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