Challenge #19 Repeating Pattern

This Christmas week the challenge is to pick one pattern and repeat that pattern throughout the Zentangle.  

Mine:

Jay's:

The Winter Solstice

"Here Comes the Sun"

The days are getting longer.  We are getting 5 hours of sunlight in the NWT.  Jay is getting 6 hours in Edmonton.

Here are our zentangles to celebrate the sun:

Mine

Jay's

Challenge #18 The Winter Solstice

Both my sister and I have moved farther north then we have ever lived.  Jay is in northern Alberta and I am in the Northwest Territories.  Our days have gotten shorter and shorter and next Saturday is the shortest day of the year.  Here is a picture from our house at 12 noon, last week.

That is as high as the sun got on that day.  This week it will be even lower!

So our challenge this week is to celebrate the sun and all its beauty.  And next week the days will start getting longer.  Yeahhhhhh...

Border Zentangle

Here are our border zentangles.  Borders are fun to do because the space is small and easy to fill.

This is mine:

Here is Jay's:

Challenge #17 Borders

The challenge this week is to create borders within borders. There are lots of patterns for tangled borders on line.  We don't want to hem you in, we just want you to play with some borders.

Choose a Letter

Here are the results of this week's challenge.  For some reason I chose the letter X.  There are only about 4 tangle patterns for this letter so I thought I better use some colour to liven it up.  Jay chose S, which has lots of tangles.  She tried to use tangles that she hadn't used before.

Here is mine with the tangle patterns, X, xenso and XYP.

Here is Jay's with tangle patterns written at the bottom of the picture.

Tangle patterns: stoic, scrumble, spaamanders, star map, swarm, sugarcane, striping, semaphore, and strircles (for those people who don't have their glasses handy).

Challenge #16 Choose a Letter

This week's challenge is to choose a letter of the alphabet and then head to the website, http://tanglepatterns.com.  This website is great for both the beginner and the novice zentangle people.  Here they list the tangle patterns alphabetically and there are so many to choose from.  

The challenge:

Once you have chosen the letter you want to tangle, draw it out in block form.  Then go to the tangle pattern site and have a look at the tangle patterns that begin with this letter.  Use only the tangles that begin with your chosen letter.  

For example:

If you choose the letter B, you could tangle it with the tangles: Bales, Bask-it, Bateek, and Beadlines.

Even if you don't chose to accept this challenge, check out this great site.

Challenge #15. Our Hands

We are going to cheat a little with this week's challenge.  Seeing as it is already Tuesday and the challenge has not been set, I suggested that we show you a zentangled hand.  We have both done this exercise before and it is easy and fun.  Just trace your hand and then fill it in with some of your favourite tangles. The spaces are small so you can try some new tangles that you haven't used before. Here are our hands.

This is Jay's:

Here is my hand:

We have already planned our challenge for next week and I will tell you about it on Sunday.

Enjoy.

Christmas Cards

Here are our cards.

Mine:

Jay's

Challenge #14 Christmas is coming

This week's challenge is to design a Christmas card.  It is not too soon to be thinking about sending those cards to family and friends.  So...think about snow, and sleigh bells and decorations.

Challenge #13 Embedded Quote

The challenge this week is to create a zentangle that incorporates a quote, or words as part of the design. It can be a single word, a lengthy quote, random words spread through the design, or even a design drawn on a page from a book or magazine that incorporates some part of the text.

We were keen this week and we each had a quote in mind and we finished it early!!

My quote was written by Becky Whitney.  She is the Wellness and Drug Awareness worker in this tiny northern community.  I saw this quote on a whiteboard at the wellness house and when I asked who wrote it Becky said she did.  I felt that it needed preserving because things on whiteboards just don't last.  This was the perfect challenge to get me started on this project for Becky.  I will give it to her next time I see her!

Jay choose this quote from Ulysses by Alford Lord Tennyson:

’Tis not too late to seek a newer world. 
Push off, and sitting well in order smite 
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds 
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths 
Of all the western stars, until I die. 
It may be that the gulfs will wash us down: 
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles, 
And see the great Achilles, whom we knew. 
Tho’ much is taken, much abides; and tho’ 
We are not now that strength which in old days 
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are; 
One equal temper of heroic hearts, 
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will 
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield. 

The Travel Mug Challenge

Here are the results of our Ikea Travel Mug Challenge.  This was a fun project.  We have tried to capture a picture of our mugs from a number of different angles.  We have also taken a photo of the paper before we inserted it into the mug.  These would make great gifts.

Here is mine.

Here is Jay's.

Challenge #12. The Ikea Travel Mug

 I am a little late with the challenge for this week.  Jay sent me a travel mug from the Ikea store in Edmonton.  She thought it would be a great zentangle challenge. 

It is one of those great mugs that you can change the photo or the drawing inside it.  We'll have the results of this challenge posted by the weekend.

Zentangle Pumpkins

Here are the results of Challenge #11.  

I used watercolour pencil crayons to add a little colour to mine.

Jay used an orange marker to add colour to hers.

Please note the masked cats.  This is a new tangle design of mine.  So cute and created from a mistake.  You have to turn your missteps into new designs.

Challenge #11 Halloween Pumpkins

This Thursday is Halloween so we decided on a Halloween pumpkin zentangle for this week.  My goal is to have the results of the challenge posted for Halloween day.

The Gourds

Jay's gourd turned out fantastic!  She was able to photograph it from all sides.  Note the Halloween themed tangles.

Mine, on the other hand was a total flop.  When I finally got it out to zentangle it, it had sort of gone bad on one side.  I couldn't just pop out to the store to get another one so I tangled the side that wasn't soft.  I tried to take a decent picture of it but it looks pretty bad.

So here is my pathetic attempt to zentangle my (half rotten) gourd.  Enjoy Jay's!

Challenge #10 Gourds

For this week we have decided to zentangle gourds.  A friend emailed me a photo of some decorated pumpkins and included in the photo was a zentangled gourd. My sister loved the idea.  The challenge for me was to find a gourd.  There are certainly no gourds in the tiny NWT community that I live in.  My sister had no trouble finding the perfect gourd for challenge but she lives in Edmonton.  Here is her gourd:

Fortunately, I was heading out of the community for meetings and I was able to find a gourd in Yellowknife.  Here it is:

When I told the store owner what I planned to do with it, she insisted on carefully wrapping it in bubble wrap for a safe journey home.  

So this week's challenge is to zentangle our gourds.

Challenge #9 3D Zentangle

The next challenge is to create a 3D zentangle object.  Any object will do.  Here is a pattern for a simple origami box.

http://www.origami-instructions.com/origami-box.html

We decided to make sure to take a picture of the zentangle on the paper before you make it into the object.  That way we can really appreciate the hard work.  Then take another picture of the finished object.

Tuesday, October 22

I am a little late with our results of this challenge.  We used an app to display our results.  This app, Nostalgio, allows you to make a collage of your chosen photos.  Here are our results for the week:

This is box.  Once I had the top and bottom zentangled I folded it and then I lost all my hard work.  Next time I would plan it around the folds.  I would make the box, unfold it, tangle it and then retold it.

That is just what Jay did with hers.  She chose not to zentangle the top.  Hers comes together nicely and she doesn't lose her artwork. 

Our next challenge will be posted later today.

Challenge #8 A GIANT Zentangle

The challenge this week is to make a giant zentangle using a regular sharpie.   Use any large size paper you can find.  We will put a loonie in the corner of the zentangle when we take the picture.   We are allowed to shade if we like but it has got to be a very big zentangle.  Seeing as I live in the middle of nowhere finding a large piece of paper maybe the biggest challenge.  Jay is using a large piece of paper from the ikea store.  Check in later for the results of this week's challenge.  Think big...

We have all week to work on our Giant Zentangle.  We decided not to limit ourselves to just a regular sharpie.  We used whatever we wanted.  But for the most part, we used a regular sharpie just because of the amount of space we had to fill.  We used a sharpie marker to show the relative size instead of a loonie because to loonie was too hard to see.

This was a really fun exercise.  It was nice to "go big"!

Here are the results:

Mine

Jay's:

Challenge #7 Zentangle Noir

This summer I had the opportunity to attend a class at the Augusta Quilt Show on zentangling on black.  We learned that you can use a white (or light) gel pen and you can shade with a white (or light) charcoal pencil.  And I bet you thought charcoal was only black, so did I. The difficulty is finding a permanent pen that actually shows up on black paper.  Because I took the course, I have a white gel pen and a white charcoal pencil.  My twin, on the other hand, has used a silver marker on black paper for this challenge.

Black drawing paper is readily available and you can just experiment with pens to see what works.

Here is mine zentangle noir, (white gel pen with white charcoal):

Here is Jay's (silver sharpie on black)

Next post, we'll be up to date!

I will post the challenges on Sundays.  And by the following Sunday I will post our results.

Challenge #6 A New String to Try

This week Jay picked out a string for us to zentangle.  The strings in a zentangle are the lines you draw that divide the zentangle into sections.  Strings can be randomly drawn or planned. Jay chose #11 from this array of string choices.

She got these strings from Pinterest.

The funny thing is that when we had both completed our challenge, we had both included a "ribbon" floating through the zentangle and we both had added colour to the ribbon.  It's weird how that kind of thing happens.  We live miles apart but our zentangle had similar elements.

Here's mine:

And here is Jay's:

Weird coincidence, eh?!

 

Challenge #5 A Found Object

For this challenge I decided to have us zentangle a "found" object.  We both have moved to new locations and I decided that the found object had to be from that new location.  I chose a rock that I picked up on one of our walks.  Jay chose a mug that she found are the local recycle centre.

My rock:

Jay's mug:

Challenge #6 tomorrow and I'll post this week's challenge as well and then we'll be all caught up.

Challenge #4 Hearts

For this challenge, Jay chose an interlocking heart tangle for the challenge.  This tangle was on Pinterest.  Pinterest is a great place to find zentangle ideas and examples. Here is the tangle:

Here is my result:

And here is Jay's zentangle:

I thought it was kind of neat that we both had a line of hearts.  Jay said that at the last minute she decided that she should intertwine one of the hearts into another.

Challenge #5 tomorrow.

Challenge #3 NWT Logo

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I am living in the NWT for a year.  I have always loved the NWT licence plates and the NWT logo.  The logo was my inspiration for this zentangle challenge.

This is a copyrighted image and is the property of the government of the Northwest Territorries.  It is a great logo and is simple and I love the use of the negative space.  It makes me want to live close to a place that has polar bears.  But I live on the fresh water of Great Slave Lake with no polar bears anywhere close to me.

Here is our starting design:

Here is my zentangle:

And here is my twin's zentangle:

Thank you NWT, for your inspiration!

Challenge # 4, tomorrow.  We only do a challenge once a week, but I am trying to get you caught up on the past challenges.  I figure if I blog about one of our past challenges each day, I will be caught up by Tuesday and then I can post weekly.  Until tomorrow...

Challenge #2 Fundy National Park

This summer we travelled to Fundy National Park in NB.  It is a beautiful park with lovely forests.  All the trails in the park are well marked and information about its flora and fauna are posted on signs.  Whoever the graphic designer was for the signs has done a great job and the signs inspired us to zentangle.  We particularly liked this stylized tree.  We took a picture of it, redrew it and zentangled it.

So here is challenge #2:

This one is mine:

This one is Jay's:

Challenge #3 is coming up!

Challenge #1 The Raven

Our first challenge started in mid-August.  I had been looking on line for quilt shops in Yellowknife, NWT and I came across a shop called The Quilted Raven.  I loved their logo and thought it looked like a neat shape to zentangle.

I copied the outline of the design and kept it in my zentangle notebook (not completed).  My sister saw it and that was really when the challenge began.

She decided that we should both tangle it and then share our results.  We both had very busy summers so it took the better part of August to finally finish up.  Here is what came up with:

We were pretty pleased with the results.