Tangled Tuesday No. 7

This was a slightly more productive week in my corner of the tangling world than the one I wrote about in my previous Tangled Tuesday post – but only slightly, as we were still getting ready for our houseguests (who are scheduled to arrive TODAY!) and so I wasn’t able to take much time for tangling. But there are always a few juicy tidbits for me to share with you, so let’s get on with another Tangled Tuesday!

Tangling Goodies

Yesterday’s excitement came when I opened the mailbox and discovered a package from Zazzle containing the mouse pad I’d ordered from my own Ten Thousand Tangles shop. I know, I know – if I’m getting THAT excited about a mouse pad I probably need to get a life – but my reason for being particularly happy about this delivery was because the darn thing took SO LONG to get to me (a typical Canadian experience, I’ve discovered, when having something shipped via regular mail from just about any company in the US) and I was dying to see how my design had turned out!

So after my long wait, here it is…

Zendala “Vanity” Mouse Pad

…and I must say, I am incredibly pleased with how it turned out! This was my first experience with having my own work scanned for printing on a product, and I was a bit uncertain about the process – first, as to how the original pen artwork and pencil shading would translate into an electronic file, and then how that electronic file would look printed on an actual physical item. Now that I can see and hold the finished product, though, I can say that I’m genuinely happy with the result. I’m now coveting one of the notebooks (thought it feels wrong, somehow, to covet a product with my own design on it!), but it would seem that shipping to Canada for that particular item is cost-prohibitive and so I may end up being denied (not necessarily a bad thing, though, considering all of my upcoming BlogHer ’14-related expenses).

I also ordered a small-ish batch of Ten Thousand Tangles business cards from Moo (a great site, and the same place I got my Alphabet Salad Productions cards) – partly because I’ve had occasion in the recent past to wish I had some to share, but also to have for my time at BlogHer ’14 in case the topic of tangling comes up in conversation. I should receive the cards around the first week or so of July – it’ll be interesting to see how they turn out!

New Tangles

This week I learned Cadent Variation, Chads, Cheesecloth, and Circfleur, all from Joy of Zentangle. (If you’re following along in Joy of Zentangle you might notice that I’ve been skipping a few of the designs. This isn’t because I didn’t like or want to do them, but because I’ve previously learned them through one of my other books. As I mentioned in an earlier post, there is often overlap and some repetition between the various Zentangle®¹ books.)

I also learned ConneSSes, which showed up this week on TanglePatterns.com. I liked the look of it, so I decided to give it a shot, and while it did take a little bit of practice I think I figured it out in the end.

On that note… if you haven’t yet discovered TanglePatterns.com, you NEED to check it out! It is a fantastic (and FREE) Zentangle resource which includes (among other goodies) a huge array of tangle designs (sorted into an alphabetical directory) with detailed instructions to help you learn to draw them. TanglePatterns.com is where I got every one of the designs I learned for my Tangling from A to Z project, and I just can’t recommend the site strongly enough.

Tangling-in-Progress

Still carrying on with my alphabet series, I’m currently in the midst of designing the letter G. I’m not sure how much (if any) time I’ll have to work on it this week, but we’ll see what happens!

Finished Projects

In spite of my busy-ness, I’m pleased to say that I finished another Zenletter this week!

Zenletter F

Once again I’m doing my best to look past the flaws that are jumping out at me – which is, I’m discovering, a bit of a struggle. I would like to get to the point where I embrace each finished piece, flaws and all, as being something beautiful just because it is, but I can’t say I’m there quite yet. All part of the journey…

Coming Soon

This week’s tangling goals include… taking a bit of a break! Seriously, while I might find time to carry on with my WIP and perhaps learn a couple of new designs, my main focus will be to enjoy visiting with my sister and friend for the time they’re staying with us. It might mean that next week’s Tangled Tuesday is a little sparse, but life happens! 🙂

P.S.

Previous posts in this series are all tagged Tangled Tuesday.

For background on how I discovered and got involved in Zentangle, and links to further information and resources, check out my blog post For the love of tangling.

You can browse my entire tangle gallery at Ten Thousand Tangles.

And, if you’re interested in having a little piece of my art for yourself, please click on the GoFundMe button below for more information and also visit my Zazzle shop Ten Thousand Tangles. (Pssst… links to my international Ten Thousand Tangles shops are in the Alphabet Salad sidebar – just click on the appropriate flag and you’ll get to the place you need to be!)

¹ The Zentangle® Method was created by Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas and is copyrighted. Zentangle® is a registered trademark of Zentangle, Inc. Learn more at zentangle.com.