Iron Craft Challenge #13 - homemade marbled paper

The Iron Craft Challenge #13, {Red, White, and Blue} was to create something with at least two of these colors. We did a homemade marbled technique on paper. It was a whole lot easier than I thought it would be. I love the look of special marbled paper that is often used inside book covers. We have several sheets now to use for bookmarks, cards, scrap-booking, or notebooks.

The inspiration came from here which lead to some instructions here! Some genius person came up with this easy method of using liquid starch. The layer of starch is so thick the paint can be swirled on the top. It's a bit tricky to get the right consistency of craft paint. Too watered down and it spreads too quickly, not watered down enough and your paint just sinks to the bottom of the starch. It's critical your pan is big enough for the paper to lay flat. I ended up cutting sheets in half to fit. Just lay the paper on top of the paint and starch for a few seconds, try not to move it too much, just make sure the underside of the paper is in the paint even around the edges. Then lift it out and rinse it in a pan with fresh water, gently shaking the paper to remove all the starch. It's like magic and very cool. My boys stopped their nerf gun battle to participate.

We tried all kinds of paper and even food snack boxes with white and brown on the inside. A black piece of construction paper made a huge mess. The black dye from the paper bled everywhere, but it ended up looking pretty cool when it dried.

You'll want to change your rinse water occasionally. There's really no need to change the starch. Just put a fresh layer of paint on the surface each time, swirl the way you want, and print the next sheet of paper.

Thanks for visiting,
rebecca

Zentangle challenge #76

Click here to see more information about this weeks' challenge which is all about home. We could represent it any way we wanted. I chose to represent the location where I currently live - about 50 miles outside of Nashville, Tennessee.

I guess Nashville is most famous for country music, so I used a guitar for my zentangle "string".

I'm not really a huge fan of country music, per se, but I do love any kind of music with a guitar played well. I just love the sound of an acoustic guitar.

And I do love the Tennessee landscape. We are in a more rural area with rolling hills, old barns, and horses grazing in green pastures. (Well, not so green this summer since it is so hot and dry!) Here's a quick rough little sketch.

Thanks for visiting,
rebecca

Zentangle weekly challenge #75

Click on the link to learn more about Zentangle.

Click on the link to learn more about the Diva's Weekly challenges.

This week we were to use the pattern called cadent and even try different variations of it. I didn't come up with any new variations but did have fun with it. It's a great pattern to use.

Here's my first tile. The square cadets are falling out of formation!

And here's just a fun zentangle inspired tile filled in with colored pencils.

Thanks for visiting,
rebecca

Zentangle Challenge #74

Finally have something ready to post for the Diva's challenge this week. More info is found here. This was not the first tile I started. My first one had so many eccentric layers it got too detailed and I didn't think it looked very good. I'm much happier with this one. Another great challenge.

Thanks for visiting,
rebecca

Zentangle Challenge #73

Click here to view more about the Diva's weekly challenge #73. We were to use the pattern called Bridgen. It is a fun free-form pattern that's all about the process; and very relaxing. I can't wait to see every body's results.

Woo hoo! I also got a new set of pens this week and now have a sepia pen!

Thanks for all of your continued encouragement. I really enjoy our little space of the Internet each week!

rebecca

Zentangle challenge #72

Here's my tile for the Zentangle Challenge #72. Information about the challenge is found here: http://iamthedivaczt.blogspot.com/2012/05/weekly-challenge-72.html

Update: OK, just had a minute to check out the other 39 entries before mine! Wish I had time to comment on everyone's artwork each week. So fantastic and all different. It's amazing to see how different one pattern can be represented. Really loved the use of color this week too that several have used! I'm inspired to practice some more.


Thanks for visiting,
rebecca

Zentangle Challenge #71 - A stitched notebook

Go here to view more information about this week's challenge: http://iamthedivaczt.blogspot.com/2012/05/weekly-challenge-71.html . I was able to try something this week I have wanted to do for a while, and that is to combine several hobbies into one project. I love to stitch, make craft items, draw Zentangles, and re-purpose common items. I've had some time this week to work on it and here is the result: a stitched Zentangle inspired notebook!

Lately, I have been keeping sturdy food packaging boxes that have a nice color or texture on the inside. This package of drink pouches has a great brown color on the inside which becomes the cover to my notebook. And the pages of the notebook are made from paper at work from the recycle bin. I can almost always find some scrap paper with very little printing on it. You may also be interested in the notebook I made for the Iron Craft challenge as seen here: http://rebeccamadeit.blogspot.com/2012/05/iron-craft-challenge-10-in-stitches.html .

Here's several pictures of how it was made. I love how it ended up with a simple and modern look.

Thanks for visiting,
rebecca

Iron Craft Challenge #10 – In Stitches

What can you do with an empty granola bar box, some pretty paper, and a bit of embroidery floss? Why, make a cute little notebook of course! I am such a sucker for sweet little notebooks. I enjoy making lists, taking notes, drawing, and writing in a journal. So I really enjoy different types of notebooks and usually carry one with me. And a pretty little homemade one makes me happy!

Materials:
nice sturdy food packaging box with a great brown color on the inside
some office printer paper from the recycle bin
a bit of pretty scrapbook papers
some embroidery floss

Tools:
pencil
glue
a simple or hand drawn pattern
sharp knife or an exacto type knife
skinny needle with a large eye
skinny sharp nail
a small hammer

I cut out a petal shape and traced around it to get a nice flower and added a few swirls. I wanted it to look like a reverse applique pattern with the pretty paper peeking through, so after the pattern was drawn I used a sharp knife to cut out the petals and center circle. I did my best to stitch some white pages together and then stitch them to the cover. I think it will hold together just fine. I ended up with about 50 pages front and back, but you could make them fatter with lots more layers of folded paper if you wanted.

A few tips and lessons learned:

• Make sure your holes are not too close together, the center of my flower is pretty fragile, I'm going to reinforce the back with clear packing tape, or if you don't like to see the back of your stitching you could cover it with another layer of paper
• Actually measure stuff - I tend to just jump in and do it with out measuring and sometimes things are wonky, but I tend to like wonky
• Even if you have heavy duty scissors, Don't try to cut through fourteen layers of paper, they shift on you
• Make sure your nail is sharp, if you've used it a while, get a new one
• Learn how to do official book binding - I'm going to be searching for easy tutorials
• Change up how many strands of embroidery floss you use for added effects - I used 4 strands on the orange outline which I think was too many, it almost looses the whole effect of the reverse applique since the holes were so close to the cutout part
• I discovered some awesome scrapbook inspiration for something very similar - check out this post here: http://kinseygirl.typepad.com/handstitch/2010/05/peekaboo.html
• We go through lots of boxes, I'll definitely be trying this again

Thanks for visiting,
rebecca

Zentangle Challenge #70 (and 69, and 68, and 67)

Whew, it's so good to have some Zentangle time this week and actually get something posted.

Zentangle Challenge #70 - Weekly Challenge #70: "Colour me Sepia"

I don't have a sepia pen yet, but it is definitely on my wish list after seeing all the great effects on the tiles from Laura and others! For my entry I used two shades of brown colored pencils and just a touch of yellow.

I'm too late for the link party fun, but for my own documentation purposes here are my challenge responses for the last 3 weeks.


http://iamthedivaczt.blogspot.com/2012/05/weekly-challenge-69.html



http://iamthedivaczt.blogspot.com/2012/04/weekly-challenge-68.html



http://iamthedivaczt.blogspot.com/2012/04/weekly-challenge-67.html

Thanks for visiting,
rebecca

Zentangle weekly Challenge #66

I'm glad to participate in the Diva's zentangle challenge this week. I hope things are getting back to her normal around their house! I did do a bit of tangling last week but really missed having Laura's direction and inspiration and getting to look at all the other entries. Thanks again for hosting, Laura. I have certainly been hooked this year, and ha, that's longer than I usually can stick to anything!

On to this week's challenge, to use auras. Read all about it here: http://iamthedivaczt.blogspot.com/2012/04/weekly-challnge-66.html

I used the patterns Eyehook, Dansk, Crescent moon, and sort of a Tipple for a little filler. It's not my favorite tile but I did want to go ahead and have something to post this week. I will definitely be practicing some more and try to add some auras to other tangle patterns.

If you have another minute, here's a fun music video I stumbled on this week. I think you will like the visual effects!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfKUjkqSRqg

Thanks for visiting,
rebecca

The Diva's Weekly Zentangle Challenge #65

My fun entries for the Weekly challenge!

Thanks for visiting,

rebecca