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.

Celtic challenge #31

On Saturday Judy West over at Creative Doodling posted the next challenge. And a challenge it certainly was! It took me 4 days of seemingly non-stop doodling to complete all the segments (I count 40) in different patterns. At first I thought it looked too busy with all the different patterns but once I got all the shadows in it I began to really like it. I think I might do this template again using only a few patterns and see what it looks like.

I also gave myself a personal challenge to use mostly patterns that I had never used before. Some of them I liked better than others but it was a great learning experience and I'm excited to use some of them in my next ZIA.

In case you are wondering and for my own remembering I used the following tangle patterns:

1. Malestrom
2. Ionic
3. PorFin
4. Henna Drum
5. Cadent
6. Checkered Zag
7. Chartz
8.  Bubbles
9. Knightsbridge
10. Stone Necklace
11. Hypnotic
12. C-scape
13. Cruffle
14. Kandy Ribnz
15. Hairy
16. BB
17. Shattuk
18. Jonqual
19. Beelight
20. eez
21. Keeko
22. Sunflowers
23. Yoga
24. Geos
25. Knyt
26. Bran
27. Girdy
28. Palrevo
29. Bunzo
30. Hako
31. Maylea
32. Linq
33. Mumsy
34. Footlights
35. Zewm
36. Onamato
37. Cvetic
38. Shing
39. Printemps
40. Ving

Easter in July - Zendala dare #65

I got inspired when I saw the template for Bright Owl's Zendala Dare #65. It appears that most everyone saw flowers or butterflies in the template while I immediately saw bunnies. So what if it's July and over 100 degrees outside? In true Zentangle form I just went with what moved me and here is what I came up with.

The first one is what it looked like when Dean thought it looked done. I gave it some fun easter color in PicMonkey and this is what I got.

Then I finished it and shaded and this is the finished product. I like it. Spring is here! Just don't go outside....

Celtic challenge #30

I've begun following the various challenges on blogs and finally decided to tackle one. Challenge #30 from Creative Doodling. Here is mine. I relly liked it until I added the border....then not so much. Oh well it was a great learning experience and I hope to get better over time.

My new passion - Zentangle Inspired Art

So I have totally neglected my blog for quite some time. It's not that I had nothing to say but more like I had no time to say it. I recently discovered Zentangle and am going full force at it. The art of putting the patterns down on paper and creating a beautiful image are very calming. I found the Zentangle when researching "Praying in Color" for the upcoming women's retreat. Praying in color idea is more freestyle doodling than the set patterns of tangling, but I have combined them to do praying while doing ZIA (zentangle inspired Art) The first one here is one of the first I did. This was done right after I heard that our good friend Walter had passed away.

This second one I did while praying for Dean's foot surgery. It includes the bump to be removed and the surgeon's hand.

This third one is one I did during Walter's funeral. Inspired by his love of Karen's Garden

And this last one is my personal favorite -  The one I did for little Miss Braveheart