I've been drawing these mandala shapes non stop for about a year and I've decided to stop. I've really enjoyed drawing them, but they end up dominating everything that I draw (not to mention it feeling a little bit like going insane from drawing too many polka dots). I'm finished with them. I made this hand drawn sheet of mandalas up for a project and never used it.  So, I'm giving it to you. I've given it a Creative Commons license in Flickr - so, if you'd like to use it for anything at all - you're welcome to. Let me know if you end up using them for something - I'd love to see.




+ I printed it out as some wrapping paper.

Download the image here.

...in January

+ There were some pretty sunsets.


+ I ate my first ever fruit mince pie. And then I ate the whole packet.


+ I also ate a pop tart and some Nanna's afternoon tea.



+ My cats were lazy as always.


+ I found some cool record covers, but nothing worth buying.


+ I wore a bow and a little hat.


+ I sent my friend a cool print (that never arrived, wah!) and I unearthed my Frankie collection (still trying to find a couple of the missing issues).


+ I started a little project with some vintage Valentines.



+ I spent a whole lot of time at Summer School.


+ I helped my friend christen her new couch and bought fresh flowers for my house.



+ I embraced yellow.


+ I bought my niece and nephew who were visiting a crazy straw.


+ I celebrated my mother in law's 66th birthday.


+ I went to the aquatic centre and went on the diving board and big slide three times each.



+ A new kitty came into my life.


+ I received cute cat salt and pepper shakers and gave some cute toys.

+ And my bike got a big workout.

Watching: New Girl, Pan Am, Vampire Diaries, the Australian Open, Unbreakable, Dexter S1.
Purchasing: Papery supplies, vintage Valentines.
Listening to: M83, Fleet Foxes, Paul Kelly.
Loving: My tiny kitten.
Making: Books and collages.
Consuming: Fruit mince pies, ice blocks, yoghurt & honey.
Wanting: Pocket money for fun things.

This is Part 2 of my book making from Summer School (here is Part 1). I really enjoyed making these books and I like how they turned out (though they're just my prototypes - I'd love to make more).

C had to teach me a little life lesson though about choosing whose criticism to accept when people comment on your work, after someone told me they didn't like them. I think that's really important to think about especially when you are a creative person. You can put a whole lot of joy and inspiration into something and then get shot down by one off handed comment and it makes you look at your work differently. Just because I wouldn't say something negative about someone's work when they show it to me, doesn't mean that they won't to my work. To each their own I guess. So, that aside, these are two books I made at Summer School to house some of my pretty received mail.

Book one: Letter holder book with vinyl cover - I taped two letters at a time together down one edge then stitched them into the book like pages. This was my first time using vinyl, so I tried to use PVA glue to adhere it to the inner cardboard (which made the cardboard kind of mushy and malleable inside the vinyl, but I'm okay with that). The buttons on either side do up with a hairband. The buttons were given to me by a girl in my class, they belonged to her grandmother. The letters can be removed from the envelopes, but the envelopes are stitched in.








Book two: Postcard book with hand-painted cover - similarly to the book above, I taped two postcards at a time together on one edge, then stitched them down the tape into the book to create pages. I like this as a  kind of coffee table book to flick through. When it went on display at our exhibition I felt a bit funny about having all my postcards read, but I decided I was okay with it.








Still going to try to do some little book making tutorials when I get around to it! :)

I finished all my Sketchbook Project 2012 pages and am sending it off today (with no days to spare!). I thought I'd just make a slideshow of the pictures, rather than bombarding you with an image heavy post. Click through if you like.