Happy Monday July the first, and Happy Canada Day too!
Butter Tarts are on me 🙂
BTW, should you need any proof that Canadians are serious about their Butter Tarts (and their sweets), check out these stamps from the birthday card I received last week from my sister Carol and her husband Robin.

“Sweet Canada” – stamps released this Spring by Canada Post – “We’re serving up huge helpings of Canadian culinary history with our Sweet Canada stamp issue. This booklet of 10 Permanent domestic stamps dishes up the origins of five delicious Canadians desserts and takes you on a tasty trip from coast to coast. The featured desserts are Nanaimo bars, Saskatoon berry pie, butter tarts, tarte au sucre (sugar pie) and blueberry grunt. The fun-shaped stamps are arranged on a recipe card background. The back of the booklet also features a recipe box motif.”
Today’s super easy tangle BaBaBa is by Taiwan CZT Damy (Mei Hua) Teng. Damy has over 30 cool tangles on the site.
Here is her Zentangle® tile demonstrating just a few possible variations of BaBaBa:
In Chinese, “Ba” is how the number 8 is pronounced and BaBaBa is simply composed of a sequence of three 8’s. When I was doing some looking around to see what I could find out about Ba, this is what I learned here:
“No. 8 has long been regarded as the luckiest number in Chinese culture.
With pronunciation of ‘Ba’ in Chinese, no. 8 sounds similar to the word ‘Fa’, which means to make a fortune.
It contains meanings of prosperity, success and high social status too.”
So not only has Damy come up with a fun tangle, in a way she’s wishing you prosperity and success too.
Damy illustrates the step-by-step instructions for drawing BaBaBa below and she includes a simple monotangle featuring her tangle. As you’ve noted from her tile above, varying the scale of the 8’s and exploring various shading and fills for the loops makes for a fun and versatile tangle. Adding color is another variation for a ZIA.

Image copyright the artist and used with permission, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Please feel free to refer to the steps images to recreate this tangle in your personal Zentangles and ZIAs, or to link back to this page. However the artist and TanglePatterns.com reserve all rights to these images and they must not be publicly pinned, altered, reproduced or republished. They are for your personal offline reference only. Thank you for respecting these rights. Click the image for an article explaining what copyright means in plain English. “Always let your conscience be your guide.” ~ Jiminy Cricket
As you enjoy any of the tangles on the site, please leave a comment of thanks and encouragement to show the artists you appreciate them for sharing their creativity to inspire yours. Your comment helps motivate them to continue to share!
Check out the tag damyt for more of Damy’s tangles on TanglePatterns.com.
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This is a cute tangle,and much to my surprise, I can actually do it! Thank you for sharing it, Damy.