#109 to #116 Colored Zentangles with colored frames

I realized that my lovely paper store sells card stock in colors other than black (also realized that I get a teachers discount on everything I buy there!). Luckily, I already own pens in a gajillion different colors, so I had a fun afternoon tangling these ATCs, and mixing and matching the colors. More to come, I'm sure. I'm starting to get into a bit of a Zentangle-only rut. Not that that's a bad thing, but I feel like I'm neglecting other ATCs...

#106 to #108 more Zentangles

We spent a few days out at the garden house, and I had lots of time to tangle. Unfortunately, I smudged up the third one with some glue, but I hope it's not too visible.

#104 and #105 - Zentangle Challenge #34

These are for Zentangle Challenge #34: "Opposites Attract". The point was, to draw one string with curvy lines and tangle it with straight lines; then draw one string with straight lines and tangle it with curvy lines.

Well, the curvy-string-straight-tangles is how I do 90% of my Zentangling anyway, so that way was easy. The other way was more difficult. I just don't have enough good curvy patterns that I like and am good at. The one above it actually the second one I started, because on the first I made such a botch of the Keeko that I had to toss it.

Anyway, I like how the shading worked out (I'm getting better, slowly...) and I LOVE how nice the frame looks! I did it by trimming down the white pieces a 1/16 of an inch all around and gluing it to a pre-cut black ATC. I think I'll never make an "unframed" one again...

#103 Another Zentangled A

The first one got lost in the mail :( but at least it gave me a chance to draw another one! The line waves in the upper right corner could be a little straighter, but other than that I think this turned out nicely.

#100, 101, 102 - Zentangle Challenges

These are for the Zentangle Challenge ATC and Zentangle Challenge swaps. You can see that the three below are ATCs, and the above ones are the traditional 3.5" square Zentangle tiles. Click on the picture to enlarge and see details.

These were all based on The Diva's weekly Zentangle challenges. I love that website!

#99 Purple stitching

This one is for a purple ATC swap. I didn't have any purple fabric, other than the one piece, so I decided to go with stitching instead.


The weave of the fabric I used was very loose, and it stretched all over the place while I was sewing. So the stitches ended up very loose, but overall I think it just adds to the "rustic" look of the ATC. At least, that's the story I'm going with!

#98 Crazy Quilt ATC

This was a profile-based ATC. She said that she liked crazy quilting, and as colors she mentioned ivory, faded blues and greens... hope she'll like this.

I have kind of a love-hate relationship with crazy quilting, but this ATC was fun to do. In hindsight, though, I would have used a different, contrasting color thread instead of the light blue. As it is, it's a little too matchy-matchy.

#97 Ernie :D

I started this ATC a few months ago, but never finished it. But I wanted to join this swap featuring Ernie the Envelope (logo of swap-bot.com) so I found it and finished it:


The part that had been my stumbling block was how to do the stamped corner; I ended up embroidering it, as you can see in the close up:

Not perfect, but I think he turned out pretty cute!

#96 Zentangle E

Zentangled letter E. Or I guess it's actually a W, if you look at it from this angle... This time around, I didn't use all E patterns, mostly because I couldn't find enough that I like. F looks like a promising letter, though...

#95 Red

For this Red Fabric ATC swap. This was a little difficult to make, since I realized that I have very little red fabric, and what I do have is almost all the same shade. Luckily, I have a great stash of buttons from my mom, plus the yo-yo that someone had sent me.

#94 - 3D rose

A while ago I read this technique for making roses from felt. I wish I remembered where I read it. Basically, you take a circle of felt and cut it in a spiral, then starting with the outer end of the spiral, roll it up. The circle at the middle of the spiral becomes the base of the rose.

It seemed like a great idea to try for the Challenge ATC - NOT Flat swap. Because, as you can see in the picture below, the rose stands about 1 inch away from the ATC.

Project End... er, but not really

So, here is it, August 2nd already. The 100-days, 100-ATCs project is at a close.

It's been an interesting 100 days. I learned that I really do have creative times and down times. Luckily, the down times see to be about 1/3 of the time only.

Final results: 93 ATCs completed. Could I have completed 7 more ATCs yesterday and made the full 100? Yes, easily. But that was never the point. The point was, and still is, just to make ATCs :)

So I'm just going to keep going. I'll post what I make, number them, and let's see how far I can go.

up to 93 rainbows

These are made from scraps from a massive Trip Around the World quilt I made some years ago.

Since these are the last 10 ATCs of the project, I hate to end on a negative note, but I do not like these ATCs. They're lumpy. Some of them are lumpy back to front, others are lumpy side to side, and the really rebellious ones are lumpy in every direction.

The first was the white-bordered one. It's middle is interfacing, and the white binding is actually the back folded over to the front.

The middle 8 are all the other non-bound ones. They're just front and back layered, sewn and turned right side out, with cardboard stuck in the middle for stability. The fact that there are so many seams makes them lumpy around the edges of the cards.

The last one was the black-bound one. The binding is some pre-made bias tape I found in the stash. I fused the front and back to cardboard, then bound it. It's actually the best of the bunch, but it is still a little poofy in the center.

78-83 Zentangle name

This picture seems pretty small, but if you want to see the details, you can click to enlarge.

Anyway, these are for the Zentangle my Name swap, of course. Luckily I had a partner with a longer name, so I could fit in a few more ATCs before the deadline tomorrow :)