It is December and what better time to tangle some beautiful trees - just what we did this week!
The release of my new eBook, co-authored with CZT, Dorian Eng, was complete just in time for the Christmas season, too. (Click the photo to the right for ordering information.)
I am excited to say that I will be giving a book away each Monday to one happy tangler from IAST #221, #222, and #223. Woohoo! Merry Christmas!
The winner will be chosen at random from the pool of IAST entries for each week. Have fun and good luck!
Let's take a look at our beautiful trees ~
The first tile arrived from Sandra (Germany) and here on her blog ~
I really liked your string with these christmas trees and I decided to use the patterns Cake, Cruffle and Printemps.
I combined them with Arukas and Tipple and I had a lot of fun with tangling this tile :-) So many thanks for this wonderful challenge!
Many greetings from germany
and best wishes
*Arukas bursts make a gorgeous backdrop
*Cruffle garland
From Joke Leussenkamp (Eibergen, The Netherlands) ~
Dearest Adele and fellow tanglers,
Here's my contribution to the challenge, as always it was great fun.
Although I never draw Cake before it fitted well in the other patterns.
The wishes at the banner are for all the tanglers and there love once.
*Flux flows from the center outward in each direction
*beautiful Cruffle/Cake combination
From Karen Herstowski (Atlanta, Georgia) ~
Tangled Tidbits -
I am so impressed with the Cake tangle by Una. This was a fun tangle that has so many applications for it’s use. Christmas time brings us a plethora of things we don’t do at other times of year. Trees and all their regalia is one of my visual pleasures, for sure. I added some drama with Cruffle, some wrap-around greens with Flux and the wistfulness of Cake by making it a see-thru roping affect, while listening to Christmas music. What a perfect way to reflect on the past and get in the mood for this coming Christmas. A great big thanks to Una, Sandy, Rick & Maria for some great tangles to blend into this fun piece.
Thanks Adele!
I am so excited about your book and can’t wait to see it.
Oh! I felt all of the glorious Christmas spirit reading your note - and soaking up this tile of goodies, thank you.
*clever wrap around Cake on a see through tree
*loads of Flux and Cruffle bend the beautiful trees
From Susan (United Kingdom) ~
Thought a black tile would be nice for the Christmas trees. Unfortunately it was difficult to photograph and show how shiny it was, but hopefully you can see the idea.
Tangled Tidbits -
*shimmery tangles
*colorful Cake over white
From VenaC (Whitby, Ontario, Canada) ~
Your North Pole Bakery is so cute. Loved it! I got the idea for using flux in this way for the trees quite a long time ago from a tangler whose name I can't remember. So, I would like to thank her and thanks too to many other tanglers whose ideas I have borrowed. Because of your challenges, I am gradually starting to come up with ideas of my own. It always amazes me that with the same string and the same patterns no two tiles are alike.
Thank you!
Your note is a great boost for IAST - we all learn from each other...
*fabulous use of Flux
*Cruffle tree toppers
From Hilary (Chicago) ~
This was a lovely idea, giving us a chance to decorate our own trees. I kept mine simple, just a bit of Cake for the garlands and some Cruffle ornaments.
*diagonal layers of fine lined Cake
*Cruffle bulbs beautifully detailed
From Susie (St. Louis) -
Happy Holidays everyone❄️🌲
*gobs of lovely Cruffle bulbs
*flowing Flux, softly shaded
From Gabriela Garcia (Alberta, Canada) and here on her blog ~
This is a very busy week for me so I knew I only had time to draw on tile, so for this time I decided to mix “I am the Diva’s Challenge” (which was to use the new Zentangle pattern “Dewd”) with my IAST tile. After looking at Adele’s wonderful Zentangle Gingerbread House I was excited to get in the Christmas spirit and decided to try Dewd in color, and to my surprise it almost looks like a fourth tree with lights in its trunk and branches ! …When I first read the post really fast I thought I read to use the pattern Cayke, it was only half way thru my tile that I realized it was Cake instead, so I did both ;-0
Have a Joyful Christmas Season everyone!
*...and they work so well together, Cake and Cayke!
*festive Dewd in red and green
From Mariam G (Port Hueneme, California) ~
I just loved the tree-string! (I had to feature red white and blue on this tile). I may have to do a few more in variations to tuck into some of my cards this year. :-) Very fun - thank you!
*Tipple filled Flux and Cruffle
*creative combination of Printemps and Flux
From Shirley Wohlsen (Queensland, Australia) ~
Merry Christmas!
I enjoyed the patterns and string, with a special Thank you to Una for her delightful tangle ‘Cake’
Attached is my tile for this week’s ‘It’s A String Thing #221’ challenge.
Wishing everyone Season Greetings from Australia.
*brilliantly colored tangles and wording
*luscious layers of Flux
From Priscilla DeConti, CZT (Kingston, New York) ~
This was a fun exercise to get me right into the Christmas spirit...
I also used another tangle called cayke and some printemps...
Sparkly gel pens and watercolor for the tree colors...
Hope everyone has a great week!
*and they work beautifully together!
*sparkled petals of Flux and colorful Tipple and stippling
From Ria Matheussen, CZT (Belgium) and on her blog ~
Here is my entry for the weekly challenge.
I enjoyed this drawing very much. We became our first snow this week and this challenge is wonderful for this time of the year. Christmas trees are appearing everywhere!
Beside black, gold and white pens, I also used black and coloured pencils and I added a bit of "snow" to create the right atmosphere.
I send you warm regards from snowy Belgium,
*a winter wonderland of tangles, framed elegantly with Cake
*beautiful combinations of Flux and Cruffle
From Ragged Ray (United Kingdom) ~
I'm running out of time this week. So less is more, in words and in tangling. Your three tree string simply filled with Sandy's Cruffle variation #130 - which inadvertently leaves Bales like spaces between, frosted with chalk pencil on a suitably rich green tile!
*what an amazing result - two tangles in one!
*shading, highlights, and white shine a spotlight on the tangles
From Maragaret G (Germany) and here on her blog ~
as background for my ZIA I used the photo of a church interior. One can see decorated glass windows under a wooden ceiling construction. The result should be used as a Christmas card. I decorated the suggested patterns with all sorts of glittering stars. My card is a little bit overloaded though.
Thank you for this interesting challenge!
Best wishes from Germany,
*quite a lovely combination of tangles with an image!
*detailed layers of festive patterns
From Sra (India) ~
Work kept me away from Zentangle and other hobbies all of this past month, but I enjoyed doing this tile for the 'daring' that I did. I looked up a few tangled Christmas trees and got the idea for the little red balls from Google Images - the ones I saw were multi-coloured. At first, I only added the red in the tree on the right, but by and by I added colour one by one - I went to the Printemps next, with the green, then I did the centre tree, green and red. I whitened the whites inside the Cruffle and was enlightened to see that the natural white of the paper got whiter - I had not expected it to show up. Then I filled in the little details on Cake with green and orange glitter pens, and the rest of the scallops with green pencil. Green glitter for the trunk. As I arranged the tile for the photo on my table, something told me to wait. I then took my white pen and filled in the white spaces in the Flux tree on the right with white ink. My drawings look wonky and amateurish, but I'm happy.
*top tangles blend into Cake trimmed bottoms - very pretty touch
*curves of the tangles add movement to the trees
Dear Adele, here is my tile for IAST #221.
I´ve combined Flux with Printemps and Cruffle with Shattuck. And I used Ahh.
It was fun again to tangle this string, thank you for your pattern choice!
Kind regards from Germany.
*soft and lovely tangles and shading
*clever Flux and Printemps combination
A very warm welcome to Roseann Popa (Washington State) ~
I used your recommended tangles plus Tipple.
This is my first challenge from your blog. I like the idea of this! I’ve been tangling for almost 2 years on my own.
Cheers!
*Flux background
*Cruffle features weighted lines, aura, and shading - fabulous!
Welcome to our wonderful community and to our Tangled Map, Roseann!
From Jody Genovese, CZT (New York) ~
I’m so excited about your new ebook. Can’t wait to get a copy. Congratulations to you and Dorian.
I wish I knew how to take these pictures in better lighting. There is mica paint on here that sparkles, but you can only see it in person.
I guess you will have to use your imagination :o)
I loved this one…
Hope your Thanksgiving was warm and wonderful!
Tangled Tidbits -
Thank you, we do hope you really enjoy the book :)
*Cruffle/Flux colorful garland
*evergreen Flux complete with berries
*shining Indy-Rella star
From Sue Agnew (Tucson, Arizona) ~
First of all, congratulations on your book publication! I'm excited to see more about it. My sister and I just recently published our mom's memoirs on a print-on-demand site (we called it the "Momoir"), so I understand the satisfaction of seeing your work in print!
I started to do this week's trees in Flux, which would have been a fun stylized look, and then I remembered Verdigogh (Zentangle original), which is SO obviously an evergreen bough. So I tried using it for the trees, but something strange happened. Several years ago a CZT showed me a tangle she called "Fractal Tree," and as I was drawing Verdigogh it started behaving like Fractal Tree. (I haven't been able to find it as a tangle, but if you google "fractal tree" you can see lots of examples, plus what a good tangle it would be.) Instead of stems with needles coming off, it turned into stems with stems coming off with more stems coming off with eventually needles. For decorations it seemed like Ahh (Zentangle original) was the obvious choice for the tree topper. The garlands on the trees are a simplified version of Cake. The tree on the right's ornaments are a simplified version of Jetties, and the tree on the left's ornaments are a VERY simplified version of Printemps. The back tree's ornaments are something I call "black beads" ... they're really handy with Verdigogh because you can use them to fill in and balance empty spaces.
Thank you ... this was fun. The free-est I've ever been with a tile. I just sat down and drew. The only thing I consciously changed was that I put the biggest tree in the front.
Again, congratulations!
Tangled Tidbits -
I googled "fractal tree tangle" and my notes "Tips for Tangling" came up - too funny!
*stunning fractal trees, lovely shapes
*great tip on the darker garland and bulbs and shading adds sense of dimension
Congratulations on your book too, your mother must have been very special.
From Sharon Fite (California) ~
Well, when you see cone shapes in December, they naturally become Christmas trees, don't they? Lots of fun -- the string and the tangles! And a perfect start to the Advent season. Thanks again, Adele!
*shading under each row of Cake - and the Cake border
*wispy branches of a Cruffle decorated tree
From Susan Theron (Velddrif, South Africa) ~
*Flux hangs like mistletoe
*Cake repeats on the lower end much like Sra :)
*darkened background makes the tangles pop
From Cyndee Pelley (Oklahoma City) and here on her blog ~
Hi Adele from Oklahoma City, USA!
I know it's late but I'm trying to catch up on challenges from last week so here is my iast221 tile. I certainly understand if it's too late but I wanted to wish you the best of luck on your lovely new book venture! It looks wonderful! The houses are so cute and I know you enjoyed creating it with Dorian Eng!
I fractalized flux using Eni Oken's lesson on fractalized tangles, inspired by well well well at Zentangle.com.
I hope to see you much earlier this week! I'm overhauling my blog and it's proving to be quite time consuming!
Thanks for your challenges! Some days it's just the thing I need!
Thank you for your good wishes and yes, Dorian is the best collaborator ever.
*a fractalized Flux - fabulous!
*a starry night and glowing tangles
From Lily (Hungary) and on Instagram ~
Dear Adele, here is my entry for your weekly challenge.
Zenhug:
Tangled Tidbits -
*Cruffle adorned Flux trees - shading and highlights add wonderful depth
*outlined white Cake
*white highlights on a very pretty combination of colors
And now...
I am pleased to announce...
the winner of this week's eBook:
Tangling Tiny Houses by Dorian Eng, CZT and myself...
Susie from St. Louis.
Congratulations, Susie!
Thank you all for spreading the Christmas joy with your beautiful tangled trees.
Special thanks to the creators of the lovely tangles we used this week:
Cake by Una Wang
Cruffle by Sandy Hunter, CZT
Flux and Primtemps by Maria Thomas and Rick Roberts
Be sure to send in your tiles for a chance to win next week's book drawing.
Stop by Tuesday afternoon for "It's a String Thing" #222!
Thanks for the round-up and the comments! Really like all the entries here, and how the similarities pop up now and then! I really liked your gingerbread house, congratulations on the publication of your book! - Sra
ReplyDeleteThank you, Sra. This is such a beautiful show of trees, I agree. And I do love the similarities too, especially when they pop up half way around the world!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful tiles again! Congratulations to Susie! 🙂
ReplyDelete