Month: December 2016

Merry!?…Happy?!…Whew!

~ CharkatTangles ~ 16 Comments

Needless to say, I am feeling a little behind this holiday season. Evidence points to the fact that while I generally have finished my Christmas shopping (always before Thanksgiving!) and the decorations are up and the house looks mighty festive…the packages are not wrapped, and things have not been mailed. But, in my defense, I was a bit under the weather for about a week, and that set me behind. And, I have been a bit busy at the shop (which is a good thing.)

I started doing the Diva Challenge at #161. Now that we are at #297, that seems like such an age ago. I had already done 2 of the past Christmas Challenges…so I filled in the rest for this weeks Challenge – Holiday Bash. So here, is a recap:

Diva #1 was Simiplicity. What better way to show simple and Christmas than a white ornament tangled in the basic tangles in black. Although it did need a bit of bling with the glitter glue (and that was mostly to hide a weird glue incident when I used the wrong glue to stick the sides together.) I glued 2 pennies in the middle for weight.

Diva #52 was “Give”. I cut out a hole lot of stars based on Cris Letourneau’s Star pattern, to attach to cards and gifts this year. They are super quick to tangle up, especially when I cut and pre-scored them with my Brother Scan n Cut 2.

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Diva #100 was New Tangles and A Diva Dance. While Diva Dance isn’t a new tangle anymore, it surely does make a great tree base in my card with a quilled angel and gothic calligraphy lettering. I am still working on my calligraphy skills…

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Diva #148 was Merry Happy. Celebrate the season in  your own way. I found a cute set of metallic pens at Daiso (Japanese discount stores where everything is $1.50) so I decided to give them a try. 8 colors, but they didn’t really look different on the black paper I tried, but they looked festive in a Squid nonetheless. Hard to tell that is a lot of different colors on the scan, in person it is pretty subtle as well.

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I also realized while I was writing this, that I had not completed Diva #198 “Keep It Simple”. I guess that gives me something to do this week! (Brilliant)

We had some fun classes this past week…starting last Saturday with an Ornament Extravaganza. We did 4 different ornaments and folded the Zendala gift box for later tangling.

A festive Zentangle 101 class with bonus Crescent Moon study at the end:

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And tangled on paper bags in tribal styles on Thursday:

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On Monday, we had our annual San Diego/SoCal Friendship Group Christmas meeting, where Wendy Gray led us in the making of this lovely lotus fold “Squash Book” to hold Zentangle tiles. It was a lot of fun!

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I am working on the January Schedule today, so that should be up by Monday. If you are in the area, be sure to come hang out tonite and art to your hearts content. Open studio from 4-9 ($5 drop in fee). Bring whatever you are working on, and have some festive cheer!

If I don’t post nest week, Merry Christmas, and Happiest of Holidays to you and yours!

Maximum Effort

~ CharkatTangles ~ 5 Comments

I try to do the Diva Challenge every week. I have been pretty consistent since #168 when I started. I am missing one at this time, but I’ll probably cover it soon to add to my files. I’ve even thought of going back to the beginning and doing those as well.

Use My Tangles (UMTs) are usually the most challenging for me. I tend to be a little selective in the tangles I choose, and sometimes I drag my feet a little when trying something new. And sometimes…I put so little effort into it, I am just disappointed in myself for not trying harder.

This was the case in my first pass this week at Diva #296 – UMT Moowa by Anya Ipsen, CZT. It is not a tangle I would gravitate to, normally, but then again, the Diva CHALLENGES us to push our comfort zones at times, so I gave it a try…with really minimal effort.

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Needless to say, I was really disappointed with myself over that. I did not beat myself up, but I know I can do better. So I pulled out my little black journal I purchased in Venice, and gave it another try, with more concentrated effort. I felt the pen on the paper. I made the fill work for me. And I felt a *LOT* better about my finished product.

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So, I guess my point in all this is, if you are going to do it, put some effort behind it. Do not just cop out and go through the motions. It will be worth it in the long run.