Zentangle Challenge - Fairyland

Once upon a time I was an avid reader of fairy tales. I would wander the library in search of all things magical and extraordinary. I read fairy tale stories of every color. The Blue Fairy Book, the Red Fairy Book etc. Do you know you can download the whole spectrum (all 12) as e-books for virtually free. They are classics. As are their themes. Good vs. evil. It never gets old and it is never not true.

In fairyland good always triumphs over evil. Not always so here in the real world. But the lessons we learned in those stores apply here as well. Hereos never give up and tomorrow is another day. Giants are meant to be faced down and overcome. A handful of fast friends and family will see us through the journey. There is a higher power watching over us. Beauty is all around us and yes, there really is a happily ever after.

Zentangle Challenge - Initialize

This weeks challenge at the Diva blog was a guest challenge by Christina Vandervlist. She is expanding on the string theory by asking us to use our initials as a string. This challenge was a lot of fun. I had a little trouble getting a D and a T to work well together. One is so fat, and the other so thin but I finally came up with something with which I was happy.

I think the idea of initials or monograms could make nice personalized cards or t-shirts. Here is one I had made previously based on the letters of our high school here in Benson. BHS - Benson High School.

Happy Tangling!

Zentangle Challenge - Creative Genesis

Guest challenger Sue Jacobs, CZT has expanded once again on the string theory challenge. And rightly so since drawing a fresh, new string for each tangle can be a challenge in itself. I read that the inspiration for the "string" in drawing a Zentangle is just that. If you held a string in your hand and dropped it on your tile and drew the lines in with pencil you would have a design to start your tangle off. And so Sue's challenge is to tie a weight to a string, drop the string onto your tile and trace the resulting lines onto the tile. Surprisingly this seems to generate a lot of "strings" which look like the ones I draw for myself. Very loopy. However, the challenge has a nice randomness about it and was fun to do.

Rain, Rain, Gone Away

This picture pretty much sums up how I feel now that the sun is out and the rain has stopped. Here's hoping it will be a long running weather trend, like for the rest of what is left of summer!

However, rainy days serve their purpose, and when it poured this past weekend I took the opportunity to clean house and sew, neither of which I confess I am inclined to do too often. However, these little fabric postcards were such fun I may be at my sewing machine awhile yet.

Three events facilitated the making of these little art cards. First, a good friend had recently donated a couple of boxes of upholstery samples to me and I have been looking for a way to use them since. Second, I received the new issue of Cloth, Paper and Scissors, a mixed media magazine full of fun and inpiration. It was all about fabric and sewing, with a couple of cool projects I want to try. And thirdly, a discussion arose with another friend on printing photos onto fabric. I have been wanting to try a few products and methods for this because I was always dissatisfied with the iron on transfers of old.

Put all this together and you have a recipe for fabric postcards.

Fabric postcards were begun by quilters as small mini-quilt projects. They are fun to make and, yes, they are mailable. You can find detailed directions and techniques here. The minimum card and letter size for US Postal Service mailings is 3-1/2" x 5". Most fabric postcards made measure 4" x 6" and can be mailed using one self-adhesive first class stamp. Keep fabric postcards 1/8" or less thick to stay within weight limits; cards over 1/4" thick require an extra fee for their depth and will weigh more. You can make cards that are larger and heavier, but postage will be higher.

Depending on the fabric and the backing used you may need a filler layer for sturdiness. One of the reasons I love using the upholstery samples is that they are thick and sturdy in and of themselves. I cut them out as 4"x6" rectangles, sew on collaged layers of fabrics and ribbons, sew on a picture printed or stamped on fabric, and tightly zig zag the whole piece to a Tyvek backing. Tyvek is strong, can be altered by painting or drawing, is easily written or printed onto, and is sewable.You can find templates for postcard backs or real vintage postcard back images free on the internet.
You are only limited in your creativity by your craft stash and your imagination!

Zentangle Challenge - Zendala

I have always loved mandalas. They remind me of kaliedescopes in a way and I have always been fascinated by the ever-changing designs of those magical devices. I had seen the tangled mandalas or "Zendalas" on flickr and other sites but had yet to try one. So this challenge seemed like just the time to try my hand at one and the bonus was I didn't even have to come up with my own zendala string. Yea!
I am posting two versions - one the traditional black and white and another in color. I actually did the color version first, the zendala just seemed to lend itself to color especially well. Back to that love of kaliediscopes I imagine. The tricky thing for me was to not just keep repeating the same things over and over as I moved around the circle. I tried to mix it up a bit as I moved away from the center. I found if I broke the spaces up smaller and smaller then things were more interesting.
Another thing I did not do this challenge is view any other zendalas before I tackled my own. Often I am so excited by a new challenge and the fact that many other tangler's out there post so quickly that I jump right in and look at the "early bird" posts. I resisted this time so that I would be working on my own Zendalas with no outside influence or ideas. So after posting tonight I am off to the Diva's blog to see all the wonderful work by so many other talented tanglers!
Here is the link to the mandala template from Genevieve Crabe, who was the guest tangle challenger this week at the Diva's blog. It was easy to download and I printed it out directly to cardstock which I then drew on right away. I would love to do more of the Zendala's and am open to any suggestions on ways to make the "string." One good idea I have seen is to use an apple corer as a template maker. This kitchen tool has possiblities! Any other good ideas out there?

The Mail

Checking our mailbox in America has become a singularly boring and depressing experience. Letters and cards from loved ones have turned into emails and facebook posts, packages have become our own internet purchases and there are virtually no surprises in store. Most of what shows up in my mailbox are bills, junkmail and letters from the school. The United States Post Office is floundering in the wake of electronic communication and online billpay.
There is, however, an answer. Mail art! There is nothing I love more than the expectation of art coming in the mail. Many artists and groups online participate in mail art swaps. Not only do you get a little piece of someone else's art, get to interact with people all over the world, but you can once again look forward to your mail! If you have not joined a swap group online I highly recommend it. It helps me to focus by giving me a specific assignment and goal, keeps me on task through mail deadlines, enables me to try new techniques and projects and gives me a look at others people's creative ideas. It reminds me a lot of  being  back in the classroom without all the stress of grades, criticism, and failures.
You can find many online art groups through Yahoo. There are also online websites dedicated to mail art. Two of my favorites are Red Lead Swap Sisters on Yahoo and artfortytwo.org. The swaps are varied in project and media. I have swapped everything from dottee dolls to artist trading cards (the most popular art swap). People swap craft supplies, cards, paper dolls, art dolls, chuncky pages, inches, twinchies, mini albums, mini zines, altered books, tag art, envies and ATC's. If any of these terms are Greek to you then jump into the wonderful workl of mail ar. So be creative, support your local post office and for goodness sake begin to look forward to your mail again

Zentangle Challenge - String Theory

It has been dreary and rainy in Minnesota for what seems like "foreeever!" now. Well, if we can't get out we can at least tangle. This week's Diva challenge was for all of us to use the same string for our tangle. I am really looking forward to seeing the results. There have been challenges where we all used the same patterns before but this will ensure we are all coming from the same starting place. Where we go and how we get there after that will be exciting to see!

Even if we all used the same string and patterns in the same places on the tile I'm still willing to bet they would all be unique and different. Each person's individual style would come through I'm sure. Even using the same elements I believe everyone would put there own spin on it. As I am sure we shall see in next week's slideshow. Thanks for a great challenge Laura!