Mandala Monday #4

Mandala Monday again!  Sorry it's a little bit late.  This Mandala is from a fantastic colouring book that I found at The Works.  Here's what I love about it:

1. The book is round.  How cool is that?  No wasted corners.
2. The pages are 'one sided.' no hard choices to make if you're facing bleed-through.
3. Variety of small and larger spaces to colour in.

I used a set of six ball-point shiny gel pens for this design... some metallic, some sparkly.  They were smaller than the average pen and some colours got nearly run down doing this design!  It was worth it though.  I do love to look at it.

Want to join in with Mandala Monday?  Just link back to my blog in your own Mandala Monday entry, and don't forget to link your entry into the comments below!

Mandala Monday #3

Magnificent Mandala Monday to you all!  Here's a double- mandala entry today, and not in a form that you are expecting:

This started out as one complete Mandala, and it was very important to select one for this that can be quartered.  This one could.  I used a teabag folding technique on the mandala that I took from a colouring book.  After folding it, I worked out what needed to be coloured and then adhered the sections together into this fan shape.  I cut around the mandala shape because there was a lot of extra paper hanging off that was plain white and I didn't like it.

Here's another one that I made the same way.  I enjoyed making them and I may continue in this way as I complete the designs in the book.  I like to use my colouring in projects rather than just doing it and shutting it away or trying to display everything I've made.

My plan for these is to adhere them to notebook covers and then cover the cover with acetate, so that the finished fan shape can keep its form without snagging on things and damaging the design.

Of course, I will post the finished article when it's done.

And now it's over to you- share your Mandala blog posts in the comments section and I will try to visit and comment on all of them!!

Daisies on the Steering Wheel...

Yep, here I go again, crafting in the car.  The car is where I spend a great deal of my dedicated crafting time these days.  It's down to parking up early at the school in order to secure a legal parking place during the afternoon school run.  There just isn't enough room there to park legally and I seem to have that magic ju-ju that means that if I slip up just once, I will get caught and fined.  The ones who always do it seem to slip through the cracks, but all eyes are on me.  So I give up the possibility of doing anything useful in the house or wherever else and I get to the school an entire hour early.

I had to leave my volunteering session at Unravel & Unwind CIC early today due to an appointment with the nurse.  That appointment ran a little over, which is expected, and I ended up with too much time on my hands but not enough to do anything with, so I showed up at the school an hour and a half early!!

There were still cars there.  I am not even lying for effect.

So I just enjoyed some crochet.  This is the start of what is going to be a fantastically challenging two weeks.  The first four squares of the Secret Garden CAL (crochet-a-long) have been released and I started work on it.

This CAL is beautiful!  Please do search Facebook for Rainbow Valley Crochet to get involved in this beautiful CAL.

Mandala Monday #2

How has your week been?  I hope it's been full of creative loveliness as mine has.

This is Week 2 of Mandala Monday, and here is this week's Mandala:

This is the first ever Mandala that I have drawn.  I started out using a compass to draw the original circle.  Then I put the compass point at 4 equidistant points around the circle and drew semi-circles.  Honestly, I can't remember where I went from there but I ended up with a flower shape, and that flower shape dictated an inner circle which I drew freehand which you can probably see here.

Once the main shape was drawn and subsequently outlined with an 08 pigment pen, I proceeded to mark out small areas and fill them with patterns, working from the inside out, first on each petal and then around the outside, wihch led me to try making the arch shapes.  I was thrilled with how these shapes came to look!

All in all, I'm very surprised that I was able to do this, and it felt good to start with an initial framework and fill it in without too much forethought, but just concentrating in the moment and enjoying the process!

Did you blog a Mandala this Monday?  If so, please do join in and leave a comment below linking us to your Mandala Monday entry for this week.  I'd really love to see what you've done too!

Back on the Tatty-Wagon!

This is a photo of my footrest that I took during a "butt-rot" weekend.  That's when I just sit on the sofa, catch up on TV and do crafts.  This time it was tatting and pinning out other tatting to block it.  I got an Amazon delivery, hence the packing tape in the photo too... this is descriptive of many of my weekends at home.  I just happened to photograph it this time.  Thought I'd share.   On a Tuesday.  Random.

I have been tatting quite a lot lately, because I decided to teach myself needle tatting.  In the photo below, the items were shuttle tatted and the blue and pink plastic pieces on the bottom are shuttles.  You  wind the thread around the shuttles and then make your design.  I had been doing cro-tat ornaments over the holidays and that is yet another form of tatting which incorporates crochet to make the designs more flexible.  Shuttle tatting, Needle tatting, and Cro-tat.  Three different ways and I know them all now!

I must say that I am enjoying all types but needle tatting is the easiest one to fix if it goes wrong.

For a great needle tatting tutorial in three parts, try making Ruby Lockwood's Mug Rug.  It's on YouTube.  Warning- she has a bird!  In the third part, Miku is getting a bit cheeky... caw!!!  She's a normal human being as well, so she does make a few mistakes and undoes them.  This is great because there's too many perfectionists out there.  Watch it through before you join in.  If you  make anything from it, please don't forget to like the video, and send me a little note too to let me know if you've tried it!

Mandala Monday #1!

Seems that this is The Year of The Mandala.  So declares Simply Crochet, and as I have recently received a 'How to draw Mandalas' book and a crochet Mandalas book, I thought, why not start a little theme for this year, Mandala Monday?

So here we are, the first Mandala Monday.  And I would like to start out by inviting people to join in!

Here's what you do:

1. Blog a Mandala that you have made- this could be crocheted, embroidered, knitted, drawn, painted, done in sand... any method at all, and I will include 'adult colouring' too- if you have a book of mandala patterns and you've added colour, you're in it too!  I would like it if you would include my blog address on there so people can come and join in too!

2. View your blog entry like a regular viewer would, and copy the entire URL (web address).   You may need to click on the title of the entry to get the full URL of the entry itself.

3. Comment on the current week's Mandala Monday entry here, and paste the URL of your entry for the week (not the blog front page) in the comments section.

That's it!

Mandalas are great fun, for pattern lovers and spiritualists and everyone in between!

My first Mandala was made on Christmas Day, when I finally allowed myself to open the Mandala Book that Wendy got me!  Here it is, and have a Majestic Mandala Monday!!

Until next week!