Spirals, dots and stripes printable gift box in 4 colors

I need to post more things on other templates and apologize for using my 2 "plain" templates so much lately. It's been super busy working on the new coloring book(!!), going to the state fair and well, life! But it should be quieting down soon so I can focus more on this page.

I hope you enjoy this box set. 4 colors of the same pattern. Click image for larger version, print on card stock, cut out, score folds, fold, glue!

Spiral Mandala to color

I hope you enjoy this new mandala to color! Click on the images for larger versions, print and color.

Small JPG version:

Large transparent PNG version:

This is the 1000th post on Don't Eat the Paste, and I just passed 1000 reviews on Amazon.com, as well as hitting that 3 million pageviews marker. It's kind of been a big couple of weeks!

When I started drawing mandalas for this site, it was supposed to be one off thing, or an occasional thing. But it got to be very relaxing to draw them and the reception they got from all of you was just fantastic and encouraging. So I kept drawing mandalas for people to color in. A few have been licensed for other material, and they are being used by therapists, educators, libraries and even a couple museums. My readers have sent me scans of the ones they've colored in and I'm pretty sure a very nice guy in Canada named Samuel is the biggest fan of my mandalas. So when I was deciding "What should my 1000th post be?" it seemed like a mandala was the right choice. The most popular printable box on this site is one with spirals and dots, so that's why this is a spiraled dotted mandala. 

Thank you, Liberty, Samuel, lemondedis, Tana (working on those tags for you!), Kai, freebird7100, MJ, OMazingKids and a whole bunch of other people that I'm forgetting for the constant support and kind comments. Of course a big special thank you to Rachel of OnePrettyThing, and to everyone who pins, stumbles, shares and tweets. 

Thank you for making my little spot on the internet so much than I ever expected it would be. Here's to the next 1000 posts! Hopefully you all enjoy them.

2013 Printable Calendar

This year's printable year at a glance calendar is based on the design above which I created (without the Don't Eat the Paste url) for the annual tea towel calendar contest on Spoonflower (voting 10/18/12-10/24/12). The Spoonflower version will be available for sale soon for home sewers who like the design.

Click the image below for a larger version to print on paper.

Spiral to Color

I think this simple spiral would work well as strings for a zentangle or outlines for embroidery. What do you think? I hope you enjoy this coloring page.

Click on the image for a larger version to color.

Small JPG version:

Large Transparent PNG:

Spiders coloring page with some information about spiders

One of the things I love about doing this page is how much I learn in the process of doing it. The books I'll read, the stuff I'll learn in trying out new projects, and the things I learn while researching something I want to draw. Today it was spiders. What started as a spider web for Halloween led me to research spiders and webs, to learn more about orb weavers, which are the spiders which weave what we think of as a typical web. When you see a Black Widow drawn on this style web, it's inaccurate. Black Widows do weave webs, but they aren't the spiral webs. They are more unstructured. 

Orb weavers aren't venomous. They have very bad eyesight despite having 8 eyes, and they come in so many varieties and colors! You can find photos here. Some have spikes, some are very hairy. So after I finished my web, I drew a basic body for an orb spinner that can be decorated as you please with colors, spots and spikes. Click the images for larger versions.

They start their webs with by catching a breeze and silk sailing from one side to another on a roughly horizontal plane. Then then anchor that thread. The first one is shown in blue, the anchor in red. Then they do the rest of the radials, reinforcing them and making them all stronger with non-sticky thread. After the radials are laid in, they start the web. So now you know the basics to draw or embroider your own webs.

Dolphin Mandala

I've spent a huge chunk of today working on this and another mandala that's just spirals. I'm still deciding if I'm going to post the other one. I hope you like this!

Click on the image for the larger version.

2012 Black and White Calendar

Jenn recently requested a calendar like this one that I made for 2010. She asked for one just like the original, but I really prefer to come up with new designs. I hope you like this one as well. It has the same design elements, dots in spiral patterns, but it's a different spiral dot design. The font used is Chocolate Box by Paul Lloyd. Click on the image for the 8x10 calendar. I found the 2010 year at a glance calendar very handy, and hope you enjoy this one as well.

Pipe cleaner Shamrocks

Pipe cleaners were one of my daughter's favorite mediums when she was little. She still likes getting a pack every so often to make sculptures. Add that to the fact I'm a craft stasher, and I found a box of 100 green pipe cleaners while I was organizing the other day. Green, and it's nearly Saint Patrick's Day, so I thought "Shamrocks!" These can be hot glued to pin backs or hair clips. 

So I told Dea if she wanted to make some shamrocks, I'd post instructions. I made one as well. Mine wound up being a lot more complicated than her's. She made 3 and instructions for the other 2 are coming after she shows me how she made them.

First the basics- How to make a spiral.

Start by curving the end of the pipe cleaner around a pencil or pen.

Then you'll hold that circle flat between you'r thumb and index finger.

Hold the end of the wire with your other hand and turn the circle to spiral the wire around that center. Adjust your hold as necessary until you have a spiral the size that you want it. You can spiral as tight or as loosely as you'd like.

So now you know the basics of making a spiral. Let's start with Dea's shamrock.

Take 2 pipe cleaners, and twist them together in the middle. Spread the ends so they form an X shape at right angles from each other.

Now spiral 3 of the ends in the same direction. It looks a lot like a triskele.

Trim the bottom wire or use it to twist around something to create an accessory or gift. 

Mine takes 4 pipe cleaners. Bend 3 of them in half and open them out to about a 90 degree angle. Spiral the ends towards each other to create open heart shapes.

With the 4th pipe cleaner, starting about halfway down the sides of the hearts, wrap it around the sides of 2 of the hearts to join them together. Then form a loop for the stem.

Now wrap it around the sides of the heart on the opposite side and the middle heart.

You can trim the wire at this point, but what I did instead was bring the wire back down the stem, and wrap the stem.

Use hot glue or E-6000 to attach the shamrock to something. No pinches!