DIVA Challenge #221 Beads of Courage

This week at the DIVA challenge is to use the Beads of Courage organization as our inspiration.  Laura does this challenge every year and raises funds for this wonderful organization.
 
Here is part of what Laura says on her blog explaining what the organization does....

Beads of Courage is an Arts in Medicine that supports kids with chronic or life threatening illnesses and their families.  These kids are amazing.  And they more often than not have to deal with a lot on a daily basis.  They see a lot of doctors, and on this program instead of getting a sticker or a lollipop for getting a needle or an X-Ray, or a test of some kind, they'd get a glass bead to represent that part of their medical journey.
I would encourage you to use the above link to read the rest of Laura's inspiring blog post.

Here is my tile this year in honor of Artoo, Laura's little superman!   

DIVA Challenge 220

Our challenge this week from the DIVA is to use the tangle "All Boxed In" by CZT, Alice Hendon. I like this tangle and all the variations Alice shows on her blog.  I decided to have another go at the white on black tile.  The shading really makes this tangle pop! 

DIVA Challenge 219 Straight Lines

This week Laura Harms, the DIVA has challenged us to use straight lines ONLY!   I know that I like curvy lines and use them everywhere, even in Auraknot.  So here is my straight line Auraknot with Hollibaugh.    Have a good week, everyone!

Dreamcatchers

If you follow my blog, you have seen the recent posts about Tangle U, a CZT event to further our education and learn new techniques.  One of the classes I took at Tangle U was making dreamcatchers and was taught by CZT, Kate Lamontagne.  This class wasn't so much about Zentangle, Featherfall is the only tangle pattern used, but about learning to draw the dreamcatcher and the technique of using our Prismacolor pencils.  How to blend those pencils and then applying gelly roll pens on top of the colored pencil.  I was in love with this class even before it began, just by seeing Kate's beautiful examples!  Afterward, I am more in love with dreamcathers and using my colored pencils.! Here are 3 of my dreamcatchers......I am hooked, so you may be seeing more.

MY DREAMCATCHER FROM CLASS





MY 2ND DREAMCATCHER
 

MY 3RD DREAMCATCHER

DIVA Challenge #218 White on Black

This week the DIVA challenge is to use white ink on a black tile or anything you find that is black.  Working with white on black takes a special (very gentle) touch.  For me, white on black is still very tricky, so I don't work with it often.  For this tile I used a Uniball Signo white pen and a Zenstone with a white charcoal pencil to shade.

Tangle U 2015 - Santa Fe Part Two

In yesterday's post (link here) I wrote about attending this year's Tangle U event in Santa Fe.  Santa Fe is such a neat artist's town with so much history.  This post is just sharing pictures of some our touring in and around town.......so much fun!

This was our Hotel: The Loretto
Absolutely beautiful and within walking distance of the plaza
and lots of good shopping and restaurants

The view outside of our window (which opened)
of the back of the chapel at Loretto

The Loretto Chapel with the famous
miraculous stairway

The center of the plaza

Native Americans selling their handmade wares

A Quinceañera:
  This constitutes a ceremony on a
 girl’s fifteenth birthday to mark her  passage to womanhood,
to give thanks to God for his blessings,
 and to present a young woman to the community.

Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi

A close up of the beautiful doors

Irena and I walking the labyrinth
Irena Lesner is a former student of mine,
 who is now a  friend and fellow Colorado CZT.
She is originally from the Czech Republic and
goes back to Prague to teach Zentangle classes
approx. every 3 months and visit family.

The oldest church structure in the USA
built in 1610

The oldest house in the USA, right around the corner

Art is everywhere!

Pat Mathes, me, and Irena Lesner
Colorado CZT's and friends!

Tangle U 2015 Santa Fe- Part One

This was the 3rd year for Tangle U, an event that is held for CZT's only, to further our Zentangle related teaching education and get together with CZT's from all over the world.  Yes, there were a handful of CZT's that attended from other countries too!(Canada, England, Australia, Taiwan, The Netherlands, and maybe more) .  This event is planned and organized by CZT Elaine Huffman every year, and she does a great job with it!  The first two years were on the east coast, but this year it was in Santa Fe, NM, April 16-19th. (Yes, I am just getting around to writing about it now)  How could I not go when it is only 7 hours away by car! I am so glad I did, despite not feeling well and trying to fight off a nasty sinus infection the whole time I was there, it was still fun. 

There were a wide variety of classes offered and I enjoyed the ones I attended.  I learned several new techniques and class ideas that I will be sharing soon!  I also had some free time to explore Santa Fe and will be posting those pictures tomorrow in Part Two.

It was also fun to see and meet some (too many to meet everyone) of the CZT's I have only known through our CZT group on Facebook.  It's always a wonderful energy to be around like-minded people who understand and love Zentangle! 

I didn't take pictures in the classes, but here are some from in and around the event.

A large bag of art goodies! YAY!



The following are pics of ZIA that people brought to share...eye candy!

Before the event we were asked to make a tile to swap with a Santa Fe theme.  Santa Fe is famous for their Talavera tiles, so we used those tiles as our theme.  Look at all the beautiful tiles!

 

 

I received this gorgeous tile by Maria Vennekens/CZT3
from The Netherlands.  Thanks so much Maria, I love it!

 

This is the one I made.....wonder who got it?

Holly Williams and Tim Macomber
 entertained us at the banquet.
Holly is a former student of mine,
 my friend, and fellow Loveland CZT!

Me and Kathie Gadd.  
Kathie is another former student, friend,
and fellow Colorado CZT!

Elaine Dumler, Pat Mathes, and me...
All Colorado CZT's!
I really enjoyed getting to know Elaine more,
and Pat is another former student and friend!


 

 

Colored Pencils and then some

Just playing with a new technique I learned from CZT, Kate Lamontagne.  Colored pencils with gel pens added on top.  She taught us how to do some beautiful dream catchers using this method, which I will be posting soon!  I promise!  

DIVA Challenge #217: Dex & Bunzo

Happy Birthday, Laura!  The Diva turns 35 this week and in celebration the challenge is to do a Duo-Tangle!  Duo-Tangles are some of my favorite challenges where you use only two tangles, and they usually are ones that you wouldn't normally put together.  This challenge is to use the tangles, Dex and Bunzo.  After taking a nice walk last night and seeing all of the new flowers that are starting to bloom, it inspired me to make a kind of flower shape with my oval stencils.  Afterwards, I wish I would have free handed the shapes for a more organic look...but no time to do over.  I put Dex in the oval shapes and then added the Bunzo all around.  Some little red Tipple to fill in the blank spaces in the middle.  Thanks Laura, I love the duo-tangle challenges, and once again Happy Birthday to one of the best Mom's on the planet! 

DIVA Challenge #216 UMT: Brella

It's the first week of the month again, so over at the DIVA challenge is another UMT (use my tangle) challenge.  This week is Brella, by CZT, Bunny Wright.  I tried 3 different variations of Brella, and there are more possibilities.  I like this one!