O = OOF And F I N

I'm getting ahead here. I know that O is going to be the letter of the week for the Tackle It Tuesday Challenge so I have gone ahead, even though the challenge isn't up yet, whilst I had a spare moment. When I say 'whilst I have a spare moment', it is more a case of putting it on the blog that takes the time. I like to write a little bit, because I enjoy reading what other people have posted, although I do appreciate that other people don't always have the time, or after several years have run out of conversation. I must say that by the time I have posted a week's worth of challenges I do tend to waffle on a bit :-)

This week I have only used one tangle and that is OOF. My original idea was to draw segments in the O like Michelle Beauchamp does with snails, and fill each segment with a different tangle pattern, but the OOF just seem to sit so well in it that I carried on all the way round.

F - I - N are the letters for Diane and Carolein's Weekly Challenge this week. I am one of those people they mention in their blog that work ahead and I have mine ready. I used wonderful Narwal, Florez, Nymph, Fescu, Flos, Isochor, Ixorus, Ix, and two types of Flux.

Queeries

Hmm...well I just didn't feel the love with this one and the finished tile shows that. I did try quite hard to take care, but you wouldn't know from looking at it. Queeries is the subject of Joey's Weekly Monotangle Challenge this week. It isn't that it is a hard tangle or anything, but I just couldn't seem to get it to flow. I tried to do a border with it, but it didn't quite work as they are alternately up and down. I thought of trying again, just doing a plain grid, but I groaned at the thought of it so I have left it as it is. Maybe I will try again later in the week, meanwhile I look forward to seeing what great ideas you folks come up with.

Ix and Inaura

I was afraid that I might not be able to enter this week's That's New to Me Challenge as I thought I had used all the tangle patterns beginning with I. Fortunately I found Inaura. I love the I tangle patterns, so many of them are aura patterns and I really enjoy drawing them and seeing how they turn out. For this challenge I used Ix with the Inaura on a watercolour wash, a strange mixture, but I quite liked it:-)

Zonked

*Rushes in and collapses into chair gasping for breath*

Phew, I'm just in time before this week's That's New to Me Challenge closes! I chose Zenith, Z-Trik and new to me Zonked. This tile is so green and red perhaps I should have saved it for Christmas.

I'm pretty zonked myself after all that rushing around lol.

L D G

A slight change to my usual format for this week's Alphabet Trio Challenge, but I am still in my sketch book with more than one tile :-) What can I say, I just enjoy drawing as many as I can of my favourite tangles beginning with the chosen letters of the week.

I have drawn Locor (which I have always struggled with, but is coming on now), Lots of Dots, Garlic Cloves, Gust, Dragonair and Dansk, all threaded through with Gra-Vee.

How to use up 5 pens in 15 mins!

I have been hmming and hawing over what to tangle on for the Divas's Challenge this week. That is why I haven't visited any other entries yet. I usually have started that by now. Whilst I am on the subject of visiting blogs I want to say a big thank you to everyone who leaves comments on mine. Without you folks I would never have learnt so much about this hobby as I have. I do reply sometimes when a question has been asked, but I am never sure if the replies go through via email or not. Does anyone know?

Anyway, back to the hmming and hawing...... The only things I could think of were the usual ones that you see here and there on the Internet, some of which the Diva suggested in her blog. The trouble with me is that if something is shown or suggested in the challenge then I feel I have to try and think up something new of my own. Occasionally my little brain seems to freeze because the suggestions are so good and I simply can't get them out of my head - which leaves no room for anything to go in!

This morning I woke up and got my iPad out to do my usual early morning routine visits. I thought about Maria tangling various places around her home and also I had seen someone had tangled a mini-van. I thought about tangling around the toilet cistern handle, I thought it would make you all laugh, but somehow I didn't think my partner would be amused. Then it suddenly struck me - my iPad, - I love my iPad to bits and have never thought to tangle on it.

Unfortunately I have the black version of the iPad so, even if I found a glass marker to use it wouldn't show up against the black. The next best thing I could think of was my iPad cover and that was it, I sprang out of bed and rushed downstairs to try it out. First of all I did tiny practice zingers in the corner to see if my usual pens would work. They did!

Whilst I was trying it out I came across small areas where the pen wouldn't draw, I assumed it was probably a bit greasy so when I had decided on which other areas to do I went over it with my eraser first, in the hopes of removing anything. Next I decided on some simple tangle patterns, as anything with pencil shading was not going to be possible. I started on the other corner using angelfish and Antidots with a little tipple. As I seemed to have a sort of sea thing going on along the bottom, at the top corner I used Florz as a fishing net and creweler as starfishes tumbling out.

I left it at that because I was running out of pens. I used 0.3 pens and I want to warn you if you are think of doing it yourself, it seems to wreck havoc with your pens. I got through 5 pens, two of which were brand new! I don't think I am going to be able to rescue them. The tips of the pens look ok, so I am guessing the surface coating must have gummed up the works - the cover is fairly grubby!.

Narwal and Nipa

What is it about Narwal that makes it so irresistible? I suppose some of the aura around the mystical unicorn must attach itself because I just love it every time I see it. The only problem with the way I draw it is that it doesn't usually leave much room on the tile for anything else.

As N is the subject of Tackle it Tuesday Challenge this week I had to chose..... yes you guessed it.... Narwal! I did manage to fit in a bit of Nipa too.

Maryhill

I love the Maryhill tangle, which is the tangle of choice this week in Tangle Me Three Challenge. It is so amazing that after a few lines it turns into a windmill :-) I had a slight advantage as I have used it recently, but this time I had to create two variations as well. I chose to do a square and a striped Maryhill. I thought the stripes might destroy the illusion of a windmill but it didn't!

Pea nuckle

I have drawn my own step-outs for all of Zentangle's® official patterns, except two - Glacé (which I can't get hold of any info for) - and Pea nuckle (because I thought I wouldn't use it). Today Pea-nuckle is the subject of Joey's Monotangle Challenge and so I have to use it, and that is what these challenges are all about ;-)

First of all I made that missing step-out and practised along the way. Then I thought "what on earth can I do with this as a Monotangle?" I thought about just drawing different areas of the tile in different colours, then I suddenly remembered reading Margeret Bremner's blog yesterday where one of the pictures she has framed is of her Wibbly Wobbly Houses.

That was it! I decided to try and draw a Wibbly Wobbly House. Unfortunately the weather in Wibbly Wobbly Land is a bad as here - rain, rain, rain! Now I have got myself in a muddle, are we allowed variations? I know it is Monotangle only, and I only put dots on the lines, but I can't remember the exact rules. I am quite pleased with it and don't want to start again so I am going to put it up and keep my fingers crossed.

C D #

I had great fun choosing the tangles for this week's Alphabet Trio Challenge, all except the numbers choice that is. There are only a few tangles that begin with a number, and only one that I fancied drawing, That one was 4 corners. I was quite pleased with the result overall. This ZIA format has become my go to choice for Diane and Carolien's Weekly Challenge as I am able to fit quite a few tangles into it.

I used 4 corners, Catkin, Cayla, Creweler, Diva Dance, two variations of Cadent, Centipede, Cruffle and Drobbles.

M is for Mak-Ra-Mee/Mooka and Mysteria

We are half way through the alphabet for the Tackle It Tuesday Challenge. M is an easy letter for a string. Recently my string has also become a letter to be filled and today is no different. I started in the middle with Mak-Ra-Mee and lengthened the ribbons into Mooka down the legs. At the side and between the legs I drew Mysteria. Once again this was fun to do.

A Busy Diva Tile

When you use stripes you can end up with a very busy tile. I am looking at my Diva Tile and I like the Mysteria, particularly the little black beads in it, and I also like the stoic which came out well. You might think I am blowing my own trumpet, but I would like to share a few words which I saw on Facebook's Square One recently.

Jenny Perruzzi said:-

"While we are apt to be very liberal with our positive comments on someone else's posted tile, we are often far less kind to ourselves when we write about the tiles we post. We've all done it. Don't think so? Take a look back at your posts and see if the comments you posted about your own tile are comments you would leave for someone else's tile. It takes just as much energy to point out something positive as it does something negative. Plus the dividends it pays are much more enJOYable!"

I thought these words were very wise, and so I want to try and bear them in mind when I write my blog in the future.

Here is my tile for the Diva Challenge this week. I made a central stripey orb using Knase and XYP, then surrounded it with stripes of Mysteria and Stoic:-

Oke

I really like Oke, well in fact I really like any of Michelle Beauchamp's ZIA, so it is not surprising I suppose. The only trouble with it is that I think it is a rather large tangle to fit into a tile. I know some people are clever enough to draw very small intricate tangles, but I haven't got to that stage yet.

Joey mentioned Fall, and it is that sort of weather today here too, so I thought I would try and do an Autumnal Oke Monotangle ZIA for Joey's Challenge this week. (Autumnal Oke Monotangle ZIA, now there is a mouthful for you lol) I drew a tile in the centre of my sketch book page and copied one of Michelle's tile examples into it - my favourite one. I then set about drawing falling Oke leaves around and under it. There are some amazing artists out there in Zentangle® Land, but I am the sort of person who had never been able to draw until I came across this art form, so it is not wonderful but I tried hard and was fairly pleased with the results of my mornings effort.

Tizzy, Tidings, Tumbleweed and Efilys

T is the subject of SuzyMosh's That's New to Me Challenge. Obviously T also stands for Tortoise and would you believe I found a tortoise shaped eraser in a shop last week. Of course I had to buy it. It is rather large for an eraser and is very detailed, even the underside of the shell is carved in. I never use an eraser as that is the Zentangle® Rule (excuse me, which one of you whispered 'Liar, liar, pants on fire'?) so this tortoise will remain on my desk as a mascot.

Getting back to the challenge, I used one of Sandra Strait's Strings within which I drew Tidings, Tizzy, Tumbleweed and Sandra Straits Efilys. Tizzy and Efily were the tangles which were new to me. I am really pleased to have found Tizzy as I love repeat aura type tangles.

Fandango/dragonair

Autumn is arriving fast in my neck of the woods. We have beautiful blue skies and sun today, but the leaves on the trees are turning golden already. (Sorry about the cars in the picture)

Oh well, that just means more time indoors for tangling. I did this for the Muster Mixer Challenge #10 which was to mix Fandango and Dragonair.

L is the letter of the week

I love L. Colour seems to be the theme of the week for me and so I created the L out of Pink Lazy Eights and then Laced them down in purple. On one side I drew Lily Pads in green, and on the other side I drew Looplopps - again in green. I really enjoyed it.

Cant, The Tangle

WooHoo, we get to join in with some of the fun that went on at CanTangle during the summer. it must have been such fun there, and to be able to meet up with other people who love Tangling must be awesome.

Anyway this week The Diva has challenged us to use a tangle which was created there at CanTangle. The tangle was created by Chris Titus and it is called CanT. I don't think there is anything you can't do with this tangle. Many, many variations were shown in the step out. Choice, choices, choices, which to do? After looking at all those no way could I think up anything new, but I knew I didn't just want to draw just one. In the end I drew four tiles in my sketch book and chose a different variation for each of them. Like the Diva, I too like to wobble grid tangles and so in the last tile I did a wavy grid. As it turned out it I could have drawn bigger waves, but at least it was different to the other three.

I wasn't sure about leaving it just the traditional black and white. It seemed to me to be very busy and the eye had a trouble seeing the different variations, so I decided to colour in the background on each tile and I think I prefer this one:-

Newsflash - Squid Steals Tile

I had such fun creating this ZIA for Diane and Carolien's SPC Challenge , but there has been a bit of drama. When I had finished it I went to get a cup of tea. I returned just in time to see Squid stealing the tile out of the ZIA ! The police have been informed, and there have been one or two sightings of Squid in various other places. The police also have a copy of this photo, so if Squid is apprehended it is prove positive and justice will be served.

If any of you see it please do not approach, as the sting from it's tentacles can be rather nasty, instead email the link straight to TileCrime@TanglePolice.ie.

For identification purposes it contains Podz, Pepper, Paradox, Cruffle, and Crescent Moon. It was accompanied by two versions of Stoic, also Springkle and Creweler.

Many thanks for your help. - YT

N'Zeppel

N'Zeppel, who doesn't love N'Zeppel? It fascinated me from the first moment I saw it. I loved the free form version of it, especially when I saw that it could be rounded out to make the optical illusion of a curved stone. It just reminded me of crazy paving, or those crazy stone chimney breasts that were popular in the 70's (was it the 70's?) Some people even decorated the outside of their house with it, most notably Vera and Jack Duckworth in Coronation Street lol.

Well here is my version for Joey's Monotangle Challenge #77 .......

A plain and simple tile.

There are not many tangle patterns beginning with Y that I like drawing. I have enjoyed discovering Yew-Dee however. This is the pattern that is new to me. Along the bottom I put some Ynix, but I have used that before and so I stopped there and have a very plain and simple tile for the That's New To Me Challenge.  .

Lealad

L for Lealad by Lily Moon. Sometimes I struggle to think of variations for the Tangle Me Three Challenges, but this time they just seemed to flow from my pen. I am sure some arty people will be able to produce some amazing ideas with zing, but at least I remembered shading ,which for me is good. Perhaps I should have tried to change the flower too, in fact I can think of lots of variations for this tangle but it is not called Tangle Me 100 and I am pleased with the tile as it is :-)

The original tangle is within the L which is for Lealad and for Lily Moon. On the left hand side I did a curved variation and on the right hand side a horizontal version.

Undine, jonqual and bumper

U J & B are the letters this week for Diane and Carolien's Challenge. I struggled to find a U tangle that I liked. I didn't want to use Umble and the others didn't seem to fit the bill. In the end I chose Undine which I hadn't used before. Around the top edge I used Bumper and the lower portion is filled with Jonqual. I really love doing Jonqual in this wiggly shiny fashion. I saw someone on Square One do it like this and I have used it ever since.

The String for this week's It's a String Thing looked very interesting this week, and I enjoyed the chosen tangle patterns too. I am not sure why the diagonal line is across the bottom part of the string. It divided the smallest square into triangles but apart from that didn't seem to create any extra portions. I liked all the patterns, and I think I am going to repeat the tile several times with the tangles in different parts just to see the difference, I drew this one in my sketch book, but it is a normal tile size.

Zenith

The Diva seems to have had a great summer. I do envy her time spent at CanTangle. It must be such fun to meet up with other tanglers. I love all the interaction on these blogs through the newsie posts and comments left by visitors, so I can just imagine all the chat and laughter when Zentanglers get together in real life!

Zenith is The Diva's choice for the challenge this week. I like this new tangle but my brain can't seem to get beyond seeing it as a border tangle. I am sure when I start to visit the entries there will be some amazing tiles where it will be mixed with other tangles on artful tiles, but I stayed with Zenith and just made a Monotangle with it.

A Kicking K :-)

K is an amazing string for Tackle it Tuesday. Everything fits around it. I used Kinetic, Knase, Kandy Ribbonz, Kozy and Keeko all drawn with the Derwent Sepia Pen. Once again I really enjoyed this challenge.

Tropicana/ixorus

1st September and I nearly didn't get this done in time. Fortunately it suddenly popped up on the English Channel of the Muster Mixture Challenge and reminded me that I had thought of doing this on a Black Tile. Black tiles lend themselves to simplicity I think. I simply drew Icorus but replaced the moon shape with the arch of Tropicana. It turned out more effective than I thought. I didn't realise those arch shapes would line themselves up in circles.