Back in March I released a Skillshare class about crafting with digital supplies. The class is about making use of digital supplies to create physical items - in this case hanging hearts for home décor.
I made a few samples, but I just realised that I haven't shared them on the blog! I used old cereal boxes for the heart base, and the background and embellishments are items that I downloaded, printed and cut out.
This was the prototype that I made when I was feeling out the idea for the class:
If you want to find out more, head over to Skillshare and check out the class here. If you aren't a member you can get a free 14-day Premium membership trial which will allow you to watch this class and hundreds of others. While you're there, take a look at my Easel Card class as well.
If you're at all familiar with this blog, you'll know that I have a bit of a hoarding problem when it comes to art and craft supplies! This also applies to digital products. I have literally hundreds of digital papers, textures, clipart, fonts and cut files.
I was looking for a way to use some of my extensive collection of digital assets in real life and not just leave them languishing in cyberspace. But then it occurred to me that there might be people like me who might be looking for ideas about how to use their digital products and thus this class was born! It's also a perfect introduction to crafting for those who might want to give crafting a try, but don't have any supplies.
Recently I've seen a lot of mandala dot art on Pinterest and Instagram and I really like it. So I started a Dot Art Pinterest board for inspiration and took a couple of classes about it that I found on Skillshare. I was just about ready to give it a go, but then while tidying up my craft stash I came across some acrylic rhinestones and gems that have been sitting around for a very long time. I bought them about four years ago planning to create lots of sparkly Christmas decorations, but, as is so often the case with me, I didn't do anything with them. Anyway, I thought why not use them to create a mandala instead of the paint? So I did and this is the result. 😍
I was so eager to get started that I didn't map the mandala out first. I basically stuck the large gem in the middle (approximately) and then played around with the design as I went. At least I had the good sense not to glue down the rhinestones until after I was happy with their placement, but because I was designing it on the fly it took much longer than it probably would have if I'd mapped it out first. I also might have gone a teeny bit overboard with the decoration, but then again can you really have too much sparkle? No. No you can't. Overall, I'm very happy with how it turned out.
As I was working on the design I noticed a few gaps in my rhinestone collection - I wanted more teardrops and horse eyes (the pointed ovals) and more of a gradation in size, so of course I went and ordered a bucket load more! 😄 Surprisingly I haven't found many references to rhinestone mandalas online, which is kind of surprising considering how pretty they are. But I guess that just means that I'll have to create some more myself!
In case you're interested here are the mandala Skillshare classes (if you aren't already a member you can get 14 days of free Premium membership):
Learn Beautiful Dot Painting - Mandala Design
The third class has a good lesson on designing a mandala.
