Book of 2015 by Tusia Lech

Hello :)

Here is Tusia Lech with a small book, I created using Zeus & Zoe kit.

I was inspired by mood board created by DT member - Charlie: I have used burlap, beautiful flower and some glitter.

At first I cut 2 rectangles for covers - I used plain, thick chipboard. I embellished both covers with burlap and flowers. 

On the front cover you can see also gorgeous doily in a shape of heart and wonderful, reach purple crystal framed with metal. All these items come from one of Zeus & Zoe gorgeous kit.

Back cover:

My book is an accordion book. I have cut 12 inches long paper strip and folded it forming an accordion. Than I glued down small envelopes. I put tags and some ephemera into envelopes - I will write on them all the most important to me things in next year.

The edges of the inside covers are covered with small pieces of paper from old book (glued down with Gel Medium) and than inked with Archival Ink.

Thank you for visiting our blog today - I hope I inspired you a little bit :)
Tusia

Favourite tradition minialbum

Hello! Riikka here to share my take on this month's challenge! The topic this month is "favourite things" and I wanted to scrapbook a tradition, which is really meaningful to me. One of my favourite things.

Every year on May 1st we visit the local zoo. The tradition started way back, when my husband and I were dating and we didn't realise it even at first. It was only I was going through some photo albums at my computer when I realised we had been to the zoo three years a row on the May 1st. After that we have celebrated the May day with a visit to the zoo.

The album documents the trip of this year. I took a lot of photos, like usual, and then edited just a few of them for this album. To keep the album clean and unified, I used black and white photos. I tried to document the day as well as some of my favourite things at the zoo. For example I love how our daughters always pet the wooden animals on the way to the main gate and I adore the tropical houses that have some beautiful plants, little monkeys and cute frogs. It was also charming that the best show on the zoo was put on a lady cleaning one of the cages. Our girls were mesmerised by her and stood in front of that window longer than any other! You can see all the pages of the mini at the bottom of this post.

The papers are from this month's sponsor, Donna Salazar. To have my own touch to them, I added some gesso, mists, doodling and stamping here and there. I bound the book using washi tape, taping two papers together and then created the spine using a piece of paper. The embellishments are partly form my Zeus and Zoe kit and partly from my own stash.

I hope you'll join in to the challenge this month! It would be wonderful to discover some of your favourite things!

Let's take a look at the prize this month for the challenge. It's really cool, don't you think? 

Main Prize: 

Donna Salazar

http://donnasalazar.typepad.com/

Donna Salazar is a wife, mom, grandma, artist, designer, teacher and kid at heart. Her playful nature tends to come across in her products and classes because she believes that art should be fun. Donna is known for blending contrasting elements to create what she calls her “Girlie Grunge” look. Donna's style is especially appealing to mixed media artists, however her love of flowers and all things sparkly seems to appeal to crafters of all types and styles. 

Donna is a licensed designer and has product lines with 5 different companies: Clearsnap, GCD Studios, Spellbinders, Want2Scrap and Zutter. Donna offers free video tutorials, e-classes and a LIVE webshow, called Tuesday Tutorials, where she gives away lots of prizes from her partner companies and/or original artwork created during the show!

Random Prize:

Couture Creations

http://couturecreations.com.au

An Australian owned and loved brand, Couture Creations is the culmination of 20 years experience in the scrapbooking industry. From its final inception in 2010, Couture Creations has been devoted to producing expertly designed, high quality products overseen by veteran designers and crafters for a result that is both simple and elegant.

Couture Creations is part of Artdeco Creations growing collection of quality craft brands available worldwide. Distributed through a network of the best industry representatives in scrapbooking and craft internationally, Artdeco Creations has the ability to test and meet global expectations for quality and precision beyond local trends and markets.
 

Hope to see your project for the challenge soon! 

Life As It Is Now - April Challenge

Life as it is now.... April Challenge

Thanks for calling in and checking out the new challenge for Zeus and Zoe for April!

The main aim of scrapbooking is to turn out photographed memories, into stories that can be passed down through generations.  Often, those creating the stories of the photographs, are also the photographers, and more often than not, are not in many photographs themselves. I know I am one of those people, and even though I scrap about my childhood, I rarely scrap about myself as the person I am today and who I am.

The challenge this month will be to create and journal a project about 'life as it is now', the subject being 'you as an individual'.  There is much interpretation in the depth of how you can create, whether it is a canvas, a mini album, or a scrapbook page.  You can add as much detail as you wish, and about what topics you wish to share about yourself - this is totally up to you.  Hidden journaling for personal information is fine - quite often I will write my journaling, add to an envelope and adhere this to the back of my project creation. 

There is one additional requirement for the challenge, and that is to incorporate the use of buttons into your creation.  Everyone has a button stash, and in our DT kits from Marivic were some truly amazing, vintage buttons I have been just itching to work with....

I have created a paper bag, mini album. The post was going to be extremely graphic intensive, so I created a video to show all of the album.  This project is a work in progress, and still has a fair way to go for completion.

I really hope that my mini album inspires others to take part in this months challenge....
Sandie

   

The winner of April's challenge will receive a kit from Zeus and Zoe Etsy...The kit includes a package of flower, pin sticks, buttons, ephemera items, La Blanche Stamp, Washi tapes, A package of Magicals from Lindy Stamp Gang. Unfortunately NO Macaroons included...They're just there for decoration. This is what you will normally get as a part of a custom kit if you order from Zeus and Zoe.

Our main sponsor for May is kind enough to send some extra trim for a random winner this month..

The random winner will get trims from May Arts.

Here are the rules: 

1. Projects must be linked up to our linky tool in the side bar, using the URL of the ACTUAL POST, not your entire blog.
2. You may submit as many entries as you would like and combine your entry with up to 2 other challenges.
3. Post this challenge to your blog and mention, in your post, that you are playing along at Zeus and Zoe TOGETHER with a link back to our Zeus and Zoe blog.
4. All entries must be received by MIDNIGHT EST on the 28th. February 
5. Entries to be submitted via the linky tool at the top of the sidebar ONLY, not by email and not by linking up in the comments section please.

Information about our challenges:
1. Zeus and Zoe Challenges are open to anyone, anywhere in the world.
2. Our DT do their best to comment on all entries, you can make their job easier by turning off your word verification.
3. Challenges are held monthly and each month TWO winners are chosen. One winner is chosen by our DT and the other is chosen by random draw.
4. Challenge winners will always be announced within a week of the challenge closing and winners are then required to contact Marivic.
5. Prizes not claimed within two weeks will be forfeited.
6. The Merit winner will have an image of their project featured in the winners post, together with a link back to the homepage of their blog.
7. Winners will be awarded a Winner's Badge to post on their blog...full bragging rights included!

We can't wait to see your entries for this challenge! 
Thank you for your visit! 

Fabric covered minialbum tutorial

Hi there! I made this fabric covered minialbum the other day and thought I'd share with you the steps how to create it. 

It's really easy to put together. All you need is some patterned or plain paper, piece of fabric and a sewing machine. For the closing you'll need a piece of elastic band and also a button. Almost all the materials I used for this album are from my Zeus and Zoe kit.

Firstly, gather your supplies for the pages. Cut them to 6" by 12" in size. I used one sheet of 12x12" paper and a brown paper bag from my kit and threw another piece of patterned paper from my own stash.

Then, grab a piece of fabric slightly larger than the pages - about 14" by 13" in size and fold it in half. Now your fabric piece is 7" by 13". You can of course use two different fabrics, too. 

Sew the fabric pieces together from their edges. Sew a few times round the piece and then let the edge fray a little. The stitched line shall keep the piece fraying too much. Then mark the center of the cover part as well as the pages and stitch the pages to the cover with the sewing machine.

You can leave the album in the previous stage, but you can also add a little something to the cover by using mixed media. I used a stencil to make a chevron pattern to the cover with gesso. Then I colored the covers with Tattered Angels mists. The gesso will resist the mists.

Then sew some details to the front cover and a piece of elastic band to the back cover. I used some great doilies and lace form my Zeus and Zoe kit as decorations!

Finish the album by sewing a button to the front cover for the closing. I also added a strip of paper to which I stamped the title. To keep the look of the album cohesive, I stitched the title in place.

If you want to see the finished album from inside, please check my blog!