An Artful Week

Last week I had to buy some toner for my printer and it came with packet of glossy photo paper. We rarely print photos so I was wondering what to do with it and of course I wondered if I could tangle on it. I did a couple of trial pieces and am pretty happy with the results.

Sharpie and Lumocolor on Glossy Photo Paper

A Variety of Gel Pens, Identi-pen and Perma-pen
 on Glossy Photo Paper

They have a lot more sheen in person because of the paper.

Last week I went on my annual retreat with a bunch of other stitchers and textile artists. The grounds are always lovely and this year was no exception.

I fell in love with this tree

The Red Hot Pokers were out in force!

While I was there i finally got a chance to start working on the piece that I blogged about last August (can I really have procrastinated that long?!) I started by doing a loose watercolor of the piece as it was and then started to add stitching. I have worked a bit of the water and a lot of the "land masses." I plan to finish the water and sky and then add in the grasses and reeds as a last step. I think it will be really interesting when it is done.

This week's Diva Challenge is by guest blogger Amy Broady who challenged us to, "Make your work shine and include a metallic feature." I used a metal button as a string for my piece and then tangled Floatfest around it in silver pen. It didn't photograph as well as I would have liked, this is white paper and the ring of half moons around the button were done in black metallic, but that's the way it goes!

Tangle Used: Floatfest

I hope you all find a way to get a little retreat into your week!

Update:

I couldn't resist. I had a second button so I had to do a second tile!

Tangle Used: Gnarly

Where Has All the Rain Gone?

I am so not ready for warm weather and here it is warm with no rain in sight until maybe next Tuesday! I have drawn the following tile in the hopes that it will entice some rain clouds our way:

Tangles Used: Nzeppel, Pop Cloud, Mssst,
and random plant-like things

On the plus side all the warm weather has caused the trees to go nuts as these two examples will show you:

So incredibly beautiful!

I'm sure that all of you who are bundled up and dreaming of spring think I'm nuts but I love to settle down to a good book while it pours outside and that seems to happen less and less frequently these days.

But enough complaining! The Diva's challenge this week was to use Boo*Kee and Artoo in a Duotangle. These tangles were named after her two sons who are under the weather this week so I'm sending love and sunshine from California!

Tangles Used: Boo*Kee and Artoo

I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone else has done with this fun challenge.

Ghosts of Tangles Past

Continuing with my thesis that winter in Northern California is green and yellow although the lush glory of the wild mustard is fading the sour grass is here to take it's place. This front yard has been completely taken over. The home owner probably thinks of them as weeds but I think they are glorious!

The Muster Mixer challenge this month lived up to it's name! I had a hard time coming up with more than one way to combine Fungees and Eddyper into a tangleation. I had lots of fun doodling in my sketch book along the way but these were the only two ideas that were really successful.

The Diva Challenge this week is called, "Ghosts of Tangles Past." The idea is to go back in to your archive of tiles and recreate a past tile with your present style. The older tile is from August 2014 and was the first tile I did while working my way through "One Zentangle a Day" and was probably the fourth tile I had ever done. It is on a shiny cardboard (like gift boxes are made of) which was really nice to ink but wouldn't shade well at all.

Tangles Used: Crescent Moon, Fescu, Nekton, and Tipple
String 001 from TanglePatterns.com

As I'm writing this I am wondering if I actually did what was intended. I used the same string and tangles while doing the new tile but did not recreate the identical tile.

Tangles Used: Crescent Moon, Fescu, Nekton, and TippleString 001 from TanglePatterns.com

This was a very thought provoking challenge and I'm looking forward to seeing what others did with it.

Happy Valentine's Week

For all of you who are fans, here was my view of Super Bowl 50! I stayed as far away from the traffic and mess as possible but can see the stadium across the valley from my backyard.

Levi Stadium From Our Backyard

A couple of weeks ago I posted a picture of wild mustard in bloom. Winter has always meant green and yellow to me, living here in Norther California. So here is another example.

Acacia Tree in Bloom

I had a lot of fun with Molygon last week and wanted to try it out in green (since I seem to be obsessed with green right now). This piece was done using every green pen I own!

A Molygon Monotangle

This week's Diva Challenge was a Valentine's challenge and I had two different inspirations. We had roasted beets with dinner last night and when I had cut the root and stem ends off the roasted vegetables I stopped my self from throwing them away and put them on some drawing paper. After the color had soaked in I did throw them away and let the paper dry overnight. Today I tangled on it with a white pen and some purple metallic ones.

Tangle Used: Luv-A

My second inspiration was a black wooden heart that was used by a friend to label some homemade jam. So I decided to tangle the other side and wound up with this fun piece.

Tangles Used: Gravee, Eddyper and Tipple

Wishing everyone a lovely Valentine's Day!

Gestalt and Zentangle

I mentioned last week that I was getting things ready to teach a class on Paper Embroidery using my latest design. The Redwood Stitchers EGA in Santa Rosa, CA are a warm and fun bunch. My friend Muriel and I had a great time with them and I think there will be several completed projects by their next meeting. While I was there I found out that a friend from the mixed media/stitching world who is also a CZT (I know; talented much?!) is going to be teaching a Zentangle class for them in March. Muriel and I both signed up on the spot so we will be going back to join in the fun!

The drive to Santa Rosa (2 hours each way) was made delightful by the beautiful weather and the gorgeous green of the new growth after the rains. This may seem odd if you live somewhere that it rains year round but we only get rain from October through April (if we're lucky!). I imagine that what I was feeling was akin to what it feels like to see spring flowers after a long, snowy winter.

This week's Diva Challenge is to use the new Zentangle pattern Molygon. I had seen a bit of it popping up on the web and knew I was going to like it and I was not disappointed! This is a really fun pattern that grows as the whim takes you. It reminded me a lot of Tri-Bee so included some of that on my tile.

Tangles Used: Molygon and Tri-Bee

I am currently taking a class on Design and Color. We have been talking about the Gestalt Theory of Design and this new pattern perfectly illustrates two of the principles, Similarity and Proximity. I'm pretty sure that you could find Zengtangle patterns that illustrate each of the design principles. It would actually make a pretty cool class!

Alright. I'm off to try this in green (my new color obsession!).

Green Rabbits and Yellow Flowers

It has rained quite a bit here lately which means the hills are green and the wild mustard is in bloom. This small orchard near our house has to be the most photographed spot in town; for good reason!  The photographers been out in full force this year and if you can't beat them....

I particularly like the last one because the oak tree in the background look like a rabbit coming down hill (well, to me anyway!)

I really love the strong color of the mustard blooms after weeks of gray weather. Later on, when the orchard is in bloom, it is another kind of beautiful all over again. The legend is that Father Serra and his party strew there path northward with mustard seeds. When it came time to go South again they just followed the golden road.

I have been mostly getting things ready to teach a class on Wednesday but I did take a break to finish my piece for the Muster Mixer challenge this month. Which was to combine Afterglo and Ahh. Here is my sampler of ideas:

And the Diva Challenge this week is to use  a tangle as a string. I decided to use Dragonair as my string.

Tangles Used: Nekton, Cayla, Nzeppel, StarMap,
 L-Aura, Fanz, and Poke Leaf

I think you can tell I had a good time with this one! But, back to the grindstone. I still have a couple of stitch charts to finish and then I can put the final touches on the kits and be all ready to go.

Back to Reality

It's hard to believe we are 2-1/2 weeks into the year and this is my first post! There seemed to be so many things to catch up on after the holidays were over. My daughter was able to be here for a week and she is moving back to the Bay Area <happy dance!> and my son was here for 2-1/2 weeks and we all had a great visit. But it is time to get back into the normal stream of things.

One thing that absolutely had to be done was a new design that I had been toying with since just before the holidays. I am teaching a class in 2 weeks and they had wanted something heart-themed for Valentine's Day. I came up with a ladybug and put it on a needlebook.

Prototype Needlebook

My husband did the first production run this weekend and thankfully everything went smoothly. Now I just need to write the instructions and make the kits!

I have been keeping up with the Diva Challenges even though I haven't posted them. And the first challenge of the year gave me an idea for a new (to me anyway) tangle. The challenge was to use Diva Dance and Auraknot. The last was because it (sorta) sounds like her name, Laura. It occurred to me that L-Aura would be even more like her name and I doodled around and came up with this:



For that first challenge of the year my response was:

Duo Tangle: Auraknot and Diva Dance

The second challenge was a back to basics challenge. So, white tile, black pen.

Tangles Used: Pop Cloud, Arc Flowers, and Nzeppel

This week's challenge is to use the logo for the Moebius Syndrome Foundation as a string. The Diva's younger son has this syndrome and each year there is a challenge to raise awareness.

Tangles Used: Wist and Lazy Eights

So remember to color the internet purple on Sunday, January 24th to raise awareness for Moebius Syndrome!