With all my heart(s), Challenge #124

Heartbreaking images on the Diva's blog this week. The people in Calgary and surrounding areas have to deal with enormous floods.... And in many other parts of the world people also suffer from natural disasters or human violence.
Therefore Weekly Challenge #124 is an open challenge to keep all these affected people in our hearts. With our Zentangles and ZIA's we send out our love and thoughts!

Hartverscheurende beelden op het blog van de Diva deze week. De mensen in Calgary en de omliggende gebieden hebben te maken met enorme overstromingen.... En in vele andere delen van de wereld hebben mensen ook te kampen met natuurrampen of met menselijk geweld.
Daarom is Weekly Challenge #124 een open uitdaging om eens aan al deze getroffen mensen te denken. Met onze Zentangles en ZIA's sturen we ze onze liefde en medeleven!

A lot of hearts are needed here!! I remembered a piece of gift wrap, decorated with hearts, which I had saved. Very suitable for this challenge and a good base to start my ZIA! For drawing the heart shapes I used cookie cutters as templates. In one of them I glued a heart that I had cut out from the gift wrap. Then the tangling. The looped hearts are from Carmela's (the Zentangle/Zendala Lover) entry to Weekly Challenge #122 ("Grid (Un)Locked"). Lamar from CZT® Margaret Bremner, who lives in the same area, depicts the water. When scanning I've put a black paper and a scrapbook paper on top of the ZIA, but only to have more hearts now. No glue!

Hier zijn een heleboel harten voor nodig!! Er schoot me een stuk cadeaupapier met hartjes te binnen, dat ik had bewaard. Heel geschikt voor deze uitdaging en een prima basis om mijn ZIA mee te beginnen! Voor het tekenen van de hartvormen heb ik koekuitstekers gebruikt als sjabloon. In één ervan heb ik een hart geplakt, dat ik uit het cadeaupapier heb geknipt. Toen aan het "tanglen". De hartjes met de lusjes zijn van Carmela's (the Zentangle/Zendala Lover) bijdrage aan Weekly Challenge #122 ("Grid (Un)Locked"). Lamar van CZT® Margaret Bremner, die in hetzelfde gebied woont, verbeeldt het water. Bij het scannen heb ik een zwart papier en een scrapboekpapier over de ZIA heen gelegd, maar alleen om nu nog meer hartjes te hebben. Geen lijm!

Tangles: Heartstrings, Lamar and "Carmela's Hearts"

Thanks to:

CZT® Laura Harms aka the Diva for this open Challenge;

Helen Williams for Heartstrings;

CZT® Margaret Bremner for Lamar;

Carmela for the nice, looped hearts;

You for reading this post.... and maybe even for leaving a comment!!! 

Happy Tangling everyone!

Met dank aan:

CZT® Laura Harms alias de Diva voor deze open Challenge;

Helen Williams voor Heartstrings;

CZT® Margaret Bremner voor Lamar;

Carmela voor de mooie, geluste hartjes; 

Jou voor het lezen van deze post.... en misschien zelfs voor het achterlaten van een reactie!!!

Veel Tangleplezier allemaal!

Back to the basics with Challenge #123

Because I got many requests, I will also write in Dutch from now!

Lines, dots, circles, arcs, the S-shape, and arising therefrom ovals, triangles, squares and rectangles, scrolls and spirals, waves and zigzags....
With these basic elements we build up the tangle patterns, they form the basics of Zentangle®! Quite soon after I had read the directions in the Diva's Weekly Challenge #123 I knew I wanted to create "something" with those. What a nice challenge!!
But not before yesterday evening because my week was filled with fun outings. Tuesday we had the annual day out of ZijActief (translation: "SheActive"), the women's association of which I am a member the past 10 years. This year our destination was Palace Het Loo in Apeldoorn.

Omdat ik veel verzoekjes kreeg, zal ik vanaf nu ook in het Nederlands schrijven!

Lijnen, stippen, rondjes, bogen, de S-vorm, en daaruit voortvloeiend ovalen, driehoeken, vierkanten en rechthoeken, krullen en spiralen, golf- en zigzaglijnen....
Met deze basiselementen bouwen we de tanglepatronen op, ze vormen de basis van Zentangle®! Al heel snel na het lezen van de aanwijzingen in de Diva's Weekly Challenge #123 wist ik, dat ik dat ik daarmee "iets" wilde creëren. Wat een leuke uitdaging!!
Maar niet eerder dan gisteravond, omdat mijn week gevuld was met leuke uitstapjes. Dinsdag hadden we de jaarlijkse uitgaansdag van ZijActief, een vrouwenvereniging waar ik al 10 jaar lid van ben. Dit jaar was Paleis Het Loo ons reisdoel.

Wednesday was for household chores (pffft) and the half-yearly dentist visit (everything okay, yeah!).

Woensdag was voor huishoudelijke beslommeringen (pffft) en het halfjaarlijkse bezoek aan de tandarts (geen gaatjes, jippie!).

Yesterday my husband and I went to Den Helder to celebrate the 525th anniversary of the Royal Dutch Navy together with 30.000 other active and post-active naval people and their families. A very special occasion because King Willem-Alexander, who also served in the Navy, came to attend the celebrations.

Gisteren gingen mijn man en ik naar Den Helder om het 525-jarig bestaan van de Koninklijke Marine te vieren, samen met 30.000 andere actieve en postactieve marinemensen en hun familie. Een heel speciale gelegenheid omdat Koning Willem-Alexander, die zelf bij de Marine heeft gediend, aan de feestelijkheden deelnam.

When we got home, I finally had time to create my ZIA (A6 size) for the Challenge. After the big circles came the arcs as petals. These flowers became a kind of string. After that I continued with waves in all directions. Then I've completed it with more basic shapes. I loved to do this, and even though it looks rather labor-intensive, it didn't take very much time. It may not be exactly what the Challenge was about, but I did experience the "ZENsation"!! I'm curious what you think of it!

Toen we thuis kwamen, had ik eindelijk tijd om mijn ZIA (A6-formaat) voor de Challenge te maken. Na de grote cirkels kwamen de bogen als bloembladen. Deze bloemen werden een soort string. Daarna ging ik verder met golflijnen in alle richtingen. Toen heb ik het afgemaakt met meer basisvormen. Ik vond het heerlijk om te doen, en hoewel het nogal arbeidsintensief lijkt, viel dat reuze mee! Het is misschien niet helemaal hoe de Challenge bedoeld was, maar ik voelde wél de "ZENsatie"!! Ik ben benieuwd wat je ervan vindt!

Thanks to:

CZT® Laura Harms aka the Diva and CZT® Maria Vennekens for this original Challenge;

You for reading this post.... and maybe even for leaving a comment!!! 

Happy Tangling everyone!

Met dank aan:

CZT® Laura Harms alias de Diva en CZT® Maria Vennekens voor deze originele Challenge;

Jou voor het lezen van deze post.... en misschien zelfs voor het achterlaten van een reactie!!! 

Veel Tangleplezier allemaal!

"Grid (Un)locked", Challenge #122

Two in one today!
The Diva's Weekly Challenge #122 about (un)locking grids came in while I was working on an example ZIA for my new pattern BrixBox! (You can see the steps in my previous post and another example here.)
Because we are challenged to play with grids and "grid seeds" I thought I may as well use this one for both purposes!!
Filling the boxes was really fun, unexpected effects occurred! Shading was as always a great pleasure.
Here is the ZIA:

Tangles: BrixBox (as grid), Beelight, Pinch, Demi, Facets,
Emingle, Warble, Équerre and Sampson

Thanks to:

CZT® Geneviève Crabe for Demi and Équerre;

CZT® Nancy Pinke for Facets;

Rick and Maria from Zentangle® for Beelight, Emingle, Pinch, Warble, and Sampson (no online instructions); 

CZT® Laura Harms aka the Diva for this Challenge;

You for reading this post.... and maybe even for leaving a comment!!!

Happy Tangling everyone!

"BrixBox", the new grid in tangle town

In my previous post I promissed to write about my new pattern BrixBox as soon as possible. So, here are the story and the steps! But first you just have to see this video:

It looks like Zentangle in motion, isn't it amazing?!

About a fortnight ago:

Surfing the Internet I suddenly came upon these folding examples for origami from Daniel Piker. Absolutely left-handed for that matter, I looked at them with Zentangle eyes of course!! Wow, could they be deconstructed to make a nice tangle pattern?
I began with examining the squares. No continuous lines, no apparent grid.... As you can see, it consists of large squares and small ones, one quarter of the size of the large squares. Well, that made sense!
There was only one thing after I had finished the steps, the pattern looked very empty....

A few days later:

Rick and Maria of Zentangle sent their Newsletter and posted "Grid (Un)locked" on their blog.... Well, that was very interesting, a real eye opener. I realized my new pattern isn't just an ordinary tangle pattern, but could also be used as a new kind of grid!! I immediately used one of the "grid seeds"  for my example (J-1, see step 8 below) and doesn't it look nice?

Have fun with the grid seeds from Rick and Maria, use your own imagination and don't forget to play with the tangle patterns we normally do in the basic "square" grid: Beelight, Yincut, Emingle, Warble, Stoic/Twile.... You'll be surprised about how BrixBox as your grid makes a difference, it offers many new opportunities!

This is what you have to do:

Step 1: Start with a big square at the centre of the section you want to fill.
Step 2: Add a little square to the bottom right on the outside. Are you a left-handed person? Go for the bottom left! Don't draw the dotted lines, just visualize them in order to determine the size of the squares!
Step 3-4: Turn your tile 90° clockwise, draw another square. Repeat twice. The basic shape is ready.
Step 5: Add more large "boxes", constantly turning your tile.
Step 6: Add more small boxes, also constantly turning the tile.
Step 7: Repeat step 5 and 6 until it is sufficiently.
Step 8: Now fill the boxes with any pattern you like!

Constantly turning your tile may seem a little exaggerated, but you will find that it will make the squares more evenly! If you fully focus on drawing BrixBox this way, you will experience a great feeling of "ZENsation"!

Brixbox works as a tangle pattern if you don't draw the boxes too big. Just add some shade and/or accents with your pen, ready!

Drawing the squares, or boxes, reminded me of brickwork. So I thought it would be a nice pun to call this new pattern "BrixBox". I've never seen this pattern/grid before, am I right?? If I'm wrong, please tell me. Should the name already exist, please do the same.

I'm still working on an example ZIA, which will be included in my next  post!

Addition
Posted on June 11, 2013
The example ZIA is ready! It's also my entry to the Diva's Weekly Challenge #122! More about that in my today's post.

BrixBox used as grid

Thanks to:

Daniel Piker for his stunning Photostream on Flickr; 
Rick and Maria from Zentangle® for sharing their knowledge and discoveries;

You for reading this post.... and maybe even for leaving a comment!!!

Happy Tangling everyone!

"Birds on a Wire", Challenge #121

What a surprise when I started my computer to write this post!!
First of all, I'd like to say "Thank you!" to all those sweet people, who are responding to this post of Linda Farmer on TanglePatterns.com where she introduces my tangle pattern Orbs-la-Dee. And, of course, to Linda!
Please show me your zentangle or ZIA with Orbs-la-Dee, if you've given it a try! I'm very curious....

Since it was the first Monday of the month, the Diva's Weekly Challenge #121 was the Use My Tangle Challenge. This time we were challenged to play with Birds on a Wire, created by CZT® Mary Kissel. I decided to stay close to the original pattern, with a few tangleations and a little bit of color. I've added the angular tangles McDee and BrixBox as counterpart and I've used and Brandee, because it's fun to draw. I'm quite happy with the result:

Tangles: Birds on a Wire, Paushalöv, Knightsbridge, 
McDee, Brandee and BrixBox with Printemps

At the top right you see BrixBox, my new tangle pattern I've worked on last week. The steps will be in my next post, as soon as possible!

Thanks to:

CZT® Mary Kissel for Birds on a Wire;

CZT® Amy Broady for Paushalöv;

Rick and Maria from Zentangle® for Knightsbridge and Printemps;

CZT® Linda Farmer for the enormous resource of tangle patterns on TanglePatterns.com;

CZT® Laura Harms aka the Diva for this Challenge;

You for reading this post.... and maybe even for leaving a comment!!!

Happy Tangling everyone!

"Bales" is Challenge #120

Bales is a tangle pattern that I like a lot, I really love the repetitive movements when drawing the curved lines! So the Diva's Weekly Challenge #120  to:

"Play with this tangle, really open it up and take it for a drive... put the top down and let your hair loose!  Where can it go? What can it do. What are you and Bales capable of together?
Have fun!"

did not fall on deaf ears!!
Besides the Micron pens I wanted to use some permanent markers. That's why I took an A4 sized Fabriano "White Ecological Artist Paper", 94 lbs. And these were my "tools":

With the markers and the Micron 0.8 I drew some lines across the paper, then again a number of lines to create a certain kind of grid. The two circles were made with glasses. After that Bales, Bales, Bales and more Bales with all the markers and pens except the Edding 500.
Can you see, how much fun it was to create this ZIA??

Thanks to:

Rick and Maria from Zentangle® for Bales;

CZT® Laura Harms aka the Diva for this pleasant Challenge;
You for reading this post.... and maybe even for leaving a comment!!!

Happy Tangling everyone!