Lovely, lazy days!

     It is sooo sweet to be out of school for this week of Thanksgiving.  I have been drawing like mad and hope to finish a few more Christmas presents before it is back to school for me.  I will post pictures of some of the things I am doing for presents, but not until after I give them away.  A few of them go to some special ladies that support me by reading this "nonsense" and I can't give away my secrets!
      In addition to creating presents, I have been working on ATC cards for a swap.  I almost have them all done and in the mail.  This swap has made getting mail so much fun!  I also love actually "owning" some of the brillant artists's work that I have admired for so long.
      Bright Owl had a great looking template for us to use this week.  But I really had a hard time with it.  My first go turned into an unintentional monotangle.  For the second one, I tried to use color to help out some very simple looking designs.

Peas, please

Dare #81

      Challenge number 145 at Diva's didn't turn out any easier.  This was shaping up to be a week of tough dares and challenges.  We had to do a duo-tangle using peanuckle and well.  I love peanuckle - it was love at first site when this tangle first appeared.  The tangle, well, well I think is just okay.  My tile is very basic, nothing fancy, but I found it very relaxing to do - at least the peanuckle part of it.

Challenge #146

      Every Inchie Monday's word was rope.  Another challenge!  I remember mom getting my brother some Avon soap on a rope,when he was little.  The soaps were all sorts of cartoon characters.  Aha!  An idea!

     Be on the lookout for a review from time to time here.  I have been contacted by Shoplet to be a product reviewer.  The whole thing is very exciting to me - I just hope I do a good job.  Do let me know what you think when one shows up.  Be critical, I can take it!
      Have a wonderful week and for those of you in the the U.S. -  happy Thanksgiving!!

Challenge #145

     The new tangle "quib" is lovely!  I love the flowing lines and the feel it gives a piece.  I didn't have a hard time doing the tangle, I just struggled how to make it work on a tile for me.  It is a tangle I will want to use a lot more that this one time.

     I teach an after school art club each week at my school.  I allow 3rd - 5th graders to sign up.  Then I am faced with the hard task of choosing around 18 to participate.  I say hard because I usually have around 80 + to sign up.  Lots of times I will just put the names in a bag and draw them out.  In years past I have done a variety of arts and crafts.  This year, I decided on tangling exclusively.  Overall, I have some very talented and dedicated young tanglers.  I challenged them last week to look around their world at patterns.  Then to find one and come up with the step-out.  I told them if they did and could "teach" me the tangle I would post it here on my blog.  So without further ado - "TA-DA"!

     Zoe was the only one to have a go at my challenge.  She is a 5th grader and a very talented artist.  I am proud of her work, not only here but in all of the pieces she has done for class.  I hope you enjoy Zoe's hard work!
     Ah, we are cruising down on Thanksgiving break!  Yeah!  I am so looking forward to resting, working on Christmas presents and getting the house clean and ready for my Christmas tree.  Have a great week and thanks for dropping by.

Every Inchie Monday - "old"

    This week's word is "old".  I could not find a picture of me that small so I went to some scrapbook paper I had and sort of played around with a background and the border.  Nothing really fancy but I sort of like the way it looks. 

     I also worked this weekend on my ATC for the swap over at Blue Twig Studios.  The theme is "trees".  I tried one, but could not get happy with it when the idea of some birch trees came to me.  This is rather plain but again I am satisfied with it.

Birch Trees

     Last but not least I finally finished my tiger for the facebook group, Ornation Creation.  I have several other templates to do - perhaps over the Thanksgiving break.  Although, I really need to get to work on my Christmas presents then, so we will see. 

     I hope everyone is having a wonderful day and your week is also great.  Thanks for dropping by!!

Challenge #144

     Something is buggy with this challenge!  Well, it is supposed to be.  Diva asked us to do our tile and work into it the idea of a bug!  I chose to do this on an ATC sized card, simply because that is what I happened to have handy.  I used colored pencils and some gel pens to add the pizazz.

      Thank you for dropping by and I hope your week is wonderful. 

Almost too late!

     I opened up Diva's challenge the moment I got home Monday.  I looked at it.  I pondered it.  I avoided it.  Then I sat out to try it.  Again.  Again.  And again.  This tangle - Cruze - we had to use is so pretty and I seriously love it.  I really didn't have any trouble doing it.  The trouble began when I wanted to use it.  I could not for the life of me figure out how to make it work on a tile.  I tried several approaches, but could not make it "fit".  It gave me a real struggle.  I finally just put it down the middle of an ATC sized card and did a few tangles around it.  Rather lame.  But for the moment all I can figure out.  Now perhaps if I go and look at all the other entries, I will get some inspiration.

     I love the template for Bright Owl's dare.  I always do though.  They challenge you and inspire you.  At first I wanted to turn it into Christmas lights, but just didn't feel like working in color.  Maybe later.

     Every Inchie Monday's word was "mouth".  Here is my entry for this week.   I thought a mouth going after a sweet treat sounded good!

     I am sooooo far behind on the templates for Ornation Creation.  But think of this as a fall pumpkin and not a Halloween one and I am fine.  The thing is I painted the pumpkins about 3 weeks ago when they were posted then put them under some books so they would dry flat.  Yep.  You guessed it.  I found it today when I was moving something else.  So I decided to go to work on it.  Who knows what wonders may lurk on my crafting table?  Perhaps over Thanksgiving break I shall go on a search mission!

       Hope you have a great week and thanks for dropping by.  I would love to hear from you!

Dare #79

     Erin asked us this week for our template to think about how thankful we are for zentangle and it's founders.  I sort of stumbled onto zentangle messing around on the internet one evening.  I decided to look up some books on Amazon.  Did a lot more research on the internet and here I am.  I love the confidence it has given me - in my art, certainly, but just as much in other areas of my life.  And confidence is one thing I struggle with daily.  I love the friends I have made through this awesome art.  I feel as though I am truly a part of an artistic community and that thrills my soul to pieces.  I have always been told by people I am an artist, but never really felt it.  Now I can seriously say I am an artist and mean it.
     I decided to take the letters of the word zentangle to find tangles to use on the template.  I have a HUGE green binder with tangles I have found through various resources.  I used some official tangles of Rick and Maria, some come from my Suzanne McNeill books, and others from a few of the many wonderful artists I have "met" on the internet.  I used - Zedbra, Eyeballs, Nzeppel, Tipple, Amaze, Ninepatch, Golven, Laced, Esses.

     Thank you for dropping by and I hope you have a wonderful week filled with smiles!

My Inchie Has Encountered An Error

   I know this entry looks lame.  I really don't mean it to be.  Actually I did put a lot of thought into it.  The idea behind the inchie this week was "danger notice".  I thought of the computer throwing us a "blue screen of death" when something went wrong.  It used to be so aggravating to get that ornery screen with the word error on it.  So here it is my danger notice!  My computer blue screen!  Have a great week and hope you find some smiles in your day!

Challenge #142 - Danger Zone

   For this Monday's challenge, we were asked to step outside of our comfort zone and try something we don't or at least rarely do.  I have two types of tangles I don't utilize very much.  That is not to say I don't like them.  I do.  When done by someone else.  I love the woven look of many tangles - huggins being one of them.  But it is not relaxing for me.  I spend the entire time saying the mantra "over / under" over and over.  Then going back over each line just certain I have put it in the wrong place.  Good grief!  So that had to be a part of my tile.  Had to.  The other tangle type has that curvy look.  I can't keep them even and that (since I am a horrible perfectionist) drives me up a wall.  I chose the tangle "groovy".  It is a beautiful tangle.  But my pieces look all "wonky".

    So there you go.  My tile is a duo tangle.  The two tangle types that do not inspire confidence.  At all.  I will use them again.  I will try them when I am feeling brave.  It just won't happen often.  And when I do, I will make sure to plan a long nap for afterward.
     Have a great week and may it be filled with blessings.