My life just doesn't seem to slow down. I thought when I retired that life would be easier, that I wouldn't feel pulled in so many directions. Boy! was I wrong! I seriously need to learn the meaning of the word 'no' and start using it occasionally. Actually last night I did send an email to a friend who runs an ATC swap through facebook and asked to be left out of the next swap. I have too many irons in the fire.
I just got back home last night from visiting up north. On Thursday I head south to a zentangle retreat at Paradise Beach. I can not wait! One of the fun things Jo-Ellen arranged for us to participate in is an ensemble tile swap. What you see above are the straight lined ensemble and the curved line ensemble that Zentangle® carries. I sell them in my Etsy store :). There are nine tiles in each ensemble with a running string throughout the nine. For this swap we were instructed to tangle each tile independently - that would be why they look a little strange next to each other. When we come home from Paradise, we will have 18 new tiles - from 18 of our fellow artists. Pretty amazing! And what a great way to collect artwork from other tangle artists! Retreat to Paradise? Here I come! (After I wash clothes, pack, find my supply lists and probably make a trip to Michael's, repack because I will have forgotten something. . . well, you get the idea ;) )
I love the accents made with the pinks! I could be all about the pink! Or teal, or purple, depending on what day of the week it is.
I am getting ready for another ATC swap. The theme for this one is black with one accent color. Of course, I chose pink to be my accent color.
Once again, I drew this on a sheet of 11" x 14" Bristol smooth surface paper from Strathmore. For the pink accents, I used At You Spica Pens (2 shades of pink), a pink copic marker, and some pink watercolor.
I really love the colors! Lower left you see the tangle Sindoo by Sharon Robinson, England. That strip on the lower right is Ragz from CZT Christina Vandervlist. That long skinny one with the openings is Beanpodz from Neil Burley. I love the spiral in the middle - that's my favorite part!
Sliding across from lower left to upper right is Liberty 100 from ~ once again ~ Neil Burley. Mix in a little Kuke from Katy Abbott, some zander, some bunzo, a variation of tagh, and something I totally made up - those circle thingies.
I love finery! It is one of the 'official' zentangle® patterns.
At the top right is Stella, I don't think the step-outs of that one's been released yet. Then I tried a little Undling (yes! it worked), which is Susie Achter's new tangle. In the middle are those cute little circles I made up, along with Sandy Hunter's Cruffle. I think the two work pretty well together!
Yes, I really do like these two together! Anyway, these are some closeups of the detail work! I cut this sheet down into 16 ATCs that I will mail out to sixteen different people in the new swap that starts on the 1st!
I am really having a ball drawing large scale this way! Next up? A 53-deck of card ATCs for a swap amongst the CZTs. I can not wait!
We've been here in the mountains for a week now. Time to head home tomorrow. I can't believe it's been a week already. It's rained every day except one, so we didn't get to go sightseeing as much as we wanted. But that's okay. We filled time in with other things. (Color above courtesy of Derwent Inktense Pencils.)
I even had the opportunity to teach Maria's new pattern Diva Dance to my daughter, who taught it to Josh. I stayed busy all week drawing. What fun! I was able to really get a handle on some new patterns.
And I got some new pens for Christmas :) gotta go home and play!
Yesterday was our first day in the Blue Ridge Mountains, getting ready for - and waiting for - Christmas! I spent a little time drawing while we watched an endless marathon of NCIS.
In this tile you will notice a new tangle. It's called Diva Dance and Maria Thomas designed it to celebrate Laura's 100th Diva Challenge! Congratulations, Laura, and thanks for all your hard work for us!
Kali spent the afternoon mixing up a couple batches of cookie dough. Joshua was set to arrive the next day (today), so the cookie dough needed to be made ready for baking and decorating.
Kali is going to be my pastry chef, so the cookies are totally her area. I figured I'd try to post some photos each day, so, photos of finished cookies to come soon!
You can check out Laura's 100th Diva Challenge here. Congratulations, Laura!
This week's string challenge at Tangle Patterns comes from Barbara Finwall. Here is my response. This is what we were given:
This one was a lot of fun and gave the possibility of many tangles. If you would like to participate, you can pick up the template here.
This week's string came from Sandy Hunter, an amazing CZT. I liked this string as soon as I saw it. Lots of possibilities and flowy lines here. (My spellchecker doesn't like that word 'flowy' :).
The lines just reminded me of gardens and fairies - so adding Tinkerbell was a must! I turned the flowy lines into vines and flowers, it just needed a little pixie dust to make it perfect.
Tink, pixie dust, a little glittery tile magic and it's all ready to hang in my little fairy garden. String 018 - brought to you by the magic of pixie dust. (And by Tangle Patterns.)
