Adventures in Doodling

I was messing around with some Zen Doodle ideas and decided to make a sign for my sister and brother-in-law with their last name and lots of doodles. I did this a few months ago, but since it was a Christmas present for them, I couldn't post it and ruin the surprise. I had several trial and error pages and made changes up to the final copy, but got it done eventually. I made the draft on regular sketch paper, then used a light board to transfer it onto good paper in pen so it would be clean and crisp. Below is the final product.

I always do a show-and-tell type deal with my co-workers, where I bring in my "creations" to show everyone. One of my co-workers liked the sign and asked if I'd make one for him. So I did. Same idea, but a little less trial and error with this one. The image is below.

I like doing the signs, maybe make some posters with lyrics or what have you, but that is still an idea in progress.

Zentangle

So, lately I've been getting into Zentangle. It started with the adult coloring. I really liked coloring the mandalas, so I figured I should learn how to make them. I bought a book at Barnes and Noble called " Mandala Zentangle: The mindful way to create" by Jane Marbaix. I started with a few tangles and just took off from there. These are my first attempts at tangles.

As with I am with most things, I get obsessive, so of course I bought some more books, a sketch pad, some pens, a ruler, protractors and stencils. A bit overboard, but I've been enjoying it! Since the first two practices shown above, I've created quite a few tangles. 

Practicing with lettering. Could be a coaster ;)

More practice. Some are better than others!

Paw stencil!

This next one came out really cool. I was just playing around with some different ideas.

A friend wanted me to make him some bookmarks, you know, for real books, not the ebook kind. So since we're both Ironmen, I figured I'd go with that theme. The M-dot is a TM symbol though, so I couldn't sell anything made with it, but I can still create with it! I made 4, these are my two favorites. 

This latest tangle turned out pretty cool. Just intersected a few circles of the same size and went to town. I've found a lot of tangle ideas on Pinterest, so I'm going to play around a bit more with those. You can tell the tangles I like most and/or am most comfortable with. I'm looking forward to practicing with some new ones.

First post of hopefully many!

Finally getting to do some more crafty stuff after taking about a year off to focus on my athletic side. I will try to update with some of my past creations later, but for now I'll focus on the present.

Today I made a moon pillow for a friend. They make great travel pillows for kids, as my goddaughter has two. Thankfully I bought the book from Red Heart with the pattern in it before it went out of print. I didn't stitch the face on this pillow like I did the previous ones. It just wasn't coming out right. This one I did in yellow. The yarn has been discontinued though, so when it's gone, it's gone. The last two I made were in blue. There is some yarn that is close to the original, just a little thicker, but should work well anyway.

I'm also working on an Anna and Elsa hat for a coworker's kid. I had made one for my goddaughter and one for her cousin about a year ago so I still have plenty of the yarn left. Below are pictures of the one's I've made before, as the other two are still in progress.

Mickey Blanket

So, my husband is a bit obsessed with Disney. I decided that for our second anniversary (2014) I would make him a custom Mickey blanket. Because of TM's and the like, there aren't any free patterns, and I'm probably not allowed to post what I did to make this one. Basically, I figured out how many Mickey heads I would need, then made that number of big circles and twice that number of small circles. I then stitched two small circles onto each big circle to make the head. From there it was all trial and error and a lot of free crocheting around the heads and then stitching them together. For the border I did a row in yellow than a row in black. Below are a series of pictures throughout the creation process.

All the Heads Ready to be Connected

Figuring out how to connect the heads

Making Progress

Before the Border was added

The Finished Product

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. It was a lot of work, and if I were to do another it probably would look a little different because I didn't keep track of my freehand connecting. There are a lot of different options for connecting the Mickey's that would make the blanket look quite different. I wouldn't mind trying something a little different in the future.