Blogging From A to Z - 2018 - Z is for

Welcome to the letter Z in the A to Z Challenge for 2018.  This year I am making my way through the alphabet as seen in Michaels Arts and Crafts store.  We have reached the end of the road today with the letter Z.  It was one of the first letters that I looked around the store to find something to feature since I figured that if I could get a "Z" I'd have the alphabet licked.

Thank goodness for Zentangle!  The cover says "Drawing your way to increased creativity, focus and well-being."  I call it doodling and it totally would have fit in with my letter D for drawing, but I needed a Z so there you go.

Fortunately for me, they make Zentangle tool sets so I had some additional information.

I didn't research too much but there are apparently different types of tool sets.  The Apprentice set is for children.  

The Renaissance set is for drawing on old-looking papers.  The colors are more browns and tans.  

This is what is in the Renaissance set.  

They even make special "artist tiles" which are pieces of paper cut to a square.  These are 6 x 6 and the paper is black.

I have never tried Zentangle and oddly enough, I don't really doodle much.  You would think I'd be all over doodles but no.  Intimidated maybe?  I color great if someone else draws the thing. 

This one almost made it into the X-tras Friday but I decided to keep it here.  Michaels has zippers.  Not many, but you can get some.  

During my last round of picture taking for this A to Z as I was in the scrapbooking section taking a picture of the X-ron machine, I saw the Zips and Zots and had to add them.  

Zips and zots are small round bits of adhesive that you can use to hold your embellishments down.  I use them a lot when I am adding flowers to a project because the round shape is perfect to hold the middle of the flower down but leave the petals loose.  Sometimes they are raised a bit because the Zot is thick.  Even more dimension.  

The flowers on the front of this card 

and this Easter Mini-album are held on with Zots.  

You can see the dimension it adds and the petals are loose but the flower won't come off because the Zots are very strong.  

Well, I made it!  Last year I finished the A to Z but not on time as there were some of the entries I had to add in after the fact.  This year was much easier and once again I have to give a shout out to Jacqui Murray at Word Dreams for giving me the idea to base my A to Z on the things you could find at Michaels.  

As you exit the store, and my A to Z posts, I'll leave you with this:

I hope that you have enjoyed the journey through the store with me.  I found some interesting things during the six months I worked there (September 2017 through March 2018) both in the store and in the people I interacted with.  It was definitely a learning experience.  

Now I have to think about what to write for next year's A to Z.  Got any suggestions?  Did you like my Michaels series?  Learn anything?  Do you Zentangle?  Love to hear about it.   

(Note:  I decided I should add a disclaimer to these posts because I certainly don't want to give the idea that I am being paid by Michaels to do this or that they are furnishing me with material.  All pictures used in this blog series were taken by me at local Michaels stores, or are my personal pictures and every Michaels store may not have everything shown.)