Weekly Creative Roundup

Laura's Zentangle challenge this week was to use the official Zentangle pattern Tipple in your offering. Tipple is just lots of small circles or squished circles and a great space filler. So here's my Tipple offering, along with Paushalov and Pippin.

This week I've been noticing patterns everywhere. Here's a few I've spotted on a cushion in the back of a car, a drain cover and the interior of my rickshaw one morning on the way to work {Henna Drum, Bales-ish, and one that reminds me of W2}.

I had a revelation! I realised that I now had some white paint, so even though I never got my white Gelly Roll to work I could finally finish the Ebony and Ivory challenge! So here it is...

And I'm super happy with it. There's some Crescent Moon, Nzeppel, Kuke and Tripoli.

I've also finished a couple of backgrounds for some freehand mandalas I'm planning to do over the next week.

30 Days of Lists is back. This challenge rolls out every March and September. Super easy to do; just answer the daily prompt with a list! A great way to begin Journaling or for those who don't have much time. Then if you want to you share a pic of your journal page on one of the social networking platforms. Mine go on Instagram.

So after I made coconut milk last week I decided to use it in a Thai Green Curry. I used a bunch of not very Thai veggies... button mushrooms, baby corn, potato, pak choy, carrots, and peas. Then I cheated and bought a jar of green curry paste, as it's really hard to get some of the stuff you need for it.
It was yummy! But I forgot to take any photos. Next time... And there will definitely be a next time!

Happy creating... 

Claire 

Weekly Creative Round-up

After yet another crazy-busy week, I'm back again with my weekly update...
We'll kick off with The Diva's weekly Zentangle challenge. This week Laura asked us to keep the people of flood-hit Calgary in mind when creating a Zentangle or ZIA. Not just Calgary has been hit, but as K.N. Malathi and Dilip Patel have already shared, the region of Uttarakhand in India has been devastated by the 'Himalayan Tsunami' that hit on 17th June.

Today's newspaper shared the following figures:
822 people confirmed dead
4649 people missing
3978 villages affected by flash floods
600 villages still completely cut-off
1636 roads damaged
More than 500 roads totally washed away
Power and water supplies hit - many still not back to normal

On top of all this, more heavy rain during the last few days has further hampered the ongoing rescue attempt.

My thoughts and prayers are with all the people affected across the world. So keeping all those in mind, I created this ZIA.

Over on Chantelle's blog, Fat Mum Slim, the photo-a-day challenge continued with these prompts:
24. Negative space
25. Sharp
26. Empty {the biscuit tub}
27. Into the sun

28. Red {yummy plums}
29. In my bag {a pink, flowery umbrella to keep me dry during the monsoon}
30. Handwriting {a joint entry for ICAD and FMS}

As tomorrow brings a new month, here are the new FMS Photo-a-day prompts:

{cute}

In Tammy's Index Card a Day (IACD) challenge, I had great fun creating these entries:

This week I was also lucky to be able to attend a 2 day workshop on stress-free living. Sunil Pareikh of Rise 
Development Academy was a fantastic speaker and facilitator.

He took us through a series of sessions which helped us to pinpoint stressors in our work and personal lives, then demonstrated a set of tools and techniques to help us deal with stress - Tapping {also know as Emotional Freedom Technique}, Meditation, Visualisation, Power of the Mind, Positivity, The Law of Attraction, and Mirror Work. Along with other mindful activities such as Yoga and of course, Zentangle, I was aware of many of these techniques and concepts.

Several years ago I'd taken the first steps on my journey to a positive life when I bought The Success Principles by Jack Canfield with Janet Switzer. Since then I've read several books on the topic, including 'You Were Born Rich' by Bob Proctor, and 'Goals!' by Brian Tracy.

What was fantastic about the workshop was it brought many of these techniques to life for me, in a way that just reading about them was unable to do. I was especially surprised by the deep effect that the guided meditation sessions had on me, and intend to make meditation a daily habit now!

An app/website that will help me turn it into a daily habit - Lift - also wormed it's way into my consciousness this week. Pick the things you want to turn into habits and check-in every time you do them. Lift sends emails to reward and motivate you and keep you going.

Happy creating and positive thoughts!
Claire

Zendala Dare 48

Late again posting the Zendala Dare... The next one is probably out by now, but I just haven't had the time during the week for any tangling.

Erin's template this week was full of twisty circles.

I filled them with Yoga, Warped Eggs, Olb, Brax and Miander.


Happy tangling...
Claire

Zendala Dare 47 - Losing it...

So with this first of the month Zendala dare, Erin challenged us to lose part of this template, to ignore a section...

I chose to lose the middle section creating 4 separate parts for me to tangle.

I chose to use Bunzo, Shattuck (variation), Voga, Nzeppel, and Prestwood.

Happy tangling...
Claire

Zendala Dare 46

This week's template for the Zendala Dare reminds me of a jelly mould! 

And here is what I did with it!

I used a little Quandary, some Zedbra,  Bales, Tipple and Tripoli.

Happy tangling...
Claire

Zendala Dare 45

This was the template from Erin this week:

And I added a little Voga, Tipple, Crescent Moon and Quabog.

And here are a few of my recent Zentangles, including Practice, Dare 44, Snakes And some Love!

Happy tangling...
Claire

Zendala Dare 44

This week Erin gave us a square template for our Zendala...

I used a few new faves to fill it... Voga and Quandary, with a little Tipple.

Happy tangling...
Claire

Zendala Dare 43

As it's the first Saturday of the month, Erin set us the extra challenge of using tangles that make us feel like an artist!

Well for me that means Nzeppel has to be involved... This tile I drew made me feel really proud!

Bales and Sand Swirl are other favourites of mine, and this tile really made me feel like an artist!

So here's the template for the dare:

And here's my Zendala:

Happy tangling...
Claire

Zendala Dare 42

Although Erin had a busy week, she still found the time to post the template for this week's dare:

And super late, because I've had a crazy week too, here's my Zendala:

I used a few new favorites - Palrevo, Pais, Paizel and a little Zinger!

Happy tangling...
Claire

Zendala Dare 41

Erin's template for this week's dare is a complete contrast to the last one; a curvy, organic one compared to the angular, geometric feel of the last one.

And that's what I love about the dare, it pushes me out of my comfort zone and forces me to do things differently...

I also used a few tangles that were new to me and a few old favourites;
Olb, Nelumba, Warangie, Loblolly, Hekzee & Betweed.

Happy tangling...
Claire

Zendala Dare 40

This is the template for this week's dare:

And here's my completed Zendala:

I used Tripoli, Printemps, Pia, Tipple & Palrevo.

Can't wait for the next one!
Happy tangling...
Claire

Zendala Dare 39 - ZenDon't

As it's the first dare of the month (and 2013), it comes with an extra challenge from Erin.

With this template don't do whatever you normally do...

So here's what I chose not to do:
1. Don't use the template as it is - make changes
2. Don't make it symmetrical - this is REALLY hard to do!
3. Don't choose the patterns, select them at random (apart from Palrevo which I really wanted to try!)

And here's how it turned out:

I'm so pleased with this!

Tangles used Nzeppel, Chainging, Striping, Assunta, Braze, Drupe, Palrevo, Tripoli, Hurry, Squid, Keeko and Paradox


Happy tangling...
Claire

Zendala Dare 38

This was the template for the dare set by Erin this week:

And this is what I came up with:

Using Dyon, Miander, Rounded Flukes, Socc, Prestwood & Golven


Happy tangling...
Claire

Zendala Dare 37

This week's dare from Erin used this template:

And this is what I drew:

Tangles used: Florz, Nipa, Knightsbridge, Nekton, Coaster

Happy tangling...
Claire

Zendala Dare 36

Sooooo late on this dare, but a bad cough and cold, too much work and my daily Christmas Countdown slowed me down! So yes, I'm publishing this on Christmas Day, as I finally get some time to myself...

I liked the template as soon as I saw it:

And this is how it turned out:

I used the tangles Pooma, Fife, Diva Dance (Waltz), Socc and Sand Swirl.

Happy tangling...
Claire

8th December - Snowflake

So Erin's Zendala Dare this week challenged us to make a paper snowflake and use that as our template.

This fit perfectly with my Advent countdown, as I'd planned to draw snowflakes on the 8th!

In the Zendala I used these tangles:
Loblolly, Hurry, Khirkee, Shattuck, and Waft.

Here are a few more pics to show the process:

Happy tangling...
Claire

Zendala Dare 34

I'm a little late posting my response to last week's Zendala Dare. I've been tied up with my Advent tangling!

The template is quite a nice one:

The tangles I used are all new to me...  Loblolly, Bugles, Fungees, and Lanterns.

I think I should have avoided the colours though.

Happy tangling...
Claire