40th Birthday

Made this card for my oldest daughter Mila who turned 40!!! Where has the time been going!

The black and white version:

 but I added some colour to it:

Happy Birthday Mila!!!

December/January Club Zentangle

It took awhile before I finished  the December/January contributions to Joni's Zentangle Club but now I can finally show them.
For January we had to use Finery and Umble.
Finery is not my favorite although it is a beautiful tangle. I just need more practise to get a better result. Other tangles I used: Chic, Flutter Tile, Kuginuki and Lacy.

Here I used Umble and also Ballot, Kuginuki, Emilie, Pokeleaf/root and Matt

 I  made a birthday card (Happy Birthday Carole!!) out of this one and added some colour to the Pokeleaves.

For January the tangles to use were: Squid......

Other tangles I used here are Tagh, Feathers and similar ones.

.......and Printemps:

I also tried Brayd but I think it looks a bit funny...  

Winter Wonder Land

Holland is in the grip of winter. After a mild December and January with so much rain and wind, it finally began to freeze at the end of January with temperatures plummeting to as low as -15°C (5°F) at night and - 3°C (26°F) during the day. These freezing conditions will  continue for the rest of this week and maybe even longer.
Holland is a country where ice skating is a national obsession. There are so many canals, ponds, lakes etc., that after some good night freezes the Dutch are eager to ice skate. It's a lot of fun for kids as there is always a ditch or canal near their house where they can (learn to) ice skate. Not to forget the long distance "tochten" tours where you can skate through the picturesque Dutch landscape.

Owen learning how to iceskate. 

 Jasmina having fun.

Ryan has no ice skates yet so being pulled is fun too.

While this freezing period keeps on they are speculating about a possible Elfstedentocht (Eleven Cities Tour). It's a tour/race about 200 kilometers (124 miles) which passes through or near eleven cities in the province of Friesland. The last one was held in 1997. Learn more about the Elfstedentocht here. To get an idea watch this video.

Last Friday it started snowing and we now have a white winter wonderland. Saturday it was absolutely a gorgeous day to go out for a walk. The sun was shining bright and the sky was blue. We walked for about two hours. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 If you look good, you can see the rabbits hopping in the snow.

Change of Adress Card

Jasmina wanted to make some cards because she and her Mom moved last week from a second floor apartment to a first one with a backyard. She is so happy and asked me to help her make some cards for her friends.
I have a house stamp so we decided to use that for the card. Found a bicycle stamp as well. Since Jasmina rides her bike to school , we placed it in front of the house.

 It's a tri-fold card. She colored the house using colored pencils and blended it with oderless turpentine. Colorfull wrapping paper was used for the background and a ribbon to close the card.

Ready to be written.

Aren't they colorful?

November Zentangle Club: Christmas Card

The two tangles for Joni's November class were Verdigogh and Poke Root/Leaf. Since I follow this class from a distance, Joni told me they had made Christmas cards that afternoon; so here is my creation, this is the original.  I like to keep it black and white.

For the Christmas cards I made prints. Done some shading and added color to it.

 The prints didn't come out as clear as the original. Even though I used the highest printer quality.

Have a wonderful Christmas!

Weekly Challenge #48: String Theory v. VII: "Tri-Shapes"

This week is a guest challenge presented by Sue Clark.
For the string we had to use the basic shapes: triangle, square and circle. We should use tangles we haven't done before, so I tried: Ripple, Canard, Bateek, Bilt, Poke leaf and Daggerly. I chose them from TanglePatterns.

Spring time in November

After a fruitful summer, my blackberry bush is flowering for a second time in November!!!! In the last year we have experienced a warm and dry spring, followed by a cold summer with lots of rainfall. Then autumn was warming up again. Last week we still had temperatures around 18 C (64 F). No wonder that this weather is confusing plants. They think it's spring again.