Snow and Lace

The nor'easter we were expecting was supposed to be lots of wind and rain in our area, but it seems to have shifted and we have over an inch of snow, and very little wind, so far.  I'm delighted to say our power is still with us, and it gave me a chance to scan a zendala I worked on a couple days ago. 

I used the brown pen for a sepia look and it did give a nice soft look. 

Celtic challenge 12

This one took some doing.  First I did the frame, which took time to get all those leaves and squiggles all the way around the frame.  Then I took a break and after lunch decided to add a picture to the frame.

I had downloaded a little instruction book on how to make cute fantasy birds, so I thought I'd give that a try and then surrounded him with fanciful plant-like zentangle patterns.  So here is the finished product.

Plates and the newest challenge 29..late!

Finally got around to taking pics of the two plates I had finished .  The zentangles usually fit into the scanner and that is so much easier than digging out the camera and then transferring over to the computer.  So large objects take a while to make it to the blog.

 I decided to fill the first plate all the way out to the edges and my daughter loved it.  So I did the same with the second.  The blue one was done while Storm Sandy was trying to do it's worst.  My little table I work on is in the south side of the house and gets the best light, so I could keep on working while it poured and blew outside and ripped down the power lines.

I like working on plates because they have such a finished solid feel... no frames and they sit anywhere in an easel or hang on the wall if you have one of those plate hanger things.

The blue is as close as I could get to the cobalt blue of soooooo many dish patterns.  That way this plate can blend right in!!

Then I finally got to doing my challenge for Bright Owl.  I hope she is catching her breath and able to play a bit real soon.  That new job is enough challenge for the moment, eh???

I worked some purple in with the black...actually quite a LOT of purple and a touch of black.  This time I started on the very outside pointy part, rather than starting with the middle and working my way out as I usually do.  I couldn't figure out what to do with this one.  But that little pointy thing said 'onion' to me so I dug in from that point.

And I love putting a pattern alllll the way around to pull it all together, and this one stumped me on that too.  So I started with a simple line and darned if I didn't stop right there!!!   That seemed to be just enough.

Found out I could push the colored pencil shading in the same way as a black pencil.  Didn't know if the color was soft enough to smudge, and got a nice surprise to see that it did.  Took a bit more push, but it worked.

Diva 93...on the late side this time.

Just got back onto the internet this morning, so I am late with my challenges.  We were without power from Mon to late Wen night.  And the internet didn't come on til Thurs late.  Not bad compared to the two bad storms last year.  One kept us out 6 days, the other 7.  REALLY miss my power when it's not here!!!! 
So. On to the Bonzo challenge.  This one is kinda squishy looking so I wanted to put it with similar soft edge patterns.  Hope this did the trick.  I also used my gray pen along with the black to give a new contrast that I haven't tried before.  I think I like it.  The grey goes with the softer look to make that black really stand out but not be blinding to the eye.

I did this on a 5 x 7 as I usually do.  I can't seem to see the little tiles as well since the cataract surgery is only half done.  (other half November 29)  Thought I'd mention it, as this one certainly doesn't look square......lol  My 70 year-old eyes really prefer the larger sizes anyway.  And I have more room to play!!

Updated Zendala

I finally got to mounting some of my work with the possible use in  My Etsy shop. I had just added a spot of color and decided it needed more. So more yellow went on and then I backed it with a yellow mat board and some perky green paper. Then I ghosted the pattern onto the mat to fill in that little bit of empty space. Better than it was all by itself,I hope.

BEFORE

AFTER

Did the same with this one that had the little pattern that looked like pussy willows.  Pink seemed like the perfect touch for this one. 

BEFORE

AFTER

Zendala 28 challenge

Still haven't gotten my pen order, so here we go with color again.  Decided to use the blue and hunt for all the designs that reminded me of 'ocean' .  Then decided it really needed a touch of some other color.  The darker blue didn't seem right, nor purple this time.  Finally went with a green.  I think I like it with green, as it reminded me of plant life living in that water.  Kelp, stuff like that!

Diva Challenge 92

My darned micron 5 pen is quite drying out, so I decided to go with my color pens and do this stripes string in two colors.  I have an order on the way with new pens, but this made me go for something different, and that is usually a good thing.  Creatively....

Went for brown and orange for an 'autumn' look, but it came out just- different.  Maybe I needed a bit of yellow or something.  It comes out very bold when you use pens that have so much flow to them.
Don't hesitate for even a sec or you get toooooo much color!

I can tell I'm feeling much better, 'cause I want to get to work on my NEXT challenge waiting to be done!!!

Celtic Knot 10

Whew, it feels good to be drawing again.  For the last couple days I kept it to just copying patterns, as I was still a bit shaky from that bad dizzy thing.  Started this challenge last night in hopes it would still look good this morning, and it seemed okay so I kept on going. 
The circle in the middle called for friends, so I took my mug and traced it two buddies on each end.  White space is good, but in limited amounts...lol

Bad Middle ear

Haven't done much of anything this last week, as I have an ear condition that pops up every so often.  This last Wednesday it came on with a Tsunami effect.  I mentioned that cataract surgery two weeks before.  Well I think that set it off because they drop you almost upside down to work on your eye.  So my ears were not at all happy with that. 
Therefore, Dizzzzzzzzy came on that Wednesday morn, and I couldn't move without waves of nausea and dizzy comin on.   Finally got help from the Doc and I'm fairly okay at this point.  
But it does make it difficult to draw.....lol

So I will be late with challenges.  But just before it hit, I was working on a possible note card design.  It came out kinda cute so here it is.

Diva challenge 91

Broken Beads seems like a good name for this.  I wanted to try white on black and was disappointed  in a pen I had gotten, but today I tried my white pencil just to see, and LO --it showed up pretty well.  So here are my beads in white on the black background.  I don't think this is a favorite, but it fit the challenge. 

Must have had it in the scanner at a tilt.  I didn't mean for this to be, but it does make the pile look more 'broken'. 
Here's hoping these broken beads can be reused for Beads of Courage and mean something special. 

Zendala Challenge 27

I almost forgot to grab this zendala to do...I feel like I'm late, as there were quite a few already done when I saved the template to do.  I resisted looking at any others, as I thought this one looked like easy fun. 

Now I'm not so sure 'easy' fits as I picked time-consuming patterns, but it was FUN.  Couldn't resist that little dot of yellow in the daisies...lol

Celtic challenge 9

Working on my second challenge today.  This one from bright owl says use 3 new patterns, so I went to tanglepatterns.com and punched in 'C' for Cathy and started copying all the patterns there that I had not put in my notes yet.  From there I fell in love with the catkin tangle.  I love pussy willows and this is just that.  So it became the focus of the celtic knot. 

The cord winding around the outer edge is new, and the very tiny edge at the furthest out is part of a new pattern.  Then the little scoops have another two new patterns.  I think that covers the challenge for me.  I really like the lacey results.  Trying to decide if I should add a bit of soft color or leave it alone. 

Diva string01 challenge

Almost forgot about this one.  Had fun using my purple pen and fought with myself to keep it simple.  I wanted sooo bad to fill in more of the white area, but I feared it would take away from the main coil of ribbon vine.  So there you have it!

Zendala Autumn 26

Had fun with pencils, pens, and microns to get this put together.  I've always wanted to do that paradox thing over and over, but never found the right place to do it..... til this template.  That star just said it needed the same pattern, not many different ones.  And ORANGE was necessary for the autumn theme.

 It took a bit of thinking to come up with something other than the usual corn and pumpkins for the 'tiles' around the edge. I wanted to have somewhat of a zentangle pattern involved, rather than just drawing corn.  Then I thought of the tiny seed-like pattern that looked like corn kernels, and the round shape we use for puffs that would look like apples if they were red.  And I had just come across 'kisses' from 'a little lime' that looked like acorns if you turned them upside down... and I was off and running.  Butternut squash is a fav veggie for me and the colors worked, and then I finally added pumpkins.  There---tiles all the way around! Hope you like it too.

Diva umt 89 number two

As I admired everyone else's  work with the sankegg I realized I had forgotten the way they were supposed to stack and have a 'back' to them.  So I gave it a quick try in a more organic style.  I like this one better even tho it took a lot less time.

Diva Sankegg 89

My eyes have adjusted somewhat, and I miss drawing, so I gave this one a try.  I'm proud to say the template is my OWN.  I had fun trying to come up with something in my paint program and this was the closest to a mandala I could get...LOL

I have also gotten some new color pens from Michaels and wanted to give them a try.  The sankegg is very small and it was a pain to make it look even a little good.  I must admit I don't like this one. 
But at least I'm in the challenge...

The REAL Celtic Knot 8

I guess I mis-read the number last week.  This week is number eight and I am giving it a try with a handicap.
 Just got my first eye cataract surgery and can see with one very good eye and one still very bad eye.  They gave me 'reading' glasses to help and they do somewhat.  But I feel off kilter in spite of being ecstatic about seeing soooooooo well out of the new eye.  I won't need glasses after about 65 years of having to wear them all the time. 

In two weeks they do the other eye, and then I hope I will feel more balanced.  I even feel like I am walking akwardly!  

So with all that said....here is my celtic knot.  I used my new color pens and tried for autumn shades.  And I remembered we were supposed to use leaves in the pattern.  I also used some scrapbook pattern paper, as someone else mentioned their use of it and a lightbulb went off. I had some of that stuff and it sounded like a fun idea. 

It is not my best work, but it gave me something to do and a chance to experiment with the new pens and paper.  Hope you like it.

Zendala Challenge 25

This was a fun one!!  I had to start a second one, because I missed the fact that there were threeeeee different size triangles, not two.  So I put my pattern in the wrong one as I went around the circle. 

Next try, I got it right and went searching thru patterns to see what would work well starting small at the bottom of the triangle and get bigger as it went up.  I think I found pretty good ones, but this challenge took forever the way I chose to do it.  Lots of detail, then shading , then trying to decide what to put on the very outside edge. 

Took a break and went looking at whatever work had arrived at the bright owl's page.  Well, they were great, but I heard the same mumble on many of them.  It was a HARD one to figure out in most cases.  And I stole the idea of a ribbon around the outside edge.  Already forgot who did it, but thanks for the inspiration.  Gotta practice it some more 'cause yours looked much better than mine......lol

Celtic Knot challenge 8

Not sure I should have colored this.....but it seemed to look exotic Indian to me and needed jewel colors.  I meant to look flowery but it took off with a mind of its own!

Back to black and white

After all that coloring, I went back to basics the last couple days.  Drew a simple snail and put him in a magical garden.

Then I tackled another fun zendala, and called it lacy.

Last I did a true zentangle, with the pencil string to get me started. I wanted to go somewhat industrial to get away from the flowery fun I have done on the last few. 

I just realized after this uploaded it came thru the scanner upside down.  But they are supposed to be viewed in any direction, so we'll see if this flies.