Iron Craft 2016 Challenge #6--NYC Travel Journal

For Challenge Six we were asked to make something inspired by the city where we live (or have lived). In 2008, I made this travel journal for a ten day trip to Tokyo. I made that journal from scratch but I wanted to use some materials that I already had and wanted to simplify the process for those people who might not have access to a binding machine.

I have these blank, non-adorned, journals in my stash. So I decided to make a NYC travel journal. I covered the front and back boards with a reproduction subway map made by Cavallini & Co. The front board highlights the area of the Bronx where I live. The back board highlights the map legend and title.

Starting book

To begin, I needed to remove the covers. I loosened the the spiral binding by separating the rings by hand. I loosened them just enough to remove the boards. Remember, I wanted others to be able to replicate the project.

Front Cover--da Bronx.

If you look closely, my subway stop is the 161 St/River Ave stop and the old location of Yankee Stadium is shown.

Back Cover

In honor of our Iron Craft administrator and creator, I decided to use some coordinating plaid paper from Japan. Kat and I are both very fond of plaid. This blue plaid is one of my favorite papers and is only one of two sheets that I still have available in this pattern.

Who doesn't love a good plaid?

Once the front and back boards with covered on both sides. I had to cut out the holes where the paper covered the already drilled holes. With a binding machine, you would simply punch the covered boards. By using a pre-existing book, you have to punch the holes by hand.

After cutting the holes, you simply reassemble the books by putting the covers in place and then hand tightening the spiral binding so that the tines meet their corresponding bars.

I haven't quite decided what to do with this book but I am really pleased with the way it turned out. I have one more book like this to cover.

365 Day 2016 Project--Week 13

March is almost over. I can't believe this year is going by so fast. Here are this week's entries.

March 21

March 22

March 23

March 24

March 25

March 26

March 27

Paper Faberge Easter Egg

The theater hosted an Easter Egg Decorating contest. We had to use the template that was provided so this is what I decided to do. I have always been infatuated with Faberge Eggs with their decoration, cutout windows, and jewels so I decided to do a paper version.

This is a three layer egg that has two  hinges that allows the view to open it like a book. The first view is the entire egg closed. This allows to view all three layers simultaneously. The top layers features a Moroccan inspired doodle. Because of the black card stock, I used gel and/or metallic pens.

All three layers

The top layer opens to the left. Underneath is a polka dot inspired egg with two different colored crystals. The smaller window allows a peek onto the third layer.

Second layer

The second layer opens to the right to reveal the bottom layer. This layer is a geometric flower design with crystals used as the flower centers. Both the positive and negative spaces are filled with two different patterns. The flower petals are filled in with white doodles. The negative space is filled with gold doodles.

The hardest part of the endeavor was working out the mechanics of the size and placement of the openings. Working out the hinges took some time as well. As you can see, there are spacers used to lift the eggs off of the crystals so each layer would lie flat. Overall, 174 Swarovski crystals were used.

The mechanics of the eggs.

I will provide an update once the winners are chosen.

365 Day 2016 Project--Week 12

Here is another week. Starting to perfect this particular font and still using the colored pencils.

March 14

March 15

March 16

March 17

March 18

March 19

March 20

365 Day 2016 Project--Week 11

I know. I'm late again but here are last week's daily posts.

March 7

March 8

March 9

March 10

March 11

March 12

March 13

Iron Craft 2016 Challenge #5--Zentangle Miniature Book

Miniature Accordion Book

According to the Miniature Book Society, miniature books can be no larger that three inches on any dimension. Outside of the United States, the dimensions increase to four inches. So, I decided to make a miniature accordion book to hold some of my daily zentangle exercises.

For those of you who don't know, zentangles are small doodling exercises that are supposed to be comforting in their repetition. I use them as my daily warm up for my 365 Project. Therefore, I have a lot of loose small sheets of paper hanging around. My zentangles are 2.5 inches square so I decided to make a three inch book to hold some of them.

The book structure is an amended accordion book structure that is mounted to a front and back cover that is covered in marbled paper. There are grosgrain ribbons to tie the book shut.

Usually, the book would hold eight images on the front and six images on the reverse. I decided to adapt the structure to include two rows of pages. The top row folds down to be enclosed in the book. If all sides are used, this structure holds 26 images.

Front View (8 images)

Reverse View (6 images)

Fully Open Front View (14 images)

Fully Open Reverse View (12 images)

365 Day 2016 Project--Week 10

Yes, I know that there are only six pictures this week. I was so thrown off by my vacation and the leap year that I posted eight pictures last week. Here is the rest of week 10.

March 1

March 2

March 3

March 4

March 5

March 6

This month, I will be using and experimenting with Caran d'Ache colored pencils.

365 Day 2016 Project--Week 9

I was on vacation in LA so these were a little bit late in posting to the blog but they were all rendered in time.

February 22

February 23

February 24

February 25

February 26

February 27

February 28

February 29