"It's a String Thing" #242 Tiles

It is such a pleasure to extend holidays and celebrations.  I feel like we've done that this week as our tile display has taken me longer to post than usual.   

My husband and I had the good fortune to travel (details below) for a wonderful Mother's Day weekend.  In an effort to catch up, I have the notes and tiles posted below sans my usual
"Tangled Tidbits". 
Please enjoy the show!

We used a string and tangles with "Mom" in mind.  Let's continue our celebration and take a look ~

The first tile was actually sent in by a first time participant, Angie Gittles, CZT 29 (Maryland) ~

My first IAST! Hope I did it correctly! I used all three tangles plus Purk and Petal Puddle.

Welcome to IAST, Angie, and welcome to our Tangled Map ~

And speaking of Maryland...

I tangled this tile on a flight to Maryland for a grand Mother's Day weekend.  We attended our son-in-law Andrew's graduation from Catholic University of America.
We enjoyed a mini family reunion and toasted Andrew as he earned his Ph.D - an incredible accomplishment.  It was a blessing to revel in my roles as a mother, mother-in-law, and grandmother all at once...

From Priscilla DeConti, CZT (Kingston, New York) ~

Happy Mother's day to All..My mom has been deceased for quite some time and I still miss her.
Loved the challenge tangles this week
Thanks again for fun!

From Lily (Hungary) ~

Dear Adele, here is my tile for your weekly challenge.
Zenhug:

From Baafke (The Netherlands) ~

What a wonderful prospect; a new grandchild!
In two months we hope to welcome our 2nd grandchild (a little boy)

From Lin H., CZT (Florida) ~

Hope you have a wonderful Mother’s Day, Adele! Your challenge with the Mothers Day theme was just that for me, a challenge! I was familiar with the tangles but putting them together with your string, hmmmm. I wanted to use some blue pens and pencils but got them mixed up and ended up using more shades of blue than intended but you know, no mistakes, so I just kept going and it was okay! (chuckle chuckle)

From Shirley Wohlsen (Queensland, Australia) ~

Firstly I must congratulate you on your cleverly designed new table, It’s a door-able, well done Adele.
What wonderful news for you that John and Mellissa are expecting their first child, an exciting time all round.
Attached is my Tile for ‘It’s A String Thing # 242’ challenge.
I had fun with this one. Happy Mother’s Day! to all Mother’s.

From Mariam G. (Port Hueneme, California) ~

First - Happy Mother's Day to you and all the Mom's - here and everywhere.
This string and the tangles confounded me a bit - I played with various arrangements and when the bones of this one appeared it made me smile. My own Mom would love this, but her eyesight will no longer allow her to view it. There is an old TV show called 'Amazing Stories' and one of our favorite episodes is 'Mummy Daddy' (the upper portions do rather resemble mummies...) Anyway, you have to know the story, but I love that this is what developed from your string and the patterns for this week. (apologies for the rambling!)
Hope all the Mom's out there have a lovely day
(ps - if you ever get the chance to see that episode I recommend you do so - very funny and heartwarming at the same time :-))

A very warm welcome to Maria B (Canada) and here on Instagram ~

Hello! This is my first time to do one of your challenges and I had a lot of fun with this. I kept my tangle pretty simple since the string really looked like two people to me and especially enjoyed the pixioze background.

Welcome to our IAST community, Maria, and welcome to our Tangled Map ~

From VenaC (Whitby, Ontario, Canada) ~

Not exactly a Mother's Day design. Looks like a primitive mother and child. Lots of fun except for all the stripes on the little balls which got a bit tedious. I think I needed a cup of coffee! Happy Mother's Day Adele.

From Karin (Germany) ~

this is my entry to no 242.
Have a nice Mother´s Day!
Greetings from Germany 

From Nor'dzin (Wales, United Kingdom) ~

Happy Mother’s Day to those celebrating. We have ours in March in the UK. A nice group of tangles, and thank you for the introduction to the delightful Pixioze. My week has been a little stressful, so I greatly appreciated the relaxation of creating this tile.

From Laurel Davis, CZT (New York) ~

Took me a while to come up with a composition that I liked well enough to submit, but my final attempt turned out to be my favorite. Happy Mother’s Day!

From Lynn G (Florida) ~

Happy Mother’s Day Adele.

From Trudi (Woodview, Ontario, Canada) ~

Happy Mother's day Adele! Once your kids start having children they really appreciate what a parent's love really is. When we had our kids we finally understood the tremendous love our parents had for us.
It was a fun assignment this week with these Tangles. I saw the mother and child right away and really enjoyed it. Thanks for your work!

From Renee (Austin, Texas) ~

Congratulations and happy Mother’s Day. Thank you, as always, for the challenge!

From Margarete Gilge (Germany) ~

thank you for this interesting challenge! I wish you a nice Mother’s Day!
Best wishes from Germany

From Jane Goddard (Dorking, Surrey, United Kingdom) ~

Hello again and many thanks for this challenge. Two new-to-me tangles and I immediately knew I'd use pots-n-pans in the two "figures". Such fun when a plan comes together! I've used pixiose many times, a beautiful filler. Another lovely combination of tangles.

From Jutta Gladnigg, CZT (NRW, Germany) ~

In time for Mother’s Day I finished this tile. What a cool idea to announce ‚4Mom' as one of the patterns to use. Such a telling tangle name. And ‚Pots-N-Pans' is also such a funny pattern for this day. Yes, who would not think of thousands of cups and dishes that have gone through a mother’s hand when raising a child and taking care of a family… Even ‚O‘ in MOM can take the form of a plate, not to forget the Pixi-Os… When I was looking at your string and at the O-filled Zigzag of ‚4Mom' my eyes fell on a tile attached to a magnetic board close to my desk… Wasn’t that one of the O-shapes that I was intending to draw…perfectly round and caused by a spill? Some months ago my friend Jody Genovese, CZT, from New York, had sent me this tile which was meant as a ‚travelling tangles project‘. She had started this tile with a brown spill and the beautifully drawn pattern ‚Falme‘. ‚Falme‘ reminded me of ‚Pixioze‘ because of its similar shape, so I thought it would fit into this challenge as a 4th pattern. So I finished this travelling tangles project by using the 3 suggested patterns ‚4Mom‘, ‚Pots-N-Pans‘ and ‚Pixioze‘ and some Polychromos colour pencils for shading. Jody doesn’t know yet that I have finished ‚our‘ tile… I hope she likes how it came out. I couldn’t find her chop on the tile, so JG stands for us both: Jody Genovese and Jutta Gladnigg

From Marloes (The Netherlands) ~

I used 4mom to make garlands to celebrate mothers day.

From ARHuelsenbeck (Arizona) ~

Hope all you moms out there had a wonderful Mothers Day.

From Jane Rhea (Indiana) ~

Happy Mothers’ Day!
Women, by nature are mothers—-nurturers —-whether or not we have given birth to a child. We nurture our loved ones, our spouses or partners, our friends, our co-workers, those we worship with, those in our communities, those with whom we share a simple smile as we go about our day. We certainly nurture all those with whom we share the joy of Zentangle! So for all of the mother in all of us, those who nurture—-Happy Mothers’ Day!
We also need to take care of ourselves, and that means we need to continue to nurture ourselves and our own creativity, so that we can continue to take good care of those around us! Thank you, Adele, for all you do to nurture all of us!

From Susie (St. Louis, Missouri) ~

From Shelly St. John (Redwood City, California) ~

And this one is from Jennifer St. John (San Mateo, CA)
As a beginner, this is such a fun way to learn. I continue to struggle with “forcing” patterns
into the strings and I’m always amazed at how others so creatively do this. But as someone
is truly art challenged, I still really enjoy the process, and that is more important to me
than the end product.

From Sue Agnew (Tucson, Arizona) ~

Happy Mother's Day! hope you'll have a a wonderful day with your family tomorrow!
My tile this week came out more like a sampler than a cohesive piece of work ... but I had fun trying things!
I turned the string on its side, which is what suggested the parallel diagonal lines.
Then I started doing mash-ups. The bottom is a mash-up of 4Mom and Pixioze. I was going to do it "mirrored" but then I got interested in playing with Pixioze as though it were Tipple (wasn't that a Margaret Bremner how-to a few months ago?). The middle is also a mash-up of 4Mom and Pixioze but I used a more script-like line for the humps in the "M". I added the row of small "petals" around the Pixiozes because they kept looking like bunnies to me. The top row is a mash-up of Pots-N-Pans (her variation that looks like a folded piece of paper) and 4Mom. I had actually intended to mash-up all three, but when I had the "paper" drawn I wanted the spheres to be three-dimensional, so I didn't use Pixiozes for the spheres.
Thanks for another fun week!

From Holly (California) ~

Happy Mother’s Day!

From Sharon Fite (California) ~

A timely challenge, Adele! Good string and tangles. I added Dyon, Cresent Moon, and Bumpadox with orbs to mine. Wishing all moms in our community a Happy Mother's Day and special blessings to those of us who are facing their first Mother's Day without their moms.

From Sharyn Penna, CZT (Massachusetts) ~

Happy Mother’s Day to all! And best wishes for your growing family and expanding heart!
M ... for mother, Marian (my mom’s name), Mary (my sister’s and my mother-in-law’s names), and my maiden name. While all three have passed on, they are the foundation of my heart and soul.
Cheers to the moms, and to the hearts that grow and ache from past, present, and future joy.

From Gabi (Germany) ~

...Spent some days at Vienna and was so full of impression of all those great paintings. So there is a lot of gold and silver inspired by Gustav Klimt and I hope the string, Pots-N-Pans and Pixiose are recognisable.

From Felicity Strohfeldt (Velddrif, South Africa) and here on her blog ~

...Tile 242 was a great way to get back on track. All the patterns are familiar so that helped. Mother’s Day is synonym with flowers so Pixioze took on the role and filled and spilled from the Pot-N-Pans tower,s the vases and 4Moms stabilised the leaning towers. Enjoyed the experience. Thanks for the string and thanks to Jane Malone, Sayantika and Margaret Bremner for their lovely zentangle.
Have a peaceful week Adele and all the participants.

From Sherry Conte (Sanford, Florida) ~

I really had to practice Pots-N-pans in my sketchbook. I just couldn't get it. And then, the lightbulb went off and I figured it out. It took me all week to work out how I wanted to draw this challenge.

Thank you and a belated very happy Mother's Day to all you mothers and motherly influences across the globe.

Many thanks to the creative minds behind the tangles we used this week ~

4Mom by Jane Eileen Malone, CZT


Pots-N-Pans by Sayantika Ray

Pixioze by Margaret Bremner, CZT

Check back tomorrow for the results of "It's a String Thing" #243!

"It's a String Thing" #243

It's Tuesday, your good news day!

Thank you everyone for spreading all of the tangled Happy Mother's Day goodness for IAST #242.  I have just returned from a weekend of celebrations, so the the emails and tiles will be just a bit late...I hope to have them ready tomorrow.
Until then, let's keep on track with our challenges and begin with this string ~

IAST #243 String by Adele Bruno, CZT

If it looks familiar, perhaps you have read CZT Linda Farmer's May 11, 2018, TanglePatterns post about zenbuttons by CZT Marguerite Samama (The Netherlands).  Click here to view.

Marguerite's tutorial is clearly written and fully illustrated.  She gives step-by-step instructions and suggestions for ways to create beautiful zenbuttons.  Of particular interest is the finished example before and after shading and highlighting. 

Won't it be exciting to create our own zenbuttons using Marguerite's tutorial?
Instead of our usual list of tangles, we will use fragments to fill our zenbuttons.  Even if you don't own a copy of The Zentangle® Primer Vol. 1, there are plenty of possibilities already included.

Feel free to use any color of tile and pen(s) - it will be delightful to see the variations between our tiles.

Simply pencil in the string and tangle away.
Enjoy!

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 for IAST are to be submitted by Saturday evening of the week issued
*Photos, notes, and the 'Tile for Honors' are (usually) posted on the following Monday 

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.

A Tiny Fairy Garden House

This Fairy Garden House was sent in by Tabitha Bedoukian, CZT of Montreal, Quebec, Canada ~

When I asked for permission to post her sweet creation, Tabitha sent these new photos ~

Not only is it adorable, the roof was tangled with her very own tangle, Kaboom. 
(Click here to find it on TanglePatterns.)

Kaboom and Tabitha's Kulakane´ tangle are featured in the latest "Tiny House Book" by Dorian Eng, CZT and myself.  Along with pattern step outs, our book features detailed instructions on how to construct these tiny treasures and examples of how to embellish them. 
(Ordering information is available by clicking the book cover to the right.)

Many thanks to Tabitha for her tangles and for the photos of her delightful fairy house.

Wednesday's Words of Wisdom

Remember, a line cannot exist alone;
it always brings a companion along.
Do remember that one line does nothing;
it is only in relation to another
that it creates a volume. 

                                                                                                                         ~Henri Matisse

"Classic Hollibaugh" - Photograph by Susan (United Kingdom) of tree branches taken at her local park. 

Many thanks to Susan for sending along this picture. 

"It's a String Thing" #242

It's Tuesday, your good news day!

Last week we celebrated Spring, this week we are celebrating mothers.  Mother's Day in many countries, including the U.S., is this Sunday, May 13. 

In 2014, on my first Mother's Day post, I wrote this brief history of the celebration ~

Mother's Day originated in the small town of Grafton, West Virginia. Anna Jarvis, a school teacher there in the early 1900's, began a campaign in memory of her own mother whose prayer was that "someone would someday create a special day to honor mothers." In 1914, her efforts prevailed when President Woodrow Wilson designated Mother's Day to be celebrated on the second Sunday of May every year.

 (Click here to view the entire write-up.)

That same post features a picture of a special gift from my son, John.  So much has happened in the four years since -  John met and married his ever lovely wife, Melissa, and just last month announced that they are expecting their first child.  Now that is one special Mother's Day gift for this Grandmother!

Let's give three cheers for the gift of motherhood and begin with this string ~

IAST #242 String by Adele Bruno, CZT

(This string was sparked by the idea of a loopy letter 'M' for mom. With one side smaller than the other, it could be a mother and child, couldn't it?)


The tangles we will use include ~

4Mom by Jane Eileen Malone, CZT
This is a sweet play on the word MOM, fitting for the occasion. 

Pots-N-Pans by Sayantika Ray
Truly a treat for mom, these pots and pans don't need to be washed 😉

Pixioze by Margaret Bremner, CZT
Not overtly flowery, this pretty tangle is still reminiscent of posies.

Use as many or as few of these as you wish.

As with all our IAST adventures, simply pencil in the string keeping in mind that it is a suggestion, and let the tangles lead the way.

Enjoy!

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 for IAST are to be submitted by Saturday evening of the week issued
*Photos, notes, and the 'Tile for Honors' are (usually) posted on the following Monday 

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.

"It's a String Thing" #241 Tiles

Lily Moon's new Caracole paired with Sandy Bartholomew's Mumsy was just what we need to welcome to Spring.  Sharyn Penna, CZT described this week's challenge well with this closing:

"Cheers to all that is joyful and whimsical!"  

Let's take a look ~

The first tile arrived from Amy L (Connecticut) ~

Today was a beautiful sunny, spring day in May, so I embraced the flowers and added cyme and some other organic looking tangles. I decided to use renaissance because I thought it would enhance mumsy. I really enjoyed caracole, mumsy took some more convincing, so thanks for the link to your earlier post. And thanks again, for a great tile inspiration!

 Tangled Tidbits -
*a festive mix of tangles
*alternating plain, shaded, and white aura-ed spaces


From Baafke (The Netherlands) ~

I think the spring is the most beautiful season.
All those colors green and spring flowers.
And also my birth month.
Sweet spring-greetings for everyone!

 Tangled Tidbits -
Happy Birthday to you!
*delicate border and string lines
*red centers of Mumsy and dark circle surround of Caracole


From Lynn G (Florida) ~

Lily Moon’s new tangle is really a fun one with SO many possibilities. I enjoyed learning it.

 Tangled Tidbits -
*beautiful finishes of Caracole sections
*blue accents, dark center aura, for Mumsy



From Susie (St. Louis, Missouri) ~

Tangled Tidbits -
*large, single layered sections of Caracole filled with wonderful details
*Mumsy aura-ed on outer edge of each petal


From Miriam G (Port Hueneme, California) ~

Don't you just love these two patterns?! So enjoyable to draw, and great fun together. I decided at the last minute to add a little watercolor, just for a bit of 'pop'. (And because I've been painting everything I see lately - HA!)
Have a good weekend - 'May the Fourth be with you'

 Tangled Tidbits -
*added color on the steeply angled Caracole sections pops the white space
*beautifully billowing Mumsy


From Juul (France) ~

Tangled Tidbits -
*pretty Mumsy variations
*lined and filled details for Caracole



From Gale Sherman (Tucson, Arizona) ~

The weather is so springy I added my new favorite flower Jody Genovese's "PetalPuddle to the lovely (and known) tangles by Sandy Bartholomew and Lilly Moon. I think the patterns make a lovely threesome. I used Tombow markers for the color and then graphite for shading. Whenever I can add gold metallic I seem to. There is a "no mistakes in Zentangle" but I subscribe the Navaho belief that a mistake lets the evil out. No one wants perfect!

 Tangled Tidbits -
Amen to that!
*colorful burst of Caracole
*Mumsy fades into the border lines
Jody will have to share that tangle with us.


From Shirley Wohlsen (Queensland, Australia) ~

While we don’t have Spring in Australia (but Autumn) I’m still inspired to create a bouquet and hope for some of those April showers in May.
Sandy’s Mumsy tangle is so appropriate for this month and for me, as in Australia we celebrate Mothers Day on the 13th and I have a Birthday a few days later. I admire Lily’s beautiful work so it’s a pleasure to use her tangle and I hope I can do it justice.

 Tangled Tidbits -
Happy Birthday to you, too, Shirley!
*lightly tangled Caracole stretches passed the border
*black background adds even more dimension to the beautifully shaded tangles


From Hilary (Rome, Italy) ~

Greetings from Rome. Well, you really chose two great patterns for this week! I am looking forward to using them again, and I’m eager to see everyone else’s work. I’m imagining lovely explosions of Caracole and Mumsy. They really look like fireworks!

 Tangled Tidbits -
*explosions, for sure! - just like these Mumsy and Caracole
*two Spring-y Mumsy variations


From Jutta Gladnigg, CZT (NRW, Germany) ~

This began with a coffee-stained white Zendala tile that Jane from Dorking, U.K., creator of last week’s IAST 240 tile for honors, had sent me some time ago. Again I had kept it for a suitable moment… and today was the day.
So now you know the reason for those sprinkles all over the background of this tile. Sometimes my Micron PN accidentally even scratched away some remnants of the coffee powder that had stuck to the paper… Fun!
Drawing with different pens and colouring with layers of Polychromos colour pencils took me quite some time… When I put down my pens, it was midnight again and the rest of the family already in deep sleep. I have not used these patterns before, so thank you, Adele, for introducing them in your great challenge. Thanks to Lily Moon and S. S. Bartholomew as well.

 Tangled Tidbits -
Doesn't time pass quickly and quietly when tangling is involved?
*glorious layers of color and line
*each layer of Caracole features its own colorfully tangled finish


From Sra (India) ~

I really struggled with the string this time. When I see the tiles here, I always marvel at the interpretations, while mine seem to be very literal.
I did an entire tile that seemed really busy and over the top for such a simple string. I may go back to it later. The brainwave for this tile struck me some time after I had finished with the other tile this afternoon. Who says I have to fill the spaces in the string, I asked myself. And, why couldn’t the space between the two arcs of the string be mine? And voila, here I am!
The other observation I had was: I’ve doodled so many stars, flowers and random shapes since I was a child. Like everyone else, in the margins and edges of notebooks in school, while taking notes during meetings, watching TV - and now find that Zentangle has many of the same or similar designs. However, when I have to use them on a tile, I practise and despair over some of them, the same ones that I drew mindlessly and easily earlier. Does anyone else fave this peculiarity? I’d love to know.
I’ve had this experience quite a few times now. Mumsy was one such. I drew it better rough than on the tile.
On the whole, though, I’m very pleased with myself for my non-linear idea!

 Tangled Tidbits -
Your musings are familiar to most, I would dare to say.  I think that as adults we have to work at regaining the spontaneity and confidence that we enjoyed as children - a great benefit practicing the Zentangle Method provides.
*very creative use of the string
*a Milky Way of Mumsy and Caracole variations


From Nor'dzin (Wales, United Kingdom) ~

Thank you for this week’s challenge - two new tangles for me. I was so impressed by everybody’s amazing cubine last week, that I couldn’t resist having another try at it. It was one of the first tangles I learned, and I think I had rather missed the point with it!
Thanks also for the list of certified teachers. Most fortunately there is a one only 50 miles from me, and she holds courses, so I will definitely be getting in touch with her soon.

 Tangled Tidbits -
Good news all around!  I am so happy that you have a CZT near - and your Cubine is divine.
*corner spray of Mumsy
*colorful Caracole finishes


From Cha'Co (France) ~

Here is my contribution to the IAST #241.
It was a long time since I had not participated in a IAST (time goes so fast ...) but I could not resist these two tangles so fun.
Happy May with full, full of flowers !

 Tangled Tidbits -
Welcome back!
*deep contrast of background and tangles
*elegant look created with simple aura and enthatching, too


A very warm welcome to our newest IAST contributor, Marloes Vis van Heemst (The Netherlands) ~

My first entry for your challenge. Finally I'm ready in time to submit.
I'm tangling since March this year and like your challenge very much to learn new tangles and have some leading by your strings. It's very inspiring to see the many creative things your participants come up with.

 Tangled Tidbits -
Thank you, Marloes.
*just a touch of rounding transforms Caracole
*lovely Mumsy connected with Printemps
Welcome to our IAST community, and welcome to our Tangled Map, Marloes.

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

thank you for this wonderful challenge this week again! Caracole is a splendid versatile pattern. I enjoyed tangling it.
A second tile you can find on my blog...
Your „door-able“ is a great idea to show your art !
Best wishes from Germany,

 Tangled Tidbits -
Thank you, Margarete.
*spectacular Caracole bursts
*Mumsy finished with a Caracole touch


From Karin (Germany) ~

this is my entry to challenge 241.
Unbelievable that I did not tangle for three months. Time seems to run…
Have a sunny may!
Greetings from Germany

 Tangled Tidbits -
Welcome back to you, too, Karin - time does run!
*shaded string line and border
*single tangle for each section and two lovely Caracole variations



From Gabi (Germany) ~

Sun is shining and spring is all around - what a nice theme for this IAST.
Only used Mumsy in combination with StoneStory (from Tina Hunziker).
Have a nice springtime

 Tangled Tidbits -
*string as white space, dark border, shaded white spaces
*Mumsy pops against deep, dark StoneStory



From Laurel Davis, CZT (New York) ~

What fun to draw these two beautiful tangles! Thank you for this wonderful challenge.

 Tangled Tidbits -
*glowing, colorful Mumsy
*starry, starry Caracole - love that!


From Sharyn Penna, CZT (Massachusetts) ~

My thanks to you for yet another prompt that offers a perfect combination of tangles.
Lily Moon’s tangles are so joyful! Her Caracole reminds me of the Official tangle, Spoken, with a twist. And with Sandy Bartholomew’s whimsical Mumsy tangle, I had to give a nod to her Btl Joos tangle in one variation of Caracole.
My daughter said my tile looks like a garden of succulents.
Cheers to all that is joyful and whimsical.

 Tangled Tidbits -
Sensational succulents, it is!
*lovely layering of tangles
*multiple variations of both Caracole and Mumsy



From Trudi (Woodview, Ontario, Canada) ~

Spring has finally arrived here in central Ontario but the wind storm yesterday made me wonder if it was going to blow on by. Two trees were down on the highway on our way home, a neighbour had removed a third on our Fire Route and a fourth was hanging uprooted over our boathouse and shed but neither were hit as another tree caught it in its branches!
I really enjoyed doing these Tangles but somehow it didn't turn out on paper the way it was in my head? Oh well there is always next week.

 Tangled Tidbits -
That was some wind - so glad you were safe through it all.
*very pretty finishes for Caracole sections
*chrysanthemum look to Mumsy, full and colorful


From VenaC (Whitby, Ontario, Canada) ~

Two simple and lovely patterns but I really struggled to come up with a pleasing design. This is my fifth attempt. In spite of a bit of frustration I ended up enjoying the process. Your challenges make my week. Thanks for that. Have a great week.

 Tangled Tidbits -
Thank you for that, Vena :)
*rounded angles and curls adorn Caracole
*Mumsy branches out and finishes with curls of its own



This is my tile ~

I'll chalk this one up to a relaxing experiment :)  I began with Lily's Caracole and then decided to simply aura it in a Mumsy fashion to show even more contrast between the two tangles. One of the aura lines went quite off the intended mark, so I filled it with perfs.  A field of Mumsy followed and then I decided to shade with a light grey Tombow marker - a frivolous and fun thing to do, but certainly not as soft a finish as graphite provides...

From Priscilla DeConti, CZT (Kingston, New York) ~

Learning to love this new tangle.
Along with mumsy in pink for spring!
Have a great week all

 Tangled Tidbits -
*tangles are "pretty in pink"
*two variations of each tangle


From Ingrid (The Netherlands) ~

Here is my tile # 241 for this week.

 Tangled Tidbits -
*deep contrasts in black/white and line/curve
*enthatching in alternating Caracole sections


From Karen Herstowski (Atlanta, Georgia) ~

I started out with this (below): I tried to accent the Caracole ellipse by using pencil shadow, which made it look muddy to me. Mumsy has blackish borders around the petals (like a coloring book) - they were actually deep purple, but photographed blackish. Felt kind of lukewarm about it. I wanted spring flower colors but seemed to obtain “dingy” instead. Both are great tangles and were fun to work with.

THEN: I saw your new work “table" email. So loved the color and hint of MacKenzie-Childs. Inspired; I started over. Used "Courtly Check" around the border and changed to gold, red, black and white, which is so MacKenzie. It gave me a vibrant look that I like better than the first attempt, albeit not really spring colors. Thanks for a fun visual inspiration. Enjoy that "A-door-able”. What a great piece.

 Tangled Tidbits -
Thank you for the table compliments, an honor coming from your designer's eye AND great fun that it inspired another creation!
*highlights top colorful Mumsy petals

*Caracole filled from dark to light, transitions at the string line
*corner burst of red tipped Mumsy


From ARHuelsenbeck (Arizona) ~

I used to draw chrysanthemums like this 55 years ago, before Zentangle was a thing. Caracole is new to me. Thanks for the challenge!

 Tangled Tidbits -
Don't you love that tangling revisits things from the past like that?
*full, flowering layers of Mumsy
*long, sharply angled Caracole


From Jane (Boulder, Colorado) ~

...a little symmetry (ish) with Caracole and Mumsy and lots of delicious darkness...simple like my usual style, and I love it!
Thanks for all you do for the Zentangle community!

 Tangled Tidbits -
*"delicious darkness", indeed - complimented by surrounding white space
*corner and full Mumsy bursts



From Lovelygiraffe (Japan) and on her Instagram ~

Tangled Tidbits -

*sparkling white on black, elegant colors against a beautiful backdrop 

*Mumsy filled Caracole and touches pop from behind as well

From Jody Genovese, CZT (New York) ~

Sending warm wishes your way. As usual getting in just under the gun, but wanted to make sure to get a tile in this week.
Thanks as always..loved these tangles.

 Tangled Tidbits -
*colorful, contrasting Mumsy peeks from behind, beneath, and through Caracole
*bold black and white finishes for Caracole


From Nova Belle (Texas) ~

This week I ended up with two tiles - I'm still not sure which one I prefer, so I suppose I'll leave it up to you?
The prompt was a challenge for me - I really don't like floral patterns. But I wanted to get into the spirit of things, so I did my best.
I pulled a small square of bright green paper from the scrap box at work - it seemed to fit the theme of fresh new growing things! I immediately enjoyed the effect of curving Caracole, so much that I repeated it in the second attempt. I did add some Mumsy in the bottom right, but I couldn't seem to tie any of the pieces together, so I just filled in the background with a dark green fineliner and left it at that. I wasn't terribly pleased with the result, which is why I gave it another go. Looking at it again, though, I can see it's not terrible.
I felt that my first attempt at Caracole reminded me of a lily pad somehow, so I repeated that. I also liked the rounded Caracole I'd done so I added that to the corner with no real plans. Looking it all over, I decided that I wanted to continue the lily pad theme, but also that the smaller Caracole was much darker than the first. I decided to add some Ginili and surround it with Mumsy petals, then wound in some Kelp to tie it all together.
I'm not sure either tile really worked, but I'm proud enough to have tackled something I wouldn't normally want to, so here you are.
This week's submission is dedicated to my brother's newborn, Evie, born May 1st! It's not necessary, but I'm super hyped about this baby, so I've been telling everyone I can.

 Tangled Tidbits -
Congratulations on your new niece! 
*curved Caracole - wonderful idea

*striking tangles, lovely shading
Yes, you should be very proud of your work as well as your niece :)


From Sharon Fite (California) ~

Spring is blooming all over northern California, but the weather is still lovely and mild. At first, I thought how are these two tangles going to go together? But with Zentangle, you just need to trust the process. I love Mumsy, but haven't used it in a while. Caracole is a great new tangle -- part circle, part spikey, all star, and fun to draw. I added Pokeleaf and Floo for fun. Might be a bit busy, but, like spring itself, abundance is good!

 Tangled Tidbits -
A good reminder that we "just need to trust the process."
*marvelous Mumsy bouquet
*three variations of Caracole


From Heather Temple (Killingworth, Connecticut) ~

Very quickly drawn the other day just to try them. Love Lily’s tangle. But I’m better at straight lines than organic stuff. Then looking at it last night decided to finish it and shade it.
Now this evening after the most glorious spring day (finally, here in CT) I added some color. I know mumsy is based on peonies but I’m not a fan of pink so went with orange/yellow and some springy blue and green.
Can’t decide which one I like better but am stuck with the colored one so I guess that’s it.
Thanks for your weekly challenges!

 Tangled Tidbits -
*lovely lined Caracole variations
*corner and full, highlighted and shaded Mumsy

From Cyndee Pelley (Oklahoma) and here on her blog ~

Hi from Oklahoma!
A lovely zenful challenge I couldn't put down! So here are my 2 tiles and I enjoyed each moment! Thank you! By the way, your table/door idea is inspired! Gets me thinking...

 Tangled Tidbits -
Yes...you will have to make one for yourself.
*glorious bursts of tangles, fabulous finishes and details

 *colorful tangles - one for each string section
*beautifully deep to light shades orange and yellow



From Lisette (Switzerland) ~

My contribution to IAST# 241 with Caracole, Mumsy and a border with Fancy Nancy by Adele.
Thank you for this challenge and big hugs

 Tangled Tidbits -
I love that border!
*multi-layered Caracole spiral
*soft shading and solid black backdrop


From Jane (Dorking, Surrey, United Kingdom) ~

I was so honoured to get your recognition last week, thank you, loved those tangles! This week's challenge I kept to the two prescribed, #mumsy and #caracole, with mumsy being one of the first tangles I ever drew! I loved rounding off all the corners of caracole too.

 Tangled Tidbits -
*spectacular Caracole variation - thick rounded lines, inner shading
*Mumsy tucked into every outer Caracole angle

Along with Mumsy, all of our tiles this week have honored Lily and her new tangle, Caracole.
I have saved her note and tile for last.  Enjoy!

From Lily (Hungary) and creator of the lovely Caracole ~

First of all thank you very much you had chosen my new tangle . Caracole. I'm honored!
Here is my tile:
Zenhug

Tangled Tidbits -
*Mumsy peeks through very dimensional Caracole lines
*large and small Mumsy corners
*border accented with perfs and aura


Many thanks to everyone for sending in your beautiful tiles, they inspire and motivate the rest of us!

Thank you to the artists whose tangles we used this week ~

Mumsy by CZT Sandy Bartholomew

Caracole by Lily Moon

Happy Spring!

Check back Tuesday afternoon for "It's a String Thing" #242!