Diva Challenge #314, Made by Joey #163, Travelling Tangles and Art for Lily

Diva Challenge #314

Use My Tangle Monday

"Scallamps" by Sarah Uram
Plus some of my usual suspects 😉

This week we're using a pattern submitted to The Diva by one of her fellow CZT's. I've been continuing on with my personal challenge to work on mastering my top 20. The idea is to reign in my inclination to procrastinate on Pinterest or Mosaic and trust my own instincts. I created this tile on a recycled cat litter box I had stowed behind a door in my hallway prompted by last week's Earth/Amanda Day challenge. Laura had created a tile using a cardboard box. I went on to do something different as I'd forgotten about the box. I'm not supposed to have an animal in my apartment so I didn't want to leave any evidence in the recycling bin downstairs.
It turned out to be perfect. Heavy duty, smooth and a dream to draw on. The gel pen loved it.

Earth Day Challenge

Interrupted...

...Aimee getting all up in my business

It's a good thing she's so darned cute😘

Made by Joey Challenge#163

Finish my Tile Alphabet Series: "R"

Featuring: "Rysa"

Additionally: "Raddox"

This series is on Bijou tiles.

Next up, Travelling Tangles I finished this week. Jem Miller aka The Ragged Ray, sent me a gorgeous trio of tiles for last month's​ "Look to the Sky" swap.

My finish...

...to Jem's super cool start

My finish...

To another of Jem's inspiring beginnings

Yet one more

Jem's work is so amazing

Square One Purely Zentangle

Love for Lily Moon

Lily Moon and her family are struggling right now. This is Lily's recent post. The Zentangle community has been reaching out in support. I created this using 2 of Lily's tangles, Amphora and Lealad.

There is so much amazing Zentangle talent out there, but Lily's remarkable art stands out among a handful of super stars. She's been a major influence in the development of my art. I'm wishing her and her family Peace, Love and Light.

I sent this tile to Square One's admin to send along to Lily.

Thanks so much for stopping by. Your thoughtful and generous comments delight and inspire me 😍

Diva Challenge #292, Made by Joey #138 and More Travelling Tangles...

Diva Challenge #292

Use My Tangle: "Eaxy"

The first Monday of the month is a Use My Tangle challenge, where The Diva chooses a pattern submitted by one of her many fans and followers. This is Nadine Roller's pattern "Eaxy", an easy pattern using X's. Easy in theory, but in practice?...well, I can't remember when a pattern vexed me so. I suspect most of you reading this feel my pain.

It's been an unsettling week and I've been trying really hard to get my Zen. I've found windows here and there but mostly my focus has been scattered. I practiced "Eaxy". A lot. I got frustrated. Took breaks. Practiced some more. Started an ATC. Got frustrated. Tossed it. Noodled around on Pinterest. A lot. Checked out other submissions. I was not alone.

Then two things happened within minutes of each other. I came across a gorgeous (is there any other kind?) Lily Moon tile and read Jennifer Sparrow's blog post. Jennifer posted of picture of a garden path and I immediately thought of cobblestones which always makes me think of 'Nzeppel. 

'Nzepple Eaxy! That was the solution to my frustration of the shabby cross-overs that I couldn't clean up. So, many thanks Lily and Jennifer!

Joey Challenge #138

Finish my Tile: Twile

Joey started us off this week with a ring filled with Twile in the center of a tile. I had some left over ATC's from the current Travelling Tangles swap...

... and in keeping with my personal challenge of adapting the Joey challenges to ATC's, I took a little artistic license with this.

Earlier in the week, I finished the last of my Travelling Tangles backlog to make way for new round starting to trickle in.
Here are two recent finishes to a tile and ATC sent by Sue Olsen.

I love these! They're so cool just on their own.

Sue is the inspiration behind my latest coloring technique obsession-tissue paper. Check out Sue's tutorial here. Sue recently posted some additional tissue paper play here where she overlays the white tissue for a really interesting effect. This is next on my To Do list. Thanks Sue!

A while back, I sent Margaret Bremner one of the first ATC's from my tissue paper trial run.

This is so freakin' awesome!

Margaret applied torn paper (orange) to the ATC and continued to work her magic. 

"You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club"-Jack London

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

TangleBomb Tuesday

Square One: Purely Zentangle Facebook Group~pattern of the week "squid"

It's the last day of the month and I've been saving up;) This is "Squid". I've enjoyed exploring this one. I love organic patterns and breaking out of the confines of a string.

for Jane Monk's One Tangle Facebook Group Challenge: Week 11.

Someone in the group called this Mooka Pizza. I love it! In fact, I'm loving Mooka almost as much as I love pizza and that's high praise indeed.

One Tangle Facebook Group Challenge week 13-an infinity string

I did a similar challenge back in January for I am the Diva where I had done a similar kind of web attaching the Moebius strip to the frame.

That's New to Me Challenge week 13 "L" patterns & Diva Challenge #211 "Flux"

I'm killing 3 challenges with one tile. I've got some new "L" patterns going on. There's "Lantern", "LinQ", "LoobyLoo" and a little "LaBel". Then I've added the two versions of "Flux" for the Diva Challenge. This is a throwback of sorts to the very first It's a String Thing Challenge using string #1 and to include your choice of "L" patterns in honor of Linda Farmer at tanglepatterns.com. I'm adding my own personal shout out to Lily Moon at Lily's Tangles as she's one of my inspirations in going for the color here. I'm trying to be more precise in my line work and I'm always amazed at her attention to detail.

for Jane Monk's One Tangle Facebook Group weekly challenge.

Another throwback in my game of Catch-up. My sketchbook has many pages like this with strings and prompts from previous challenges from all of the groups and blogs I follow. The strings can sit here for weeks and weeks, waiting for my creative lightning to strike. I also include notes as I draw. Early on in this one I was displeased with how sandswirl started out, most notably that I had way too much coffee to attempt such fine line work and that this sketchbook can be a bit clumsy when I have to turn it to get at a pattern better.

Thanks for stopping by! Your comments mean the world to me.

TangleBomb Friday

 It's a String Thing #78

Adele Bruno's string

patterns: Heartline, Hearty, LG & Lovelines

 for the One Tangle: week 6 facebook group challenge using Jane Monks string

New to me "M" patterns: Marasu, Msst, Munchin & Meteors 
for the "That's New to Me" Challenge

There sure are a lot of hearts going on here in the World of Zentangle. Oddly enough I find that I've been letting go (just a little) of my anti-Valentine leanings. 

The first tile is for Adele Bruno's "It's a String Thing" Challenge. This was a hard one. We were asked to use 4 specific heart themed patterns within the mirrored heart string. After a few failed attempts I considered omitting one and though there are no hard and fast rules, I follow rules. I stuck to my guns. Something about this string seemed to ask for symmetry.

I am also NOT a hearts & flowers kind of girl and never bought into the Valentine's Day hype relationship or no. Once I reluctantly started on these heart inspired challenges, I found the red, black and white theme fit into my world view and artistic sensibilities, especially when I found that adding black hearts and bold graphics tweaked a little jolt of glee in my jaded old heart. I'm particularly fond of those bullseye hearts above. That's my take on Adele Bruno's pattern "LG".

Diverting from the hearts is my first submission to the new facebook group One Tangle, Jane Monk's weekly challenge where she gives us a string of her own design and perhaps a suggestion of pattern placement. 

I really do not need another weekly challenge to a procrastinate around but I'm more productive when my pieces have a purpose or at the very least some kind of focus. I combined two challenges in one by using new 'M" patterns within Jane's great string for this weeks "That's New to Me" challenge by Suzy Mosh Creations. This was the perfect opportunity to explore Marasu, a coil pattern that I've seen done exceptionally well on Lily's Tangles and I've been wanting to try. This took me a really, really, really long time to draw.
I guess this could hardly be a TangleBomb with only two tiles so I adding this:

I resurrected this from the dud pile last week and just started embellishing it. I wish I'd taken a picture of it before. I think I just didn't see this going where I wanted back when I started it several months ago.  I pulled it out to practice some shading somewhere around the time I got the idea to go red marker crazy with hearts and stuff,..it came to life again. With the exception of Pokeleaf I have no idea if these are even patterns.

Square One Challenge~Quandary

The challenge this week from Square One: Purely Zentangle is to explore the pattern "Quandary", the rice/petal shapes arranged in triangles which then sort of form into a flower motif.
This piece really was a quandary.
This was the first attempt:

I already had the "Hollibaugh" string drawn out with one segment filled with "Tripoli", so it seemed like this tile was destined for "Quandary". I liked the way the spiral looked in the corner and wanted to explore it in a larger area and started a second tile.
At some point I got distracted inspired by a piece I saw on Lily's Tangles and wanted to try "Hazen". After a Google-thon, searching for non-existent step-out instructions, I just tried it on my own. That was the real quandary. My "Hazen" was a bit of a train-wreck, but I'd spent a lot of time on it. It was a very relaxing tile to work on even though it didn't really come out the way I was hoping.  I was trying to work in some contrast and ended up losing Quandary a little. No worries though, such is the journey of Zentangle.