Diva Challenge 218, TNTM 20, and SQ1 Zingers - plus one for fun

While most of North America is aching for warmer weather to FINALLY get going, we in the Phoenix area face the prospect with a bit of dread.  This year, however, we have been blessed with a very mild spring.  Daytime highs have been in the 80s, which is absolutely perfect here, and some days only in the 70s, which in May is pretty much unheard of.  Yay!  We'll take it.  We planted some new flowers in patio pots and are grateful that they have had some time to get established in the moderate weather before the blast furnace fires up.


Looks like the 90s and above are set to slide in by the end of next week, but I say thank you for taking your time about it and we'll just console ourselves with a dip in the pool and crank up the patio misting system.  No problem!

This week, our Diva challenged us to tangle on Black or on a found object.  My daughter just sent me a gift in a little wooden box like an old-time recipe box.  It is begging to be tangled!  But...as with journals, I have this fear of breaching the pristine emptiness, so I don't start.  I tell myself there are no mistakes in Zentangle - really, just start and it will be beautiful - but then I don't.  So, here I am, an official CZT, sending myself the "why I can't" messages!  Note to self:  Get Over It! 

But, this week I chose to do the black tile instead, and since I ran out of the square ones, I grabbed a black Zendala tile.  I have been itching to try my new Crestfallen on black, and I was not disappointed!  I have been wanting to try out some techniques for creating depth and "substance" by varying the pressure and thickness of my white Gelly Roll pen lines rather than using shading.  Last week I fiddled around with some Printemps and was happy with the result.  Now I applied the same idea to Crestfallen, and I love it!  I added in some tangles that I spotted in some of the posts on Facebook Square One pages (yes, I stole your ideas...), but since those were black on white, I guess it is not exactly stolen, right?

Next, SuzyMosh picked the letter "X" for That's New To Me 20, and since it was a repeat, she added the idea of incorporating a tangle from Sue Jacobs (she has such fun ones!)  I took Suzy's advice and visited her Pinterest page for X tangles, and selected Xplo-zen.  This one plays out kind of like an inside-out N'Zepple, and is quite fun to draw.  I love the sort of mid-century modern look of it.  Then I chose Sue's tangle "Ace".  I figured while we were on the Zen trend, I would pick the one that has a Yin-Yang feel.  This one was totally new to me, so I thought it was a good choice.  I continued the Zendala tile theme, in this case because it seemed like the proper format, and "biggified" the tangle, using only one unit of it.  I drew the Xplo-Zen inside of it.   I am pretty happy with this one.

I also responded to the Square One: Purely Zentangle focus on Zinger this week.  Always a winner in my opinion.  I must be on a round kick because I chose to do this one in a circular format, although I used a square tile.  I call this "Ring-O-Zing".  Fun!

Finally, I did a tile just for fun.  I should post it to the Square One: Purely Fun page, but haven't gotten that far yet.  I did this tile in black and white, but then decided the pearls needed to become rubies.  Somehow, I ran out of rubies or some of them fell out of the mountings (like all my jewelry lately!), so there are some empties here.  Not a masterpiece, but I do like this one.  Maybe the imperfection attracts me.

Take time this weekend to remember our fallen veterans and thank them for paying the ultimate sacrifice for our blessed lives.  May they all share eternal rest and have knowledge of our gratitude. 

Thank you for stopping by and for sharing your thoughts.

Namaste
Antonine