Tuesday, October 31, 2017

"It's a String Thing" #218

It's Tuesday, your good news day!

Happy Halloween!  If you are like me, I am still soaking in those amazing "Cannie Corns" tiles from yesterday - one more beautiful than the next.  And here we are ready to begin a new challenge...

This week there are two special religious celebrations on the calendar: 
All Saints Day and All Souls Day. 
They bring to mind many heavenly things, especially things associated with angels and saints.  Wings and halos are at the top of that list. 

First, we begin with this string ~

IAST #218 String by Adele Bruno, CZT

Then we'll add some heavenly tangles:

Drawings by Maria Thomas 
Also here on TanglePatterns
I was first introduced to this heavenly tangle at zenAgain 2016.  It is angelic, isn't it?

O - one of my tangles
O reminds me of halos and halos remind me of saints - so this was an easy choice for today.

Simply pencil the string line onto your tile and tangle away! Feel free to place the string any way you'd like on your tile.

Here are the (Not so) Official Guidelines: 
* Challenges are posted on Tuesdays.
*Use the string posted for the week and some or all of the suggested patterns
* Submit a photo of your tile saved as jpg or scan your tile (300 dpi or higher) and save as a jpg
*Email your jpg file as an attachment to - brunoadelem@gmail.com
*Entries are to be submitted by Saturday evenings. 

*Photos, notes, and the 'Tile for Honors' are posted on Mondays. 


Send in your photos - you will encourage and inspire fellow Zentangle® enthusiasts all over the world.  WHEN YOU SIGN YOUR NAME, PLEASE INCLUDE WHERE YOU LIVE.  
FOR EXAMPLE:   ADELE BRUNO (FLORIDA)

PLEASE NOTE: It is not necessary for you to have a blog or website to participate. 

If you do have a blog or website, I will add a link upon request. 
Please include the site specific URL. 

I look forward to your emails.

HAVE FUN!



"It's a String Thing" #217 Tiles

October 30 is National Candy Corn Day and we just so happen to have some perfectly timed and wonderfully tangled tributes to this delicious confection.

On top of that, we add our 33rd country to the IAST Tangled Map.  Isn't that remarkable?!  Read on to see where our new friend Dani writes from.

Please enjoy the notes and tiles minus my usual 'Tangling Tips'. Family time is full this week and I thought it best to post and keep on schedule rather than wait to view these incredible tiles.

The first one arrived from Vonnie Schneider (St. Paul, Minnesota) ~
Ooooh! What a fun challenge this was! Thanks to Molly Hollibaugh’s Crazy ‘nzeppel I finally got the pattern to look like what it is supposed to look like. I am loving the itsy bitsy Tira Spider too! I wasn’t able to capture the glitter gel pen on the spiderweb with my phone, but it looks cool! If I look close enough, I can see the canine corn string connecting between the two patterns. Yep, loving this tile! May have to recreate it for a Halloween Card!



From Joke Luessenkamp (Eibergen, The Netherlands) ~
Hello Adele and fellow tanglers,
Being ready making zentangle Christmas cards I'm able to spend more time to participate with the IAST challenge.
Although N' zeppel was the only one familiar to me the other two where quit easy and quick to learn.
After I've done I looked at it a while and then decided I try some tranzending, like Rick and Maria showed at you tube on the 14ns of September.
I think it turned out quit well. It's a lot of fun!!! I tried it first on some older tiles.
Thanks Adele again for such nice challenges.



A very warm welcome to Annette (California) ~
I like the Halloween theme and enjoyed playing with color. Thanks for the post.

Welcome to IAST and welcome to our tangled map Annette!


A very warm welcome to Verena Bock (Germany) ~
thank you for the nice string.
I´m proud to be part of it and looking forward to next week.
Greetings from Germany
and welcome to our tangled map, Verena!




From Lisette (Switzerland) ~
It’s exactly one year ago that I joined IAST. I started with Candy Corns-String 2016. Let me thank you for this exciting, funny and inspiring year, thank you, thank you, thank you! Unfortunately I don’t know what a Candy Corn tastes like, but it must be delicious. Again this was a interesting challenge and again I’m looking forward to what all tangle-mates created.
A big hug to all of you




From Ulrike Daniel (Germany) ~
Hi Adele, what a nice tradition to tangle "cannie corns" every year!
I coudn´t decide me, and so I send you two tiles.




Fom Gabriela Garcia (Alberta, Canada) and here on her blog ~
Thank you Adele, this was a joyful challenge! I had so much fun with this tile not just drawing all the tangles but also remembering last year's "Candy Corn Challenge" (the first one for me). Last year I did a little tira "spider", this year I thought to give it a try drawing Ragged Ray's beautiful tira "ornaments" which last year looked very complicated to me ;-) ...and then a little bit of N'Zeppel Candy Corn's in the back. Happy Halloween everyone!
And a few days later, Gabriela wrote ~
I sent you my entry for IAST a few days ago. Today I looked at my tile and thought... humm, those Candy Corns might use some more shading, so I sat down and gave it a try. I like the result :-) ....
Sometimes I am afraid of adding more patterns or more shading to my tile with fear of ruining it. This time after a few days I decided to give it a try ;-)



From ToniaC (Rhode Island) ~
#Candycorn. IAST#217: #Nzepple, #cracked, #tira. Lots of fun doing this challenge. Thank you Adele!


From Shirley Wohlsen (Queensland, Australia) ~
Attached is my Tile for this week’s -- It’s A String Thing #217 Challenge.
‘Happy Candy Corn Day’ being an Aussie I know nothing about ‘Candy Corn’ but I’m very willing to participate in the challenge and Tangle my tile for the occasion.


A very warm welcome to Dani Mulyaning (Indonesia) and here on her blog ~
I am Dani, a mother of 2 daughters from Semarang, Indonesia. I am new at zentangle world. And this is the first time I join IAST challenge. I am very excited. This is also the first time I used the tira and sand swirl pattern. I do not really like the results of tira but Iwas amazed with sand swirl. Sand swirl works well, in my opinion. I have to practice a lot more. Thanks for the challenge. Hopefully I can follow the next challenge.

Welcome to our community and to our Tangled Map, Dani.  You bring a new country to our map and it is so very good to have you, thank you.




From Juul (France) ~
Chère Adèle
This was a real difficult one for me ! But I somehow like the outcome.
Thank you so much for all your work!


From Mariam G (Port Hueneme, California) ~
I love the 'Cannie Corn' challenges! This is my favorite time of year - crisp air (not including our freakish bout of 100+ degree temps this week), beautiful colors, and inspiration everywhere. And Pumpkin Spice everything!
Have a safe and fun Halloween!


From VenaC (Whitby, Ontario, Canada) ~
I tried using variations of N'Zeppel and Tira. Sorry, I forgot your birthday last week. Hope you had a wonderful time. I really enjoy doing your challenges and do find them challenging. Thanks for all the time you spend on this.




From Margarete Gilge (Germany) and here on her blog ~
in Germany we don’t know Candy Corn. But I enjoyed tangling a Candy Corn tile. I often draw N’zeppel, sometimes Cracket, but I didn’t knew Tira. So I send you my tile with variations of Tira and a little N’zeppel and Cracket in the background. A second tile you can find on my blog under . Again I enjoyed tangling your challenge.
Best wishes from Germany


From Susan (United Kingdom) ~
Happy Candy Corn Day! I wish that we had them in the UK so that I could celebrate with you. Eat one for me!



From Trudi (Woodview, Ontario, Canada) ~
Adele I love Candy Corn! I have some in my pantry right now that I use in making a Kit Kat Bar cookie for my Christmas baking, it's so hard not to eat it when you have to buy it months ahead of time. I was trying so hard to forget it was there, this has been a real test of my diet


From Beth Gaughan (North Carolina) ~
Here is my "canny corn" tile for this week's challenge. Wishing you and your family a safe and happy Halloween!


From Hilary (Chicago) ~
Here's my #217. I used Gelatos to color the background and I'm really happy with how bright the colors are. Using pen over the background went well, but shading with pencil was difficult and I'm not happy with that. I was busy with Cracked and N'Zeppel and thought I might have to omit Tira, but I managed to squeeze it in.


From Lori Byerly (Washington State) and here on her website ~
What a fun challenge for this time of year. Candy corn is one of my favorites too.


From Susie (St. Louis, Missouri) ~
Happy Halloween to all from Susie in St. Louis


From Aileen (Singapore) ~
Happy Halloween!


From Kate (United Kingdom) ~
I'm not able to contribute to your challenge as often as I'd like at the
moment, but really enjoyed being able to complete IAST 217. I did wonder
if I would be able to fit in any Tira but they seemed just to appear
into some of the Z'Zeppel centres!


From Simone Menzel, CZT (Germany) ~
Happy Candy Corn Day, dear Adele!
How funny and sweet to celebrate a candy day - I did not have the opportunity yet to try Candy Corn but it looks yummy!
And I had a lot of fun this afternoon with this tile and your string and the tangles. (And I did not need any sweets ;-)
`Nzeppel is one of my favourites , the other ones were new to me. Especially Tira surprised me and I am sure to use it again! Thank you for the inspiration! And Cracked is a crazy variation of Knightsbridge- very nice!!
Here is my contribution to IAST#127 - I love the result:


From Sra (India) ~
Here's my rendition of the candy corn string. I have loved Crackd ever since I learnt the tangle in a Tan Tile class recently and my first instinct was to fill the empty spaces around the candy with it. But I had very little time - and sanity prevailed, so I restricted it to the spaces created between the string lines in the corners. Realising that the tips of the candy corn triangles could turn into the 'U' s of the Tira was another brainwave. Then I decided to Tranzend it. And did an N'Zeppel just to include it. So much going on in that tile but this is one tile where I felt like a free spirit, not bothering about how it looks.


From Karen Hertowski (Atlanta, Georgia) ~
Here is my interpretation of this week's challenge. Loved it!! What great fun! Guess what I found in my shopping cart at the grocery store this week? “Cannie Corns”! Just for color and drawing samples, of course.
Thanks to you for this wonderful string and to Ragged Ray, Lori Howe, and our beloved Rick and Maria (I have been with them since 2009) for these beautiful tangles. You are all awesome!!


From Sharon Fite (California) ~
Getting in the Halloween mood with this fun challenge. I added Gourdgeous, spiderwebs, and fashioned Tira into little spiders with red eyes. Fun!


From Sue Agnew (Tucson, Arizona) ~
This afternoon I went to CZT Gale Sherman's house for an Open Studio. I brought the #217 assignment and my sketchbook where I had been playing with ideas. Gale said that events combined this week so that she didn't have time to do this week's challenge but that she'd thought of using the Tranzending technique for the "top" candy corn. She said "I'm not telling you to do it, just telling you I'd thought of it." My "plan" was to do foreground Tiras, and then n'Zeppel in the background in the candy corn shapes, and as a nod to Cracked, filling in alternate triangles. (It may not surprise you that I'd figured out a stripey-sparkly way to do it.)
However, on the drive home I thought of the Tranzending video we'd watched and how Rick added a dewdrop on top of a tile, and I thought of doing the "top" candy corn shape as a dewdrop. But then I thought (we'd talked about how his dewdrop didn't really magnify what was beneath it since it was added afterwards) why wait to do the dewdrop later. And also, I could add the Tiras later in a Tranzending fashion rather than drawing the n'Zeppels behind in a Hollibaugh fashion. So that's basically what I did, only it felt so busy already I decided to forgo filling in every other square. I also wanted to add more Tiras but decided enough is enough.
Hope that made sense. Here it is!



From Cyndee Pelley (Oklahoma) and here on her blog ~
Hi Adele, greetings from Oklahoma! Thanks for another great It's a String Thing challenge! I've never been a fan of candy corn but is certainly iconic this time of year. I'm a long time fan of N'Zeppel and had never tried Tira or Cracked. I didn't expect to be a fan of either, but I loved the Mosaic quality I got with cracked in color. Tira was also an unexpected delight and I'm itching to do a monotangle now!
Thank you also for your frequent words of wisdom. I needed to borrow your "reformed perfectionist" this week. Just wonderful and such a good description of what I'm aspiring to!





From Priscilla DeConti, CZT (Kingston, New York) ~
Enjoyed the new tangles for me cracked and tira..And I love n'zeppel which used to be a mystery to me
Thanks for all you do.
Have a blessed week



From Ute Andresen (Germany) and here on her blog ~
here I send you my contribution for It’s a String Thing.
My version of Candy-Corns.
This was nice. Naturally I used my orange fineliner and brushpen again and the coloured pencils in adequate colours. ... :-)
In Germany there are no Candy-Corns. I’ve read a little bit about it. I think they have to be very, very sweet. Am I right?
But apparently they seem to be delicious.
Happy All Hallows’ Eve!



From Sharyn Penna (Massachusettes) ~
While I have zero musical talents, I saw guitar picks in the candy corn string. And once my tile was complete I heard in my head Annie Lennox singing ‘Walking on Broken Glass’. Smiles and cheers to your annual cannie corn prompts!




From Rhonda, CZT11 (Macon, Georgia) ~
It’s been a while since I had used N’zeppel; l love the flower that appears when drawing it in a grid.


From Felicity Strohfeldt (South Africa) and here on her blog ~
Tile 217 familiar as this is the 3rd time participating. Perhaps it’s rather busy, but I enjoyed the two methods of approaching N’zeppel, it’s become one of my favourite. Really will have to aim for bit more open white space. Get carried away once I settle to start.
Happy tangling all.


From Lin H, CZT (Florida) ~
Thanks for another great Halloween-themed challenge, Adele. I couldn’t quite fit Cracked into the string but had fun with ‘nzeppel and Tira!



Thank you all for inspiring us with your tributes to "Cannie Corns".  They made me smile and they made me very hungry!

Many thanks to the creators of the tangles we used with my string:

N'Zeppel by Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas

Cracked by Lori Howe

Tira by Ragged Ray

Check back on Tuesday afternoon for "It's a String Thing" # 218!

Wednesday, October 25, 2017

Wednesday's Words of Wisdom


How sweet are your words to my taste,
sweeter than honey to my mouth!

                                                                     ~Palm 119:103


Pumpkins painted to look like Candy Corn - How cute is that?!
 Thank you to Judy Okawa for sending this photo

Tuesday, October 24, 2017

"It's a String Thing" #217

It's Tuesday, your good news day!

It is also time once again to celebrate National Candy Corn Day.
I am not certain how October 30 ever earned this honor in the United States, but since it is one of my favorite candies, I am all in!

For those of you who have recently joined us, or those of you who live where Candy Corn is not available, Click here to read a brief history of this sublime confection that I posted back in October of 2014.

Since our first "Cannie Corns" (the name my children coined) themed challenge in 2014, we have built quite a tradition here.  Below are links to our previous challenges ~

2014 IAST#64

2015 IAST#116

2016 IAST #168

Here are just a few of my finds from this year's seasonal merchandise:


A googly eyed greeting card ~

Sparkly gift bags ~

 And this is perhaps my favorite find of the season.  A large bag of individually wrapped, small servings of candy.  (Believe me, I am grateful for the portion control.)




In the tradition of honoring "Cannie Corns" here at "It's a String Thing", let us begin with this string ~

IAST #217 String by Adele Bruno, CZT


The tangles we will use include one from each of our previous themed challenges ~

N'Zeppel by Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas
From #64

Cracked by Lori Howe
From #116

Tira by Ragged Ray
From IAST #168


Keep in mind that while the string lines resemble candy corn, your end result does not necessarily have to look like any one thing in particular.  
On the other hand, Zentangle® Inspired Art can be representational, so please feel free to follow your inclination.  
Simply pencil the string line onto your tile and tangle away! 

Here are the (Not so) Official Guidelines: 
* Challenges are posted on Tuesdays.
*Use the string posted for the week and some or all of the suggested patterns
* Submit a photo of your tile saved as jpg or scan your tile (300 dpi or higher) and save as a jpg
*Email your jpg file as an attachment to - brunoadelem@gmail.com
*Entries are to be submitted by Saturday evenings. 

*Photos, notes, and the 'Tile for Honors' are posted on Mondays. 


Send in your photos - you will encourage and inspire fellow Zentangle® enthusiasts all over the world.  WHEN YOU SIGN YOUR NAME, PLEASE INCLUDE WHERE YOU LIVE.  
FOR EXAMPLE:   ADELE BRUNO (FLORIDA)

PLEASE NOTE: It is not necessary for you to have a blog or website to participate. 

If you do have a blog or website, I will add a link upon request. 
Please include the site specific URL. 

I look forward to your emails.

HAVE FUN!

Monday, October 23, 2017

"It's a String Thing" #216 Tiles

This week's challenge was a nod to aura and to Maria Thomas' Rixty.  My birthday just happened to tie in the with the theme of the tangle. 
(Geez, it's been a week and it is still the number doesn't trip off my tongue easily😉)
My celebration included wonderful times with family and friends, some very relaxing time away, pretty flowers, birthday balloons, presents...
I must say that I am feeling very spoiled, humbled, and grateful for all of the fuss.

Sunset on my birthday over the Gulf of Mexico - Indian Rocks Beach, Florida 
In addition to all of this goodness, the tiles and greetings this week were the sweet icing on a birthday cake.
Let's take a look ~


The first tile arrived from Joke Leussenkamp (Eibergen, The Netherlands) ~
As soon as your challenge arrived I started drawing. Although the string to me was complicated I managed to make a Rixty tangle, it was quite fun.
Thanks again for your work!
 Tangled Tidbits -
*Rixty reaches over from one string section to another
*wonderful detail lines, Tipple, black spaces, and curves


From Lisette (Switzerland) ~
Hi Adele, I’m not sure if I understood the challenge right: String, Auras, Rixty…? Well, I had fun tangling this. I like Rixty a lot, but here I didn’t feel comfy with it… never mind.
Lots of hugs to all of you
Tangled Tidbits -
*fabulous aura lines overlap in the center
*alternating Rixty and string loops topped with aura and shading



From Margarete Gilge (Germany) and here on her blog ~
congratulations to your 60th birthday and good luck and health for the future.Tangling your weekly challenge was a lot of joy again. When drawing Rixty I modified the pattern several times. Then I developed from it a heart-shaped new pattern, which I call ‘Herzlich’ which means 'warm'. You can find my contribution to the challenge and the Instructions to ‘Herzlich’ on my blog under the link .
Thank you for this new interesting challenge.
Best wishes from Wuerzburg in Germany

Tangled Tidbits - 
*lovely new variation combined with triangular and circular Rixty lines
*sparkle and striped aura along with a beautiful mix of light and dark spaces


From Vonnie Schneider (St. Paul, Minnesota) ~
Firstly, Happy Birthday!!
Wow! Now THAT was a challenge! Rixty + Aura + this string???? I instantly saw a Celtic Knot when I saw the string....but Rixty wasn’t behaving on the string. Then I remembered that the whole string didn’t need Rixty! I looked for where Rixty best fit and before I knew it four little clovers appeared! Auras have always been a challenge with bifocals that don’t cooperate with fine pen work. I think this was the slowest I have drawn a line...and many of them! It was interesting to see patterns emerge and shading was fun. I especially like how using a brown colored pencil and my 2B shading pencil changed the color of the sepia pen on the aura. Thank you, yet again, for pushing me beyond my comfort zone...I love the process AND the end result!

Tangled Tidbits - 
How fun that clovers appeared!
*Rixty adorned continuous loop lines
*aura, shading, and color create wonderful depth



From Hilary (Chicago) ~
Happy belated birthday! I hope it was a good one.
I haven't done anything with Rixty for quite awhile, so it was fun playing with it. I really had no plan for doing this one, so I just started and here it is!
Tangled Tidbits - 
*fun shapes and variations of Rixty
*pretty highlights and shading


From Susan (United Kingdom) ~
Many birthday congratulations. Hope you enjoy all the Rixty designs.
Tangled Tidbits - 
*colorful aura surrounding red Rixty
*just a touch of shading adds depth


From Lynn G ( Florida) ~
Happy Rixty-th Birthday Adele.
Thanks for another great challenge.
Tangled Tidbits - 
*pretty penned and penciled aura - notice how it shows through Rixty
*Rixty melds into aura


From Ragged Ray (United Kingdom) ~
What a thrill this week to see all the wonderful tiles people drew featuring my Clob tangle. It's so inspiring to hear people say they love using it. And thank you too for choosing mine as one of the pair of honored tiles!
This week's tile took on a life of its own. Merely 4 little Rixtys and lots and lots of weird and wonderful auras. Lots of lightening and darkening. And there it is!
Best belated birthday wishes - I hope you had a truly wonderful day!
Tangled Tidbits - 
*"weird and wonderful" aura - that is a great description and just look at the fabulous result
*highlights, shading, and overlap all add to a great sense of depth - the tangles seem to float above the paper



From Lori Byerly (Washington State ) and here on her blog ~
A happy "rixty" birthday to you! I'm so glad you were born. :)
Here's my tile for this week's challenge.
Tangled Tidbits - 
That is such a sweet sentiment, thank you.
*plump, rounded lines contrast beautifully with the thinner, angular ones
*depth created with layering and shading


From Susie (St. Louis, Missouri) ~
Tangled Tidbits - 
*wispy tangles surround Rixty loops
*delicate shading


From Shirley Wohlsen (Queensland, Australia) ~
Extending a belated ‘Happy Birthday’ wish to you Adele, hope you had a wonderful day, and many happy returns of the day.
Another great idea this week Adele, I enjoyed the tangles and the challenge.
Tangled Tidbits - 
*rounded and triangular Rixty
*aura of rounded Rixty creates fabulous shapes


From Jutta Gladnigg (NRW, Germany) ~
First of all... congratulations, Adele!!!! (Have we been drawing “brixty” this week ???)
And thank you for this challenge! Drawing so many triangles in a line was so relaxing... and once I had started blackening the background and embellishing the loops, the fun began...
Tangled Tidbits -
That certainly looks like it was fun to tangle.
*deep black background accentuates the detailed tangles
*lines, orbs, and aura adorn Rixty (It makes them look like fun little creatures.)


From Pat Kennedy (Washington State) ~
Thank you for a great Challenge. I enjoyed all the swirls!
Tangled Tidbits -
*Rixty covered, interwoven string lines
*pops of mushroom-like Rixty



From Sra (India) ~
Here's my attempt at the latest challenge!
I congratulated myself for using the Rixty this way, to go with the string, but on second thoughts, I'm sure so many others have thought of that! I intended some really great shading, but did not know what to do beyond a point. The whole thing reminds me of a robot doing a joyfully clumsy dance.
Tangled Tidbits -
*wonderful tangle and wonderful imagery - and you will notice that no two tiles are the same
*Rixty tipped string loops



From Priscilla DeConti, CZT (Kingston, New York) ~
Almost forgot I did this
Small rixty with striping balloons!


Tangled Tidbits -
*Rixty flows from the string loops inward
*stripes and shading add dimension



From Laurel Davis, CZT (New York) ~
Another great challenge and a very happy birthday, Adele!
Tangled Tidbits -
*continuous line aura, complete with dots, on the outer four string loops
*Rixty rings around the aura-ed string lines


From Barbara Steyer (Germany) ~
spontaneously I was able to join your string thing this time.
I love RIXTY and here is my tile:
That was fun!
Greetings from Germany
Tangled Tidbits -
*detailed Rixty, aura-ed and shaded
*layered Rixty and and colorful aura



From Sharon Fite (California) ~
I like Rixty, although I don't use it very often. And when I first saw the string, I thought it was pretty busy. Over the week, the more I thought about it, the more things I wanted to try, and I realized that a 3.5" square wouldn't be large enough. So I went up to a 6" square -- so roomy! To Rixty, I added Floo (Zentangle) and Trio (Hanny Waldburger). Thanks for another challenge that gets the creative juices flowing, Adele!!
Tangled Tidbits -
*delicate, mulyiple curves of Rixty
*beautiful tangles fill the outer string


From Marla Mendenhall (California) ~
Tried a bit of a different concept this week ... It really is Rixty if you look closely, assuming it doesn't give you a headache to do so. Of course my shaky hand doesn't help either ...
Happy birthday, Dearest Lady. Sending blessings and best wishes. And this is a good time to once again send beaucoup thanks for all you do for the Zentangle community, and especially for our growing family. Hosting the site, coming up with the challenges, posting all your encouraging notes. Hours and hours of devotion and love ... I don't think there are enough words to express my admiration and gratitude. Zenlicious hugs and kisses.
Tangled Tidbits -
You do make me blush, thank you Marla.
*This lends an entirely new meaning to Rixty - absolutely amazing - one central Rixty flows outward to each of the string's loops, filling them with their own bursts of Rixty.
*outer aura and touch of shading highlight the string


From Ute Andresen (Germany) and here on her blog ~
What a year of anniversaries! Congratulations for a new decade of your life!
Very happy birthday, dear Adele!
I hope my tile has something celebrating for you. I had a glittering birthday thing in my mind while making it. (Especially when I did the colouring, sure. ...)
But I have to tell you: First I doubted if I could manage this detailed string together with the pattern Rixty.
Well I started in the center and – what a surprise – the string was not too detailed and delicate but really helpful. Each triangle of the pattern leans on the stringline. This thing went out much different than I thought before.
On my blog I show the first step on the tile. But it is impossible to show my surprised face, when I got it.
Thank you for all your work and passion for your Tickled to Tangle site.
In the attachment my tile and some borage (starflower) out of our garden for you.
 
Tangled Tidbits -
*a very creative use of the string - Rixty rests on the string lines and loops without being held to them
*delicate and delightfully colored
 
Tank you for the beautiful flowers!



From VenaC (Whitby, Ontario, Canada) ~
I am back home now and I am late posting my challenge. The string was a difficult one for me. I did get in some Rixty. Not sure about the auras.
Tangled Tidbits -
*sparkled and striped aura
*Abeko adorned string loops


From Sharyn Penna (Massachusetts) ~
from one 1957 baby to another ...
HAPPY RIXTY-ETH BIRTHDAY WEEK!!!
I’ve been on a bit of a self-imposed sabbatical... but I had to break it for this most auspicious celebration.
Three cheers and many thanks to you for always bringing light, hope, wonder, and IAST to our lives.
Love, Sharyn Penna
PS. I’ve always told my October-born daughter that even the trees here in New England get dressed up to celebrate her birthday! May your garden be filled with color and design this week/month/year!

Tangled Tidbits -
Yes, cheers to that for all of us this week/month/year!
*Rixty string loops weave behind weighted lined aura of the inner string loop
*inner aura create fun shapes


From Tonia C (Rhode Island) ~
This was a fun string to do with this tangle. It made me enjoy #rixty even more. I used shading to help the #rixty stand out. I used a Sakura white gel pen to create sparkle.
Tangled Tidbits -
*shading defines the aura-ed spaces
*wonderful Rixty covered string lines



From Felicity Strohfeldt (South Africa) and here on her blog ~
Here is my tile 216. Almost posted this one to the bin, but on second thoughts zentangling is a long suffering artform where no effort is ever destined for the bin, so submitted it is.
Think my muse is a bit out of sorts at the moment just like the punctuality too. Hopefully things will improve.
Tangled Tidbits -
You were good not to toss this - or any, as you so rightly mention.
*contrasting light and dark string lines and Rixty variations -note how the lighter one weaves in and out of the tile
* morphing shapes of Rixty with detail lined aura



From Stephanie Jennifer, CZT (Singapore) ~
Here's my tile for this week's challenge. I drew it in my sketchbook.
I could see the string morph into Abeko, so I went with that. Then I initially thought to draw Rixty in a loop, but that felt a little too stuffy, so I ignored some parts of the string. Colours were added using Peerless watercolours, and white auras were added using a Uni-ball Signo Broad pen.
Tangled Tidbits -
*our second blend with Abeko!
*trailing lines of Rixty, lovely colors layered with white aura


From Amy Barnickel (Florida) ~
...I'm just so grateful that I got to actually try this tangle this week after missing many many weeks of IASTs.
Tangled Tidbits -
*detail lines for Rixty accents the thick white center line
*Wired border


From Donna Symons, CZT (Pennsylvania) ~
Had to send the best birthday wishes to a very special friend.. you! With your joyful outlook and passion for sharing I'm positive that you had a great day.Many more happy times . This weeks fun challenge facilitated my return to more tangling in my life. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
A shout out to Freda Littleton for the cross hatching inspiration
As always thank you for all you do for the Zentangle community.
Tangled Tidbits -
Cheers to friends and to more tangling in our lives! 
*aura-ed string lines
*rounded Rixty


Here are my tiles ~
I completed both of these on a somewhat bumpy plane ride and grew to like the waviness of the aura it produced.  After drawing the string, I added aura to the string sections in the 'Z-Trick' fashion and then working in eight smaller sections, I added aura outward to the border.
I love how puffy this looked once it was shaded.
On this one, I ran Rixty over the middle string line and then added aura to the outer string sections.  To make the outer aura more interesting, I added Rixty triangles to the outside of the loops first.  


And now...

the tile for honors this week...

was sent in by...


From Karen Herstowski (Atlanta, Georgia) ~
This is wonderful! What a challenge. I used an isolation of the upper left quadrant of your suggested format. Love Rixty and love its many options. Auras are the best accent and fill-in. Couldn’t help but put a few Halloween-y elements in this great partnership! Thanks!
Tangled Tidbits -
*clever ideas abound - using a small section of the suggested string, Halloween details, a touch of color, web-like aura complete with a dangling little critter
*shadowed shading


Congratulations,  Karen!
I have a little something coming in the mail for you.


Many thanks to Maria Thomas for the lovely Rixty - and the idea of celebrating 60 years so creatively.

Countless thanks from the bottom of my heart for all of the sweet birthday wishes.  I cherish them - and all of you!

Stop by Tuesday afternoon for "It's a String Thing" #217!