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Tombow Penbrushes are dancing the „Diva Dance“

Today I was experimenting with one of my three Tombow Dual Penbrushes. Looking how they act with water in different ways. Me and my Tombow, we had a great time together dancing the Diva Dance. I loved this tangle from the very first moment I saw it. So I had not to think about what tangle to use for a Monotangle.

When you dance, your purpose is not to get to a certain place on the floor. It‘s to enjoy each step along the way. Wayne Dyer

That’s it:)

„UMT – Orbs-la-Dee by Anneke van Dam“

like every first Monday of the month the Weekly Diva Challenge is a Use My Tangle Challenge – this month’s  Orbs-la-Dee by Anneke van Dam, and you can see the step outs here .

It feels like the last challenge has been a long time ago and I am very happy that the Diva is back from christmas holidays I had a great time tangling Orbs-la-Dee, it is a fun an very relaxing tangle, I didn’t know this tangle so far, and I am happy to know now.

So have a nice weekend everyone and thanks for visiting my blog, I appreciate that so much.

 

… is the new black.

The graphite can be an important part of the composition and more than just shading. So we are asked to try this today in our Zentangle drawing. Well, I guess I could have added more graphite, because it still looks more like shadings, I really tried hard but that is all graphite I could do;)

Straightforward

well not really. It was not so easy as it sounded – for me.

The challenge for today drawing a string only using straight lines. What kind of tangles is up to us, organic- or gridtangles or everything else.

There are many crooked lines and one straight line. Which is the line of truth? Why the straight line? Truth is always the shortest distance between two points. Sun Myung Moon

I did a very straight string and then cose kind of a mix between straight and border-tangles and also organic-tangles.

 

Tangled snowflakes for today.

Just a really short post. This is a snowflake from the selection of snowflake photographs taken by Wilson Bentley (1865–1931) tangled by a very tired tangler – me;)

 

Mandala – the Zentangle way

I love drawing Zandalas. There are many possibilties, you can either draw just freehand without a string, which I mostly do, or you can create a string to create a structured Zendala. For this Zendala I used one of the beautiful strings created  by Erin Koetz Olson for the Zendala Dare Challenges. I already tangled this Zendala just before christmas as an gift for my parents-in-law as a part of a dream catcher I created.

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Thinking outside of the box …

or… maybe think of tangling on the box? Yes! Todays prompt is to tangle a Zentangle Inspired Art Object. Great challenge to try my new Sizzix Big Shot Machine, which I got from my mom for christmas. I got me a die-cut for pillow boxes from „kesi‘ art“ – which has really gorgeous products. So I die-cutted this cute pillow box, added some fun und tangled on it…and tada… this is my ZIA Object for today!

Less options for more relaxation

There are so many beautiful tangles out there. So you can flip through hundreds of tangles before choosing one for your tile. Mostly I do it intuitive, not thinking to much about it. Just looking at a tangle and let my gut feeling decide. But what it also makes a lot more ZEN, just picking a letter and only use tangles with this letter. That is the prompt for todays tangle.

I chose the letter „S“, it is in both of my names and there are a lot of beautiful tangles starting with „S“.

Before tangling for Zenuari, I tangled my three tiles for the „travelling tangles project“, for this Swap we are asked only using tangles we never tangled before. That’s is were I tried Spoolies from Hanny Waldburger, CZT, it was so much fun, that I had to use it again. Actually I used also only new tangles on this tile. „Sea Wave“, „Sinchun“, „Spoolies“ and „Spwan“. All tangles I will definitely use again.

 

 

„Sundoo“ Bijou

sounds a little bit like a new cocktail ;). My dearest friend from Switzerland and her boyfreind have been on holidays at our house. We were tangling in the evenings. Her boyfriend tangled for the first time and he did a great job. One tangle he chose was „Sundoo“ from Jane MacKugler, CZT – which I never tangled before. But it looked so awesome to me, that I had to try this tangle for my Mini-tangle. I really love this tangle, it is fun. So I can recommend to everyone to just try out „Sundoo“.

 

Drama, Baby, Drama.

Dramatangles are those tangles that add some „drama“ – meaning contrast into the tile. The easy way to create this drama is using tangles that have a good contrast between black and white, just as „Umble“. Umble is an official zentangle pattern and I tried it once or twice and never liked it so much. Probably I had difficulties to draw those curvy lines – drama:) But today I wanted to challenge myself and so I chose this tangle for being my personal Dramatangle and I think it didn’t went out too bad;)

Sachuest Point National Wildlife Refuge, Newport RI

Todays prompt is an inspiration that comes from a landscape. That might be the lines from the landscape as a string, the colors of the landscape or to be inspired by the place itself. I love trees, so most of my landscape pictures have trees on it.

When I was in Rhode Island last year in April to achieve my certificate for teaching Zentangle (CZT) I stayed some more days longer to visit Newport. I stayed and a lovely Bed and Breakfast and went for the Cliffwalk at a quite rainy day and visited the Sachuest Point National Wildlife Refuge at a cold but nice an sunny day! It was gorgeous. I rented a bike to get there – which seemed to pretty weird for the people living in Newport, they asked my serveral times if I really mean a bike with foot pedals were I have to pedal myself! Yes I do:) Well, this refuge was about 6 km far from were I stayed, not a long distance for people who often ride the bike to get from A to B:) Okay I have to admit I had to ride a lot up and downhill, which I am not used from Nothern Germany! But it was a beautiful route along the beaches. I got some picnic with me and my artjournal and colors and stayed some hours and the Wildlife Refuge.

 

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When I read the prompt I knew I had to create my tangle inspired by this picture.

… into the New Year

The prompt for the second day is created by Stella Peters-Hessels, CZT from Netherlands.

Inspired by the footprints on the beach, trails made by sneakers, shoes and bare feet Stella ask us to take a creative leap into the new year. This could be inspired by the lines of shoe soles and shapes which can be used for the string. Since I love being barefooted, I decided to tangle the sole of the foot. But what lines are there to use for the string?  In my mind came the foot reflexology chart. So I simplified the zones a little bit and voilá I got my string.

I was so absorbed tangeling my „creative leap“, I really couldn’t stopp. At 1.30 am I was so tired I couldn’t even put the shadows nicely on the tangles. But I am very pleased with my footprint and had a very inspiring and mindful time.

“We were made to enjoy music, to enjoy beautiful sunsets, to enjoy looking at the billows of the sea and to be thrilled with a rose that is bedecked with dew… Human beings are actually created for the transcendent, for the sublime, for the beautiful, for the truthful… and all of us are given the task of trying to make this world a little more hospitable to these beautiful things.” ― Desmond Tutu

 

 

Happy new year to everyone!

Every year on the first day of Zenuari , Anoeska Waardenburg, CZT from Netherlands, asked us let ourself be inspired by the New Year.

So I decided to involve the „2017“, saying „hello“ to a happy and colorful new year! In the end of last year I tried for the first time so create a background with colored bleeding tissue paper, which I had to purchase in USA, because I couldn’t find any here in Europe. I created a large watercolorsheet and cutted it into 3.5 inch pieces. I think it fits quite got for welcoming the new year it is colorful like fireworks.

So this year will be a colorful year!