Some September creations

The Zentangle Inspired Art yahoo group recently had a swap for a fold-up envelope that is sized to hold an artist trading card (ATC, 2.5"x3.5").

ATC envelope back

ATC envelope front

ATC envelope open

I saw these plain, white butterfly masks at the craft store and thought they'd be fun to draw on. The surface is REALLY smooth, so it was a challenge not to smear, but I really like how it turned out. I have 4  more...if you want to give it a try, I'll send you one.

 I love the edging I created on this one; although I think the tangle itself is kind of busy.

There's a new weekly challenge on the ZIA yahoo group: Index Card a Week (ICAW). This week's challenge was to create a monochromatic drawing. 

Weekly Challenge #40: String Theory v.VI: Pinwheels for Peace

Apparently September 21 was International Day of Peace, and there was a movement to have millions of pinwheels spinning on that day.  I didn't get my pinwheel completed in time for that, but in the spirit of peace, and in fulfillment of this week's Diva Challenge, here it is.

Diva Challenge #38: Better than a Pair of Ducks

The Diva challenge has nothing to do with ducks...it is a challenge for a monotangle (a tangle using just one pattern) with "Paradox".  I was going to wait until this weekend to post, but my coworker has been bugging me that I haven't updated my blog recently, so I took a picture with my phone that'll have to do until I have a chance to scan it. 

The more I use Paradox, the more fun I have with it...mostly because I'm better able to control it and can plan the patterns I want to make with it. 

Diva Challenge #37: Kiss my Grids

The challenge this week is to use only grid-based tangles within a tile. I LOVE grid-based tangles, so this challenge was right up my alley.

Diva Challenge #35: Tile on Tile

This was the challenge from the week of 8/15, but I just got around to scanning it. The challenge was basically to create a tile within a tile. I ended up making 2 of these because I wasn't very happy with my first attempt (it bugged me that the inner tangle wasn't obvious).

Attempt #2 - In addition to the tile within a tile, I also enjoyed playing around with inverted patterns on the "outer" tile.

Attempt #1 - I think the inner tile is the egg-like shape in the middle.

Teacups and Keys

The Zentangle Inspired Art yahoo group hosts regular art swaps (you make a card according to the swap guidelines and swap/trade it for a card from another member of the group). I decided to give it a try and participate in two; the themes were (1) Teacups and (2) Keys.

Teacups

I kept them black and white and used a single tangle for the background...sort of like wallpaper. I really like how all three of these turned out.

The background tangles are

• Top left is a variation of Insydout by Mari Masi
• Top right is a variation of Warped Eggs by Livia Chua
• Bottom is a variation of Purzue by Laurie Patterson

Keys

I wanted to try some color. I'm not very comfortable with incorporating color yet (or even shading for that matter), but I'm glad I tried it. Two of them use watercolor pencils and one was Bic Mark-It permanent markers and colored Microns.

The Diva's Weekly Zentangle Challenge #34, "Opposites Attract"

This is my first official submission for the Weekly Zentangle Challenge on I am the diva - CZT blog. The challenge is Opposites Attract and these were the instructions:

Create your string using EITHER straight lines alone, or solely curving shapes and then fill the string with its opposite!
If you used the straight-line string, fill it with curves and orbs and other soft tangles.
If you used the curvy string, try to fill it using only grid-based and angular tangles.

So, I made one of each. Here ya go.

Straight with Curvy

From Zentangle Challenges

Curvy with Straight

From Zentangle Challenges