Less Is More N° 145

Date: 09 November 2013 15:54:20

This week's challenge is a one layer card, with the theme of a Thank You card... and as soon as I saw the theme I knew what I wanted to do. I have been very taken with Zentangling recently. This is a type of doodle that I have been doing on and off for years - I used to do it during rehearsals when I did amateur dramatics...I have a script which I doodled (or, as I have now discovered, "zentangled" !) over the entire cover of. It was a script for "Ophelia" by Bryony Lavery, I think...

I was in a really b-o-r-i-n-g and tedious AGM this morning, so I started zentangling in my notebook. At the end the woman who had been sitting next to me asked if she could see it, and another woman asked if she could have the page! One said she would like it as a picture on her wall, and others suggested I put some zentangles on cards to sell...Well, I had been thinking about it!

Recently, zentangling has become "officialised", if you like, with named patterns, and clubs, and entire blogs dedicated to zentangling, and even teachers taking courses in zentangling. And for all these years, I thought I was just doodling!

Since my "Opening Doors" course in September, Ange has been encouraging us to try to take time for ourselves, to do something we enjoy, to take a moment to breath. I find that zentangling really helps me to relax, to empty my mind and to concentrate on something while also being concentrated on myself. Sometimes I listen to music, sometimes I don't...but I have found this a brilliant way to spend time for myself and with myself.

Here are two of my designs:

and

Sorry they're such rubbish photos - if you click on them you can see them better, & they look better too!! Here's a close up of the circles:

I knew I wanted to send a Thank You card to Ange - I need to send her a cheque (it's coming, Ange, honestly!) - and as the zentangles have featured so heavily in my Opening Doors time, I thought zentangling was the right thing to do.

One of the inspiration cards by Chrissie also featured zentangling - and I thought I was being so original! - but no matter, here is my effort (another bad photo...I really need to improve!):

What do you think?