Diva Challenge #282, Joey Challenge #128 and a Travelling Tangle

  

Diva Challenge #282~Spill it

This week's Diva challenge is right in my wheel house. I didn't quite spill my coffee...

I set this up last night and completed it with my morning coffee today.

The prompt was to spill something on a tile and use the stain as a string...and since coffee is my thing...how could I not;-)

Made by Joey Challenge #128

Finish my Tile Series

This week Joey starts us off with the pattern Villers#2. I have to admit I'm not following the parameters of these challenges to the letter. Joey provides the prompt like this:

The instruction is to place the pattern on our tile in the same place...well, you can see that I take a little lot of artistic license. I decided, many challenges ago, that I would only use ATC's for the Joey challenges because not only do I find them a little speedier to accomplish, but I like to archive them in pages like this:

I also have a ton of new, colorful ATC's and I'm finding that I like to let the colors somewhat set the string. So my Joey challenges for this series will follow this theme.

This is my finish to a Travelling Tangle I received from Susan Rink Olsen. She's the one who set me off on my new colorful obsession.

Thanks so much for visiting my blog. Your thoughtful and generous comments delight and inspire me.

String Challenge #159 and Travelling Tangles

Adele Bruno's "It's a String Thing" Challenge #159

Adele's "Weighted Printemps" String

Printemps, Palrevo and Partay

on a watercolor tile

Can't say I'm all too crazy about this one. I wish I'd thought out the "Partay" part more...but it is what it is.

Travelling Tangles completed this week:

My finish to Irene Robinson's start

This is the tile that arrived from Irene in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

Irene's prompt of the blue Printemps got me in a blue shading mode

I do enjoy the pleasure of drawing on the official Zentangle tiles. Sometimes I can't stop;-)

My finish to Barb Mavraganis's start

This cute little gift of a tile arrived from Barb in Pennsylvania

Here are the finished to tiles/ATC's I sent out:

I sent these to Paula Beverly in Toronto, Ontario

This was for the monthly swap where we were prompted to start with the pattern "Singapore Sling", Stephanie Jennifer's tangleation of "Auraknot". The tile on the right was a bonus piece I sent along as a "yours to keep or pass along".

This is Paula's lovely finish

I sent this "Singapore Sling" to Sabrina Kirjavainen in Finland

here's her fun finish

I sent this to Sabrina a while back

She finished it with a lot of sparkle

Thanks so much for visiting my blog. Your thoughtful and generous comments delight and inspire me.

Diva Challenge #281 and Made by Joey Challenge #127

Diva Challenge #281: "Tangle study-ING"

This week we're challenged to use the pattern "ING". I've only ever used this pattern once and it was at the prompt of a Square One challenge ages ago, very early on in my exploration of Zentangle. Then I forgot all about it. I'm happy to revisit it now because it's such a simple and fun pattern to play with. I love the endless variations of triangle fills and the depth one can create with shading. I'm still having fun with the pile of colorful tiles I made last week.

Made by Joey #127

Finish My Tile series; "Sparkle"

I have not abandoned my previous watercolor technique, though I admit I still have a bunch of these ATC's left.
We continue on with Joey's new series of "Finish My Tile" prompts. She starts off this week with "Sparkle". I immediately saw a gem. The rest seemed to want to become a crazy little sampler. I was noodling around in my new sketchbook the other day and ended up with this sampler of some of my old faves and new faves. I guess this image was still stuck in my head;-)

the first page of my new sketchbook

My new schedule doesn't allow me much drawing time early in the week, so I'm breaking my posts up into two. I know many of you visit here from the Diva Challenge. Here's the link to last Saturday's post featuring my String Challenge entry and my weekly roundup of Travelling Tangles. Come back and visit this weekend.

Thanks so much for visiting my blog. Your thoughtful and generous comments
delight and inspire me.

It's a String Thing #158 and some Travelling Tangles

It's a String Thing Challenge #158

2016 Olympics theme using "Drogon" 

plus my own selected "Mac 'n Cheese" patterns: 

Sandswirl, Barber pole, Crescent Moon, Pokeleaf and Opus

Adele's Olympic theme is represented by a "16" string. The featured pattern is Lily Moon's latest, "Drogon" and then we're free to use our "Gold Medal" (faves) patterns.

I'm very excited because I just got a new cell phone with a really nice camera, well... nicer than my old junkster idiotphone cam. So now I don't have to detour to the library to use the scanner. Yippee!

I used a pre-washed watercolor tile and a red (maroon) Gelly Roll pen for the line work. Drogon is such a simple pattern to lay out and the shading and highlight really give it so much dimension. This tile was a pleasure to complete using so many of my faves. I could draw Sandswirl forever. I love "Opus" because I can fill it with "Tipple".

Travelling Tangles I completed this week:

My finish to Kim Aart's lovely beginnings...

...traveling all the way from the Netherands

My finish to Anita Westin's lovely start...

...traveling from Sweden

This was my finish to the companion piece Deb Huff sent...

...traveling north from Southern California

These are some ATC's I sent out using watercolor and salt for the background. This was one of the themed group swaps where we were to use the pattern "Singapore Sling":

This one traveled to Debra Huff in Southern California...

...and here's Deb's amazing finish!

This traveled to Anita Westin in Sweden...

...and she finished it off fabulously!

If you've not yet checked it out, the Travelling Tangles Project on Facebook is super fun!

Thanks so much for visiting my blog. Your thoughtful and generous comments delight and inspire me!

Diva Challenge #280 & Made by Joey #126

Diva Challenge #280: Rio Olympics

The Diva's challenge this week to look to the Rio Olympics as inspiration. I have to admit that I've not been watching because I don't get regular television. I googled a few images and used a brightly colored tile that resulted from the new tissue paper technique I shared in last weeks post. The colors  felt very Rio to me. This is my very loose interpretation of medals and ribbons.

Made by Joey #126: "Finish my Tile"

Joey's start: "Rick's Paradox", my finish "Abeko"

Joey is starting a new series of challenges based on the Travelling Tangles trend. Needless to say, but it's right up my alley:-) I'm still obsessed with "Abeko". I love this pattern.

I'm still trying to get used to my new work schedule and a fairly busy week ahead. I think I'll be breaking my posts up into two, so hopefully this week's String Challenge and Travelling Tangles will appear Friday or Saturday.

Thanks so much for visiting my blog. Your thoughtful and generous comments always delight and inspire me!

String Challenge #157 and some Travelling Tangles

It's a String Thing Challenge #157: Duotangle

featuring "Abeko" and"Phroz"

Looks like Duotangles are hot this week;-) This was great fun as I'm quite into "Abeko" lately.

I decorated my Travelling Tangle note cards with it;-)

I used it on this Travelling Tangle I completed recently:

Sabrina Kirjavainen from Finland sent these two lovely pieces:

I finished this piece from Sandy Kelley-Jones with "Hollyhock" and "Caviar":

Sandy sent me this (the line-work is perfection):

look how perfect the Onomato orbs are

 I can only dream of such precision;-)

I finished Debra Huff's piece with Ruutz, Diva Dance and Sandswirl. I "Tipple" everything;-)

I had just finished this:

6"x8" multi-media sketchbook ZIA

I put this group of ATC's up for swap a few weeks ago:

Sandy Kelley-Jones finished this one off so beautifully. There's some metallic and a little glitter going on here which sadly doesn't quite get captured in photographs.

This one travelled to The Netherlands:

Here's Kim Aarts fantastic finish

That's it for this week;-) Check out the Travelling Tangles Project page on Facebook to see more awesome collaborations!


Thanks so much for visiting my blog. Your thoughtful and generous comments delight and inspire me.

Diva Challenge #279, Made by Joey #125 and Playing with Color

Diva Challenge #279

DuoTangle: Meer & Auraknot

This week the Diva challenged us to a DuoTangle (using only 2 patterns including variations). This was a fun challenge. I enjoy both of these patterns and thought it would be fun to use a new coloring technique (link below) using tissue paper that I discovered this week. This tile was a crazy combination of colors as I was experimenting with all of the colors in the assortment in a very random layout.

Made by Joey #125-Circle String Series #10

Coffee Ring featuring "Oof" with "Cheesecloth" and "Papyrus"

Sadly, this is the last of the circle strings, but  happily, my obsession with coffee ring art has been ignited so this won't be the last time something like this shows up here;-)
Here's the set:

I'm behind on my Travelling Tangles. I only completed one this week:

Sabrina Kirjavainen sent me this Renaissance  zendala and tile from Finland

My finished zendala 

The heart in the center is actually embroidered! Isn't that cool? I contemplated this for quite some time. Official Zentangle Renaissance paper always challenges me as well as zendalas. That's what's so great about this whole project.

I'd been noodling around with "Abeko" and it seemed like it might be a good fit here. Sabrina used sepia and brown microns (I think). My last 01 sepia micron was already starting to dry out but I went for it anyway, (I always think of the amazing results Maria Thomas gets from her drying pens) starting with "Abeko" and it happily evolved from there.  

I haven't gotten to the white tile yet, hopefully later this week. My work schedule is changing so it may throw me off my routine a bit. Anyhoo, stay tuned, I hope to post my IAST submission and another Travelling Tangle or two later this week ;-)

I learned something new this week! This community is amazing in so many ways. Folks are so generous with sharing of ideas and techniques. A couple of days ago, someone on the Travelling Tangles Project page asked about colored backgrounds. I shared mine, but the big revelation was Susan Rink Olsen's cool tissue paper technique. Sue and I collaborated on  a tile a few weeks ago. She sent me this:

I was very curious how this was accomplished

Now I know! If anyone is as eager to try this as I was, make sure you buy the Spectra Art tissue from a craft store, not gift wrapping tissue ( I made this mistake). Most gift wrapping tissue won't bleed the colors like you want. If you have colored tissue lying around, experiment with what you've got. Some pinks and blues may work until you can get your mitts on the good stuff.
Here are the results of my experimentation:

Just for fun

trying different colored ink on top of the color

Diane & Carolien's Weekly #69: Y-G-V

Y-Chain, Gingham and Vache

Diane & Carolien's Weekly #70 A-H-R

Abeko, Henna Drum and Rokpool

Thanks so much for visiting my blog. Your thoughtful and generous comments delight and inspire me!