fill in the top lines and chose a few boxes up there to color in with my Micron pen until I'm happy with the way it looks. I've also finished adding all of my vertical lines, or better yet let's call them "strings".  As you can see I've already begun adding decorations into my strings, beads, tiny shapes, etc. and also added a few decorative strings here and there, using zentangle® patterns to make them.   It's a good idea to stagger the length of your strings.  It will give you room to add the bangles at the bottom of them and give your overall Dangle a nice sense of balance.  Now we're ready for the fun part!

Step 3

At this point I'm ready to add all my bangles, or shall we call them "charms"?  Whatever we call them, they're fun to do!  You can use whatever your imagination comes up with.  zentangle® patterns work great, but any kind of shape, bead, or crazy design is just fine for your bangles.  You can see below that I've used tangle patterns, circles, triangles, ovals, a tiny leaf, a birdhouse, and on and on.  Once you've finished adding a bangle to every string, and you're satisfied with how it looks, the real fun begins....adding COLOR!!

Step 4

The sky's the limit when adding colors.  And, so are the materials you use to do it.  Whatever is your favorite "color maker", whatever gets the job done, is my philosophy.  When choosing what colors to add you may want to stick to a theme or then again, maybe not.  Maybe you've used charms that are nature oriented in which case you might use earth colors for your charms.  Or, maybe you'd like to only use blues and greens, or only the three primaries, only warm colors, only use glitter pens, and maybe even no color at all, just shapes.  It's all up to you.  

As you can see in my finished piece below I've pretty much used a rainbow of colors and added plenty of color to the top horizontal bar, as well.  I'm new to "dangling" and hope to get a lot more creative in time, but I was anxious to share this idea with others because it's just so much fun to do.  I'm sure you'll come up with far more inventive ideas for your Dangle than I have.  Please feel free to share them with me in the comments section below.  I'd love to see and hear about what you're doing!

"Dangles, Bangles, and Beads"  11" X 14"

Applications

I'd really like to say that I make art purely for the sake of making art.  And, Of course I do love doing that, love "being in the zone".   But, being a practical person, once I create something like a Dangle I can't help myself; I start thinking about how many ways I could use it.  So with that in mind, below are two blank greeting cards I dangled.  I  also hope to start a Dangle journal or perhaps combine them with my zentangle® journal.  And, I could certainly see adding a few strings into the margin of a written journal and they'd be a great addition to any visual journal.  I'm sure there are other things to be done with this fun idea.  Please let me know if you think of any!!

I hope you've enjoyed this demo and don't forget to watch Joanne Fink's, the creator of Dangles, YouTube video demo (link above)!!

Thanks for looking in and I hope you'll give this a try and share your dangles and ideas with me here.  Have fun!

DIVA CHALLENGE #71

This week's Diva Challenge can be found here.  The challenge was to use the new tangle presented by Molly Hollibaugh, Pea-nuckle.  I found this tangle to be a real challenge, too!  But, the more I did it the more I grew to love it and now I'm hooked, for sure.  


I'd also recently stumbled on Shelly Beauch's tangle, Blooming Butter and was waiting for a chance to use it.  In my first attempt below I combined the two tangles and was going for the feel of a basket filled with flowers.  Sadly, my tile fell far short of my goal, but I had fun doing it, anyway.  LOL  


In my second tile I used Groovy (another very addictive tangle Laura recently challenged us with), Shattuck and Unme (pronounced "you and me") with Pea-nuckle.  


You may have read Debra Castaldi's touching story as to how she came up with her pattern, Unme, recently on Linda Farmer's Tangle Patterns website.  As I was doing this pattern I realized that the main stroke in it is a tear drop.  And, so I was rethinking Debra's story and then "Time In A Bottle" began playing on the radio.  By the time I finished I was a basket case!  May God bless Debra with faith, peace and joy.

As always thanks for looking in and enjoy your week!

ZENDALA DARE #6

This week's Zendala Dare was another fun one to do.  For more about the Weekly Zendala Dares, see Erin's blog, The Bright Bowl.  Hubby surprised me by having my two zendalas scanned and ready to post before I woke up this morning.  Now I can't wait until Erin reveals next week's Dare!

Thanks for looking in and I hope you're having fun with your zendalas!

DIVA CHALLENGE #70

Yikes, it's Diva Challenge #70.  How time flies!  For more information about the challenge and to join in just click HERE.  


This week's challenge was to somehow use the color sepia in our tangling.  I tangled a tile using the tangles Nipa and Onamato.  And, I had so much fun with the tangle Floatfest in last week's challenge that I used it on the front of a blank greeting card for this week's challenge.

So, here are the results....

Thanks for looking in!

ZENDALA DARE #5

Wow, I can't believe we're already on our fifth zendala dare.  There's still plenty of time to get in the groove of this weekly fun, though.  For more information just visit Erin's blog, The Bright Owl.


I love doing the tangle, Paradox, so I couldn't resist doing an entire zendala mono tangle tile of Paradox with this dare.  Once I got that out of my system, I began to play with other tangles and created the second zendala you see here...

I hope you're having fun with your zendalas this week.  :-)

DIVA CHALLENGE #69

On Mother's Day I always thank my three children for making me a mom.  Since our daughter is coming to visit us in our vacation home for Mother's Day this year I wanted to surprise her with a little something and make her a card thanking her "For Being The First One To Make Me A Mom".  So, this week I did my Diva Challenge on a blank card.  


We were asked to do the tangle, Groovy, and I fell in love with it.  It goes well with so many other tangles, too.  Here I chose to pair it with Featherfall...

As always, thank for peeking in.....

ZENDALA DARE #4

This week's Zendala Dare was a real challenge!  For a look at this week's template, other tangler's results and to find out more about The Dares, something you can join in, too, just click on Erin's blog here: The Bright Owl.  Erin is on a cruise near Mexico at the moment and was kind enough to take time out of her vacation to dare us this week anyway.  In fact, I'd call this one a "double dare"!  Since cruising is on her mind, Erin asked us to use the themes of "ocean" and "Mexico" in our zendalas this time around. And, it wasn't as easy as it sounds for me, anyway.


While I was trying to think of watery tangles to use in my first zendala Sandy Steen Bartholomew's great book, "Totally Tangled" immediately came to mind because I know she has several tangles adapted from Japanese art depicting water in this book.  To take a look at "Totally Tangled" and her other wonderful zentangle® books and learn more about Sandy (and there's so much more to know about her and her fabulous work) please go to her blog here:  Beez in the Belfry.  Well, as I guessed I was inspired and tentatively began my zendalas...


In the end I wound up with one Mexico/ocean combination zendala and one zendala devoted to the colorful art of the Mexican people.  Here are my entries for this week's dare:  

"Gulf of Mexico"

"Hola"

Thanks for looking in!!!

DIVA CHALLENGE #68

This week's Diva Challenge is to do a zentangle with only two patterns, or a "duo tangle".  We're using the tangles "hibred" and "strircles".  To learn more about, or to join in, the weekly Diva Challenges, please see the Diva's blog here:  I Am The Diva CZT.  


I'd never used either of these tangles before, so I'm afraid my zentangles are not very creative.  I did really enjoy learning both patterns, though, so thanks once again, Laura, for your wonderful challenges!

As always, thanks for looking in and happy tangling!

TEACHING ZENTANGLE

I recently taught a zentangle® class consisting of 5 students.  I've taught classes with the number of students being anywhere from 3 to 16.  But, no matter the size of the class it's always fun for me to see the students enjoying themselves.  And, I'm always amazed at how different each person's tile winds up to be even though they are all using the same tangles.  Here are the results from this very special class that contained four sisters and a daughter-in-law...

Pretty cool, no?  :-)

ZENDALA DARE #3

This is my entry for this week's Zendala Dare.  As always it was fun to do.  Anyone who enjoys doing zentangle® can join in the weekly dare.  To learn more about it please go to Erin's wonderful blog at: The Bright Owl.  And now to my zendala...

Hope you'll join in if you haven't already!

ZENDALA DARE #2

Erin, an accomplished Certified Zentangle Teacher and author of "The Bright Owl" blog has decided to issue a weekly Zendala Dare. Each Friday she so generously publishes three printable zendala templates that will fit either the official zentangle® tile, zentangle® zendala round tile or a full sized sheet of paper.  The idea of the dare is for us to fill in the zendala with tangles of our own choices.  Then, if we wish we can post a link to our finished zendala in her blog.  You can find out much more about this fun weekly inspiration here at Erin's blog: The Bright Owl.  For more information about zentangle® itself you can go to the official zentangle® website here.  

Unfortunately, I missed the first dare, but these are my entries for the second dare, one is on a zendala tile and the other on a classic zentangle® tile...

As always, thanks for looking in!!

ZENDALAS-NEW TANGLING FUN!

The zentangle® people have come up with a new way to have fun!  They've added a new tile to the already existing zentangle family of tiles.  The previously available tiles come in either black or white, pre strung or blank, and in either 3 1/2" X 3 1/2" square size or 2" X 3" ATC/ACEO size.  This new tile is closely related to a mandala concept and is called a "zendala".  To read more about them, click here .  They are now available to purchase for the public on their website:  zendala.com website    Or, you can purchase them now through your local CZT representative.


Zendalas are circular and 4 1/2" wide.  They come 21 tiles in a cute round metal tin holder.  18 of the tiles are pre-strung with light guidelines that fade as you tangle your tile. There are also 3 blank zendala tiles in the set.  Here is a sample of one I tangled recently:

Zendalas are lots of fun to do and I highly recommend you give them a try!

A Handmade Easy To Make Blank Artist Journal

I thought I'd share this very easy way to make your own artist journal with your favorite papers.  This method probably won't do for those who enjoy binding their own journals, but if you're a lazy artist like myself it's the perfect way to own an artist sketchbook made with the exact paper you love to work on.  For me when working in watercolor Arches or Fabriano Artistico are the papers I love.


What I've done here is tore a few sheets of Arches 140 lb. CP paper into a size that I like to work with for watercolor sketches.  I also added some plain white writing paper in between those pages to write my notes on.  I wound up with about 30 pages in all.  If you prefer Hot Pressed paper, toned paper, Bristol Vellum, or a combination of several different types of paper for your work this method will work fine for any paper you can dream of.  And, of course you can make these journals for any medium you like to work in be it colored pencil, pen, collage, whatever...


When you've chosen and cut your favorite papers to size, put them in a neat pile.  For watercolor paper I like to have any deckled edges I have showing on the outside of the book.  Once you have all your papers stacked the way you want them to be in your finished book head on over to your nearby Staples, Office Depot, or any similar office supply store.  Ask them to bind your book with a plastic spiral.  


You can use a different paper for your cover, too, as long as you've made it the same size as the rest of your papers.  For example you can use a sheet of watercolor paper and decorate it before or after it's bound with collage, acrylics, etc.   They will be happy to provide you with a clear plastic sheet for the top of your book and a heavier plastic sheet on the bottom for firmness when you are sketching outdoors and aren't resting on a table.  

I've made these books in various sizes, although there is a limit to how large you can go depending on the length of your store's spirals.  The spirals do come in various widths, however, so you have leeway as to how many pages you can add to your book.  It's probably best to check with your local store for sizes with a phone call before you begin.  Here is an example of a couple of small ones I made...

The book on the left is made from Arches WC paper and the book on the left is made from Fabriano Artistico paper.

This is the Arches book opened up.  As you can see it lays flat and is easy to work on when bound with a spiral.

Well, as I mentioned this method isn't for everyone.  But,  for those of us who just aren't into binding our own books, but do still want to have a journal of our favorite papers to work in this does the trick nicely.  Happy arting!!

STRATHMORE ONLINE WORKSHOPS-ARTIST JOURNAL

In March of 2012 I started the free Cathy Johnson's Artist Journal Workshop on the Strathmore's Online Workshops website.  Their home page is here.  The workshop I did was available to do for anyone until August 2012.  But, they offer three month-long free and very extensive art workshops every year by well known artists in their field of expertise.  They begin in the early part of each year and are available to do up until August of that year.  I highly recommend checking them out!


On the first day of the workshop I went outside to sit on my front porch to sketch and paint geraniums.  But, as soon as I stepped outside the beautiful sky caught my eye and I just had to try to capture that instead.  The clouds were plentiful and huge, puffy and moving fast in the deep blue sky.  Not only were they moving quickly in the sky, but they were also moving and changing shape within themselves at a rapid speed.  They looked like boiling steam or flowers opening up right before my eyes.  It was an amazing view.  I wasn't able to capture it perfectly, but here is what I did capture....

A few days later I was able to get back to the geranuiums, so I did an ongoing series of buds to bloom.....

Again, I encourage anyone to join this annual series of workshops, if possible.  It usually begins in January/February of each year.  You will learn a lot from experts in various mediums while you're having fun doing it.  I also find it to be a great inspiration to get the creative juices flowing.  Have fun!