A NEW Zentangle Class!

The first Zentangle® class was such a great success, we're gonna do a new one! Here are the details. I will post pictures soon and update you when this happens, but since all things Zentangle at The Occasional Artist and filling up and selling out like crazy right now, I wanted to give you all a heads up as soon as I could.

Zentangles for Greeting Cards $30  
Saturday, December 15, 2012
10am-1pm

Students should bring: 1 or more Black Micron pens size 01 or whatever size you prefer, a tortillion (paper stump) #2 or softer pencil (not a mechanical pencil) and one adhesive of your choice: Elmer's or any white glue, tape runner, glue stick, whichever you prefer. These items are available for purchase at the store (or me at classtime, in the event they sell out at the last minute, since Zentangle items are selling like hot cakes there right now).

Materials Provided by Teacher: handouts, Zentangle tiles, paper, takehome handouts with directions for each tangle, greeting cards and envelopes
You will be given enough supplies to make 6 cards, and we will complete at least 4 cards and envelopes in class, more if time allows. If you prefer to use your completed zentangles/zendalas for something other than greeting cards, no problem. Keep the card supplies anyway! Plus we will be working on different tangles than we did in Zentangle 1. Zentangle 1 is not a prerequisite for this class. Everyone is welcome to sign up.

In case you missed Zentangle 1 and still want to take it on Saturday, November 17. More details in the sidebar to your left.

Zentangle classes are taught at 
The Occasional Artist
7150 North 57th Dr. Glendale, AZ 
(623) 847-2215  
Please call the store to register for classes. 

Zentangle Class and Calendar Update

Sadly, all the calendars were sold at my Zentangle class today, so I have no more for sale.
I am sorry I didn't take my camera along to take pictures of the ladies' work in our Zentangle® class today. They were amazing and one of the nicest groups ever! Thanks, Girls! I hope to have different zentangle classes on the schedule soon. We were on such good behavior, we were invited back!
The November class, a repeat of today's class, still has a few spots open, if anyone wants to take it next time. I'm betting it will be another fabulous bunch! Details are in the sidebar to the left.

A Zentangle calendar? What?

tangle-a-day 2013 calendar

I got my calendar in the mail and am over. the. top. happy. about it! CZT Carole Ohl did an amazing job designing this, and I can't wait to get started filling it up! I am in the process of completing a book with a monotangle of every official zentangle® tangle and am 9 tiles away from being done. When that happens, I plan to go to town on this baby. I have two calendars for myself, one to get moving on now and one to do a square a day in 2013.  This 2013 calendar was designed for tangling, but I could use it in so many different ways including zentangles, doodles, drawings, quotes, anything I want to collect or do one day at a time. The paper is close to the color of the official Zentangle® tiles and has been tangler tested to make sure a Micron pen does not bleed through the paper when tangling. Most other pens outside of a Sharpie work well, too. I know because my super zentangle buddy, Alice, tested a bunch and showed me evidence. Thanks, Alice! It has beautiful illustrations in open spaces at the end of each set of squares for a month since each month begins on the left side of a brand new page.
There is a 2.5" blank square block for every single day of the year for you to tangle on, and it also includes a full month calendar at the start of each month which can be tangled on as well.

Here are a few ideas Carole has for using the calendar. My favorite is her first idea because you could use the calendar as a showcase of all the tangles you know, kind of like a tangle portfolio. That is exactly what I would have done with one, had I had the idea before I started my book.
• Practice a different tangle in each box.
• Pencil a string through all the boxes (or beyond the boxes).
• Use the numbers as a string and tangle inside or outside of them.
• Practice the same tangle in each box for a whole week (or even a month!).
• Make notes about your Zentangle process.
• Use it to play with CZT Laura Harms’ Weekly Challenge (www.iamthedivaczt.blogspot.com)

I also think it would be fun to do a different monotangle square each day across a two page spread until the last square and then use it to do a zentangle that is a combination of all the squares used on the previous monotangles! I think it would be fun to get together with friends from time to time to do a sharing meeting and show our progress in them. If you have one, I would love to see what you do whether you live close by or not!

For Artoo!

I have a little confession, just in case you haven't noticed. Zentangles are taking over a large amount of my free time. Today's photo is a tile I completed as part of a weekly challenge I am participating in. It is hostessed by another fellow CZT. You can read all about it here. This tile is dedicated to her adorable and clothes rockin' little man named Artoo!

Ganesha Calling Project

One of my fellow CZTs, Dilip, who was trained in Providence when I was but who lives in India, has requested that others contribute to a special project he is doing. He needs 100 Ganeshas before December 31st. You can read more about it here: http://thingsoftenspeaktome.blogspot.in/p/zentangle-ganesha-calling.htmlhttp://thingsoftenspeaktome.blogspot.in/p/zentangle-ganesha-calling.html
This is my contribution.

More Zentangles

Well. My computer was giving me fits on the last post and doing all sorts of tricks I have never seen before. Ghost? So I decided to just start a new post and see if that would do the trick. Ghost. Trick. 'Tis the season, right? Anyway, here are more of my zentangles, starting with more spaces that started the same followed by borders. Borders and stripes are another favorite for me. I have pages and pages and more pages that are bordered in different ways with tangles. They would be perfect for cards or stationery or signs. I had so many that for practice, I just started doing stacks of them.

Playing with Tangles

 I have been getting enough feedback from a variety of sources asking me more about what "those things" (zentangles) are on Pinterest : ), what I am doing in my book or other similar questions, so I decided to post some more pictures of my own work including my first submission for the Diva's Weekly Challenge. The first photo shows what I did for the challenge for which all participants were asked to begin with the same string. I do admit it has been a little spooky around here getting the house fixed up with seasonal stuff, and that along with playing with negative space inspired my entry. I was working away on my Zentangle, when I "saw a ghost" so I just decided to run with it. It is what it is. Not my usual stuff, but fun anyway. It would be fun for a Halloween card.

I have to say that I think the mandalas turned into zendalas are my favorite ones to do.
The next ones are related in that each set started off the same blank space before I filled it in. I like playing to see different ways to fill identical areas.

I will be doing another post very soon with more samples of my work.