Funky Fossil Designs "MDF Fish Trio" Mandala decorated hanging fish.

For the past three weeks, it feels like I have been fighting off a cold.  Last night it came out in full force, I even did a Covid test - just in case, it was negative, so this is just a cold. I am sniffing, coughing and spluttering and actually feeling quite miserable, even though it is a beautiful sunny day.  Hopefully it will pass quickly .

Anyway, I fancied doing something that I wouldn't have to think about too much and decided to try mandala painting again.  You may recall earlier in the year I had a go at it and it was reasonably successful, but as you can see from my effort today, I need to perfect my art of mandala dotting!

For the base, I used one of the three "MDF Fish Trio" from Funky Fossil Designs. Here's the link if you want to buy them. I coated both sides in metallic silver paint.  I then went over that with three shades of Cosmic Shimmer "Iridescent Shimmer Water Colour Paints" using pink, green and blue.  I set aside to dry, which didn't take long at all.

I then used three sizes of mandala dotting tools with a selection of PaperArtsy "Fresco Finish - Chalk Acrylic" paints to create the dotty design.

Dotting Mandala Art - First Attempt

Hi, how was your New Year?  Our was very quiet.  Just Hubby, Rosie the dog and myself, watching the TV.  We did manage to stay up till around 1am though and have had a lazy start to the first day of 2023.

I was fortunate to receive a Dotting Mandala Art starter kit as one of my Christmas presents.  It is something that I have wanted to try for some time, so I was thrilled when I opened the gift. 

There is lots of room for improvement and I now know that the acrylic paints that have been lurking at the back of my craft cupboard are not the best suited for this type of craft.  Because they've been opened and been around for a while, the consistency was too thick.  The yellow paint specifically was not easy to work with, which resulted in a clumpy look.

I think the paint needs to be more fluid, more like the texture of double cream before it's been whipped? as you can tell it is all a bit trial and error, but we all have to start somewhere.

I found doing this very therapeutic.  I think it is going to be an ideal craft to do when I get up in the middle of the night and my mind won't stop thinking.  I think this will be very calming to do - well fingers crossed anyway.