Diva Challenge #175: UMT: Crux

Ok...so I made it through a week with my mother, and I'm not in jail for killing her (at least until they find the body.)

After dropping her at the airport in San Diego, I went to one of my happy places, Dick Blick Art Supply in Little Italy. Ah...paper...ah....ink...ah....zen....

So I did stock up on some cool papers (more to come on what I'm doing with that to come) and got a fountain pen, and some ink for my dip pen I found in one of my drawers. On Sunday, I picked up a really cool journal at the Hotel Del Coronado gift shop. It's a Jane Austen Novel Journal, with blank pages and Jane Austen quotes sprinkled throughout. I am going to use it to practice writing with the fountain pen, and the pages feel to be of sufficient weight to add some tangles to as well. (yeah...rough and tumble me is a HUGE Jane Austen fan. I had to make a trip to Bath when I was in the UK, and I watch the original BBC mini series of Pride and Prejudice at least once a year.)

I've notices some of my friends and relatives (including me) having some difficulties this week, so when I saw the heart cut outs leftover from some dies I had cut earlier in the week, I thought they needed to be a string. I guess I took that as an omen. And since I had bought new ink for my dip pen, I thought I would pull out the 15 year old acrylic ink that has been in the drawer and in storage and well travelled, only to find that it would not work with the pen. So...I painted in the gold with a tiny, tiny paint brush.  Oh, and I also worked on a Zendala tile, which was a first for me.

So here is the final piece. Black Micron, Red Gelly Roll, Gold Acrylic Ink. Tangles are Hurry, Fracas,  and Crux. oh, and some Derwent Inktense in Chili Red and blended with a Niji water brush. (Just got the Derwent's in the mail yesterday, had to try them out.)

Now I'm off to do my Spanish homework, and play with a couple things I have started on my workbench.

¡Hasta Luego!

Diva Challenge #174: Double String Theory

Ok...lets start out by saying...I am simply not myself this week. My mother is visiting from Arizona, and we have a rather...tumultuous...relationship. She is 70...I am 52. We have never been close, and have absolutely nothing in common. So tangling this week for me has been a bit difficult. She makes me...tense. I actually had to put my pen down a few times because I was gripping it too tightly.

But...I am trying to get into my "state of Zen."

For this week's challenge, we were instructed to double our string. Two strings instead of one. Interesting concept for me, when I don't use a string much at all. I often let my tangles just grow organically. That, added to my increased tension level, made for a daunting challenge. So....

I handed a tile, a pencil, and my book of tangles to my precious Tuna (better known as Mike to most people.) I instructed him (the engineer dude) to place the dots in the corner...connect the dots for a border...then draw a string...then another string. I also had him write the names of 4 tangles he liked on the back of the tile. And I used those 4 (Fescue, Frondous, XYP, and N'zepple.) This has to be my weirdest tile to date...but I don't dislike it. I did go old school, with just black and white.

Diva Challenge #173 - Redux

Whew!

It has been a busy week. Since coming back from Providence, I have been cleaning and purging the studio, and OCD'ing on some YouTube Videos for Faux Leather Journals I have so man ideas and things swimming around in my head, its been difficult to wrap my brain around any one thing for very long, making it *VERY* difficult to sit down and tangle.

This week's challenge from the Diva came from guest poster, Sharla Hicks. This initially struck fear in me, as Sharla is my mentor, my idol, and such a wonderful artist. Her tasking was to take your "go-to" tangle and rethink it. Re-imagine it. Use it some way you have not.

I have a couple favorites that do intimate themselves in a few things. When I am pressed and just want to color, I squiggle a line and Stripe away at it. I've only used Stripes as a focal, usually a monotangle. So here, I used it as a border. It came out...interesting. For the inside, I did a bit of a study in ING, Hollibaugh Style. While working that out, I found that if you start both sides from the same end, it makes a completely different pattern than starting from opposite ends.

For a different angle on tan, I worked on the Strathmore Toned Tan, but instead of brown, I used blue, and the Indigo chalk pastel. The N'zepple pearls that kind of glow? pencil shaded then colored in with Zenstone. Neat shading technique...makes it shiny.

Oh...and lastly, I always work pretty small...even on bigger paper (this is 9 x 6 isn) so I went big here...Bigified it!

Here is the Stripes I did while I was recently in the San Antonio Airport for 8 hours (gotta love flying standby.)

Still working on re-doing my blog page. I guess I'm going to have to go in and edit it by hand to get what I really want.

Stay Crazy my Friends!

Diva #172...and a taste of CZT 14!

Argh!

We got home from Providence late last night, and I had to meet with my Quilts of Valor group this morning since I missed the last meeting while I was on holiday. That being said, I still need to do my Spanish homework and decompress a little before I can get much on the blog.

While I was at the CZT course, we learned Auraknot, so I tossed some Mooka's on it and called it a Diva!

I promise to post much more about CZT next week. It was such an overwhelming experience, and I met a plethora of totally cool people (and even got help with my Spanish from Anna and Maria!)

Here's a little tidbit...Flyboy went with me, so we got our picture with Rick and Maria in the ultra cool Zentangle Frame.

Diva Challenge #171 - Beads of Courage/Marie Strong!

So...this post finds me in Central Florida (Sarasota) visiting my sister-in-law, Marie, on my way to CZT on Sunday.

Laura's challenge this week was almost fortuitous. Marie is dealing with a serious illness, and she is the strongest person I have ever met. Her attitude is so good. For everything she has been through, and is going through, she is always upbeat and positive. She loves her Red Sox (I'll forgive her for that) and recently got to meet David Ortiz when they were here for Spring Training.

So this week, I dedicate my "Beads of Courage" to Marie.

I used my Derwent Metallic pencils, and of course, the famous glitter pen.

Diva #170: UMT - a BUGLEsplosion

EEk...some tangles just don't talk to me like others until they are on the paper! I was so sure about this one...seemed a bit too ...griddy...for me after a week of a lot of knightsbridge.

But...here it is...

Busy busy busy this week. Getting ready to leave on vacation and then heading to Providence for CZT.

Diva #169: Wheels in the Sky and a Few String Things...

Whew...for school being out, this has been a busy week!

First, I'll give you what you came here for: The Diva. This week, Laura said to use circles for the string. Still being a bit...stringaphobic...I opted to do a bit of creative watercoloring using some pretty pearlescent water color paint and...wait for it...a spool of thread.

On a watercolor paper postcard...I spattered and stamped and tangled. Think the Diva dancing in circles...and diva dance and knightsbridge and sharla-rella (Sharla Hicks' variation of Indy-rella.)

Fun, eh?

So now for some String Things. I kinda blew it for getting #41 in on time.  I was OCD-ing on those Van's from last Saturday. (Check out this post if you missed them.) So here is my pretty from that week that didn't make it on the web listing.

Of course, this week I am on time, but I am going to post it here anyway. #42 is a mono-tangle of Knightsbridge. I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. Not pleased that my scanner isn't working at the moment and I had to photo it and my Diva this week...

And yes, I am stuck on cycle fill this week...