W's and Erin Olson at SuzyMosh

I've been wanting a regular bound sketchbook for some time now, having finished the one I dedicated to One Zentangle a Day practice and play. It was only about $7.00 at Michael's, soft bound with a firm not spiral spine. It has creamy paper, smooth yet with a pretty good tooth. I like that it is soft bound, too. Hard bound usually are more expensive.

So, I went to Michael's to shop. NOTHING. Not. One. Softbound. Sketchbook. There were plenty of good hardbound books, in the $30.00 range (snork) and lots of spiral bound sketchbooks, but nothing of quality in the softbound. (I take that back. They do have softbound books with blank paper inside, inexpensive. 40 pages of 10# right? stapled in the middle. Ugh)
And I walked out of Michael's with nothing. They didn't have the notebook I went in to get, and for once I didn't browse. Just left. 

On my way home from Michael's I swung into Walmart just to see (because by this time I was beginning to wonder if I hadn't found that first softbound sketchbook somewhere besides Michael's) Walmart did have sketchbooks, hardbound, about $5.00 and I grabbed two. When I got home I opened one and tried it. Sigh. Wimpy paper with  WAY too much tooth, and a lot of bleed thru. So I'll take the other one back. I'll probably use this one off and on. It's kinda purse sized, I guess.

Anyway, one of the things I have done in that book was the current SuzyMosh challenge :
W patterns that we have never used before, plus the patterns of Erin Olson. I love Erin's pattern Pystyl (Erin has a charming blog...quite a way with words, that one. I encourage you to check it out

http://thebrightowl.blogspot.com/.

So, the pattern from Erin's collection that really caught my eye was Pystyl. And I love Widgets from tanglepatterns.com. I started out practicing pystyl in that Walmart sketchbook...and it grew on me. Some color, and my attempt at ombre inside the "buds" of pystyl...add some widget floating about, and then I added a little nest or ground cover of widget near the base of my Pystyl tree. 

And this is what I have:

My  Little Ombre Pystyl Tree

 Coloring this one was especially fun. I love my new blending pencil, though even with it, the ombre effect worked best with yellow as the main color. I think it's also fun to look at.


As for softbound sketchbooks, they have some at Blick, and I'll be buying there next paycheck.