Combined Challenges: Diva and SuzyMosh

There are so many cool challenges out there. I found a new one, Daniel's Tangleation Vocation, that I want to start participating in, because of the emphasis on making a tangle pattern your own, by doing a tangleation of it. That just sounds like such a creative endeavor.

However, there are two that I go to week after week: The Diva Challenge, and SuzyMosh's That's New to Me challenge. And this week, I've done a ZIA combining both of these.

Laura Harms, aka The Diva, has presented us with this month's UMT by CZT Alice Hendon. The pattern is called All Boxed Up and as simple as it looks to do it, let me tell you, it is not. The really cool effects of diamonds within the boxes happens best with precision and shading. No matter what I did, it wasn't happening for me. My initial go at it was disappointing, as I added All Boxed Up to a piece I was working on, and a creation I was enjoying became a "meh" to me.

But I do like how the shading effects this pattern, and I made a real quick ATC on gray with gray shading and white highlights.

I added a square of Ambler in the middle, and then Dave Hunter's pattern putki in the lower right. This is fast becoming a favorite of mine. When all is said and done, I really like this one.

When I got home, I knew I wanted to 1) play with All Boxed Up some more and 2) see if I could put some elements of the SuzyMosh challenge into it.

SuzyMosh this week asked us to use A patterns (one rule: they must be new to me) and she added the delightful Margaret Bremner to the mix. The greatest thing about this challenge truly is that it brings new patterns to me, tangles that I've never encountered before, or maybe I've seen and practiced them once but never used them.

So I sat down to tangle and started with Meer. (a fleeting thought, to created a stacked tangle for the FB page came to mind, and quickly left...)

The treasure house of the deeps

The underside of the Meer was perfect to start a line of All Boxed Up, and I decided to play with it...wonky lines. Then it needed some round, so I did an onotmato and then another, and another! And, speaking of wonky, I crisscrossed them...that was fun. More All Boxed Up...then I wanted to find some A patterns which I did.

Antidots and Ansu are two that I've seen here and there. I've practiced Ansu, but never so much as laid pen to paper for Antidots, so I did a little corner of them there. See that? Aura'ed around them. Then Atorm, which is a big favorite of mine.

Now for a Bremner tangle...which I found and delighted in: Ionic.. Those are the curly bits along the bottom of the atorm and allboxedup, the top edge, and along the blue onomato.

Isn't this a charming tangle? Ionic. I added my own circley dots on them.

What a whimsical pattern, truly!

I finished up with beadlines and ribbons, then colored the onomatos in earth tones (and one blue) and did the shading. 

This one, I like a lot. 

The ATC may go to a co worker...maybe just leave it on someone's cubicle randomly.