Crochet Mandala Tiles

 ~ Decorative Crochet Mandalas to match Kitchen Tiles ~

 ⁕ ⁕ ⁕  Crochet Mandalas   ⁕ ⁕ ⁕

Crochet project inspired by kitchen tiles. 

These handmade tiles from the 80's have a sort of eclectic southwestern feel, and inspired me to crochet something to match.  

Hobby Lobby, "I Love This Yarn",  has these great colors that match very closely to the colors in the tiles and I couldn't be happy with how they turned out. They hang nicely on the walls in the kitchen as decoration.

This project reminds me of how you can draw inspiration from so many things around you in life.

Let me know what you think. I'd love to hear your thoughts and ideas.

Thank you for stopping by.

Best wishes and happy crocheting!

Black Crochet Inspiration

A few crochet items that I've created through the years.  You can find the shawl pattern on Ravelry.   Others are Doily Designs creations.

Shells and Lace Mandala Doily Rug (2013)

Crochet Lotus Mandala Doily Rug (2013)

Black Mandala Doily Blanket (2013)

 Black Mandala Wall Clock (2012)

Black Aphrodite Shawl with Extension (2011)

Thank you for stopping by.

Hope that you find joy and inspiration.

Happy crocheting!

Crochet Pumpkin Leaf Pattern

 🍂Crochet Pumpkin Vine Leaf Pattern🍂

This easy crochet leaf works up very quickly and makes a great addition to lots of Fall accessories, like these cute crochet Pumpkin Cup Cozies by Okie Girl Bling n Things (pictured above and below).

Follow Doily Designs Pumpkin Leaf pattern below to create these useful little leaves to go on your latest Fall crochet accessories.

🍁Crochet Pumpkin Leaf Pattern 🍁

The following is a general guide to share this fun little leaf.  

Try different yarns and different hooks, for various size leaves. 

 

Leaf is worked on first one side of the chain, then on opposite side of this same chain.

H hook (8 - 5mm)

Size 4, worsted weight yarn

Measures approximately 2.25 inches with stem.

Graph and written pattern, in English crochet terms.

Beg:

Ch 8, Sc in 2nd ch from hook, Ch 1, 

Sl st in next ch, Ch 2, 

Hdc in same ch, Ch 2, 

Sl st in next ch, Ch 3, 

Dc in same ch, Ch 3, 

Sl st in next ch, Ch 4, 

Htr in same ch, Ch 4, 

Sl st in next ch, move tail (slip knot and 2 ch) thru and on top of working strand, crocheting over ch on the opposite side, letting the tail drop back, and working on other side of the ch,

(2nd side)

Ch 4, Htr in same ch as previous Htr but on other side, Ch 4, 

Sl st in same ch, Ch 3, 

Dc in next ch, Ch 3, 

Sl st in same ch, Ch 2, 

Hdc in next ch, Ch 2, 

Sl st in last ch.

Fasten off, weave last used strand, use 'stem' strand to attach to whatever you like (if desired) or weave this end as well.

Please, let me know if you have questions, comments or would like to share your crochet leaves.

Thank you for stopping by.

May you find joy and inspiration.

Happy crocheting!

Halloween Graveyard Cake

🥮👻  Halloween  👻🥮 

👻  Graveyard Cake  👻

Tasty, decorative Halloween treat.

Inspired by Pinterest, back in 2012, when the kids were very little, we made this cute graveyard cake. These old pictures are pretty bad, but you get the idea and I am sure that YOU could nail it!

This cake was so much fun to make and EAT.

Cake uses:

Chocolate cake base, cake mix works great and children can help mix. 

Chocolate icing, in a thin layer for sticking stuff to the cake.

Stuff like; 

Oreo cookies, crumbled for 'dirt'. Children enjoy this job. We used plastic baggy and a rolling pin to crush the Oreo's into a fine 'dirt'.

Milano cookies for 'tombstones', with "Rip" and "Boo", written with 

icing tube,

Licorice, split apart for 'trees'. You could reinforce these with toothpicks, even create a fence with licorice pieces.

Marshmallows (various sizes) for ghosts, eyes dotted on with icing tube.

Pumpkins could be sugar pumpkins like those from BRACH's holiday mix;

I wanted something the kids could play with afterwards, and something crafty for myself to do, so we gathered oak galls, (or other nut for Fall inspiration), and painted them with acrylic paint to look like jack-o-lanterns, and topped them with a good clear coat. These are still one of my favorite Fall decorations. Such fun getting out old decorations and reminiscing about old crafts. Handmade decorations are so much more treasured.

Back to the cake...

We were going for pumpkin vines but the icing did not want to work with me. With more time and skill, I think the vines could look cool on this cake.

Don't feel like making the whole cake? For a simpler, but still fun, decorative and delicious treat, try making chocolate cupcakes in silver foil linings. Decorate with chocolate icing, topped with marshmallow ghosts, Milano 'tombstones' and/or Brach's pumpkins.

Happy Halloween!

Thank you for stopping by.

May you find joy and inspiration!

Fall Cozy

These cozy pumpkin cozies were just the thing to get me in the Autumn crochet mood.

Kylee Keller has a great video and pattern shared free on Okie Girl Bling n Things blog, or support Kylee's art and purchase her pattern on Etsy. 

Grab your favorite fall colored yarn and join along in the fall inspiration!

Once you start this cute pattern, it is hard to make just one!

  Her little leaves are cute and work great, but while I was adding leaves to other things, I came up with this Pumpkin vine leaf pattern that you can find the free pattern for, right here on Doily Designs blog.

Don't you just love all the beautiful colors of Fall!  

Thank you for stopping by.

Best wishes & happy crocheting!

Easy Boo & Chain Chomp Piñatas

🎈🎂  Boo & Chain Chomp Piñatas

MARIO BIRTHDAY PARTY 🎈🎂

⛓💣👻💣⛓

 💣👻💣

As mentioned in the previous post, we did all hand made decorations for this cool Super Birthday Boy's MARIO PARTY.  

Here we are going to take a closer look at the fun Boo and Chain Chomp piñata. (Quick, easy Balloon Boo👻 at the bottom of this page.)

Boo and Chomps were made with the children. These piñatas are pretty easy using a simple balloon piñata for the base.

(Here is just a quick run down. These posts are more for ideas. Please use your own best judgement.)

You will need;

large balloons

newspaper

white glue, like Elmer's glue

acrylic paint

paint brushes

rope or string

tapestry needle (optional)

exacto knife (optional)

pencil

bowl, to mix in

water

Cover work surface. (This can be messy.)

Blow up balloons. (Fun to let the kids do this while you prepare things.)

Tear or cut newspaper into 1.5"-2" wide strips. (Fun for kids.)

Mix glue and water in a bowl, 2 parts glue to 1 part water. (Have kids stir and note thickness and color of mixture.)

Once you have everything ready.

You can use a mug or other low, heavy cup to sit your balloon in (tape balloon to cup if necessary).

Dip strips of newspaper through the glue mixture and lay flat (as possible) on your balloon. You can try different lengths to see what lays best. Lay strips in different directions to get better coverage.

Let dry and add second layer. Make sure no surface of the balloon is visible.

Once completely dry, pop the balloon and pull out thru the hole, this will be your fill hole.

You can now start painting your piñata.

Depending on your design, use black for Chain Chomp or white for Boo, as the base color.

Let this dry thoroughly. You will need 2 coats for best results.

Take your pencil, and using reference photos, sketch a face on your piñata.

Paint your face.

Once this has dried, use your exacto knife to poke small holes on the top on either side of the piñata. Take a tapestry needle and string/yarn and fish it thru, starting on the outside, thru the inside, and out the other hole. Tie as long as you need it. You could also put the string thru each hole and tie/tape it down securely on the each side, if that works for you.

Fill your piñata!

You can cover the hole by gluing on a small square piece of colored construction paper. If making Chomp, you can add the chain mentioned below to help cover this.

We added a chain to our Chain Chomp, fashioning a paper chain.

To get the right look, we painted over black construction paper with thinned white paint. Cut in strips and had the kids glue these together in a chain. I also cut a bigger strip to put at the top of Chain Chomp, to help cover the hole and look more like Chomps, you can kind of see this in the picture below.

When the glue on the paper chain didn't hold, I stapled them all securely.

You can see that ours is lumpy, but the kids had a blast making them, and were very pleased with their piñatas. 

They had fun destroying them as well💣

 

👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻

Another quick and easy way to make a Boo is to draw a face with sharpie on a white balloon. 

Be sure to add lots of these floating around your party  👻

Halloween Parties as well!

Thank you for stopping by.

May you find joy & inspiration!

Pictures from 2013 ©Cathleen ~ Doily Designs

Came up with this quick gift for the birthday boy to carry his tiny treasures;

Crochet Bomb bag💣  Check back for the pattern.

Crochet Yoshi Egg

         Yoshi Egg

        …..More Mario &
           Yoshi Crochet!!!

                    Having promised my son a Yoshi egg, I searched for a pattern and used an amigurumi egg pattern but instead of the normal Sc, I used a Hdc. I also used 2 strands of worsted weight yarn together and a K hook.  This thickened the egg wall so the stuffing wouldn't stick through.  Then the finishing touch was crochet circles placed randomly. It's a pretty big Yoshi egg. Around 9 inches.  My son and his Yoshi were pretty happy with it. 

          

Bob-omb

  

This easy bob bomb drawstring bag was a hit with my son. There's no pattern for this, but it is fairly simple... Simply make a drawstring bag with the pattern of your choice, and add a nice braided cord for the drawstring, with tri-color strands of yarn affixed at the end. The you have 💣 Bob-bomb 💣 My son loves carrying his and Yoshi's treasures in it.

                  

                          Nice handmade gift ideas for kids, or us grown kids :)

    

Thanks for stopping by.

Best wishes and happy gaming!

Crochet Autumn Loop Rug

Crochet loop rug ideas for the Holidays. 

These loop rugs are so cool and fun to make.  It is a little tricky at first, but once you get the hang of it, it becomes fun.  I love having this one around, it is so pleasant to walk on. 

The Crochet Spot has a great tutorial for the loop stitch.  

This pattern I used was Green Grass Rug on Free crochet.com

I like the flowers and copied their idea for my spring rug. 

Determine the size you want and start crocheting!

BTW….Kids LOVE them!  My son loved his race car rug! Great gifts!

All the children love the plain looped rugs...they request them in all their favorite colors :)

Here you can find this awesome race car rug by Cynthia Rae.

Best wishes!

Thank you for stopping by.

                

 & More Halloween Crochets

These are 2 of my favorite Halloween crochet projects. 

First we have; Boo Bunting pattern from Prairie Yarn.

Second; Pattern for the Spider Web is from Creative Compendium's Halloween project.   












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Crochet Mandala Earrings 

With Owls

These mandala earrings were inspired in 2011 when I first learned of crochet earrings. Loving crochet and jewelry I had to make some! I added beads, then added the dangles with beads and charm. I was very pleased with how they turned out. Great accessory for Autumn. Though I made them in 2011, I still were them quite a bit.

I made lots of them, in different colors.

My daughter was 4 at the time and I made a pair for her. 

She did not have pierced ears at the time so I crocheted a loop that could hang on her ear and she could play dress up! It actually worked pretty good. They are so light weight and the loop didn’t bother her at all around her ear. With her hair you couldn’t see the loop. She was very happy she could wear earrings like a big girl. (Sorry no pic of hers, those are mine below but they were similar to her pink ones.)

They’re so much fun! I recommend you make yourself some if you crochet.

They also make nice accessories for other things besides earrings.

If I have any requests, I can post a chart to make several of the ones pictured above!

Thank you for stopping by.