TANGLES BY THE SEA

The Diva Challenge this week is being brought to us all the way from India!  Dilip Patel has asked us to use a monotangle (one pattern) and create a tree.  He is very involved in environmental concerns within his community.  See the following excerpt from his post …

“There is a dire need of afforestation in the World, and as leaders from 168 countries sit in Paris to deliberate the action plans to combat the climate change, we the tanglers must give out the afforestation message through the response to this week’s challenge. And one more thing you can do off paper, and that is, plant a tree, create a forest in your vicinity!”

So, here is my tree for the Zentangle Forest, using a monotangle of Vertigogh!

This week’s Challenge is to intentionally leave the majority of your tile space blank.  Well, not sure the majority of my tile space is blank, but it looks minimal to me … just a little Zander and Cyme.

This past Sunday, I taught a “Beyond Basics” class to a group of four wonderful ladies.  They all had attended a previous Intro Class and have taken a liking to the “Art of Zentangle”!  One of the ladies is obsessed with Paradox and showed me her notebook FULL of various Paradox tiles …. it was awesome.  I felt she could have taught the class that pattern better than I could!  I hope I’ll see them again in December …

I did a quick share of how to trace an item/clipart, such as an animal, create a string inside your chosen item, then fill in with your patterns.  It’s November, which means pumpkins, so we all traced a pumpkin.  Time ran out on the class so they took these home to finish.  This is my result … needed a little picture for a frame in my Fall display at home.  I used a “distressed ink pad”  in the white spaces to give it a little more color.  I tried my hand at scrapbooking many years ago, and always liked to do my pages with the distressed look, rough edges, and kind of the “dirty” look.  I like how my pumpkin turned out!

I have three seats left for my Beyond Basics Class this Sunday, November 1st at Icarus Art Studio, from 1pm-3pm.  If you’ve already taken your first class, this is the next step … now we get more creative with new patterns, new strings and maybe some color.  Sign up now at tanglesbythesea.com.

The Diva’s Challenge this week was to take advantage of the season and tangle us some leaves.  Well, since I’d already used a leaf for a recent Challenge (where we were to tangle on something different), I thought I’ll try my hand at a traced leaf.  Patterns were very simple, but sometimes you just need to be simple!  I do like the colors and the little black bird that I added for fun!

I’ve never participated in an “ATC Swap” until now.  I signed up to join the Square One Swap 4.  I’ve been working on my ATC tiles, getting them ready to send out by mid-November.  It’s been fun, but it’s different working on the ATC size tile.  I’m so used to working with the “squares”, that the oblong shape makes you think a little more about what patterns to use, or at least how to use them.

The directions for this swap were anything goes … just pick two or three patterns, any color ATC, add color or no color,  and go to town.  It’s fun.  Can’t wait to see what I get back in return!  Here’s one of my completed ATC’s …

Mak-Rah-Mee, Zinger, Indy-Rella (and a few Fescue thrown in!)

Molly Hollibaugh, of Zentangle fame, created a new video on how to draw the pattern called “Munchin”.  So …. this week the Diva challenged us to view the video and give the pattern a try.  Molly demonstrated on a black tile so I pulled out a black ATC card for my mission.  I pretty much just had a mono tangle of Munchin on my tile, but decided it needed a little something extra … dots!  I also added some silver glitter pen although it’s hard to detect in this photo.  Looks pretty in the sunlight!

I used a Uni-ball Signo gel pen as my white pen and really liked the feel of it gliding over the tile.  The ink was always flowing so it made for easy drawing of all these lines.

View the other entries on the Diva’s website!

This weeks challenge has been created by one of our So Cal favorites, Charlotte Carpentier … Charkat!  We have a great group of CZT’s in the San Diego County/Temecula area and Charlotte is one them.  I’m always intrigued by her incredible knowledge of everything art … paper, pens, tools, you name it.  She now has her own store/studio in Temecula which is awesome.  Many of us have ventured up the Interstate to visit … can’t wait for a return trip.

In April, our local group hosted a one day “Day on the Bay” meet-up at Mission Bay Yacht Club.  Charlotte presented the 24 attendees this very same project.  She brought all the tools and tiles and demonstrated how to create beautiful pieces of work using stains and stencils.

While I knew I wanted to participate and support my fellow CZT 14 friend, I’m sad to say I don’t own any stencils, but I did have a mini spray bottle!  I collected a couple leaves from the yard then used some chai tea and coffee to make my string.  The fluids weren’t dark enough to do much damage, but the leaves did show quite nicely so I chose to fill them  in.  Not my best but I tried several times to color the tile and it just wasn’t working for me.  And, on second thought, I think I should have tangled around the stencils and maybe things would have shown up clearer.  Anyway, I did learn something from this challenge …. I need some real stencils!  Charlotte … any in the store? … a must purchase on my next visit to Charkat’s Creative Insanity!

There are a few seats left in the Beyond Basics class this Sunday, October 4th at Icarus from 1-3pm. If you’ve had your Intro Class you are ready to continue your Zentangle journey … new patterns, new string ideas, different materials and pens … come add to your Zentangle library. Sign up now using the recently added PayPal Buy Now feature. Hope to see YOU on Sunday!

Our challenge this week was to tangle on something we wouldn’t normally use.  It just so happened that last week I picked up this leaf from outside my office.  It just sort of struck me … “hmmm I’m going to tangle on this”.  I brought it home, but forgot about it for a couple days.  When I decided to use it, I found it had gotten pretty crispy so I sprayed it with some water and then ironed it flat!  With all the veins, it was kind of difficult to tangle on, patterns are a bit messy, but it really was fun to try something different.  Going to grab a few more and see how they turn out.  See all the other creative ideas on the Diva’s site.