Dare #83 - Baby it's cold outside

This weeks Bright Owl Dare is challenging us to think winter. As soon as I saw the template I saw faces. Elf faces. So here are my Christmas elves. I think they might need color, but for now here they are.

Christmas rush

Tis the season for the Christmas stress. I want to work on my art so I can decompress a bit, but I feel like I must do other things. So I will post pics of some of my gifts.

Kitty from a Ben Kwok template. I forgot to scan her after I colored it.

The patterns spell out her name and how she is related to me.

Going 3 dimensional with this one

Healing hands

last diva dare of the year - Happy Merry

Luckily I had already drawn quite a few Christmas themed ZIA's and completed one this week based on the advent candles. Praying that each and everyone of you has a blessed holiday and a safe new year. We will see the Diva back on weekly challenges in January.

Challenge #145 & #147 combined

I was sitting in the foot doctor's office with the hubby waiting for our turn and I decided to play with the new tangles Quib & BooKee together in one piece. Since I had only seen BooKee once this morning just before leaving for the appointment, I did what I thought I remembered. I was also a bit sleep deprived so all things considered I think it came out ok. I think I need to shade it a bit and it was not in my normal style to use the blue & brown pens. Not a normal day and not a normal piece of work. It is what it is....

Zendala #80 and Weekly dare #144

How great is this week's challenge? Bring color & bugs into a tile and the minute I saw the Zendala I thought of lady bugs. This seems to happen a lot. The combining of challenges. Yippie! I had fun this afternoon. Now I need to make myself a template for my hubby who wants me to do a turkey for Thanksgiving. I'll post that if I get a successful one.

Diva dare #142 - out of the comfort zone

I noticed that very few people actually posted this challenge on the facebook groups. Most of the time we are proud of what we do and are eager to post when we try a new pattern or figure out a great new way to combine things, but this time I think everyone just hated the final products. The challenge was to go out of the comfort zone and do something completely different.  Here is mine.

I didn't even bother to take a proper photo. Just a web cam quickie. I used dark paper, white pencil (I had no white pens), and a grid pattern. I must say I am getting better at doing grids, but they still come out a bit fluid because that's how I roll. I am not really happy with the results, but I am proud that I DID share this tile because each new learning experience is valuable.

Diva Challenge #141 Fengle/Quandrey Duo Tangle

I fell in love with this challenge immediately. It has only been about an hour since I read it to the time of posting! Yep I drew this puppy in about 40 minutes. Thanks to Laura over at I am the Diva for posting these challenges.

catching up with dares #75, #76, and Diva dare #140

Life has gotten crazy lately. I'm still tangling away, but have not had time to post. Oh well, Life does that sometimes. I am just glad I have my art to try to keep me sane as we head into the holiday season.

The first one is Dare #75 using the tangles beginning with UVWX - I used Up & across, vortex, wired and X

 

Dare #76 I used tangles Y&Z completing our alphabet challenge

and then I did the Diva Dare #140 using pointillism to do a tile which came out very summer beachy to me.

I am now beginning to do some work for Christmas gifts. I found this really cool idea to make lighted artwork so I'm going to give it a go and see how it works. Hopefully it works well and I can make several. An experiment. We will see.....

8's Parte Dos & Cruze

I had a real challenge with this pattern. I just had such a hard time to grasp the diagonal . I don't really know why. I have since looked at the work that others have done and I think I needed to have my dots spaced differently. Oh well, it is what it is. on to the next challenge!

Many Little Creatures

I have had so much fun doing the animal templates from Ornation Creations 
Here is a line up of some of the ones I have finished. Soon I will have a whole zoo!

Zendala Dare #74 and Knights over Tipple

Ohh boy I am behind on posting. I have gotten carried away on the animal templates posted in the Ornation Creation facebook group and forgot to post my challenges. I have been having fun though so I guess it's a good thing that I have neglected the blog. Anyway  we were challenged by the Diva to do challenge #137 Knightbrige and tipple together. I did it twice. Once in the Zendala #74 and once freestyle in my 6x9 journal. I think they both came out well but my freestyle one is my favorite.

Zendala dare 73 and MNOP dare

Once again I have combined dares. I am really enjoying filling the zendala dares in with the alphabet patterns. This time I used Mumsy, Nippa, Owlz and Pokeroot - and it was calling for some color what do you know that was the diva dare as well - 3 down today Yahoo!!

Zendala dare 72 and new tangle pattern Well

So the next dare was to use a pen of a different size - either thicker or thinner than the 01 micron and use ONLY that size. That was the big challenge for me. I like to use various sizes depending on the complexity of the tangle pattern. Anyway I decided to use the Sharpie pen - I don't know it's size but it seems to be somewhere between a 05 and 08 micron. I used the new pattern Well as the only one on here. I preferred going all in one direction which made it look different than going first to the left then to the right. Also some of it is a partial variation stopping before the last line on the "petal" part. I like the movement it has.

Zendala Dare #71

I am enjoying using templates lately. My mind does a calming thing when I don't have to worry about shape. It is already there for me and I can concentrate on pattern only. Here is what I did for Zendala dare #71 using IJKL tangles - Ixorus, Joy, Knightsbridge, Laced & Loops

Repeat Pattern stack

At church on Sunday I started this pattern stack. I was thinking about our community garden and the fall harvest. Our pumpkins are already orange and we have so much butternut and acorn squash out there ready to be harvested. Still mid summer here and do we have even one watermelon? Nope. Screwy garden. This is for the pattern stack challenge.

 I will probably do more and add them here as I go.

Triple threat challenge this week

I am enjoying all the challenges that are out there but I do not have time to do them all. So combining them is the answer and makes for a even more challenging challenge. That has always been my thing, take something hard and make it harder or take something fun and make it funner (is funner a word?)So today I finished a zendala from an "old" template zendala dare #2. I used tangles beginning with EFG&H to complete another dare and tangle Ennis is filled with the tangle Tipple which happens to be the diva challenge for the week (that was just a happy accident). I will probably use tipple in other things this week because I tend to use it a lot.

The tangles I used are Ennis (filled with tipple), Floatfest, Gloven & Hurry

NonDom weekly challenge #132

Oh boy this one was definitely a challenge. to use Bales as a monotangle using your non-dominant hand! I had to really think about this one. Bales is not a tangle that I had used before so first what I did was do a practice doodle with my right hand to get a feel for the pattern.

I was using a micron 01 pen but that one seemed to be running out of ink so I switched to  a fine point sharpie and jumped in.

Not too bad all things considered. I learned a few things about the process and myself. First, I had to really SLOW down. in order to control the pen with muscles that are not used to doing this kind of work I had to go slow and steady. I think I could increase my speed with a lot of practice.
Second, I found that if I drew a line in the opposite way than how I would do it right handed it worked better. I usually draw my lines from the top of the page downward and from left to right. The lines that came out best were when I was pulling the pen from bottom to top and right to left.
Third, I had to let go of my notions of perfect and just enjoy the Zen of drawing. By the end I was actually beginning to loosen up and enjoy the flow. Perhaps I will try more ZIA with my left hand using patterns that just flow from that side.

A prayerful weekend

This weekend was tough on me. I have two good friends who are going through some personal crisis. Both are having health issues combined with other stresses at home and work. I have been praying fervently for both of them. If anyone would like to join me in prayer they both need healing, wisdom, comfort and grace. Maybe a miracle would be nice too.

I used the Zendala Dare #70 and the ABC tangle challenge combined on a large scale 8x8 prayer Zendala. 

I used Arc Flower, Brayd, Cubine, Clothesline and DL Nebula patterns in this

Two Challenges

So this week I tackled two challenges. The first one is The Diva's Weekly Challenge #130 UMT v. XIX: Henna Drum. 

 I did it as a quick tile size drawing.

 

The other challenge was  Mindful Creations challenge Adventure #19 - Cracked. I did this in the middle of the heart on this birthday card I made for my sister.

I had a lot of fun creating my sister's birthday gift. I need to do step outs for the PlumLei flower tangle because I don't think anyone else has done this tangle before.

Gift Tangles

I had a ton of things to do this week. Got inspired to tangle a pot for a new plant for a gift. That was a learning experience. The pot came out pretty good. I used Sharpie markers to do the patterns and then sealed with a clear spray. I might have not needed the clear coat but I wanted to make sure that it would hold up for a while at least. The experiment really killed my sharpies though. The extreme texture was like using my markers on sandpaper. I still have a lot of ink left in these pens, but I will have to mark them somehow to be used only on less critical projects. No more fine points on these puppies.

our plumeria

my inspiration

Partially done using my tangle PlumLei

Close up of the texture that chewed the tips of my Sharpie markers

Done!

Looks awesome with the plumeria plant

this plant was bigger than I thought.

And now to add a picture of the card I gave too - Can't forget the card!

Weekly Challenge #129

So I'm sitting at work with no cell phone and no ipod. It's break time and I pull out this little bitty notebook and remembered this challenge. Whipped this puppy out in a bout 10 minutes. I think it looks pretty good. It got a teensy bit smudged -  there was some water on the table. (Note to self- wipe table before sitting down)
Weekly Challenge #129: String Theory v. XXV: TanglelPatterns String#004

Zendala Dare #67

My take on Zendala dare #67. It appears I was in a party kind of mood

Celtic challenge #31 variation

I enjoyed doing the Celtic Challenge #31 but found it to be a bit busy and distracting to me. What I did see in it however was the back of a playing card so I used the template again and after I had tangled it with my colored micron pens, I scanned it and manipulated it into a rectangle with a border. I think it looks great as the back of a playing card.

Original size drawing

squashed & framed as a playing card

A blog detour

I have so much to do and what am I doing with my day? Looking at blogs.... oh well. I was looking back on my old posts and realized there was over whole year gap in my posts. How sad I sounded in my last post in 2012. Healing is exactly what I had to work on. This past year has been full of healing. I still work diligently to manage my stress levels. I've gained some weight which is not good. I know it is because cutting down my work schedule decreased my activity level. I'm working on increasing it by walking on the treadmill. I gained over the last two years so I must remember that it may take two years for it to go away as well. Don't get too hard on myself, but try each day to get on that machine and walk.

Healing waters of Baptism

Meanwhile, the Zentangle art process has been very beneficial to me. I really get "in the zone" and hours pass by without me noticing. I am very careful to set an alarm before I start working or I would forget to eat or go to work! I am taking my drawing journal with me to church, the dr office, and other places. It is helping me to focus my prayer time and keeps my mind from wandering into the dark places. I feel so much better than I did. I feel like a new person. My problems are not all gone, but I have such a better outlook on my days! I actually get up in the morning. I don't want to sleep or watch tv all day. I want to read my pastor search documents, I want to create slide shows for church, I want to color, I want to take pictures and be thankful for things every day, I want to enjoy the birds in the yard, I want to spend time with my family & friends. I want to LIVE LIFE! Amen!

My first free form Zendala

So there is nothing wrong with taking a bit of a detour and perusing blogs. They are inspiring me to continue my art and to share it on my blog. God is amazing and He has shown me the thin I needed to really get my prayer life back in line. Who would have thought art would be the vehicle for my prayers? I should have been doing this years ago -  this is what I thought just now, but as I was typing God is telling me that he saved this method of prayer for this moment in my life when I needed it the most. So thank you Lord for giving me this gift.