Last and Next

And so we've come a full circle again. Where to from now? Every Inchie Monday says Next.

And here are the 52 weeks of inchies throughout 2015:

As I am saying goodbye to 2015, I am saying a temporary "see you later" to my beloved inchie blog. Trillion, crafter mates, thank you for our awesome time together.

It's a "see you later" because I want to go for a bigger format next year. I will concentrate on ATC's and tags. As nothing is permanent, after a year, I might come back. Nothing, however, is keeping us from staying in touch. See you soon.

Moo Mania & More, as their last theme for the year, have Anything Goes. 2015 started off with 'anything goes'. We come full circle. So my final Moo is a withered version of my very first Moo, which you can see here. Seeing out the old 2015. See you later, Moo mates. I may make the occasional comeback, as I know you welcome other formats.
Here are the 26 Moo's. These are also my paydays :) I see money in the bank in the morning a a new Moo theme in the afternoon. May money appear in my bank account every time Moo Mania & More publish a post  :)

Here's the detail:

See you in the leap year.

Happy 2016!

And so it goes........

The second last EIM word for the year is Evolution. I am on the verge of the last phase of this evolutionary scale  :)

Moo Mania & More have Christmas as the theme this fortnight. Being Jewish, this is how I celebrate this holiday:

And some more practice on my iPad:

Oil paint effect

Another attempt at gem effect

And, again, gem effect

Zentagle

The drawing is completely mine. Materials used:  Smooth drawing paper, inking pen, gel pen graphite and colour pencils, markers, stump and tortillion, oil paints & brushes, palette for colour mixing. eraser. None of these materials used specifically here exist in the physical world, only on my iPad.

Locomotive and a chain of other stuff

Locomotive is the keyword on EIM this week. Here is a locomotive road sign.

I am joining Wicked Wednesday ATC challenge this week. Their topic is "Add Antlers". Mine is a Hannukah deer, with 9 candles.

As per the last Diva challenge for the year, here is a gift of zentangle to myself - my iPad Pro with the magic Apple pencil. All drawing is completely electronic, done on my new iPad using the Apple pencil.
Doesn't matter that the lines are awkward and wonky. I am learning how to hold this pencil, how the art program operates.

And an attempt at a water drop on the iPad:

And my first attempt at gem effects........   all still on the iPad. Everything below the deer is done completely electronically.

My second gem attempt:

I'm in Love!

Not so pretty, a bit awkward and totally, completely electronic.
I got the iPad Pro together with the Apple pencil. This is my very first attempt - for the Diva challenge 247.

Here are some more attempts:

I'm off to get the pro version of this art app.

Aqua Angel and Other Favourites

This week's word on EIM is Angel. I have angel fish.

2mm (0.08") quilling strips

Moo Mania & More issued a really weird topic (at least weird to me) this fortnight  -  Favourite Stamps or Images. I couldn't get my head around this one for ages. Then my husband said:  "Do our blog's initials". To explain the seemingly weird name behind this blog:

About 3 years ago, some bright spark at the corporation where I work, decided it a clever idea to give us all 'working style personality' tests. Why just not just give us a pay rise than spend money on this garbage?

Anyway, I rang my husband from work and we did this electronic test together over the phone. Basically, the answers are selected in the shape of a Christmas tree as you go down the page. Anyway......    the resulting verdict is - I am a 'specialist'. Well......     we are a specialist together. The 'my' component of MySpecialist is actually a transcription of the Russian word for 'we'. And that's how we muck around together on this blog - my husband comes up with all the ideas and I make the stuff.

So here we are, MS:

Tea with Layers

The last EIM word in November is Tea. I drew a samovar - a Russian contraption for making tea.

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Moo Mania & More have Lots of Layers as homework this fortnight. We happen to be a multilayered society.

Sorry for hardly commenting last week. Out of sorts, but working on it. Anyway, you all know I love your work.

Crochet

This week it's Crochet on EIM. So far, that was probably the toughest inchies to think of. I kept coming back to my aunt Yudif, who is a maniac crocheist (crocheter?).  I don't happen to have any samples of her work on hand to show, so I will just put her name into my hall of fame.

Exotic alright

Every Inchie Monday is fantastically clever. Exotic is the key word for the week. It's exotic for a start, as it does not follow the last letter of the previous word (which was Nymph, so this week had to start with H). And the other thought that came to mind is the star-nosed mole. Have a look at pics here, or google him. What else will life think of?! Who walks around with a nose like that?! Til I discovered the star nose, our animals were the coolest in the world. They still are, but just look at that star nose!

Moo Mania & More have Crowns as the keyword this fortnight. I have a miniature version of my winning piece from last year. This is St. Edward's crown stuck on a moo.

And now I have a good excuse to show off once again my winning glory at the 2014 Royal Melbourne show - see here and here.

Nymph

Nymph is the word on Every Inchie Monday this week. I have Lady of the Lake with Excalibur from the Arthurian legends. At first I hated it and had to think of another idea for nymph. Then I saw the photo and thought "leave it in, couldn't be bothered". So here it is:

Gourdgeous

Love this new tangle, must practice ad-nauseam. Can't wait to see everyone's interpretation in Diva Challenge 242.

Emotion

EIM's keyword this week is Emotion. This painting has continued to impress me with the same intensity as when I first discovered it, aged 14 or 15. Not many things scream emotion like this does.
Also, tomorrow, Nov 3 is Melbourne Cup Day. While I am not complaining about having a paid day off, I am screaming about all the horses that are killed and maimed each year at this race. I would give up this public holiday (and demand they bring back Easter Tuesday and Melbourne Show Day back as public holidays), if they stopped abusing horses.
So here is my arrrrrrrrgh:

Texture

Every Inchie Monday's keyword for this week is Texture. I have a simple inchie display of a couple of textured papers. Simple, but nice, aren't they?

Various Autumn Moods

And it's not even autumn here  :)

For the Diva challenge, which requires leaves this week, I found the perfect background:

Do you know what the leaf is  -  an ad from a real estate agency that was left in my mailbox. The reverse is disgusting with all the contact and show off detail.

Then I just went for it with other tiles. Another autumn look:

The above tiles, as well the Moo below all qualify to make an appearance on Moo Mania & More, where the challenge this fortnight is Autumn Mood.

And here are the other tiles:

Who's done this?

Have you ever had a yogurt mask? I don't think I have. My inchie is having one this week, as that is the homework on Every Inchie Monday - Yogurt.

Munchin

is the tangle to try on Diva Weekly Challenge #239. I am on a grey kick at the moment, trying out Strathmore toned grey artist cards.

Stuff

Finally finished tangling for the calendar I'm preparing as a gift for 2016. Here is the 12th page using Tri-Bee (among other patterns), as per the Diva's weekly challenge:

I adoooooooore quilled keys. Love this week's EIM topic - Key! You should check out Ann Martin's quilled keys here and here. And generally google 'quilled keys' to see what's out there. I've quilled a few real sized ones over time......
'bout time I did some more. This week I have tiny ones:

This fortnight we need to Show Patterns on Moo Mania & More. The most mysterious pattern I know (and it's my favourite by far) is the DNA coil with its chromosomes:

And this piece, approximate size A3 and completely covered in quilling, was inspired by a medieval book cover. I was going to enter it in a show, but decided to stop with the agricultural shows - I've won enough there. I will now start working on some pieces targeting galleries. Gotta progress.

Monty Python lives

As soon as I hear Lumberjack (which is this week's theme on EIM, btw), how can I not start humming "I'm a lumberjack and I'm OK....."?
It is also our 9th wedding anniversary today - my inchie collaborator's and mine, which is supposedly ceramic, and that has nothing to do with lumberjacks.

I'm a lumberjack and I'm OK, lah, lah, lah..........


Strathmore Artist Papers ran a product catalogue cover competition for 2016. One of the things I use their smooth paper for is tangling. So I decided to enter a page of tangling, but in quilling. This page is 23cm x 30cm (9" x 12)", and is done in bronze, copper and dark gold 6mm (1/4") quilling paper (like the one in the horn of plenty in the tag below). I don't care if I won't win; at least now I've finally done what I wanted to do for ages - a whole page of zenquilling.

And this is my tag for Tag Tuesday: