HAPPY NEW YEAR 2014 & AN ATC SWAP!

Okay, so it's been a very long time since I've posted here in my artist play blog, but I promise I've still been playing!  And, now it's 2014 and all sorts of new art projects are starting both in "real" life and on the web.  I'm beginning a collage adult ed class later this month, a Julia Cameron "Vein of Gold" course next week and have committed to a Certified Zentangle® Teacher's ATC Swap.  Phew, I'm tired and stressed already.  All 3 things involve lots of homework!  There's also a wonderful artist journaling Facebook group beginning by the name of "My Documented Life", and Strathmore will soon be starting their free workshops for 2014 again.  They look great this year.  And, oh so many more tempting things.  I hope you've searched them out and found something that tickles your fancy!

I'm dedicating this post strictly to the Certified Zentangle® Teacher's ATC Swap.  The swap was created, and is being handled, by a very active and wonderful CZT, Sharon Lynn Payne, and can be followed on Facebook at:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/CZTZentangleATCDeckSwap/
You can find some great pictures of members ATC cards to enjoy and learn more about the whole thing there.

The idea is to create and mail in 53 artist trading cards with zentangle® somewhere on the card, but other than that you can let your imagination run wild.  All rules (which are very liberal by the way) can be found on the FB page above.  The deadline for sending in your cards was pushed out until March 26th from February 1st as of today, so perhaps the original final date to join, December 31st will also be pushed out... if interested you can always go to the FB page above and ask Sharon about that.

ATC card measurements are always 2.5" X 3.5", but like many people I decided to do mine on a larger sheet and cut the cards to ATC size once they are finished.  I'm able to fit 16 cards on a piece of Arches hot pressed watercolor paper from a block I had on hand.    Pictured here below is the first set I finished over this weekend.  It looks a little crazy, because it hasn't been cut into the 16 cards yet and some are upside down and sideways. And, when they are cut I may add more to each of them, especially now that the due date has gratefully been extended.  As you can see I chose to combine stamping and collage with my zentangling.

Vintage Series 

These next two pictures are of the first layers on my next two groups of 16 before I've added tangling to them...

Garden Series

Artist Series

And below are the finished pieces before I cut them and then all the ATC cards, the entire deck, grouped together.

Floral Series

Garden Series

Artist Series

Vintage Series

Entire Finished Deck

Well, there you go.  The fodder of a creative mind.  :-)  Thanks for looking in.  I hope I've peaked your interest to join in one of the many start of the new year challenges if not this one.  And, we will see how these guys turn out...

ORNATION CREATION-GREAT FUN!!

Artist Ben Kwok recently began a Facebook page by the name of Ornation Creation in which he shares wonderful templates that can easily be printed out on whatever paper you desire and your printer will allow.  Although he is not associated with zentangle® his work also uses patterns and shading.  Once you've printed out and worked on the template you are invited to share your results on his Facebook page.  Most people also do their work in various patterns, although Ben invites you to decorate your template in whatever way your creativity leads you.  A new template is shared approximately once a week.  Come check it out and join the fun!  Here is a link to this fabulous interactive Facebook page:  Ornation Creation.

And, these are the Ornation Creation works I've finished so far:

Dragonfly

Dragonfly

Rabbit

Squirrel

Fox

Elephant

Turtle

Hamsa Hand

Little Bird

 Garden Kitten

Wild Cat

Fancy Cat (Wild Cat's Girlfriend)

Naughty Cat

Mandala

Christmas Giraffe

I hope you'll join us!  And as always thanks for looking in.

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.  :-)