Door prize

2016 will bring me my first opportunity to teach Zentangle® to friends I have not yet met! Our local library has asked me to offer introductory classes, beginning January 10. Needless to say, I am sooooo excited! I've been practicing this morning, and ended my practice by creating a door prize: a jigsaw puzzle representing our first tile. (I found the blank  4x5.5 inch jigsaw puzzles in the scrapbooking section of ACMoore. At 4 for $1, I couldn't resist!) I used an IdentiPen and a gray Fabrico marker for shading.

Gems!

I am usually behind the times. I have been seeing the beautiful gems appearing in the Zentangle Inspired Art world in the last month or so. Having watched a few videos on youtube, I tried to draw one, but  found that my dollar store pencils were just so-so: lots of wax, not a lot of color. My generous in-laws heard my plea and gave me a set of Prismacolors for Christmas. I now have the gem bug! They're just so much fun to draw! Here's my latest, done on a Bijou tile:

Thank you, Janet and Larry, for opening up this new world! 

Joey's Weekly Challenge: TREES!

Just for Joey, who has been so generous and gracious with her weekly challenges and kind comments:

Today's RAZ

Oops. I goofed when I posted my links on the Diva's page. (Some things should be done on a computer, not a device.) In my earlier post today, found by scrolling down just a bit, I mentioned Random Acts of Zentangle as one of the many gifts Zentangle offers. Thought I'd post the one I did today, as part of Laura's challenge to give some Zentangle .

And on the back

Diva's Weekly Challenge # 248: The Gift of Zentangle

(I goofed when I posted my links. This is my first challenge response for #248. So sorry for the confusion!)

This week, Laura challenged us to tangle some love in a holiday gift. Zentangle is a gift, after all, in so many ways. Little bits of peace and joy in our day or our week, that we may take and give away, or even leave as a Random Act of Zentangle for strangers to find and enjoy. Zentangle has opened up a new family of friends who share their love and support one another in such kind and generous ways. In this season of giving, I want to thank Rick and Maria, Ellen, Laura, Joey, Adele, Linda, Annemarie, Jean, Michele, Simone, Dilip, Cathy, Shelly, Helen, Sarah, to name but a few. Thank you to all who visit, leave comments, share your own work. Thank you for your life-giving gift!

Plastic ball with fine tip Sharpie oil-based white ink, Frostflower

Diva's Weekly Challenge: # 247

This week's challenge was to use African Artist, by Tina-Akua Hunziger. It gave me fits! This is happening more and more as I venture out of my comfort zone with new patterns. And, as usual, when I finally finish and get ready to post, I see the example and think, "Oh. That's how it works!" My problem this week was getting the bands around the threads, and then shading / rounding where they meet. I tried to cover/compensate my lack of proficiency by using metallic Gelli roll pens. Maybe if it's shiny they won't notice!!! Then came the white charcoal and the zenstone. (Zenstone, I love how forgiving you are.) African Artist is a beautiful pattern. I hope I will one day master its rhythms and textures.

Thanks for stopping by! I really appreciate and learn from each and every one of your comments.

Joey's Weekly Challenge

Joey has started a new series--Yay! and Thank You!--to follow her amazing Alphabet Monotangle Challenge. For December, she has made a different holiday themed ZIA template for each week. I'm expecting some difficulty with these, since I don't draw! I left this week's Christmas balls white, since I was a bit intimidated by shading spheres. But I still had fun! As you can see, there's no red or green. If you ever visit my home--and you're always welcome!--you will see red and green in almost every room. So I enjoy using lots of white and blue during the holidays.

Diva's Weekly Challenge #246

This week the Diva invited fellow CZT Dilip Patel from India to create the challenge. He invited us to tangle some love for our planet as the Paris climate talks are taking place. Dilip posted some amazing tiles, as well as pictures of his community, where he heads up an afforestation campaign. I had the honor of meeting Dilip at the CZT 21 seminar in July. I was deeply touched by his activism and how he has used Zentangle as a tool for social change. He is truly a gift and an inspiration to our community.