Category: Creativity


My Intro to Zentangle Art


I can’t believe that it has been nearly three years since I discovered the magic of Zentangle. A good friend of mine mentioned it as something he likes to do. He uses his designs in wood burning projects.  I started researching this form of art. Zentangle.com is the best starting place.

When I finally could afford it I bought the kit from the website. Here are some of the goodies in that cigar box kit.

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At the top of this picture is my little gold Zentangle drawing pad I found in the dollar bins at some store. This is what I try to organize the different designs that you can click on at the top of the Zentangle site organized in alphabetical order. As you can see there is a little chart that has 20 designs to choose from. That’s for the beginner who needs a little nudge to get started. The 20 sided die is to make the choice easier. There are the special pens and pencil and shadow-maker. There’s a CD to get you started and an instructional booklet to learn the first picture. Which you draw on the included little cards. Here is my first:

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As is my usual bent, I got into this Zentangle thing and made two more within a couple days.

20120311 DM Zentangle

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I don’t know why this last one ever got finished. I didn’t seem to shadow anything. But see those two teardrop shapes? I could never figure out how to deal with them. I think that was why I gave up on it. Now I like those white empty spaces so I think I will just shade here and there and start something new.

I haven’t done much since those projects except occasionally keep up my alphabet design book. Now that I have read those two books I reviewed yesterday I feel this art calling me. It’s time!


Zentangle Basics: Easy to Learn Zentangle Method. 12 Basic Elements of Fine Tangling Process and Art Mediation (Zentangle books, Zentangle basics books, Zentangle basics featuring ideas books,)Zentangle Basics: Easy to Learn Zentangle Method. 12 Basic Elements of Fine Tangling Process and Art Mediation by Leroy Barnes

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I have to admit that I have a bit of confusion going on here. I picked up two Zentangle books at the same time. One because it was free and the other because I could get it for free with Kindle Unlimited. This one was $2.99 last I looked. Though I got it for free through Kindle Unlimited. Now do I have you confused, too?

Either book is a good starting point for learning about the good that doing a bit of Zentangling can do for you. Both have written instructions for getting started. This one had fewer illustrations. Just as a hint of the type of designs that one can do simply even if you are not an artist. In fact, that is a point made in both books.

Both books are quick reads, even without pictures. And so I read them both yesterday one after the other.

Which one is best? The one with more pictures. But only because of that. I wish either of them had more visual instructions. Can you imagine being taught to draw without anything to look at to compare to? Yeah. Oh, some are upset about the size of the pictures. I found if I clicked on the tiny picture I can enlarge it to a satisfying size.

My advice? If you see these for free, grab ’em and read ’em. After that head over to Zentangle.com and play around that site. Then go check out the Youtubes that the site recommends. Pick up a Zentangle kit. I did and have loved working with it. One of these days, I will post some of my resulting tangles on my website: darsword.wordpress.com.

Now I am going to copy and paste this review into the other books review changing only the price range and a word or two here or there. Try Zentangling!

View all my reviews


Zentangle: Zentangle Art Basics: How to create beautiful patterns and shapesZentangle: Zentangle Art Basics: How to create beautiful patterns and shapes by Hailey Leman

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I have to admit that I have a bit of confusion going on here. I picked up two Zentangle books at the same time. One because it was free and the other because I could get it for free with Kindle Unlimited. This one was $2.99 last I looked. Though I got it for free. Now do I have you confused, too?

Either book is a good starting point for learning about the good that doing a bit of Zentangling can do for you. Both have written instructions for getting started. This one had a couple more illustrations. Just as a hint of the type of designs that one can do simply even if you are not an artist. In fact, that is a point made in both books.

Both books are quick reads, even without pictures. And so I read them both yesterday one after the other.

Which one is best? The one with more pictures. But only because of that. I wish either of them had more visual instructions. Can you imagine being taught to draw without anything to look at to compare to? Yeah. Oh, some are upset about the size of the pictures. I found if I clicked on the tiny picture I can enlarge it to a satisfying size.

My advice? If you see these for free, grab ’em and read ’em. After that head over to Zentangle.com and play around that site. Then go check out the Youtubes that the site recommends. Pick up a Zentangle kit. I did and have loved working with it. One of these days, I will post some of my resulting tangles here.

Now I am going to copy and paste this review into the other books review changing only the price range and a word or two here or there. Try Zentangling!

View all my reviews


Um, yeah. I have just gotten to the halfway point of the word count. I really should have worked the outline better. Still without one, I do like how the story is proceeding. Things have happened I didn’t expect and characters have evolved far differently than I imagined when I began. So even though I am not getting the cute dragon winner’s banner, I feel good for having a story to work on that I feel good about. I miss the days I could blast out a novel in the required 30 days, but many of those novels I wrote are not worth a lot. AND those quickies leave me with so much more work to do in the editing.

Meanwhile, I have still been reading a lot, so now I have a review to write. Heh!

Word Count: 22,860


So at this rate I will reach 50k around the 14th of December. The good news outside of small progress is that I found a new character to explore another world with. He is supposed to be the bad guy, but I feel sorry for him as he is left all alone on his planet with only a small catlike creature to keep him company. How can he be all bad if he is so sweet to the feline?


Shared on Reno group on FB: 20548 I am so disappointed. Yesterday I was able to use my Dragon to get a bit of wordage. I’m so stuck right now. Yep, all that went before was in the outline I worked on in October. Now… Admittedly, my fibro is kicking in worse with the weather changes, but those all nighters seem to be saved for reading. I don’t have the brain to write that time of night. So when I wake at 4 in the afternoon there is no day to write in. 😦 Sorry for the whine. I know I will catch up somehow.


Okay, yes, I’m a little behind. I’ve had a flare or two and couple bad nights of sleep. So hopefully I’ll catch up in the next couple days.

Word Count 15,444


Not bad but still not caught up. 1667 X 11 should equal 18,337. I’m 2,893 words behind. But I got 2,604 words today and I feel pretty good about that.

I have to name a horse who is sentient and wants a people name. She is wise and loving and always knows how to help. Suggestions?

Wordage Update


I can’t believe it! In spite of myself, I am still slightly ahead of where I should be. I have 10,709. The goal for the day is 10,002. So that’s good. The story is about to get very exciting as my two main characters are about to be shot at. But it is too late to get into that kind of scene and still be able to go to sleep sometime before 3AM.

I am always surprised at how much I love writing and watching a story unfold itself to me. The stories are almost more exciting than reading someone else’s stories—even better than a lot of TV shows. Most things I can predict where they are going. My own stories surprise me. It is like all I have to do is type and the story spills through.

Well, that’s how it starts. But I know that somewhere about week two and a half or three I will be screaming at the muse for deserting me and the story.

As for the word count. I don’t understand how some of the people in the groups are almost to the 50k within the first week. My fingers and arms would be falling off. Not to mention my head and eyes would be longing for the chopping block. But good for them. Glad they can do it. AND I am thankful for what I can get done.

Hope all of you are doing well with your projects.

Time for quietness. Good night.


8 Different Crochet Stitches: Learn to Crochet Something New with Free Crochet Patterns
8 Different Crochet Stitches: Learn to Crochet Something New with Free Crochet Patterns by Prime Publishing
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Here’s another one I picked up for free on Amazon. It is still free today. I love looking at the pictures on my tablet as they are very clear and I can see what the results should look like.

This isn’t a pattern book. If you are an experienced crocheter you have tons of patterns. This gives you stitches that you might include in your work. Some of them I knew, but could never find the pattern that included this stitch. Others were new to me. I can hardly wait to try them out!

If you like to crochet and need pictures to help you out, this is the book for you. Oh, and there are links to sites that will teach you more. This one is a keeper!

View all my reviews

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