Mandala/Zendala with Versa & Color

One of my tangling friends, Joni Feddersen/CZT  from South Carolina has done some beautiful & colorful mandala's that you can see on her blog at Pattern Play With Pens, under the tab,  Mandala Gallery.   She also has a tab, Mandala Templates, where she shares her templates with all of us.  I was in the process of trying out one of Joni's templates, when Laura Harms (our CZT diva from Canada, who posts the weekly zentangle challenge)  posted a mid-week unofficial challenge, to try out her new tangle pattern, Versa. Well, what perfect timing to try out a new pattern in my mandala/zendala!  I love Versa!  It has a lot of different variations and I look forward to playing with it more.  Now as for color... I have not done a lot with color (it shows) and I need to practice that a lot more!   Thanks for the templates, Joni and for the new tangle & mid-week challenge, Laura! 

I Walk The Line

Laura's challenge this week, (#14, can you believe it) is to create a tangle with only straight lines.  Not too hard to do, but definitely not my favorite thing to do.  I love curvy lines mixed in with straight lines.  My daughter, Lindsay was just showing us pictures of her trip to Chicago,  and I had a city skyline on my mind when I drew my string and just found tangles with straight lines, not very inventive, I know, but I wanted to get done early this week.  You can find the link to Laura's challenges on the right hand side of this blog-The Diva's Weekly Challenge.

Note:  I even squared off my initials, so they would be straight lines-LOL!

Garden Of Zen

Welcome to my garden of zen...come in... sit down... stay awhile. 

 Breathe, Relax, Smile!  

Guest Tangler-My Left Hand!

Well, this is my attempt at Challenge #13 from our CZT diva, Laura Harms.  The challenge this week was to complete a zentangle tile using only your non-dominant hand, which in my case is my left hand. 

I really resisted trying this one.....then I tried one on Weds night and it was so awful I didn't even want to take a picture of it or post it.  I thought I would just skip this weeks challenge, but then something was nagging at me to try again because I haven't missed a challenge yet, and I'm not a quitter, yada, yada, yada.

So, this time I went really slow...breathe...hold the pen lightly...okay it wasn't as awful as the first attempt. I did learn that when filling in the dark spaces,  if I really concentrated on holding the pen very lightly, I had a lot more control.  Everything was done left handed, the border, the string, the tangles, shading and signature on the back. 

This was the hardest challenge yet for me.  I can't say it was fun....but I did it! 

New Class Venue & Schedule for April!

I am so pleased to announce that I found a great creative art studio in downtown Loveland and I will start teaching classes there in April.  It is called Artisan You and is owned by two lovely sisters, Vida & Elisabeth.  They offer all types of classes, glass art, glass jewelry, silver jewelry, paint your own pottery, and now Zentangle!  See the class schedule tab above for the details.  My 1st class there will be Sat, April 2nd from 1:00-3:30.  Hope to see you there! 

Challenge #12 "Something Blue"

When I sat down to do this week's challenge,  I was thinking about the beautiful blue, almost turquoise, water of Jamaica.  An island where they say they have no problems, only situations.  YA MON!  It's a beautiful place, if you ever get the chance to visit, go!  Laura's (I Am The Diva) parents just returned from a vacation there.  So, this week's challenge is to do "Something Blue".  As I said, I was thinking I would do a water tangle, but I started flipping through some old tiles and I spotted, Stubs,  Sandra Strait's (aka Molossus) tangle.  I only used that one once and think it is a beautiful tangle, so before I knew it, that is what I was making and the rest just fell into place (so much for the water-LOL).  I used a Sakura glitter jelly roll pen on Stubs and used a color pencil to highlight the other tangles.  I loved having the opportunity to add a little color and will need to play with color more in the future.  Thanks again, Laura.  These challenges are a lot of fun! 

Apple Corer/Slicer Zendala's

One of the things (and there are so many more) I love about being part of this ever expanding community of zentangle artists is the daily inspiration and ideas that everyone shares.  I am a fan of Margaret Bremner's work and love all the of the mandala/zendala pieces that she created using an apple corer/slicer as a template.  See her original post here, and another post here displaying her beautiful creations! 

I am always bargain hunting for sales on picture frames (1/2 price or more off) and found a great deal on a matted one with 3 (5x7) openings.  I've been pondering what to do with it, when I remembered Margaret's apple corer template, so I gave it a try.  Margaret has a wonderful way with color on her work, and I have not done very much with color.  Since the matting was white, I used colored scrapbook paper to tangle on.  The one that appears blue in the photo, is actually a light lavender.  Thanks, Margaret for the great idea!

4 Tile Ensemble

If you want a fun and quick piece of art work, make a 4 tile ensemble.  Put 4 tiles together.  Draw your string over all of the tiles.  Individually, tangle each one without looking at the others.  When you are done, put them back together, frame them, and you have a little treasured piece of art! 

(Note: When I photographed the individual tiles yesterday, there was too much sun coming in the windows, and the color is off.  I didn't want to take the assembled pieces out of the frame to redo.  The framed piece shows the original color better.)  :)

Challenge #11 Monotangle

Once again, Laura Harms came up with another fun challenge!  You can link to her blog with the "The Diva's Weekly Challenge" button along the right side of this blog.  This week's challenge was to do a tile with one tangle pattern.  I decided to try doing a tangle that I don't use very often, Braze.  So, here is my entry for week 11.....