Tangle challenges and turtles

I wanted to post my entry for challenge #145 from I am the diva, even though its way past due. It's from her nov 18th post but it took me til now to finish it. :) The challenge was to use the new official tangle "Quib." 

I'm also wicked into turtles lately, so I thought I'd post this sketch too. :)

I went on a crazy road trip in late October and I'll probably post some pictures from that in my next post. :)

Happy holidays!

Cape Cod

I went on an impromptu road trip this weekend to cape cod. Aaaaall the way to p-town, which I absolutely loved! The first thing I did was run to the ocean and put my feet in. The water was super warm, and I absolutely would have swam of there weren't sharks.

There was a gay couple getting married on the beach and it was so romantic. What a great thing to see! I saw them again later on in p-town riding one of those bike taxis with cans clattering behind and a giant "just married" sign. I can't lie, my heart was a bit jealous. :)

But that's ok, I got to see the sea! There is nothing more relaxing and centering than standing by the ocean. I loved all the cool places in p-town, and Wellfleet was beautiful. I wandered through so many cool shops there. such a creative looking town! All in all, I feel much better after my little solo trip. 

With pounds of chocolate, days at sea, and oodles of Zentangles, maybe I'll feel better. :)

Speaking of tangling, here's my Zentangle for the diva challenge this week. The prompt was to focus on borders... So here are my borders!

If you want to check out the Diva's other challenges, or see what others have done this week with borders, check her out here: I am the Diva

Diva Challenge #137

I am so excited for fall! I made myself a seasonal bucket list, a good friend added to it, and now I can't wait to start checking things off. I got my first one done yesterday, which was to kick up some leaves. If you haven't made seasonal bucket lists before, you should definitely try it! It's fun to come up with things to do, and it's kind of like a grown up scavenger hunt.

And here's my tangle for the diva challenge this week! The challenge was "Duotangle: Knights over Tipple". :)

If you want to check out the Diva's other challenges, or see what others have done this week with the Well pattern, check her out here: I am the Diva

Happy fall! Go kick up some leaves!

Diva Challenge #135

Oh look! I finally completed a diva challenge! AND posted it! Haha. Usually they just sit happily in my sketchbook. :) This one required the use of the new pattern "Well" from Rick and Maria. If you want to check out the Diva's other challenges, or see what others have done this week with the Well pattern, check her out here: I am the Diva

I used Well, along with Dragonair, filled with Helen Williams' Leaflet.

A funny thing happened when i was making this one too. I didn't set out with the intention of making any sort of emotional statement but when it was all done and I looked at it again I realized it was practically an allegory for how I've been feeling. The patterns "above" are all free, flowing and growing. Then there's a sort of window through which you can glimpse a bandaged underside. It's funny how I had forgotten how healing and revealing a Zentangle can be sometimes.  :)

Happy tangling everyone!

Sleigh Bells Ringing

Oh would you look at that! The holidays are back again! I once again created the necessary signage for our town's Festival of Trees and for the first year since helping out with this part of the project I have created the whole thing myself. The images are all painted in Photoshop by yours truly and the typography is mine as well. I'm no master typographer, but I think it's pretty good.

The bells turned out so well that I can't wait to do next years already. I am so ready for an artistic challenge. It's been a while since I've had a set goal for my artwork. It is surprisingly hard to look at a blank page and "create" without any guidelines or requests.

Another side effect of helping with this event is that I get to decorate my own tree with the theme of "Sleigh Bells" and I also get to assist in the decoration of the town hall itself. Now, we've been known to tackle some pretty hefty challenges to keep ourselves busy... a real gingerbread village modeled after our town and a Ski Slope made up of dozens of little clay figures and trees to list the most recent projects. What will we do this year you ask? Well you'll have to buy a ticket for the Preview Event to find out because I won't be posting pictures til after the fact. I'll say this much though, it will definitely jingle!