DIVA Challenge 232 Duo Challenge: Audio vs. Betweed

This week over at the DIVA's weekly challenge, Holly Atwater, CZT of Ha! Designs is the guest blogger.  I had the pleasure of meeting Holly this year at TangleU in Santa Fe!  Holly has been producing some audio Zentangle meditation tapes and posting them to her blog.  She was inspired to do these from Molly Hollibaugh who leads a voice only meditation at the CZT seminars.  I was one of the earlier CZT's and didn't get to experience this (although all my students who became CZT's raved about it) until this year at the CanTangle retreat.  Molly was there and she lead us through a voice only meditation tile.  It was a wonderful experience!  When I saw that Holly had this as a challenge versus doing a tile of Betweed, there was no question about what I would do, even though I love Betweed too.  Holly, your tapes are wonderful!  I really enjoyed doing the first Bijou tile so much that I ended up doing all three.  I guess I am one of those overachievers that Holly talked about in the challenge....who would have guessed, LOL!  Thanks for the fun challenge! 

DIVA Challenge 231: Undulating Tangles

This week at the DIVA's  challenge we have CZT Sharla Hicks as the guest blogger.  I was fortunate to meet and take a class from Sharla this year at Tangle U.  Her beautiful work has a very organic style, as you can see from her examples on the challenge post.  Her challenge to us is to use an old favorite undulating C or S curve tangle or find a new one.  I have played with Isochor and Verve before, but have not used Abundies, so I put them all together on this tile.   Thanks for the fun challenge, Sharla! 

DIVA Challenge #230 "Let's all be ZenDivaDala"

The guest blogger this week at the DIVA challenge is Erin Olson, CZT. Erin is the host of the Zendala Dare on her blog, The Bright Owl.  I love her Zendala Dare, but don't often get the time to do one, so was really happy to see her as a guest blogger!  Thanks Erin, for another great template!

More CanTangle

Yesterday I did a post on the CanTangle Retreat I attended in July in Regina, Canada.  It was a long post already, so I decided to write about it in a couple of posts. 

First off, I want to emphasize that I loved every class at this event and I thought all of the CZT's who taught were wonderful!  It was also wonderful meeting so many CZT's that I only knew online or through blogs.  The atmosphere was so positive, friendly, and kind!

I do have to admit that two of the reasons I wanted to attend were to meet CZT's, Margaret Bremner and Laura Harms, both from Canada.  I have been inspired by both of these ladies for a long time now, and wanted to meet them in person. 

I will start with Margaret Bremner of www.enthusiasticartist.blogspot.com.  A lot of us CZT's think of her as one of the "rock stars" of the zentangle world because her art is incredibly gorgeous and she shares so many wonderful tutorials on her blog.  I have followed her blog for years now and have always been so inspired by her work.  One of the things I have always loved are her house landscape pieces!  They are so whimsical, fun, charming, and full of details that Margaret is known for.   When I heard she was teaching her techniques for them, my decision to attend was set, I had to go.  The class was great and it reminded me of drawing classes I had taken many years ago, no planning, letting the paper speak to you about what it should be.  It definitely took me out of my comfort zone and I really didn't think I would like my piece, but I am happy with it, from where I started anyway.  I am anxious to try another one soon.  Here is my wonky little house landscape piece from class.  If you would like to see more of the pieces from our class take a look at this link. Thanks again, Margaret!

 

 

Then there is Laura Harms of www.iamthedivaczt.blogspot.com fame.  If you have been part of the Zentangle world for awhile chances are you have heard of the DIVA weekly challenges.  If not, click on the link and check it out.  I have been following the DIVA challenges since the beginning and according to Laura, I am one of the few people who has done them all.  She celebrated her 200th challenge in 1/2015 which I wrote about at this link., and she is on #230 this week!  I told her that I have told myself that I would quit at 100, 150, 200, well you get the picture, and she said if she can't quit, then I can't quit either, LOL!  We'll just see how long I last at this!  Kidding aside, it has been fun and inspiring to follow her blog for the challenges, her beautiful art, and to see the amazing Mom she is to her two little boys!  Great job, Laura...you have inspired a lot of people with your blog! 

 

She kicked off the retreat and her class was great She had all of us dancing in our chairs while we tangled and laughed.  We did 3 fun tiles and I am posting the one with a montangle of Diva Dance, the tangle named for her.  Not many people can say that! Thanks again, Laura!  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



CanTangle Retreat

I am home again for awhile and will tell you all about the CanTangle Retreat in the next couple of blog posts. 

The CanTangle Retreat was in Regina, Canada from 7/16-7/19 and was a continued learning experience for CZT's.  I am so happy I was able to attend!  I was fortunate enough to be able to travel with Nancy Smith, a CZT from Denver.  Nancy and I went back to the CZT certification training together in 2010 after meeting in the airport for the 1st time.  It was so great to reconnect with her! 

I can't think of enough good things to say about the retreat, it was that wonderful!  1st off Lisa Heron a CZT from Regina was our host.  She was great at welcoming everyone and making sure we were all having fun throughout the event.  She also taught a class in using color which was great!  Laura Harms, a.k.a. The Diva taught the first class and had everyone dancing in their seats!  What a fun class and good way to set the mood for a fun retreat (more on Laura & her class in another post).  Molly Hollibaugh, CZT and Product Manager at Zentangle Inc. did a wonderful meditation class in which we drew tiles based on her voice instruction alone.  She also taught us some other techniques and a new tangle from Zentangle Inc.  (Zenith, which has now been released).  Bette Abdu, CZT taught us about bookbinding and we made a beautiful 6x6 book to keep our tiles and mementos from the retreat in.  I never did anything like this before, and it was great!  (I hope to show pictures of it another post too).  Cris Letourneau, CZT of "Made in the Shade" and "Pattern Play" fame did a great class using Bijou tiles and one tangle.  As in the Pattern Play book, she has us take that one tangle and vary it in all different ways.  Brenda Shaver, CZT told us wonderful stories of her experiences teaching "differently challenged" people.  She also had us start making a large story landscape piece, which I will also post when I get it done.  Margaret Bremner, CZT who we all think of as a "rock star" in the Zentangle world, taught us how she does her famous wonky house landscapes.  (more on Margaret & her class in another post). 

I have followed Laura Harms, the DIVA, and Margaret Bremner for a long time now and was so happy to meet both of them, that I will be doing another post on each of them. 

I loved every single class and learned so much from each of the CZT's that taught!  It was so great to meet all of them, most for the 1st time!  It was also wonderful to meet so many of the CZT's that attended who I only knew through Facebook.  What a wonderful community CZT's are!!!



ALL THE WONDERFUL GOODIES WE RECEIVED

More goodies and giveaways (Lots of giveaways)

PURCHASED AND TRADED (MORE ON THESE LATER) 





DIVA Challenge #229 Negative Space

The guest blogger at the DIVA Challenge this week is CZT, Sandy Hunter. The challenge is to leave some white negative space and make that a focal point of the tile.  Fun challenge!  Thanks, Sandy!

DIVA Challenge #228 Guest Blogger, Cari Sultanik, CZT

While the DIVA, Laura Harms (I met her in person at CanTangle...more to come on that later) enjoys some much needed time off with her family this summer, we have another guest blogger, CZT Cari Sultanik.  Cari has challenged us to do something natural and organic.  I love all of the organic tangles and love to do organic ZIA. For the challenge, and for the sake of time (in between two camping trips) I decided to stick to a tile.  I started with Henna Drum, added some Cat-Kin, Mooka, Sekips, and Tipple. I didn't want to crowd out the other side so I made auras around the middle flower of Henna Drum, which I think turned out really cool! A few Zingers and here's my organic tile. Fun challenge, thanks Cari!