"It's a String Thing" #289 Tiles

With our large and ever growing family, so much of life happens in between each of my weekly posts.  While my focus here remains on our shared tangling passion, every once in a while there is something just too sweet to let slip by without mention, especially when it concerns a baby. 💗

We have just returned from a weekend trip to South Carolina to celebrate our newest granddaughter's baptism.  Ada is precious beyond words and she enjoyed every minute of her big day.

While our son, John, looked on and his wife Melissa held Ada over the font, she turned and began to play in the water as she was baptized.  It was such a dear and blessed moment that I asked permission to post this photo ~

Ada was totally intrigued by the water as she was baptized.  

I must confess that I chose Mel Mel (a tangle I named for Melissa) for this week's string knowing we were traveling to participate in this grand time with John, Melissa, and Ada.

They are sure to enjoy the show of tiles along with us.

Let's take a look ~

The first tile arrived from Karen Aicken (Alberta, Canada) and here on her blog ~

It’s been a long time since I’ve picked up my pens, but the last couple of weeks Zentangle has been calling to me and I have not resisted. I was inspired this morning by your challenge IAST 289, so here is my submission. I’ve been playing with Nzepple, so that is what I saw inside your Mel Mel string and my inspiration today
I traced a tile into my sketchbook and used that instead of drawing on a tile. Just trying something different and so far I’m liking the sketchbook. The sturdiness of the cover just feels so good in my hands.
Thanks for all you do!

 Welcome back!
Tangled Tidbits -
*pretty N'zeppel flowers
*touch of Flux softens Rain


From Christine Forrester (Wolverhampton, United Kingdom) ~

It’s been a few years since I sent you a tangle. I have not been able to do anything for a while and am only now getting back to your challenges. This is the first that I am happy with enough to send in.
I found your string a real challenge. After mastering that all I could see was a bunch of flowers. I wanted to use tangles I didn’t know to fill the bouquet so started at the ‘z’ end of the tangle pattern web site. I picked Ying, X, Veezy, Sporez, Stella, Ratoon, added 2 old favourites Squid and Oake and the stalks were the first tangle I learned but didn’t know the name of. I used Rain as bunting to wrap it up and added some dewdrop as rain. I coloured it in with a few marker pens and watercolour pencils.
Thank you for your inspiration.

 So good to have you back!
Tangled Tidbits -
*lovely bouquet of tangles
*colorful entwined Rain



From Marjan Heemskerk (The Netherlands) ~

What a beautiful string you gave us. It reminded me of balloons. Today seems to be my blue day so this tile is all in blue.
I used several Fragments and Beadline.
Thank you for this lovely challenge.

 Tangled Tidbits -
*Beadline border
*beautiful blues, Tippled Rain


From Angie Gittles (Maryland) ~

Last week’s submissions were amazing! Wow! I can’t wait to see what everyone does with this week’s fun string. Thank you for another fun challenge.

 Tangled Tidbits -
*enthatching, soft shading, delicate lines
*bold Knightsbridge and Rain


From Allison (California) ~

This proved to be an interesting challenge and I went an unusual way- different from what I usually do.
Thank you

 Tangled Tidbits -
*bold sprays of Rain
*lines add dimension to the string loops


From Lisette, CZT #32 (Switzerland) ~

This week I’m in time. Rain was completely neglected by me until the seminar last November, where I started to fall in love with it. Thank you for having chosen Rain for this challenge. I added Scena and the new Doodah (both by Zentangle)

Tangled Tidbits -
*Scena - fabulous as a fill
*'over and under' Rain along the string lines


From Renee W. (Austin, Texas) ~

Thank you for another weekly challenge. Wasn’t going to do it but then it just sort of happened. I struggled a bit but I just kept going.

 Tangled Tidbits -
*lovely Henna Drum filled petals
*dash/dotted aura for Rain


From Laurel Davis, CZT #28 (New York) ~

What a beautiful string for this week’s challenge, Adele! Along with Rain, I used Indy-rella and my very own tangle, Edie, which I was lucky enough to have featured in TanglePatterns.com on Feb. 18th.

 Tangled Tidbits -
Congratulations on your new tangle, Laurel!
*wonderful shading and rounded corners
*three different fills for Edie


From Margarete Gilge (Germany) and here on her blog ~

again I enjoyed your last Challenge very much! You can find my tile on my blog under the link
Have a nice weekend!
Best wishes from Germany

 Tangled Tidbits -
*mirrored tangles on a fabulous oval tile
*Stacked Rain arcs and a unique fill for each Mel Mel petal


From Ingrid (The Netherlands) ~

In the attachment my Tile #289 for this week.
I had no intention to draw this outcome.
A lot of black, not really a tile with a May-like feeling.
Very much in contrast with the tile I made last week.
But it just happened.
In addition to Rain I used Sand Swirl (I think), which is one of the first of my favorites that popped up in my head.

I enjoyed so much looking at the show of tiles from last week. They were all so beautiful.

 Tangled Tidbits -
Don't you love how tiles surprise you?
*gorgeous bold black spaces
*thin and thicker Sand swirl lines


From VenaC. (Whitby, Ontario, Canada) ~

I saw Cindy Angiel's pattern Drobbles a long time ago but never got around to doing it. This string seemed to present the perfect opportunity. I haven't followed Mel Mel exactly, only the gist of it. We have been having a lot of rain but not the severe flooding that some parts of Ontario and Quebec have experienced.

 Tangled Tidbits -
*flowing curves and orbs, touches of color
*a bold line of Rain anchors the tile


From Ria Matheussen (Belgium) ~

I like your Mel Mel very much as a string and filled it with Buddy.
To complete the tile I also used Rain, a smaller version of Mel Mel,
coloured some open spaces in different grey tints and finished with Msst.
Msst and Buddy are not especially my real favorites but I like them here
on this tile that gave me pleasant moments while drawing.
Thank you for giving every week a wonderful challenge. I'm always glad
after finishing a tile that I would never make without I.A.S.T.

 Tangled Tidbits -
I appreciate that, thank you, Ria.
*oh, so lovely tangles and shading - sparkle on tops of Mel Mel add shine
*darker shading over Rain and Msst like a gentle storm


From Sra (India) and here on her blog ~

Trust you're well. Here's my entry for IAST 289!
Thanks and have a nice week ahead!

 Tangled Tidbits -
*penciled Rain background
*bold tangled fill Mel Mel string


From Jane (Surrey, United Kingdom) ~

Loved this Mel Mel string, very interesting! As well as rain I used striping, tipple and baton, great fun. Thanks as always Adele!

 Tangled Tidbits -
*sparkle, striping, and shading add dimension and boldness
*green Rain backdrop


From Lynn F. (Florida) ~

Thank you for sharing your family dinner photo. It was lovely.
Here’s my tile for this week.
I added Rain Dotty to keep Rain company.
I think I had more of a challenge with the string than the patterns.

 Tangled Tidbits -
*lovely Rain border layered with Tipple
*each Mel Mel petal features a different finish


From Ginger (California) ~

April showers not so much here, but earlier in the year they prompted fantastic superblooms here in our nearby deserts! So, tangle looking like a daffodils seems right!
Glad you had a good family time. Thank you for all you do.

 Tangled Tidbits -
*Fengle center
*waves of Rain fill the background


From Sue Agnew (Tucson, Arizona) ~

My sister has been here visiting since a week ago Tuesday. Sadly, her two weeks is almost up, but we’ve been having a lot of fun. Fortunately we are both laid back hang-out kind of people so I’ve had time to tangle while she sketches or colors.
When you specified “Rain” I thought “oh, I know that one” and didn’t look it up. When I realized my mistake I was already kind of enamored of using Mssst (Zentangle original) so I stuck with it. A couple of weeks ago when you specified Henna Drum I wasn’t able to play along, so I wanted to use that … and I added two other lovely floral tangles ... Scrawlz (Jane Dickinson) and Fricle (Julie Evans). It’s fun to think about flowers! (We have had flowers for a couple of months, an especially good year in the desert because of winter rains.)
Happy May to you!

Tangled Tidbits -
That all sounds like FUN.
*delicate Fricle variation
*repeating curves and curls



From Susie (Thailand) ~

Attached my contribution to your spring challenge #289 with your beautiful Mel Mel string. I chose Mock I.Am and a little bit of Ruutz to join the Rain tangle.
Thank you very much for this interesting challenge.

 Tangled Tidbits -
*happy combination of Ruutz and Rain
*brilliant colors and tangles


From Cheryl C ~

Along with the suggested pattern Rain, I chose to use the pattern Breach.
Adele, thanks for sharing your holiday table. I'm sure it was a wonderful Easter celebration. And, how can you beat bonus time!!

 Tangled Tidbits -
*beautiful arc of layered Rain
*orbs, aura, fine lines for Mel Mel



From Gabi (Germany) ~

Just used Mel Mel as and tried to draw RAIN in a softer variation too.
Have a nice week
Greetings from rainy Germany

 Tangled Tidbits -
*doubled Mel Mel string lines weave over and under
*bold Rain background, fun rounded variation


From Susie (St. Louis, Missouri) ~

With the massive amount of rain lately, this is an apt tangle to use. The other tangle is sand swirl to represent all the people filling sandbags trying to save the communities along all the rivers. The Mississippi is overflowing it’s banks and a lot of our small towns and cities are affected, but there are many people filling those bags. A lot of good people helping others.

 Tangled Tidbits -
Rain really was a timely choice.  It is always so encouraging to hear positive things come out of difficult situations.
*Sandswirl shaded adds great depth
*falling Rain


From Sharyn Penna, CZT (Massachusetts) ~

Mel Mel is a perfect tangle to go big with, then fill the petals/balloons with tangleations of a single pattern ... in this case, Rain.
This prompt offered me the chance to play with Rain ... I hadn’t taken time to explore the possibilities before this.
Did you know ... here in New England we had over 20 grey drizzly/rainy days in April, and May has yet to offer a sunny day. This prompt brought a smile to my face.
Cheers to irony and to the sunshine that hides behind the clouds.

 Tangled Tidbits -
Cheers, indeed!
*gently shaded border
*six Rain variations include Rixty and N'zeppel


From JoAnne (Ontario, Canada) ~

This is Isla along with Rain! Great string

 Tangled Tidbits -
*Rain rimmed string
*shading creates a layered look and softens the bold Isla


From T. ~

A few challenges back—challenge #285 to be exact—when you chose Dingsplatz as our string, I had started a tile using Mel Mel but I couldn’t get it to work the way I had hoped; so I abandoned the tile and started over.
It was nice to have another chance to work with it this week. My immediate instinct was to turn it into a patterned flower. The patterns I chose for that, because they are my favourites, are Sand Swirl, Florz, and Baton.
Rain is not new to me, but since becoming familiar with it, I have never used it to any great degree.
However, this week, it fit perfectly as a stem for my imagined flower.
Thanks for continuing with challenges that honour spring.

 Tangled Tidbits -
*alternating tangles fill Mel Mel
*Rain stem for Mel Mel finished with aura and orbs


From Moblue (Bremen, Germany) ~

hope you have been recovered from this joyful effort. It is always good to have all our loved ones with us from time to time. But it is also good to know, they all will leave to their own places in the end.
Also a joyful effort is your valid string. Once started, I could not stop. The ideas crowded in my head and the patterns flew from my pen, what a fun!
The only thing is, I have to pick the one to send.
Honestly I cannot decide only one, so I send you three I consider being the best.
The first was inspired by the video explaining 'Rain', when Rick also drew 'Fracas' and Maria said 'Rain' reminds her to a kite's tail.
The second I imagined a bunch of balloons lifting up in the sky, still tangled together, shy before separating and drifting apart.
And the third I filled the loops with some 'Butter' and 'double Butter'. They turned out to be so airy, that I additional to the 'Rain' border shaded the outlines of the loops to prevent them from flying away.
Oh, Adele, thank you so much for this wonderful afternoon full of wonderful tangles.
Now I'm eager to see all the other tiles.
Happy Tangling from Moblue, Bremen, Germany.

 Tangled Tidbits -
*prolific results, a sign of an inspired tangling time!
*Rain stems, border, and centers along with a lovely mix of tangles


From Shirley Wohlsen (Queensland, Australia) ~

Attached is my tile for ‘It’s A String Thing # 289’ Challenge.
I chose to use the pretty string of your lovely Tangle ‘Mel Mel’ and add a smaller version of same
along with [Maria Thomas’] versatile ‘Rain” tangle.

 Tangled Tidbits -
*beautiful variations and varying sizes of Mel Mel
*swath of Rain in the background


From Lynn G. (Florida) ~

I know it is too late to send this in, but had to flaunt your Mel-Mel. Sorry I forgot to post

 Tangled Tidbits -
*gorgeous, gold rimmed Mel Mel
*aura-ed Rain center


From Kathy Millard (Prince George, British Columbia, Canada) ~

Thank you again for an interesting string and challenge. I hope I'm not too late but thought I'd send my tangle anyway as I'm working at getting back to weekly tangling. I was away for April but it feels good to be home and back to routine.

 Tangled Tidbits -
*alternating Printemps and Pokeroot fill Mel Mel
*single line of bold Rain


This is my take, tangled in my brand new notebook because...

Our flight home from South Carolina was delayed by three hours. Fortunately, the news-stand at the airport sold a small collection of Moleskine® notebooks and I had a Micron in my purse. A long wait at the gate turned into a peaceful time tangling.  I used some embedded letter techniques around the Mel Mel string, (more on that in later posts...), a different variation of Rain in each petal, Tipple to tie them all together, and finished up with layered shading.  So much fun that it almost made me forget the sadness of leaving sweet Ada...

There were so many mentions of rain that I do hope you all stay dry and safe and that many May flowers follow.

Thank you all so very much for your kind words and phenomenal tiles.

The very next post will be "It's a String Thing" #290!