ED213 floral mandala

I began by making this design into a gold and purple Christmas card topper, as I have a friend who always does a purple and gold themed Christmas, and I was so thrilled with the result, I have continued the design and I am now in the process of making the same design using the same colours as a birthday greeting.

I copied the sheet provided and pricked the design onto a white 14cm square smooth textured matte 170gsm photo paper.

I followed the excellent stitch length guide and began in the centre using gold glitter metallic thread to complete the large 12 stitch length circle, which represents the centre of the flower.

I have used 5 different shades of purple embroidery floss, to complete the rest of the stitching, using the darkest in the centre and continuing and using a lighter shade for each round.

I completed all the stitching before attaching any beads.

I do not have any spacers at the moment and have substituted gold faceted sequins for the positions indicated for the spacers.

Each of the 16 gold sequins has a tiny gold glass seed bead attached. I have used 16 gold metallic, 4mm rice beads to complete the beading part of the project.

I have used a dark purple with a tiny white spot backing sheet to print onto both sides of the 16x16cm main card and attached a satin finished gold foil 15cm square to attach to the card front.

I have secured all the stitching and beading at the rear of the work by using red power tape to attach an 80gsm white backing sheet.

I then attached this to the card front using red power tape.

I have finished the embellishments with decorative gold strips, gold glitter stars, a gold bow and the sentiment. Pamela Horton. The Whispering Platypus.