Weekly Challenge #19: Light Over Dark

When I did the two projects above a while ago, I was not thinking of William Morris. Yet, when I found out that this week's challenge at I am the Diva is to create a tile or a tangle of light over dark a la William Morris using white dots, I could not resist using them for the challenge. Granted they are not exactly zentangles and they are also white dots over color instead of black. But the white dots do convey a pattern ( morning sun rays on the first and  flight of the butterfly on the second). I also find creating dot patterns extremely meditative. So, maybe this could be called ZIA? (I used deco art white pen.)

What I found in the Mail Box

From the Etsy Melange ACEO swap, beautiful cards from: Top left : Elenamary,, Midwestielady,  LDphotography
Bottom Left: Whyte, LizAnna

Thank you talented ladies.

Sustainable Earth

April 22 is celebrated as Earth Day. My little contribution--repurposed rice bags into journal covers. In the spirit of not wasting anything, I used as many parts of the bag as possible. On the cover of one of the journal above I have even stitched the product information tag that comes with the bag. The wrap around cord was dyed naturally in a coffee-tea solution.

The cover is lined with felt. Inside there are three signatures to a total of 120 pages. The signatures are sewn with a sturdy cotton thread. All the sides are matchine stitched to prevent fraying. There is an earthiness and unpretentiousness to these journals that come from the use of natural and repurposed materials.

Sadly, more and more of the rice I buy now come packaged in cheap polyester bags. Pretty soon, I may not have any bags to repurpose.

More available in my Etsy shop. Proceeds from sales at my Etsy shop are recycled into donations to help physically challenged children and adults. Here is my blog post on the organization I support .

Thanks for visiting.

New Jewelry

Yesterday it did not just rain but poured.  Could not go outside and so I made some new jewelry. It is sunny today and I got them photographed and even listed some of them in my shop. The necklaces I make tend to be on the bold and big side and I always felt that photographing them flat did not do full justice. This morning I got the brilliant idea of painting the white plastic mannequin I have into a brown color. I must say the necklaces look quite nice draped around its tanned neck! Here is peek and you will find more in my  Etsy shop  here.

Stamps!

My dear sister sent these collector's edition of Indian stamps to me. Aren't they fabulous?

Read, Write and Think with Burlap

The rice I cook for my family comes packaged in neat gunny* sacks (burlap in Amer. Engl). After the rice is finished, I try to find new uses for the empty bags. Over the years, I have repurposed them into memo boards, computer bags and little coasters. The above one is the latest reincarnation of the trusty gunny bag into a journal cover. I embellished the cover with a 4x3" piece of cured chalkboard cloth on which you can actually write with a chalk. The felt liner is made out of repurposed plastic bottles. The notebook closes with a cotton cord that I dyed using tea and coffee solutions. I machined stitched around the edges to prevent fraying. I thoroughly enjoy making them and they are available for sale at my Etsy shop

This is a perfect a gift to someone who  keeps journals and likes all things green. You will find these and more handmade journals in my Etsy shop here.

* The British English word "gunny sack" etymologically comes from the Indian word "goni".

The rice I cook for my family comes packaged in neat gunny* sacks (burlap in Amer. Engl). After the rice is finished, I try to find new uses for the empty bags. Over the years, I have repurposed them into memo boards, computer bags and little coasters. The above one is the latest reincarnation of the trusty gunny bag into a journal cover. I embellished the cover with a 4x3" piece of cured chalkboard cloth on which you can actually write with a chalk. The felt liner is made out of repurposed plastic bottles. The notebook closes with a cotton cord that I dyed using tea and coffee solutions. I machined stitched around the edges to prevent fraying. I thoroughly enjoy making them and they are available for sale at my Etsy shop

This is a perfect a gift to someone who  keeps journals and likes all things green.

* The British English word "gunny sack" etymologically comes from the Indian word "goni".