Diva Challenge #221: " Beads of Courage"

This week's Diva Challenge is one that occurs yearly. It is to bring attention to the Beads of Courage program. I think that it originally started around kids with cancer but has been expanded to include any child that has a condition that necessitates numerous and ongoing medical evaluations and procedures. The Diva's youngest son has Moebius Syndrome, a neurological disorder that impacts facial muscles. Some things that we take for granted, can be difficult to do, like sucking. It also results in his system being prone to infections. Anyone that has read her blog knows the strain that this puts on her family as well as others.

The Beads of Courage gives these kids a glass bead for every medical procedure that they go through. These kids can have yards of beads. I have participated in this challenge a couple of times. I was not sure that I was going to get anything done this year. I happened to have some time at work today because of no show/cancelled appointments so I decided to start something. I did not plan on using a black zendala tile but when I opened my tote that I use to carry my pens and tiles, this was the only one unused tile I had. Luckily I also had my container that had my metallic gel pens in it. Kept it simple. Not sure if I will do another one or not. Here is what I came up with. I hope you enjoy it.

I forgot how you have to be careful with the gel pens as the ink does not dry as quickly as the Microns. Resulted in a few smudges until I finally was aware enough. In keeping with my practice of using the first tile I complete, I did not start over. Did not really use a lot of tangles. Did a few Cruffle and Printemp circles. Threw in a few Indy-rella for variety. The rest is just line work.

Will be interesting to see what others do. This usually results in some pretty cool tiles. I have not looked at any of them yet, and hope I have time to see them all. Not sure how much time I will have to comment on peoples' tiles. If you have not visited the Diva's blog click here so look at all the other great pieces of art.

Thanks for visiting. As always, comments are welcomed, encouraged, and appreciated. 

Go Tangle !!

Diva Challenge #91 -Beads of Courage, Second Submission

In my earlier post I had stated that I had started another one but did not have time to finish it. Well I was finally able to finish it. This is more of a traditional zentangle as I did it in black and white. I used another symbol again, but for me this is a more traditional symbol of strength, courage, and hope. So I felt it was very appropriate for the theme of this challenge. The children dealing with chronic conditions show, and need, all of these.

 The hardest part about this tile was the shading. It would have been too easy to highlight the whole thing. I decided to try a few things that Sandy Bartholomew demonstrated in the recent shading Mini-clinic on tanglepatterns.com.  Have mixed feelings about the results, but over all for a first attempt at some things was satisfied. I keep repeating . "It is about the process."

Attempted to use some tangles on some of the beads but a lot are just embellishments.

Hope others enjoyed this challenge as much as I did. Enjoyed seeing quite a variety of things and some really unique presentations. If you have not been to the Diva's blog to see the other entries, encourage you to do so. Click on the highlighted words to go there.

Please feel free to make any comments. They are welcomed and appreciated.

Diva Challenge #91: Beads of Courage

I enjoyed this challenge, although it was time consuming. Made me appreciate the Zentangle® method of black and white. When I saw what the challenge was, could not really envision doing it without color. Although Laura's looked really good. I knew that I wanted to do beads but was not sure how I wanted to present them. After an internet search decided on this one. According to the search this is Celtic symbol for courage and strength. Seemed to fit for kids and families dealing with chronic conditions. Since it was in color was a challenge to decide what to do with shading. Decided to try to highlight the whole thing. Hope you like it, I did.

I am not even going to attempt to identify tangles that I used. Are some but most are embellishments.

I started a second one that did not have time to finish yet and since I had this one, wanted to get it posted. Will try to get it done and post later this week. 

Comments are encouraged and appreciated.