Diva Challenge 255

Yesterday late afternoon, after clicking on the Diva Challenge link for the umpteenth time, it finally dawned on me that maybe Canada was having a public holiday. Off I went to the amazing Google and yes, I discovered it was indeed a holiday. No wonder the new challenge wasn't coming up! Apparently in Canada February 15th is either Family Day, Heritage Day or Louis Riel Day depending  on which area of Canada you live in. I really must take more notice of Canadian holidays. Apart from Easter, as far as I can see, I think the next Canadian holiday is Victoria Day on May 23rd. I will go and make a note of it on my calendar. . 

So whilst I was waiting for the challenge to arrive today I experimented with the drawing app on my iPad. It is just a basic app - Paper - but I thought I would see if I could tangle on it. I certainly had no luck trying to tangle on it with my finger, but I had more success using a stylus. The app, Paper, suggests buying their RL thing called Pencil, but I wasn't going to pay for something which I might not use again and I thought it could only be like a tablet stylus which I already had. My first attempts even with the stylus were not good, but I did manage to produce a rather large basic Knightsbridge.

Then I discovered that it was easier to zoom in on part of the pattern and do sections at a time. I even managed to do a rather basic Arukas, which can be a tricky tangle even using  proper paper and pen.

Eventually, after a couple of hours practice I managed to produce a decent looking tile using Chillon, Aquafleur, Ahh, and Bumper. I actually managed a bit of shading too :-) It is not a proper experience of course, but it was fun to try and whilst I won't be doing much tangling on my iPad, you never know it might be useful one day if I get caught short with no pen or paper to hand.

The Diva's Challenge this week is to look out a tangled tile from when we first started tangling and redo it now. I have not been tangling for long, I first found Zentangle® at the end of May, tried out a few patterns and then in June I discovered The Diva's Challenge and drew my first complete tile and started this blog. It was that time of year when The Diva does her Beads of Courage Challenge and this is what I drew.

I remember I did not like the blocked section at the bottom and so I was able to alter that this time round. Also this time I have drawn the beads in the zengem fashion. I did it just to make it a bit different from the original, but I don't think they really make good beads. Apart from that, and a bit of shading here and there, I can't say I can see much improvement, which is strange because most of the time I think I could produce better tiles than this. Perhaps I used to put too many patterns into one tile, that would change things, fewer patterns and more room to draw them really well.

3 days later:- Now that I have visited several blogs and seen how others have done I notice that quite a few people have put less tangle patterns into their updated version so perhaps it is something newbies do - try to draw as many patterns as possible into the one tile :-) I am now sure if I completely redid this challenge I would not use these tangles and string, and would then see a big improvement. The Diva is bound to issue the Beads of Courqge challenge again this year, so it will be interesting to see when it happens. In the meantime this is the remake tile I did back on Tuesday.

- 

Zendala with C

C is the initial of my other half and this week for Tackle It Tuesday I did a Zendala with all tangle patterns beginning with C. I did make a bit of a mistake with Cayla in that I forgot the divisions were meant to alternate in direction. Oh yes, and I decided it looked better this way up after I added my initials :-D

Joey's 100th Challenge

Congratulations Joey. 100 challenges thought up and posted on her blog to focus our tangling minds. Well, as far as I am concerned long may it continue, I have really enjoyed these challenges, although I only started tangling last June, so unfortunately I haven't been here from the beginning.

To celebrate the zentenniary Joey has given us a 100 string and asked us to include bijou. I have always wanted to draw Bijou and didn't realise there was a video showing just that, so thank you Joey for the link.

I have done a trio of tiles - I thought 100 tiles would not only be a bit excessive, but also beyond me! For my first tile (which actually is my least favourite of the three) I stuck with the string Joey gave us and also included a bijou tile in the middle of it, so Bijou can't say he was left out. I used Adele Bruno's 100, Margeret Bremner's Partay!, Explosion, AHH and tried turning Pokeroot into balloons which didn't quite come off.

Next I made the 100 string a bit wavy, hanging Joey on a wavy 100 ribbon, using the O in Joey for the first 0 and AHH below for the second 0. Bijou is wandering across the top of the E, I hope he doesn't mind heights.

Lastly I strayed right away from the string to say thanks to Joey using the Zentangle Original pattern Vermal. Bijou even managed to insert himself into this tile disguised as a full stop :-D

Yin and Yang

祝华人新年快乐给你太 Joey

新春快樂對你太 Joey

That is "Happy Chinese New Year to you too Joey", first in Manderin and secondly in Taiwan, at least that is what my translater app tells me. I hope I haven't got it dreadfully wrong and written something rude. Perhaps AngelEggroll can tell me (AngelEggroll is our tangle lady in Taiwan).

Isn't it marvellous being able to translate everything into another language? I get so excited when I am visiting all the Zentangle blogs and I am taken through to a blog where the owner lives in a country so culturally different to my own. Some bloggers write in both their own language as well as English, which to me is enourmously clever and thoughtful. However if you end up on a blog written perhaps not only in a different language but even using script for letters such as Russian or Chinese then all you have to do is click on 'Google translate' at the top and all the web page changes before your very eyes into your own language. It is just like magic, wonderful ! Of course Google Translate is not perfect and sometimes it can make you giggle with how wrong it is, but you can follow the gist of the blog which is the main thing.

Joey has given us a Yin-Yang shape for her challenge this week. I really enjoyed doing this, although perhaps it has not turned out as obviously black and white as I had hoped for. My idea was to have a White Pokeroot sideshape and a black Pokeroot sideshape with gem dots. Perhaps I should have put a slight space between the two sides to make it more obvious.

It is nice when we are given a tangle to use, even when it is a tangle I am not good at because it stretches me to improve something I wouldn't try otherwise. Today, it was lovely to just be able to use any tangle we wanted to and I decided to relax into a good old favourite. I loved doing this Yin-Yang so I am sure I will be doing more and if so I will add them during the week. 

BTW, anyone who uses Pinterest, Flickr, Instagram or Facebook to post their tiles please see my blog  which I did especially for you here:-

http://creativeyt.blogspot.ie/2016/02/valentangles.html

Valentangles.

I want to start by thanking everyone for visiting my blog and leaving comments. It is such fun to feel part of a community and I have learnt so much from you all.

As we are coming up to the day of love, this post is dedicated especially to all those tanglers who post their tiles on Pinterest, Flickr, Facebook, Instagram and Wordpress, to whom I cannot leave comments. I always visit everyone and please never think I don't enjoy your entries, but I can't comment unless I have an account or various other reasons. Sometimes there is a little heart that I can click, I like those :-) I do understand that not everyone wants to blog, they simply want to enter their tile in the challenge. So as a thank you for all your comments, especially non-bloggers who leave a comment on my blog regardless, and to say I do visit and I love your art, I have created a special love tile for each of you, which - as it happens - fits in beautifully with the Diva's Valentangle Challenge this week.

Flickr. I simply do not have an account for Flickr and cannot see how to comment without. I  have seen some wonderful ZIA and Zentangle® On Flickr. This tile is an F made of Helen Williams's new half hearts tangle with Molygon 'flickring' around it.

Instagram. Once again Istagram plays host to some wonderful tiles. The tile I have drawn contains an I with a Jettie heart top and it is surrounded by tangle patterns beginning with I.

Pinterest. This keeps telling me it is better in the mobile app. and I do not wish to get the app, however I get to see some wonderful art, usually in the little sample square at the top. Here is a P with Pokeroot around a heart hole on top of a Pinch background for you.

Facebook. Now I do have a Facebook account, but go in as little as possible, keeping it for family only and as the account is in a different name you wouldn't know I had visited. Here for you I have done a Zentangle Little Person with a Face below a head of love heart hair. All the tangles begin with F.

Wordpress. This can be temperamental with me. Sometimes it lets me comment, and sometimes it kicks me off  :-( I can't seem to see why it doesn't like me, perhaps it is to do with different settings. Anyway especially for you I created a tile using tangle pattern Vermal around the letters W.O.R.D. with a heart shaped O.

Molygon Madness and Cayke

For Tackle It Tuesday this week we have to take the first letter of the month of your birth. Now that is all very well for youngsters, but at my age remembering when your birthday is takes a bit of thinking about lol. Anyway I finally came up with March, and as the Zentangle world is Molygon mad at the moment guess which tangle I decided to use - yes, Molygon! I squeezed in a tiny bit of Mooka too. I am going through a phase of using up my odd bits of card, so whilst this is a Zendala, it is just a bijou Zendala.

Next I went over to Joey's place, well I am sorry to say it wasn't so much 'next' as having had it on the back burner and finally getting round to it. We have to use Cayke, and I am afraid Cayke and I don't get on. I kept having a little go at it, but decided a bijou Cayke would have to do or I might not get anything done. I promise to try harder next week Joey.

Sir Terry Wogan

Pudsey in mourning for Sir Terry :-( as drawn by BOB

I am sorry to report that here in Ireland, and in the UK, we are all in mourning. Our most beloved broadcaster, Sir Terry Wogan, has died. It is impossible to explain in a few words, to those in other countries who may not have heard of him, what a marvellous man he was. He was a National Treasure and I have grown up with him on the radio throughout my life.

His warm charm and wit, which could be heard first thing every morning, just made you feel he was sat next to you chatting over a cup of tea. If you got stuck in a traffic jam at that time of the morning and looked around you it was immediately obvious who was listening to him in the other cars by the laughter on people's faces. He used to talk about everyday things such as some programme that had been on the night before, all the sorts of things you talk about with friends.

Three things that stand out for me, but were not everyday subjects, were Hissing Sid, The Janet and John stories and Silent Fireworks. All these things will mean nothing to anyone who has not listened to him.

I could go on forever and still not be able to explain why he was so beloved so I will just mention one more thing. Sir Terry Wogan, like a lot of celebrities, did a lot for charity. Sir Terry every year, right from the very first thought of it, hosted Children In Need. This raised an enormous amount of money and the cartoon character associated with it is Pudsey the Bear. Pudsey normally wears a colourful spotted bandage across his eye, but today Pudsey joins us all in mourning as you can see in the picture above.

So, on to happier subjects. HQ has released another tangle pattern, Molygon. I love it. I had already started playing with it before I read the Diva's Challenge and this is one I had already drawn,, I was just trying some of Maria's ideas.

For the Diva's Challenge I did this one, I am sure I will be doing more of them this week.