A Garden View

Yayyyy! It's time to work on another Diva Challenge! The guest blogger this week for challenge 328 is Suzanne Fluhr. I regularly see what she is up to via her awesome blog. The challenge she set forth was to use her lovely tangle, Aloha, in a tile. 

I was first introduced to this tangle while attending Lynn Shelton Mead’s class at Tangle U in Naples, Florida earlier this year. I loved the bold floral look!  After reading Suzanne’s post about the creation/inspiration for this tangle, I was definitely feeling the island atmosphere. I added my new tangle, haKrall (step out updated today!), in the background and added a sunset of colors… creating my “Garden View.” 

Diva Challenge 328 : "Garden View" 

Thank you again, Suzanne, for a fun challenge! It was wonderful to escape to the islands for a bit! 

Zentangle Audio Meditation #2 and a little Jonqal

It has been a beautiful weekend. Temperatures in the 80's... We've spent the afternoon floating in the pool and relaxing. A wonderful little preview of summer. I feel spoiled!

I spent part of the afternoon (not while floating in the pool) finishing up this tile from the "Shades of Gray" Zentangle® class I taught late last month. It was such a wonderful class. I wish I had remembered to take photos of the tiles. Everyone created such beautiful art! (Hopefully at the next Beyond the Basics class I can photograph the tiles from this class, if everyone remembers to bring their tiles back!) We spent a portion of the class working on a variety of shading techniques. So.much.fun! I wanted to demonstrate what a HUGE difference shading can make to a tangle. You can make one pattern look like something completely different all with where you lay down your graphite or add a sparkle (highlight). This tile is an example of one of the tangles (Jonqal) we worked on in this class. It shows the tangle unshaded, and shaded two different ways. Isn’t it amazing to see the difference?!  There are sooo many ways to shade this! Jonqal was a tangle that gave me that AH...HA... moment in shading when I first started tangling. I held back my tile at arm's length after adding shading, and realized that the combination of sparkles and shading had created an illusion of a coil on a striped background... it BLEW MY MIND!! I was hooked on experimenting with shading from that moment! 

Jonqual : 3 ways

It has been way too long since I've had a chance to participate in the Diva Challenge...  This week's challenge #208 is to use the tangles Cubine and Poke Root. You can see all the details of the challenge here. I am so happy to have a piece to submit. Thanks, Laura, for another fabulous challenge! I had so.much.fun!

Diva Challenge #208 : Cubine & Poke Root : "Reflections"

I have had such a lovely, kind response to my first Zentangle Audio Meditation Challenge. I appreciate all those kind Zentangle enthusiasts who have left me comments here, on Facebook, or emailed me. Each message was treasured. Thank you! 

So... let's try it again! Here is the SECOND Zentangle Audio Meditation Challenge. (Didn't have a chance to try the FIRST one? It's here!) You will need the following:

Bijou Tile (2 inch by 2 inch paper tile) 

or original Zentangle (3 1/2 inch by 3 1/2 inch) tile, if you prefer

Micron 01 pen

Pencil (HB or softer)

Tortillion or Stump for blending

....and a nice quiet place :)

This challenge will take approximately 25 minutes. Please remember that you can pause the audio at any time if you need a little longer to complete the instructions.  Listen... and draw... there are no mistakes. 

I would love to read comments from all those who participate. If you would like, please post a photo of your tile on your blog/instagram/flickr, etc. and post the link in your comment. This will allow others to view your version of the challenge. It's so much fun to see everyone's artistic interpretation! DON'T PEEK UNTIL YOU COMPLETE THE CHALLENGE! NO CHEATING!    {Finished? You can see mine here.}

 

Thank you again for stopping by for a little relaxed focus... Enjoy!

Challenge-ING

Whaaatttt... It's Friday and I'm posting a challenge... I know... kinda crazy... I am normally one of the very last to post on the weekend. I am happy I had a chance to start on this one during the week! This is the Diva's Challenge #183 : UMT X-Did pattern by Annette Carlo. I enjoyed playing around with this pattern and took some creative license to remove it from it's "frame." I alternated patterns and had the lines connect at each "X." I liked the resulting flow and thought this finished tile looked like jewels... so it's "Bejeweled."

I really enjoy participating in these challenges... They encourage me to step out of my comfort zone... to try something I might shy away from... I sit down, start drawing, and then I soon forget all about that I was feeling uncertain and intimidated. Thank you so much Laura!

Here is my version of X-Did:

Weekly Challenge #183 : "Bejeweled"

I was so excited to see the launch of the step out for the newly released tangle, ING! I was so fortunate to be an attendee at one of the CZT seminars this summer where Rick, Maria, and Molly introduced this pattern... It is definitely amaz-ING! It's another wonderful tangle with limitless opportunities... Thank you Zentangle®!

Our family went on a relax-ING vacation last month at the beach. I was able to capture a photo of our newest celebrity catch-ING some rays... So here's "Play-ING Around."

"Play-ING Around"

Thanks so much for stopping by... I hope you grabbed one of the cookies on the kitchen table... they taste ever so good with the cinnamon vanilla tea. (I'd love to hear from you!)

devilish headband - september challenge

September's challenge for the CCCOE (California Crafters Club of Etsy) team is "Fall Traditions." This theme encompasses holidays such as Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Rosh Hashanah. I think we'll see a very broad range of items in this theme! :)

My entry for this month's challenge is my "Feeling VERY Devlish... Headband." I first created this headband last year for Cami and her friend to wear to school for a special event near Halloween. I was so happy with how it turned out! Cami loved how comfortable it was to wear AND the fact that all her friends thought it was pretty cool! :) I was going through my box of extra items and came across my prototype. I hadn't written down any instructions so I went to work on recreating the headband... this time writing down how I made it! :) I also made one with white horns that turned out really cute too!

I really would like to add some other variations. (Another item to add to my future "project lists!") I made some cute pig ears headbands last year too... they were for Cami and two other girls who were in the school play as the three little pigs. They were so cute! Click here to see a picture of the pig ears headband.

You can check out the challenge participants here. Go to the last page of the thread to see the most current list of participants. The list of entries will continue to grow until the deadline, September 30th.

treasury & your chance to vote

Yippee! My Apple Felt Bookmark was featured in another treasury! This one was put together by localcolorist... (Thanks so much for including my bookmark in your wonderful collection of items!) This treasury features some of the entries for the CCCOE (California Crafters Club of Etsy) Team August Challenge. You can vote for your favorites here, until Sunday, September 7th... So please stop by and vote (I'm #31!!!) for your back-to-school favorite! :)

an apple bookmark - august challenge

I am so happy to have finished this bookmark in time to have it submitted as part of the August Challenge for the CCCOE (California Crafter's Club of Etsy) Team. I recently joined this team and this is the first challenge I am participating in. The theme for this month was back-to-school. I immediately knew that I was going to have to make a bookmark! I drew up a couple sketch ideas and decided to stick with the good old apple. I love it framed against the black background!

I spent quite a bit of time hand embroidering this bookmark. The apple, leaf, and stem have all been hand cut and embroidered onto the bookmark. "Read" was also hand embroidered. I stabilized the pieces and sewed together the back and front of the bookmark. It's sure to cheerfully keep your place marked if you HAVE to put that book down for a little while! :)

This bookmark is number 4 in my felt bookmark series. I just listed it on etsy as, "Don't Forget to Read - Apple Felt Bookmark." I really enjoy making these bookmarks. They are little pieces of functional art!