Frustration

I have been trying to post the badge for Joey's Weekly Tangle Challenge and Tackle it Tuesday on my blog for days now and I can't get the actual badge posted. It is frustrating me to no end. I spent the day looking at tangles that others have come up with and copying them into my book. This is a long process as I am sure many of you know. Once again I can only say how awesome all of you are. There are days when I look at your works and want to crawl into my little hole because I can't do that. Then I way to myself, just keep practicing and you will achieve your own degree of awesome. I do want to thank all of you for posting and sharing your art, tips and tangles. I have learned so much not just about doing tangles but about art in general. To those of you on flickr, thank you for sharing your photos of not only your art work, but of your lives.
I am grateful to:
Rick and Maria for creating this wonderful form of self-expression and self-therapy;
Linda Farmer for creating TanglePatterns ( http://tanglepatterns.com) ,
Genevieve Crabe ( http://www.amarylliscreations.com/zentangleharmony ) for her weekly roundup,
Sandra Strait for her daily links ( http://lifeimitatesdoodles.blogspot.com ), and
all the wonderful people who participate and share their art and their selves.
God bless you all and for those in the USA have a safe and happy Labor Day.

computers...arggh!

I started the day off adding some new tangles to my book. I then went with my friend to her grandson's swimming lesson and to pick her brother up from the hospital. When I got home I decided to upload my photos to flickr and remove them to an SD card. I also ended up putting my photos of my jewelry on flickr. In the process of doing all this I was telling my daughter that y computer was running slow. She suggested I take some of my photos off the computer and then asked me had I defragged it and had I removed the cookies. I did all of that and now 5 hours later I am posting to my blog. I also have had to sign in to all my sites I usually go to since I deleted the cookies. Is the computer moving any faster? Not that I can tell. I'll see how it does tomorrow when I log on. Needless to say, I didn't really get any drawing done today, and haven;t really had an opportunity to look at what other people have posted. I still have to check my e-mail today. Hopefully I can do something tomorrow.

C. O. N. spiracy

I have a friend that always spells out the first three letters of conspiracy and says it's a C. O. N. spiracy. After doing my Diva challenge for this week and progressing on to the It's a String Thing challenge, that was my first thought. The Diva asked us to do stripes for this week, and my first thought was to use Striping in some way. I nixed this idea because I'm not comfortable with that tangle. So I went ahead and did my tile, submitted it and blogged about it (see  Calendar and Stripes) on Tuesday.

Calendars and Stripes

This week at Joey's Tangle Challenge she asked us to tangle a calendar. I had already torn apart the remainder of my 2014 calendar and decided to use it. I tangled on November because it had the most usable space. Now I will have something pretty to look at in a few months.

Oops

I worked on my large ZIA collage and one of the hands today. I just finished the hand, and that's where the oops comes in. I almost didn't finish the large ZIA because I wasn't liking the direction it was going. I went ahead and finished it anyway, and like it more than I did at first. On the hand I attempted the tangle Pea-nuckle and it became an oops.

Hang in There

I feel like the cat hanging on the limb with the caption "Hang in There" underneath. I finished up the part of my project I was working on yesterday. Now it's on to another part. I did manage to do my Tackle it Tuesday tile today. This week was the letter X.

X
Tangles: Xenso, Xplode, X, XYP

I am going to find something to watch on Netflix, listen to the football game and follow the baseball game online. I even think I'll have some popcorn.

Late Post

I have been working on my project some more today, when I wasn't at work. I have not tangeled, but I have been using my pens and pencils. Right now I am working on compiling lists. I have also been looking at the work of many artists. There are so many talented people out there and I am constantly being amazed, excited and delighted. I would love to meet so many of you to talk one on one and watch you work. It is exciting to see how we can all be presented with the same material and come up with so many different results. At the same time, while working on my project, I am wondering if I have bitten off more than I can chew. Probably, I am always going overboard with things. When I do my jewelry, or decide I am going to crochet to use up my stash, I always find myself going and getting more. It kind of defeats the purpose of reducing my stash. However, in true Cappy fashion, I am going to stick with my project and hopefully stay focused enough to finish it. I hope to do some tangle work tomorrow since I do have some deadlines to meet for my challenges this week.

String thing 54

I ended up working today and did not get a lot accomplished. I worked on the It's A String Thing challenge this evening. I started this challenge three times and decided to commit to the final attempt. I like all of the tangles that were chosen, and have probably played around the most with Rick's Paradox followed by Rosewood. Bitten is the least used of the tangles for me. This was done with String 52. My picture is done on a larger sheet of paper with a square that is tile size.

I have been having a very financially stressful year and this evening I am just disgusted with how some things went today. In the words of "Gone With the Wind":

"...tomorrow is another day".

All Tangled Up

I spent the majprity of my day today working on my project. I got the first part done, which involved making a list. I am now working on part two, which also involves making a list. I have a feeling before it is all done that I may have to teach myself a little something about Excel ( scary). I did manage to scan two tiles I worked on. One was for every Inchie Monday and the other was for Joey's Weekly Tangle Challenge. I think I am going to redo the tile for Joey's challenge.

Quick
Tangle: Hurry

Joey's Weekly Tangle Challenge
Tangles:Huggins, Cadent, Huggy Bear, Maddie 2 (Lila Popcheff), Planturn (JLJohnson)

The picture below is a tangle collage I am working on with my pattern "Decollation".

I am so happy that I have had over 1000 visitors to my site. Thank you all for viewing and commenting.
Have a blessed evening.

New Project

I am currently working on a new organization project for the tangles I come across. I am also working on a Twinchie project that may take me more than 2 or 3 months to complete as I will only be working on it occasionally. I didn't work on any zentangle projects today. I did sit and stare at the hands I am going to work on. That is part of what led to my new projects.

I am also watching some old things on Netflix, and plan to have a Star Trek movie marathon. I was really excited to see they have put Criminal Minds on there also. So, I am off to work on my project and watch Criminal Minds.

"Anything that is not actually impossible can be done, if one really sets one;s mind to do it and is determined that it shall be done."  Sir Nicholas Winton

New

Monday, time for new challenges.

 This week the Diva has said Water (kind of like E. F. Hutton). Hmmm, what to do?

Beach Solitude
Tangles: Agua, C-Scape, Waves, Sanibelle, Aquafleur  

I thought of the ocean and the beach. Mind you I live in the Midwest, not a lot of ocean here. I blended Agua into C-Scape into Waves. The above picture was pre-color right as I started coloring.

This is the picture with color added.

Every Monday Inchie's challenge is Quick. I'm still working on that and will post it when I figure it out.

Yesterday two of my cousins stopped by the house. They were coming from a picnic for their 50 year high school reunion. While they were here I traced their hands to tangle. Below are the pretangle images.

Joey's Weekly challenge tangle is to tangle two of something:
a string that creates two shapes (like string #110) or
a mirror image tangle (oh that sounds fun!)
or using tangles that have only two strokes?!

I put some new pages on my blog. They are for my tangles that I came up with. If these are some that are already out there under a different name please let me know.

Do You Cheat? I Do, Sometimes.

I sometimes do the little "shortcuts" that I think make things better. Either in appearance or ease of producing. In doing Zentangle (R) tiles, I sometimes use a dot grid from a printout of dots I made (along with squares also). It all depends on waht I am doing and how uniform I want it to look. I do most of my work freehand, however there are times when I want my dots or squares to line up. I mostly do this when I am learning to do a pattern. After I have "learned" how to do it, then I play. Then I do the what if. What if I curve the lines, what if the lines are wavy, what if the dots are farther apart or closer together? Sometimes I cheat on Sudoku puzzles also. If the answer is in the back of the book and I am seriously stuck, I cheat. I don't, however, cheat on reading. I will not flip to the back of a book to see the ending, I like being in suspense as to the outcome. I don't cheat at cards. Years ago my husband and I were playing poker for Pokeno chips. He ended up taking all my chips and I realized he was dealing from the bottom of the deck, so to speak. I have not played poker since ( that was over 30 years ago). When I said something to him about it he chuckled. When I put puzzles together I break apart all the pieces first, mix them up and don't use already attached pieces.
Do you cheat?

Enough on that subject. I was playing around with Fracas an official Zentangle(R) tangle earlier and came up with a pattern I really like. It reminds me of so many other patterns, with little twists. I woke up this morning and played with it some more. I originally started with what I think of as the cross pattern (i.e. the beginnings of Fracas, Ixorus, Drupe, etc.). I guess it's more like a star shape.

 After I played with that I went on to a square gird,

a triangle, and a circle.

More triangles.

My practice page.

Some Inchies.

Finally I had to come up with a name. This was not an easy task. After much deliberation, I came up with Decollation. Why? It reminds me of Art Deco and also tangellations on numerous other tangles.

The step outs for Decollation are below.

Decollation Monotangle.

Almost pretangle

Before shading

Shaded

Challenges completed

When I first began doing the few challenges I chose, I thought they wouldn't take long. Duh!!!, they are challenges. This week I did some experimenting and playing with different tangles. I am posting the results of my Tackle it Tuesday challenge, the letter W this week, and my second It's a String Thing attempt, which I really like.

Tackle it Tuesday: W
Tangles: Wirly Bird, Widgets, Wired, Wist

I love Wirly Bird and all of the things you can do with and to it. I also really like Widgets, but don't often get to use it. I have problems with Wist, which is why there is so much of it on this tile. I had originally planned to use only a few outcroppings of Wist and then do some with Wired. After I started, however, I liked the way Wist looked coming out of Wirly Bird and did it all the way around. I then used Wired as a fill for some of Wirly Bird's wings.

Flighty
Tangles: Pokeleaf, Onomato, Hurray, Planateen

In yesterday's post I mentioned that Planateen was a tangle I struggle with, so I decided to give it one more go. I really like the result of putting it inside Pokeleaf. For some reason this image reminds me of an abstract bird in flight, hence the name Flighty.

Thank you for stopping by to look and please leave a comment.

Long Post

I am posting the pictures I have been working on this week. I haven't posted anything on the challenge sites yet.

These are the ones for Joey's Weekly Tangle Challenge. This week it was to tangle a sun. I think of red, yellow and orange when I think of the sun.

Attempt 1
Tangles: Zenplosion Folds, Wirly Bird

My first attempt involved drawing a circle and surrounding it with Wirly Bird using alternate stripes in the rays. I then attempted to do Zenplosion Folds inside the sun. My first couple were a little off, so I went back and read through the steps again and they got better.I used Colored pencil and graphite pencil to do the shading and coloring on the inside. On the rays I used Micron 01 and 02 pens.

Attempt 2
Tangles: Spiteria(Wanphai Nongrum), Maddie 2(Poppie), Roel variation

My second attempt again involved drasing a circle and I used Roel with only the area closest to the circle being filled. I yjen made avals on the innerpart of the circle and used Maddie 2 a lovely art deoey pattern by Poppie with different fills. For the center I did Spiteria a very beautiful starlike pattern by Wanphai Nongrum.

Sunplosion(attempt 3)
Tangles:Zenplosion Folds, Xplode

My third attempt I thought of the sun exploding, hence the title Sunplosion. I colored the background using colored pencils from yellow to orange to red. I then used Zenplosion folds again with the tangle pattern Xplode.

Attempt 4
Tangles: Footlites, DL Sunray

Attempt 4 colored with colored pencils

I then decided to only use part of the circle on the tile. because Footlites reminds me of spotlights I used that for the rays of the sun. For the interior I decided to use DL Sunray, again because of the rays. I shaded it with graphite pencil and then used colored pencils to color it. Looking at it again I may title this one Sunspots.

Attempt 5
Tangle:Brandee (Anneke van Dam)

 For my last attempt I was looking at Anneke van Dam's blogspot to see the step outs for MacDee and came across her tangle patter Brandee. It looks like flames and she had used a circle to show how well it works around any shape. I already had my half circle prepared and decided to use this pattern (shown above). Since I really did not like my first attempt at MacDee, I thought why not use the patterns together. I rather like it. I used Micron red 02 and yellow 01 for MacDee and Micron 01,08,Graphic 3 and orange 01 for Brandee. I think I'll call it Scottish Heat (what do you think?). I do believe this will be the one I submit for the Diva's Challenge and attempt 4 will be submitted for Joey's Challenge.

Attempt 5 completed
Tangles: Brandee and MacDee (both from Anneke van Dam)

Diva's Challenge
Tangle: MacDee

This was my first attempt at MacDee and was originally a monotangle (plus learning how to do it). I really like the plaid. but I'm not crazy about this tile.

It's a String Thing #53
String Pattern 54
Tangles:Hurray, Onomato, Planateen, Pokeleaf

Colored Pencil, Micron 01 pen

 

I made this the first day it was posted, but wanted to try some other ideas. Pokeleaf and Onomato are two of my go to patterns. I have never used Hurray, but I like the simplicity of it. I have only used Planateen twice because it is a challenge to me. I started not to use it, but decided to step out of my comfort zone. I need to play around with it some more because I really like the way it reminds me of clay tile roofs ( we have a lot of those around here).

I am still working on this one trying to decide a few things. I will post an image when I am finished.

 A while back I indicated I had some WIPs that needed to be done. The image above is one I worked on this week. The next three photos show it at different stages of work.

And the finished project.

Circular
Tangles: Oorbelle (Pennyb), Footlites, Paradox, Easy 3's. Cameo, Maddie 2 (all three by Poppie), Abacus (Lori Byerly), Daggerly, MacDee (Anneke van Dam), Fandango, Kuntsler (Margaret Bremner), Crescent Moon, Da-Kris (Sharon Robinson) and one I am calling Polka

I still have a little more shading to do. I wanted to try some tangles that weren't on Linda Farmers TanglePatterns. It took me several tries to get Da-Kris right, although I do rather like my blunders. I think I will be using all of these tangles again and will be working on "Polka" more in the future.

I didn't post anything last night. I did however, work on some tiles yesterday. I'm still trying to come up with a tile I like for Joey's challenge. I also worked on the Diva's challenge and will definitely have to do another one. I am also working on my big ZIA and the It's a String Thing challenge. I had a momentary scare when I was trying to scan earlier, but after I turned my computer off and back on everything was okay. I will be posting pictures tomorrow of most of the things I have done this week. It's back to tangling and rooting my team on to victory.

"Genie,you're free"

The above was tweeted by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences along with a picture of the Genie hugging Aladdin from the animated film 'Aladdin', in response to the death of Robin Williams. This, to me, was the most moving and profound tweet I read. I grew up with Robin Williams and truly enjoyed his acting and comedy. It is sad that his life ended as it did. Often we miss the pain that others are suffering mentally because we can't see it. One of our local weathermen committed suicide several years ago. He was very comedic in his television persona and a generally likable person. He was one of the main reasons I watched the news on that channel. Not only was the general public in shock at the news, most of his coworkers were also. As with Williams, he had battled depression for years.  I think that we need to be more aware of the pain that others suffer. It is difficult to know, however, when others are suffering emotional pain because there aren't really any outward signs of the problem.

Hug your friends and family and let them know that you love them and are there for them no matter what. If you think there may be a problem, find a way to talk with them about it. Most of all remember that whatever they are going through and however they find to resolve it, you are not to blame.

On to lighter things. I managed to do my Inchie challenge today. The subject was Plum. I don't know how to draw fruit and didn't want to put a Plum blob on my inchie; so, I decided to think outside the box. I did a plum colored plumb.

I am also working on my Joey's Weekly Tangle Challenge. This week it is to tangle a sun. I've done a couple, but I'm not ready to post those yet.

Happy Birthday

I finished my It's a String Thing #51 Challenge. The first photo is the one I submitted. The second photo is the one I didn't finish. I got to the point you see and decided it was too busy. I think I will go ahead and finish it after I think about it some more.

Happy Birthday
Tangles:Roscoe, Meringue, Kiltz, A-Fog

Happy Birthday
Tangles: Roscoe, Kiltz, A-Fog, Meringue, Lotus Pods

I did go ahead and finish the second effort. I completed the white area with additional Lotus Pod, Meringue and some Tipple. I also added some shading. I rather like it now; however, I still think it is a little busy.

I am currently working on one of my previous WIP pictures. I think it is going to be a large ZIA. I am scanning after I do some tangling to show the different stages it is going through.

New Pics

I scanned some of the tangles I found on other sites and have uploaded them. While reviewing the scans, I realized that my book is a little large for my scanner and I will need to use something different for my "Tangles Journal" ( the very creative title I have come up with for my documentation of tangles). I've also started on a large ZIA, one of the ones from my WIP collection. I am going to try tomorrow to do my It's a string thing entry, I have until Monday morning to submit it.

Tangles:upper left to lower right
Linkum(David Hunter);Spiteria(Wanphai Nongrum), Deelish(Stephanie Shelton), Flooka(Terri Greenburg CZT), Shooz and Oorbelle(Penny B),TOF, Roobs, Amsterdam, Mayflower, Tapis, and C'ds(Ellen Wolters), Star Steps(Gunhild)

By Poppie's Pen Picks
Bellamy, H and I(handi), Sliders, Hexicad, Korrimal, Zulu 2, Zulu 1,Glace, Arums

By Poppie's Pen Picks
Coroline, Griddex, Kurrajong, Syazzle, Zantis, Paris, Mozza, Snuggles, Maddie

By Poppie's Pen Pics
Chop Chop, Tule, Offerings, Angela(Gella), Zoose

By Poppie's Pen Pics
Chim-Chimenee, Maddie 2, Easy 3's, Krinkle, Chechain, Verity, Pines, Cameo, Sahara

Tangles from upper left to lower right
Sum-fun(Cheryl Rotnem CZT), Nymph(Melinda Barlow CZT), Abacus(Lori Byerly), Perlz and Shingle(Maria Copetas CZT), Zenplosion Folds, Crossview, Zen Bud and Mooka Leaves(Daniele O'Brien CZT)

Blog List Decluttered

I finished going through my blog list and am now under 200. I am one of those people who goes over board when introduced to something new. This can often lead to both physical and mental clutter. I try to be very aware of when I am being overwhelmed with clutter and over the years I have considerably reduced my stashes. I do still have one or two (or three...) things I need to reduce to manageable size. While going through my blogroll, I copied some tangles down in my book. I will scan those tomorrow and post the pictures. There are quite a few very prolific tangle designers out there. I also got some ideas for ways to improve my blog and saw some AWESOME!!! work. I pretty much unfollowed the arts and crafts, journal and art sites I had been following as I now realize that anything I do in those areas will be limited. I did kep a few as I truly admire and enjoy their work. No picture posts for tonight, just general reflection.

Tangle-less Day

I spent the majority of my morning working on my application, resume and cover letter. I e-mailed the cover letter to my daughter for her opinion and input. I was hoping she would let me know something today so I could upload it and submit my app. Haven't heard from her yet, so I will do that tomorrow. I spent the remainder of my day looking through my blogs I follow list and deleting those that no longer had blogs or where the links were broken ( a few I was able to correct the link to). Needless to say this was the first day in a long time I didn't work on a tangle in some shape, form, or fashion. I started on the It's a string thing tangle last night and got about 3/4 of the way through with what I was doing and decided I didn't like it. I plan on finishing it and doing another one, but I don't know if I'll have them ready to post by the deadline. I will post them on here though. As of right now the Chiefs and the Royals are winning. Bye for now have to go watch the rest of the football game.

Adjustments

I spent most of the day working on my resume, and making changes to my blog and my computer settings. I went in search of an old resume and realized I had thrown them out after I retired. I wasn't going to need them, right? So wrong. I have to redo my whole resume, which isn't a bad thing, just time consuming. Then I decided I was going to figure out how to add some widgets/badges to my blog. I finally found an answer to that problem and then got sidetracked on adding things. I also did a preview of my blog to see how I liked the look and decided that I will be making adjustments to it's appearance sometime in the near future. I made adjustments to the tabs that open when I sign in to the internet and some adjustments to the appearance of my page also. I don't know that I really like the look but will try it for a few days.
After all of that adjusting, I started to write my blog. I wrote about five words and the power went off due to a thunderstorm. At that point I had to chuckle because I now had to make another adjustment. I found some candles and lit them after the lights were off for an hour and sat at my dining room table and practiced on some tangles for awhile. Right as I was thinking I wouldn't be able to do that much longer, the lights came back on. I still hear rumbles of thunder, so I am going to attempt to post my two pictures and hope we don't lose power again.

Study in 8's
All 4 versions

Tackle It Tuesday "V"
Tangles:Vigne, Viaduct, Ving, Veezley

I realized as I was doing the Viaduct on the top I had done it wrong but I still like it. I also like the way Ving and Veezley look together. The first time I tried Veezley I had problems with it, but after taking my time and carefully following the instructions I got it.

Befuddled

I had to work today and had gotten in my comfort zone when I had to leave. After I got home I started working on today's alphabet tangle( right now I can't remember the site). Today's letter is "V".  I am still in the process of working out my usage of the tangles I chose. I am hoping that tomorrow I will be done. My post title indicates my state of mind on those days when I have to work, as I end up having to leave in the middle of something. I did work on a large ZIA using the variations of 8's. I will upload it tomorrow as well. I'm off to bed now as I am more tired than usual tonight.

I am the diva - Certified Zentangle Teacher (CZT®): Weekly Challenge #179

I am the diva - Certified Zentangle Teacher (CZT®): Weekly Challenge #179
I am new to doing the link back thing, so see previous post Monday, Monday for the picture.

Monday, Monday

I started my challenges today.

The Inchie challenge word is private. My first thought was a locked diary. I never had one growing up, but I know they are supposed to contain people's private thoughts. I don't know that I really like my challenge attempt after looking at it scanned. I may try and do another one later this week.

Looking at it scanned on this page I may just do the Inchie challenges and not post them. The image is enlarged to X-Large and you still can't see it real well.

The Diva Challenge is to do a 2x2 tile in honor of the roll out of the new Bijou tiles (Bijou is cute). Since they are relatively small I scanned the two I did together. Will probably do more of these. The coil tile was supposed to be Fricle with Tropicanna inside. After I finished it it looked more like a cross between Marasu and Snaylz Traylz. However you look at it is is kind of Bijou-esque.

Bijou (twinchies)

Tangles; Tropicanna, Fricle, Rain, Mooka

The last upload is for Joey's Weekly Tangle. This week it was to tangle a five-pointed star. The true challenge in this for me was making the five-pointed star. I reverted to the way I learned in grade school and actually liked it for a string.

The final result was very pleasing to me. I still have to work around more with how I shade things.

Joey's Weekly Tangle
Tangles: Starbarz, Neuron, Starawn