Challenge #32 Zentangle Is For Everyone

Laura Harms, our DIVA has another guest challenger this week....the very talented, Carole Ohl from Open Seed Arts.  If you are new to Zentangle make sure to click on the link and check out Carole's site.  Carole's work is going to be featured at one of her local restaurants as "Artist of the Month" and she is asking for tiles from all of us to be included in the show.  For this challenge we are all using the same 4 tangles, Pais (by Mikee Huber), Zedbra (by Laura Harms and Margaret Bremner), Keenees (by Donna Hornsby), and Baton (by Carole Ohl).  If you have been to a Zentangle class, you know how wonderful it is to see everyone's work all together in a mosaic when the same tangles have been used, because each of us brings our own unique interpretation to our work.  That is also why it is also so much fun to see the slide shows of these challenges each week.  So, now is the time to join in the fun if you haven't done so yet....your tile can be in an art show, how fun is that!  Thanks, Carole for including all of us in your show! 

Mandala Galaxy

I really love to create Mandala's and every now and then I love to do a bigger piece of ZIA (zentangle inspired art).  I started this piece with a lot of different size circles, or orbs (as Maria would say).  I made a Mandala in each circle.  Then I used Tink to connect them all, and as a string.  I tangled inside the lines that Tink created and in some of the actual circles from Tink.  It looks kind of galaxy like to me.  What do you think? 

Thought For Today

In my newspaper this morning, so I had to share..........

Challenge #31 Fairyland

Carol Bailey Floyd from Celebrate Possibilities is the guest challenger this week at Laura Harms, I Am The Diva Blog and she has us creating an environment where fairies would feel at home.  Right away my mind pictures a soft magical place with an airy feel.  I purchased a small fairy statue several years ago that sits among my plants in the living room.  I have always loved it's presence because after it sits in the sun during the day, the orb glows at night and it is very pretty and calming.  I tried to take a picture at night, but it was hard to get the glow with a flash and without a flash it is somewhat blurry.....but you'll be able to see it's beauty.  I hope the fairies find my tile and stay for awhile!  Thanks for the fun and magical challenge, Carol!

Finding More Shade

As I watch the evening news each night, I see that a lot of the country is in a heat wave.  Here in Colorado I think this is around our 15th day of 90 (plus) degree weather.  I don't want to complain too much though because we don't have the high humidity that a lot of you have on top of the heat.  We have also had some really incredible thunderstorms with awesome lightning displays that light up the sky.  Anyway, if and when you go out,  it leaves one searching for some shade, shade, and more shade.  So how does that relate to Zentangle?   Shading....   I find shading a hard thing to teach.  I think it is really something that you have to practice a lot on and hopefully you get better and better as you go.  I always tell my students to start out with a little, because you can always add more and more.  Hopefully, you do practice adding more and more.  I have recently been trying that myself and I am finding that when I do shade more I am liking the results.  It definitely gives more dimension to my work.   So, don't be afraid to shade and if you can find a shady spot under a tree, tangle outside! 

Ladies Night Out Class/Party

My sister, Joanne DèLeon is a very successful realtor at The Group, Inc. in Ft Collins, CO and as a "thank you" to some of her clients she hosted a ladies night out by treating them to a Zentangle class/party last Friday evening.  It was held in the Group's meeting room (beautiful facility) from 6:30-9:00, and it was my largest class so far.  Joanne served wine, beer, iced tea and some wonderful munchies.  I made and brought the chocolate covered strawberries. The ladies all had a great time learning the art of Zentangle!  I took some pictures of the set-up prior to the party and some pictures of their tiles, but got so busy teaching I forgot to take pictures of the group of people (note to self).  I also made some fun name tags inspired by this video by Joanne Fink.   I can't thank my sister enough for asking me to teach this class!  I hope her clients enjoyed it as much a I did. 

Challenge #30 Initialize

While our DIVA takes some much needed time off, we have another wonderful guest challenger and CZT, Christina Vandervlist at stART taking us in another string direction.   This week we are using our initials and overlapping them for our string.  Another great string idea and challenge!  Thank you, Christina.

Mandala Monday

Just playing with another Mandala/Zendala and adding color with Sakura Gelly Roll Pens.........oh how they sparkle!

Challenge #29 Creative Genesis

This week over at Casa Diva's we have a guest challenger, Sue Jacobs/CZT from Chicago.   Sue came up with a great idea of using a string to create a string.  Find anything around the house to use as a weight, tie a string to it and let it drop on your tile. I found a necklace with a heavy pendant to use. I love this idea and it gives me one more thing to talk about with strings in my Beyond the Basics class.  Thanks Sue for hosting the challenge this week and for the great idea!

More Mandala/Zendala Fun

At my "Beyond the Basics" class I spend about 30-40 minutes on strings, tangle enhancers, shading techniques and then we complete one tile with tangles that take a higher level of concentration. After that I let the students pick what they want to work on......more tiles, ensembles, zentangle inspired art, or mandala's/zendala's.  Recently I met with a really nice lady from Texas who had taken a basic class there and was here in Colorado with her family visiting her mother on vacation.  She requested a private "Beyond the Basics" class and she choose to work on mandala's/zendala's.  We made the same template from scratch, doing a little math, etc...and sat down and had fun talking and tangling together.   Of course, the time flew by as it always does when you are tangling and we didn't finish, but we did email each other our results.   As in true Zentangle fashion, even though we started with the same mandala outline (string) we ended up with our own unique results.  She also said she would call me next year when she visits Colorado to play with Zentangle.  How nice to make another new tangle friend.  So good to meet you "M"!

New Black Zentangle Tiles!

My long awaited (not really long, it just felt that way) box of goodies from Zentangle arrived this week.  I felt like a kid at Christmas checking out all the new products (toys) that Zentangle is now offering.  What fun!  The new black tiles are fabulous!  Maria's advise about the gelly roll pens was to hold them very lightly and just "tickle" the paper and I found this worked beautifully.  Thanks to everyone at Zentangle for your hard work in developing and getting us all of these great new products to play with!