The Diva's Challange #172 - DuoTangle

I'm not sure which is more stunning (and embarrassing!) to me - the fact that it's been more than 8 months since I've posted anything or that the last Diva's Challange I completed and posted was #117 - somebody needs to get her priorities straight! The Diva's Challange (see link button to the right) this week really sparked something for me - I can't remember when I sat down and completed a tile in one sitting.  Hope you enjoy it!  Oh yeah, and about those priorities - check back often; I may have some exciting news to share very soon!

Halloween RAZ's

Recently, Donna Hornsby challenged those of us participated in the Random Acts of Zentangle (RAZ) to add a Halloween touch to our tiles leading up to Halloween.  What fun!!  BOO!

More RAZ's - not yet set free.

Here are some more RAZ tiles that have not yet been placed for someone else to find. As I said before, it's fun to do some official tiles for a change - I'm all about the more immediate gratification!

RAZ - Random Acts of Zentangle

Oh yeah. I have a blog. That means I'm supposed to post to it periodically. Thanks to those of you have checked back occasionally - I'll try to be better about posting!

Lately, I've rediscovered how much I like tangling on the original 3 1/2 X 3 1/2 inch Zentangle tiles. This happened when I started placing Random Acts of Zentnagle (RAZ's) in random places. Thanks to Donna Hornsby's creation of a RAZ Facebook page, I, along with several other Zentangle enthusiasts, have been (hopefully) surprising and entertaining people with our tiles. In the spirit of Random Acts of Art movements, we've been leaving tiles anonymously in places we've been and only identify them as a "random act of Zentangle to be found, enjoyed, kept, or left for someone else to find." I'm fascinated by the mystery of both the person who finds it and intrigued by what they must think of the person who left. We'll probably never meet each other and can have fun imagining who we each must be. Here are a couple of my tiles and a picture of where I left them. Wonder where they ended up???

In the frame department at Target.

On our table at Vera Mae's Restaurant.

Playing Catch Up....Again!

Has it really been May since I last posted?  This summer has really flown by!  I've really been trying to finish some of the Dares and Challenges that I've started over the last few weeks.  I love reading about each new Challenge and get very exciting to try each idea - only to get distracted/side-tracked/too busy to actually finish it at all, much less post it in time.  Oh well, here's what I've gotten back to so far...

Zendala Dare #64

Kaleido - Beez Card Challenge #4

The Diva's Challenge #117 - "Schway"

This week's Diva Challenge (see link button at right) is #117 (when did that big number happen?? I'm SO far behind!!!) and features a new official tangle from Rick and Maria called Schway.  I can already see that this one has very high "addiction" potential!

MonoMooka - Diva Challenge #111

I just had to squeeze the Diva's Challenge (see link button at right) in this week.  Mooka  is so much fun and what form it takes is always such a surprise.  This time, it almost has a funky feel to it.

Another Zendala Dare....#40

I finally got around to finishing Zendala Dare #40 (see link at right).  I loved the template that Erin gave us - it just screamed for Rick's Paradox.  And to me, Paradox and Auraknot are the perfect pair of patterns!  Positively!!

Zendala Dare #45 - Pearls

I couldn't resist this week's Zendala Dare (see link button at the right).  This one really spoke to me and even gave me a chance to try out a border pattern I've been messing with.  Thanks, Erin!

CZT Hideaway 2013 - Register Now!

Angie Gamble and I first met in March, 2011, at Carole Ohl’s Floatfest Re-Treat, before I ever thought about becoming a CZT. It only took that weekend for me to get hooked on this whole Zentangle thing and I was also lucky enough to find a new friend, too. So it seems very appropriate that the idea for our follow-up to the Floatfest Re-Treat would sprout in the car ride home from Dayton, Ohio, where we took a beading class from Carole at her new store, The Bead Stash.

We talked a lot about how much we enjoyed Floatfest and what made it so special. We soon came to the conclusion that we would want to emphasize "the teacher not the teaching" at our retreat. Thus, CZT Hideaway 2013 was launched. Yes, we'll have classes and planned activities, but mostly we'll be learning from each other through examples and informal demonstrations. In the spirit of what Carole did at Floatfest, we want to focus on the relaxation and rejuvenating aspects of Zentangle.

So many of the CZT events we see try to put so many classes, etc. into the least amount of time that they seem very busy and almost overwhelming. We want our retreat (and we use this term purposefully) to be about rediscovering some of the basic tenets of Zentangle - "being in the moment"...'finding our inner creativity"..."one stroke at a time".

So many of us have become so focused on scheduling classes and building our business; we want our participants to come focus on themselves in order to re-energize and renew the excitement we felt when we experienced our CZT training. Just as we encourage using the finest materials to create our Zentagles, our students (and our Zentangles!) deserve the finest teachers/creators - we must take care of ourselves!

Read more about CZT Hideaway 2013 and/or get a registration form at:  www.createdbyangie.com.  We hope you'll join us - YOU DESERVE IT!

FYI - about the Comments

After months of trying to figure out why your comments don't show up on my posts, I GIVE UP! I know they are there, but the font color of the comments is the same color as the background and nobody has been able to tell me how to change the font color. The good news is that if you are interested in reading the comments, you can see them by just placing your cursor at the beginning of the comments and highlight them by dragging your mouse over them. Voila! They really do show up! I hope this will encourage my viewers to comment on my posts again; I hope we can even get some discussions going! AND TO THE FIRST PERSON who can tell me how to successfully change the font color of my comments, I'll be so grateful that I will reward you handsomely with something handmade and original just for you!!

Zendala Dare #39 - "ZenDon't"

I couldn't resist this week's Zendala Dare (see link at right).  First of all, Erin Koetz Olsen's template inspired all sorts of ideas and the additional challenge of the "don'ts" made it even more fun.  Normally, I use several patterns in a Zendala, so my first "don't" was to make it a monotangle.  And what better pattern to use than Erin's own pattern, Socc.  But of course, I couldn't do it all as a monotangle, so I threw in just a little bit of Auraknot as my second "don't."  My final "don't" is more of just indecision on my part.  Usually I either shade it all or none of it.  In this case, I took Solomon's lead and only shaded have of it.    That brings up another "don't" - while it's divided in half, it's not divided symmetrically.  Thanks for pushing me out of my usual comfort zones, Erin.  I always love your Zendala Dares and this time, I especially "don't!"

Welcome, 2013!

Socc It To Me - The Diva's Challenge #94

The Diva's Challenge this week (see link button at right) is another of her "Use My Tangle" challenges and features the pattern "Socc" from one of my fellow CZT7's, Erin Olson. When she showed our CZT class this pattern, I loved how she started with what looked like Carole Ohl's pattern "Puf" but made it completely different. More than just a tanglation, the steps and feel of Socc are very different, but just as satisfying. You can see below that I obsessed just a little bit with this Challenge this week!

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Tangling Just For Fun

As much as I love doing Zentangle for the various Challenges and Dares and swaps, every now and then I allow myself to just tangle for the joy of tangling.  The other day, as I was looking at some of the tiles posted by other CZT's, I wondered what I could do with using a bullseye as my string. I starting filling in the rings with a combination of new tangle patterns and old favorites, with no real plan or preconcieved ideas.  Where have we heard that before?  When I ran out of ideas, I stopped and picked it up another time.  It was so relaxing, so pleasing, so satisfying to return "home" to the very essence of Rick and Maria's Zentangle artform.

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I Took the Zendala Dare

This week, I decided to take the Zendala Dare.  Erin Koetz Olson, a fellow ZCT7 from California, has been posting a weekly challenge on her blog, The Bright Owl, on which she shows a different Zendala string.  Her string for Dare #25 caught my eye, so this week I decided to try it.  What fun! Thanks, Erin!!

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Playing Catch Up

Wow!  I'm five Diva Challenges behind!  Where did the end of September go and is it already October??  In my attempt to get caught up, I combined the last two challenges, #89 "Sankegg" and #90 "String Theory v. XIII".  (See the Diva Challenge link button at right)  This was really fun for me, combining an old favorite, Baton, with a brand new pattern, Santegg, from Maria Vennekens and using Linda Farmer's TanglePatterns String 001 to hold it all together.  Sankegg lends itself so well to an Escher-like treatment.  Thanks Maria, Linda, and Laura!

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The Diva's Challenge #85 - Copado

I decided to just keep it simple with the Diva's Challenge (see link button at right).  This week we had another UMT (Use My Tangle) challenge; it features Margaret Bremner's versatile tangle called Copado.  Lots of possibilities for tanglations, but this one told me to just stop now.  Who am I to argue?

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Diva Challenge #84 - Better Late Than Never!

I missed the Diva's deadline last week, but finished it anyway.  Something about this lazy holiday morning that inspired me to just wander around my "Blindsided String" that was last week's Diva Challenge (see link button at right).  Anyone who has experienced Zentangle knows what I'm talking about.

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Not the Diva's Challenge

I went to the Diva's Challenge site (see link button at right) earlier this week to find that she was taking what I know was a well-deserved vacation break, so I decided to come up with my own Challenge.  While wandering around in Linda Farmer's Tangle Patterns site, I did a search for Laura Harm's patterns and there I found my Challenge.  Actually, it is a Challenge that Linda Farmer came up with after seeing the Diva's first four Challenges; Linda challenged us to Zentangle our names by using patterns beginning with each letter of our name.  In true Diva fashion, I added a little extra twist by challenging myself to only use patterns I'd never used before.  Below is my name using the following patterns:

Looplopp, Echoism, Slainte, Lotsadots, Eye-wa, and Yincut 

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This turned out to be a very fun Challenge and could be the start of some personalized Christmas presents.  Thanks to Linda for giving me my Challenge fix this week and thanks to the Diva for inspiring it!!

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