It's not just for cross stitch any more

My biggest announcement of the year! I love coloring mandalas, and now YOU can color my mandalas too. I've been working on a coloring book, and now it is ready. It's got 20 different mandalas ready for you sit back, relax, and color.

Ink Circles is publishing a coloring book. This is what the cover looks like.

It's called Peace of Art, a little pun because you will be creating a piece of art and you will be enjoying the peace of this relaxing art form.  If you've been watching at all, you'll have noticed a stream of interviews/programs/studies in the social media that tout the benefits of coloring as an adult hobby.

In what may be either a brilliant or a foolish move, I have chosen to distribute through Amazon as my primary fulfilment vehicle. You'll get Prime 2-day shipping; you'll get their price breaks (if they discount it); you'll be able to write and read reviews; I'll get a huge potential audience.

If you're not seeing the link directly above because of Adblock or your firewall, you'll need to go to Amazon and search the old fashioned way. It says order, but technically it is "pre-order" until Nov 10th.

Some of the choices I made in putting this together that might set my book apart from others:

• Single-sided (8.5 x 11"), so you can cut out pages and frame (or hang on your fridge) without losing a second page.
• Cardstock pages, so you can use colored pencils OR marker, or maybe even watercolor pencils without the page bleeding through or rippling.
• Spiral wire binding, it folds back flat to whatever page you choose. No coloring in the binding area.
• Spiral at the top: both my kids are southpaws. That side spiral gets in the way, so this works great for right or left handed colorists.
• A color test area on each page so you can check if your shading works or that pink is as bright as you hoped. It's designed such that it can be cut out to make a bookmark afterwards.

One of the 20 pages. You can see the binding and the bookmark in this photo.

Pick the colors that make you smile. Relax, there is no wrong way to do it.

Complete with a real ISBN: 978-0-9969675-0-1
I feel so official!

I'll be adding this to the Ink Circles site for ordering, as well as my Etsy shop, in the interest of complete marketing options, but don't feel bad getting it from your cheapest easiest source. (Only feel bad if you are getting it illegally from a scanned pirated posted copy.)

Namaste!

Happy Thanksgiving Canadians!

There is a lot of weird nonsense going on in the world right now, but there is also plenty to be thankful for. Monday is Thanksgiving Day for our Canadian friends, of which I am happy to have many. I was pleased to be asked by Thread & Eye in London, Ontario (the same shop that let me pilot the Roll Your Own Mandalas) to extend my Reflections series to include Canada. Challenge accepted.

Reflections of Canada 

Canada has no shortage of cool cultural icons, and I tried to balance some from both from modern society and the native peoples. Throw in a few common non-human residents and add a generous sprinkling of the traditional maple leaves and... Voila! Reflections of Canada.

Ingredients: Hockey sticks, teepees, Inukshuk, beavers, pine trees, Parliament building, geese, moose, totem pole, RCMP, the CN tower, dogwood flower, and maple leaves.

This chart is currently available exclusively through Thread & Eye. Neale and Kathy are happy to do mail order.  It's shown stitched in Dinky Dyes Warratah silk on 32 count Vintage Smokey White linen by Zweigart, but it will obviously adapt to just about any color scheme.