It’s a String Thing #298

I have surely missed Adele Bruno’s It’s a String Thing challenges every week while my 100 Days of Zentangle project was ongoing! This week, although chronically late, I’ve actually finished a tile! I’m so lost on weekends, now I’m not posting on Saturday and Sunday, I’m glad I have it!

This week’s challenge introduces Zentangle’s newest pattern, Doodah, and pairs it perfectly with KITL by The Ragged Ray’s, CZT, Jem Miller. I’ve had a few tries with KITL now and Jen’s advice really helped me get it right this time! Thanks Jem! She advises to start your stroke at the center cross to help give you a more even looking result! I like the way it turned out! Doodah is a very simple ribbon tangle that doesn’t even need a step out, but here it is anyway!

Thanks for another perfect challenge Adele! If you’d like to join the It’s a String Thing challenge, you can start at Adele’s blog TickledtoTangle.

Next I want to announce a few changes in my upload schedule for YouTube. I have a long-standing Monday appointment and I need to change the live-stream time to 8:00 am CST (GMT -5). I am still doing a trial of my Zentangle Meditation Mondays. If you haven’t tried it out, I invite you to try one out! So far, the feedback has been great and I am thrilled to be able to help you guys relax! Here’s a link to the first week’s live-stream. I’d love to hear your feedback!

Tuesday mornings I will walk you through some new tangles to add to your tangling repertoire. Last week, we did 3 patterns from Brian’s book, and this week, I’m planning 5. They are quite simple and perfect for beginners. Here’s the link for the video.

Finally, join me for our new Zentangle Dingbatz series based on the amazing new book by CZT, Brian Crimmins! This book is a wonderland of ideas and projects for tanglers, experienced and beginners alike! This week we will focus on the very cool “Zine” project in the book, making a Dingbatz sampler for inspiration! We start the project on Wednesday, July 24, 2019 at 9:00 am CST (GMT -5).

Thanks for your support! I’m excited about what the future has in store!

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100 Days of Zentangle ® 2019

I feel like I need to welcome myself back! It’s been months since my last post and I have really missed the writing process! Let me take a minute and catch you all up! I have been absorbed both with the #the100dayproject and with things at home. School is out and extra time and effort has been needed at home. Things have been stressful but we are hoping that God has His hand on our situation and that things will happen as they should. We are so grateful for everyone’s prayers and positive thoughts for us! I sincerely believe it’s been a great help! Thank you!💜

Now, the 100 Days of Zentangle ® Project I started this year for #the100dayproject has been a revelation! I’m telling you now, I never, ever could have foreseen the many, many blessings I’ve recieved directly because I started this project! It started with a simple idea from a picture on Pinterest. I mapped out a simple project template and got in touch with Liz Drake, administrator of the Facebook group, ZIA’S, Tips, Tricks and Techniques. Working with Liz on the daily prompts, I then posted my proposed idea in the ZIA group as well as the group for Certified Zentangle Teachers. I was very pleased with the warm response the idea got and I took a huge step and went daily on YouTube with pattern explorations and adding the daily patterns to the 100 Days of Zentangle template. Almost as soon as I went to daily uploads, I saw my YouTube channel numbers steadily starting to climb. On April 12, I had 700 subscribers, and today?

1247!! Wow! YouTube now requires 1000 subscribers and a total of 4,000 hours of watch time on your videos in order to allow you to join their Partner Program and add monetizing (like ads, selling swag and such) features. I was chasing this goal but it wasn’t the reason I chose to do the project. I feel this project will be repeated many times and is timeless beyond this project. The number of tanglers interested in having their own inspiration piece they can frame and hang is around 300 that I am aware of. I think when they post their art, their friends will want to create one of their own! I never thought it would gain such momentum. This is where we are on day 85 (which was last week). Today is day 90 for me.

Here are some close ups of the progress.

I’m pretty proud of the art! I’m even happier about the warm community we have developed around my YouTube channel. I’ve made friends all over the world! They have become a part of my family in a way, like dear friends. It may sound strange, but it’s true! I feel my day would be less without the warmth and comfort of this beautiful group! I’ve recieved some wonderful comments from viewers saying that they feel the same way. I hope, if you haven’t joined me yet for the fun and friendship, and the tangling, of course, that you will check it out. Make a gorgeous piece of art and enjoy community!

Next, speaking of community and new friends, I want to introduce you to a very special lady! Her name is LA Juania Dorman. She is becoming very dear to me and I am blessed daily by her willingness to help. She is compiling a list of the tangles used on the 100 day project. The list is not yet available as we don’t know the last 9 tangles yet. As I write this, I am waiting to hear what Monday’s tangle will be. It’s Sunday evening! 😊 La Juania is going to give blogging a try and help out by sharing information here when I don’t have enough time to fit everything in! She is an awesome lady and I can’t wait for you to meet her! You’ll be hearing from her right here very soon!

I want to finish up by sharing the amazing news that, thanks to all the viewers on YouTube, my channel has been monetized already earning a small amount. (I do mean small!) but it’s a great start! I also crossed 1000 followers on Instagram! This will allow me to upload my longer videos to IGTV and not be forced to keep it under 10 minutes. I’ve learned a lot in the last couple of months! I have learned that you all want to know the quirky person I am, and a lot of you like me! Thanks! I have needed your support so much! I feel a lot more confident today about the future than I did a few months ago! I have proven to myself that I can do it! And not alone! As I tell y’all in the videos, “Y’all are the Best!

This is my tile from a game of Tangle Tag with my CZT32 class! Thank goodness I was third and not 16th! 😂

#tangletagczt32 featuring Cirque, Fengle and Mooka!

Finally, I just wanted to thank you all for your continued support! This is a very tough time of year for me and knowing that you are there makes a huge difference! 💜

New Star Knot Video with Vitruvian Art!

It’s finally here! It’s celtic knot Friday and my collaboration series with Rose Rambo at vitruvianart can be found here on YouTube! Thanks so much to Rose for her support and the feature in her video!

Part one is my star knot tutorial :

Part 2 is Amanda’s amazing gem tutorial:

Diva Challenge 368 “Straight Lines”

I’m so glad to have the Diva’s challenges back! In her 368th challenge, Laura Harms has challenged us to use only straight lines in our tiles this week. Although straight is tough for me, I threw in some MicroTangling (from the lesson of the same name by Eni Oken), Baton, and some Shattuck with a bit of Knightsbridge for embellishment and called it done. I have a real appreciation for simple and basic right now so this was great for me. Although, it’s not fancy, I enjoyed the process very much and was pleased as much with the stress relief as with the tile itself. While sitting in the chemo chair today my blood pressure started at 183/90…not good at all, but when finished, after tangling the hours away it lowered itself to 132/85. Perhaps not scientific, but proof enough for me that tangling is great for the body, mind and soul! Here’s my tile!

Diva Challenge 365: The Diva’s Return

Hello everyone! Welcome back to The Tireless Tangler! The last 2 weeks have been crazy busy with school starting and preparations for my trip to CZT32. My little one has managed to get through the last week with no problems, so (deep breath) I hope things will even out now (knock on wood!).

Almost by accident this week, I happened to catch that the Diva was back online and had finally issued a new challenge! This was great news, as I have truly missed the Diva Challenges and felt this summer was just lacking something special. Welcome back Laura! You have been sorely missed this summer! Dealing with anxiety and all it’s many forms in life is really hard! Dealing with these things and trying to create with purpose and on a schedule is daunting. It is so difficult to be a creator in any artistic area, but dealing with anxiety and depression while being forced to produce artistically brings a completely different set of problems. What happens to the schedule when the artist is empty inside? I will tell you, it’s a lot of nothing! So, I offer the Diva some encouragement and hope that she is able to start off and keep it up! While I do that, I hope this challenge will put my own emptiness to rest and start my creativity flowing again. Thank you Laura, for your weekly challenges that go back for years! I am in awe!

This week’s challenge was to go “back to basics”. A tile, pencil in dots and border, string and black ink using Zentangle original tangles. I chose to repeat the Lesson One in my Zentangle Primer. I’ve done this lesson many times and was hoping to change the look a bit this time. Instead of doing the tangles in the order of the lesson (crescent moon, hollibaugh, florz and printemps), I switched the order up and started with printemps, then moved backwards along the list. It was a real surprise to see the difference! For fun, I added my other 3 Primer Lesson one tiles. It’s clear to me that “florz” and I have a long-standing issue that hasn’t improved with time! LOL! It’s amazing to see the difference over time!

Diva Challenge 362 and CZT 32!

The Diva Challenge this week took an interesting turn when I applied Eni Oken’s Tangle Enhancers Card Game. The Diva, Laura Harms, challenged us this week to “Use My Tangle” with her pattern “Somnee”. Somnee is a similar pattern to Zentangle’s “Hollibaugh” and I needed some inspiration to dress it up a bit. I used Copic markers for color, and Prismacolor Pencils for shading. Luckily, I have Eni Oken’s new card game, “Art and Tangle Game“! This game is designed to guide creativity when you’re not sure what direction to take and it worked! I chose 3 Tangle Enhancers. Line weight and rounding, fancy border and color a lá line interrupted. If you struggle sometimes knowing what to do next, I highly recommend Eni’s card game. You can find it here!

And here’s my finished tile!

One last thing I want to share with you this week! I have been given the opportunity to attend CZT 32 (Certified Zentangle Teacher training) in October! I’m so excited about this opportunity! Unfortunately, I have to now raise $2250.00 to pay for the trip! Because I live on disability, and am a single parent, raising that much money is a challenge!

This last week, Eni Oken suggested I start a gofundme campaign. Eni generously donated herself, but then went above and beyond by sharing the campaign in her Shading Fearlessly group. In one day, I’d raised more than $500.00! My secret passion for becoming a CZT changed from a distant hope to confidence as I sent $500.00 to Zentangle, Inc, yesterday! My deepest gratitude goes out to all the people who have donated! A very special thanks to Eni Oken for giving me the confidence to create and promote the campaign! As of this post, I’ve raised $655.00!

Could you help me reach this goal?

https://www.gofundme.com/Send-me-to-CZT32

It’s a String Thing 241

It’s time for this week’s “It’s a String Thing” challenge #241! As always, you can join us anytime by visiting Tickledtotangle.blogspot.com.

I loved this week’s challenge because I got to revisit an old favorite in “Mumsy” by Sandy Bartholomew, CZT, and a new favorite, Caracole by Lily Moon. I enjoyed it so much, I have 2 tiles to share this week. A very zenful challenge!

 

 

See you next week! Happy Tangling! 

Edited with BlogPad Pro

Diva Challenge 360 “Duotangle”

Today’s Diva Challenge, issued by CZT, Laura Harms, was to use a “Duotangle” consisting of the tangles “Tripoli”, and “Shattuck”. I use both of these a lot, so I applied myself using one of my “tan treasure tiles” made with Eni Oken’s parchment paper technique on a Zentangle ® Renaissance tile. It was perfect until I added the white gelly roll and a third Tangle appeared. I think it’s a version of hypnotic. So, I missed the Duotangle aspect completely but I still like the tile! 😉

Finally, for your enjoyment, a new Kitchen Table Tangles video! This is a Cadent Tangleation and honestly, I’m still working on it! Rick Roberts drawing is always a pleasure to watch!

It’s A String Thing #238

Adele Bruno (Tickledtotangle.blogspot.com), has issued her “it’s a string thing” challenge for this week and featured her new Tangle, “Mack”. The new grid-based pattern is fun to play with and has lots of embellishment possibilities. Needless to say, I had to do 2 tiles! Congratulations, Adele, on a wonderful new Tangle!

Diva Challenge 359

This week’s challenge from CZT, Laura Harms, was to use our fingers as a guide for the string. You can join in at the Diva’s website, iamthedivaczt.com.

I actually thought this was going to be an easy challenge but for some strange reason, I couldn’t find just the “right” tangles. I drew the string 3 times and I’ll show you 2 of them. I felt pretty “meh” about them, but finished anyway. Here they are.

Lastly, I have a new step-out video for my first pattern, Apcorg. It includes a digitally drawn step-out and a hand drawn example of Apcorg in a 4 square setup, perfect for a focal point. I hope you enjoy!