Friday, January 30, 2015

Sometimes you need to follow the rules! Use the best materials available!

I first checked out Dorian Eng's website, Little Bit of Heart, about a month ago. What took me so long, right? I found the wonderful video for making boxes from Zendalas (those high quality 4 5/8" round tiles by Zentangle®). They are beautiful little boxes and it's a well made, easy to follow video. If you haven't already done so, check it out! I hadn't gotten around to making a box and then my table partner and friend from CZT 14, Charlotte from CharKat's Creative Insanity, showed off her creation on her blog. Ok, now I've got to make that little box! Problem was, I was a little shy on Zendalas. Plus, I was kinda lazy and thought I'd just die cut both the circles AND the template to save time cutting the template out with scissors. I had some heavy watercolor paper, Strathmore cold press, 140 lb, 300 gsm, that is pretty nice to draw on. Sure I saved a little time not cutting a template by hand, but when my box popped open again and again and I made a second, I think that wiped out the time saved! So next I tried 100 lb, 270 gsm smooth Bristol also by Strathmore. This is one of my favorite card making papers, but, if anything it was worse for the box than the watercolor paper. The smooth stiff cardstock popped open even quicker. I tried manipulating the paper more and more and eventually thought I had won the battle, only to wake up the next morning and see them both popped open! Short of cutting the score lines, I decided a nice ribbon would be sufficient.  And they do look very nice. So now, two boxes later, maybe I've finally learned that lesson about using the best materials available!  I will use 2 of the final 3 blank Zendalas I have, for another box. I feel the need to try Enyshou... Oh, and a need for ordering more Zendalas from Zentangle.com! Now, of course, I've waited until they were hit by the snowstorm, so my "shortcut" was probably the longest route ever!
Check back next week to see if I was finally successful!



Friday, January 23, 2015

Bijou loves snail mail

I'm having trouble believing it, but no rubber stamps were used in the making of my cards this week! I did use Zentangle® Bijou tiles, Spellbinder dies (nestabilities circles, squares, labels, and Sprightly Sprockets) and Cuttlebug and Sheena Douglass embossing folders.
This is my favorite card of the week. The suminagashi marbled paper (I marbled this previously and it's nice to have stock on hand) adds to the sunny feel. The circle on the back is covering the slits cut for Bijou but is adhered so that you can still change out the square tile. This sunny card was modified from this card by using 5 1/2" x 12" cardstock and folding into thirds. This leaves a 4" x 5 1/2" card vs the standard 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" but still fits nicely into an A2 sized envelope.
The remaining cards use Core'dinations color core cardstock, first die cut then embossed and sanded to reveal the core color of the cardstock. Then I adhered it to an A2 card base. If you missed last week's card using this same technique, check it out here.