Collage Mandala

It's a very vintage, completely collage-ical Mandala Monday before Thanksgiving; I hope you are happy healthy and looking forward to the week ahead!

Cut-Pages Doodle Spread

A couple of weeks ago I cut into a page of my Dina Wakley Kraft Journal in order to put this zen-doodle pumpkin on a background page of orange patchwork. It left the remains of an interestingly curvy border that I had been planning to remove. In the meantime I saw a couple of art journal pages on social media, where the artist had cut into a page or two, then treated that group of pages as a single spread. And I thought, "OOOOH! I have to try that!" So I did!

As you can see, I was having so much fun with the idea, that I cut waves into two additional pages. I had thought about doing layered collage or stamps or stencils... but in the end, I just grabbed my Posca Pens and had a doodle-fest.

I added different shapes to each page, but repeated the colors and a few of the patterns on more than one page. 

I tried to take advantage of the shape of the cuts, but not to let them dominate. I also found the layers most interesting when there was strong contrast between the pages.

I outlined the doodles with my Letter It Fineliners and added a little bit of Jet Black Archival to the edges to make them stand out.

And... here we are back at the beginning again. I had a lot of fun with this technique, so I suspect you'll be seeing it again before too long!

Pink + Orange = Joy

Here's a Mandala that is perfectly flat but also (...strangely enough...) has about five layers, which I'll attempt to describe below.  

Layer 1: The color. I smooshed some Simon Hurley Stellar Inks (Prom Queen, Guppy and Shooting Star) onto my craft sheet, misted with isopropyl alcohol, then picked up the color with the cardstock panel. This layer, in itself, is arguably multiple layers, as I applied each color more than once, sometimes flicked a diluted color onto the wet design, and even dried the paper a couple of times in between shades so they wouldn't dilute.

Layer 2: The hearts. Simon Hurley Happy Hearts Stencil applied pretty lightly in Bee Sting and Guppy; later I toned down a few of the hearts in the background even more with a little bit of Dina Wakley White Gesso.

Layer 3: The grungy bits. Ancient rub-on transfers, mostly white ones, a few with hints of pink or green. Some of them rubbed-on imperfectly due to age; some rubbed on quite neatly and I scraped bits off when they interfered with...

Layer 4: The mandalas! I used my medium tipped black Letter It Fineliner and the Helix Circlemaker for this step. I usually start by drawing the main shapes (circles, big petals) so I can see how much room the primary design will take up; then I come back in and add the details: veins and scallops and stitch marks, oh my!

Layer 5: The details. This is where I selectively applied the gesso I mentioned in Layer 2; mostly to the outlying pink hearts, which were a bit distracting in their full-color state; I also added a bit to the edges of the panel. At the very end, I flicked some White Gloss Spray on top. Before adding the mandala to an A7 card base, I matted it on orange glitter cardstock and machine-stitched around the edges.

And there you have it: a flat card with lots of layers, guaranteed to add a little sunshine to any mailbox! 

Enamel Accents Googly Eyes Halloween Card

What's more fun than a Halloween card covered in googly eyes? A card covered in googly eyes you've made yourself, in every size and shape you could desire, using Enamel Accents! Hop over to the Ranger Project Tutorials Page and follow along as I show YOU how to do it... then stay to see how I add the eyes to this fun and funky (pink!) Halloween card.

Spoiler Alert: Dina Wakley's Scribbly Ravens and Block Alpha Stamp Sets also play a crucial part in this project, as does Simon Hurley's Moroccan Tile Background Stamp, some fab Archival Inks, and a few shades of Ranger Embossing Powder, including Glow Up, which is very cool in two ways: #1 it glows in the dark(!); and #2 in ordinary light, it makes the perfect neutral, especially when used on Black Heavystock (just sayin').

Loosey Goosey Mandala Monday

Sometimes when I start a mandala, I have a pretty clear, well-thought-out plan and sometimes I have NONE whatsoever. Guess which this was, lol?! On this evening, I happened to have a bunch of Dina Wakley MEdia Stencils and a bunch of Simon Hurley Stellar Inks sitting out on my worktable, so I just drew some really rough basic shapes, then started randomly filling them with stenciled colors and patterns. There was a point at which I could've stopped and had a semi-traditional mandala... but luckily I kept going and added stamps, gesso and some marker outlines to make it crazier, more colorful, and totally rambunctious! ;)

 

Fur Babies and Rub-On Transfers

It's always fun to combine old and new supplies, right? This page in my Dina Wakley Ledger Journal features Dina's Circle Furbabies Stamp Set, stamped in rich brown Weeping Willow Stellar Ink from Simon Hurley; then adorned with every fall shade of ancient rub-on in my (considerable) collection!

The best part about a slightly messy collage format is that when using really old rub-on transfers you never quite know if they'll rub on perfectly, imperfectly or sometimes not at all... and this sort of configuration is quite forgiving no matter what happens.

For the record, most of these transfers were of the modestly priced, no-name variety; and yet, unlike some newer, higher-priced, fancier brands in my stash, they went on really nicely, with no flaking and very few imperfections!

Big (BIG!) Mandala Monday

After two months of Index Cards, working in an art journal feels big; and working in my (12x7"ish) Dina Wakley Ledger Journal (back in stock at Ranger!) feels realllllly big... in a good way!

The mandala center, scattered hearts and first two rounds of petals are cut from Dina's Collage Sparks compilations. The petals further out are painted with Gloss Spray, then adorned with a white Posca Pen, and outlined with Letter It Fineliners. I added some transparency ladies from Focals Set 1, which are out of print, but there are lots more cool Dina Transparencies from which to choose.

Wishing you a week with LOTS of creativity and productivity; but not too much humidity! ♥

ICAD: Final Three

Hard to believe that sixty-one days have elapsed since June first when the Index Card a Day Challenge began, but the calendar indicates that is indeed the case, which means it's time to say one more giant THANK YOU to Tammy Garcia, who devised ICAD in 2011 and continues to serve as hostess, inspiration and cheerleader every June and July as we embark on our yearly quest to make art on index cards, every day, for two months! 

Day 61: Love or Wish

It's the final day of #dyicad2025 and the optional prompt is #LOVE or #WISH which is perfect because I'd like to send my LOVE to @gypsy999 aka our hostess Tammy; to all of my fellow ICADians and ICADettes; as well as all who followed along on this, my 13th year of Index Card a Day; I'm already looking forward to next year! My WISH for all the artists and makers is that you will keep painting, drawing, stamping, coloring, collaging, lettering, stitching... whatever; make time for creativity and fun, even if it's only a few minutes each day, you deserve it!

Day 60: Marquee

Nothing but a single (#marquee style!) THANKS stamp, some whimsical puffy stickers and five bold shades of Simon Hurley STELLAR Inks on the penultimate day of #dyicad2025 because I wanted this one to be about thanking all the ICADians and ICADettes for sharing their art and their comments and generally making this the best June and July ever. Of course the biggest shoutout goes to our hostess and inspiration Tammy Garcia aka #gypsy999 who devised this super summer shindig in 2011 and has been rockin’ it every summer since. THANKS Missus! ♥

Day 59: Upside Down

I'm off-prompt, but as I took this photo it occurred to me that my three-stencil + doodles card is (unintentionally) about as conclusively non-directional as it could possibly be; and thus virtually incapable of being #UPSIDEDOWN which I find sort of low-key amusing... 

♥♥♥

Memorial Day Mandala Monday

A-PARROT-ly, it's Mandala Monday, so here's a fun little Prismacolor Pencil design in my small Dina Wakley Kraft Journal. The centerpiece is an ancient Pepin Sticker from The Ink Pad; I've pulled the colors of the sticker out into the design, and outlined everything with a Letter It Fineliner from Ranger, for a little extra polish. Happy Memorial Day to all who are celebrating; and a big giant THANK YOU to all those who have served or are serving our country.

Dream of the Red Chamber

Shout out to my friend Liz, a lifelong teacher and scholar of both Chinese and English with whom I have shared many meals, adventures and reading lists over the course of the last thirty years or so. Knowing my love of collage and interesting vintage papers, Liz kindly shares with me Chinese texts or flashcards she has finished using. When we met up last week she gifted me an older, three-volume paperback copy of "Hong Lou Meng" (Dream of the Red Chamber) an 18th century Chinese work that is amongst the first novels ever written which still exist. Of course, I don't read Chinese, so, fascinating as the story is both IN and OF the book itself, I was more interested in the beautiful text papers, illustrations and characters, which I've mixed with pretty papers from Pearl River Mart (one of my favorite stores in NYC's Chinatown) and woven into a multi-layered collage in my art journal.

ABC's of Art Journaling

Or perhaps Art Journaling with ABC's would be a more accurate title. This double page in my Dina Wakley Ledger Journal started the same way a lot of my late night "recreational" pages do: without a plan; and featuring the supplies that were already out on my worktable.

In this case that included a bunch of bright and blend-able Distress Oxide Inks, some Dina Wakley MEdia Stencils and a little puddle of leftover White Gesso that needed to be used up before it dried out.

There's no particular focal point to this, but it feels finished to me, at the moment, anyway. I hope you'll find time this weekend to make some recreational art!

Scribble Sticks & Texture Paste

It's a Mixed Media Mandala Monday featuring Dina Wakley MEdia Scribble Sticks, one of Dina's fabulous Coaster Stencils and some Ranger Metallic White Texture Paste.

The awesome Dina Ledger Journal is currently out of stock, but... if you go to the product page and click the "Email Me" button, you'll be amongst the first to know when it's available again!

Bonnie Lassie

It's another cascade-style collage in my Dina Wakley MEdia Ledger Journal. The ingredients are (approximately) 1/3 actual vintage goodies; 1/3 vintage label repros from a collage ephemera book I got at a yard sale many moons ago; and 1/3 ancient rub-on transfers. I'm finding that collage is an awesome place to use up old rub-ons because it's win win: if they go on smoothly, woohoo! if they go on somewhat incompletely... still cool; sometimes even cooler like an instant distress effect! 

MM17: Collage +

Collage elements plus paint pens plus Letter It Fineliners plus Dina Wakley Kraft Journal equals... Mandala Monday #17 of 2025!

BLOOM!

Whether you are celebrating Easter, Passover, or just some lovely spring weather, I wish you a bloomin' beautiful weekend!

Handcut flowers, leaves, letters and clouds in my Dina Wakley Ledger Journal. 

Also featuring Dina's Collage Paper, Archival Inks and Letter It Fineliners... all of which (and lots more, too!) are available from the fab folk at Ranger Ink.

Whatever else you're doing this weekend, I hope you can sneak in a little time to be creative! ♥

MM14: Fly High Mandala

I've now had three or four different Dina Wakley MEdia Journals from Ranger, and they're always my favorites because Dina actually IS an art journaler and thus knows what sizes, shapes and paper styles are going to be the best, the sturdiest and the most inspiring. The new Ledger Journal* is a reproduction of an authentic 1920s hardware store ledger (but with sturdier pages!) and is a lot of fun to work in. 

My first page in any new journal is nearly always a mandala and this is no exception. I used Dina's Fly High Stamps, Feather Chipboard Shapes and one of her fabulous Coaster Stencils to create this page. I also broke out my sadly neglected Gloss Sprays and remembered how much I enjoyed using those; though I often use them more like paints* than sprays (by dispensing a small amount into a palette and using a brush to apply) and that is mostly what I did this time, too. 

Oh yes, and before I started I randomly glued down some scraps of Gridded Collage Paper, drywall tape (from the big box home improvement store!) and a bit of the final remaining roll from my ancient, well-hoarded, original Dina Wakley Washi Set.

*The new Dina Ledger Journal seems to be out of stock at this precise moment, but there is a button on the product page you can click to be notified when it returns! In the meantime, you can add Dina's Typed Ledger Sheets to your existing journal OR try a Dylusions Ledger Journal or Square Ledger Journal with blank ledger pages as well as dots and grids 

*Apparently other folks do this, as well; there's a second line of Dina Wakely Gloss that comes with droppers instead of sprays!

MM08

Diamonds are a Mandala's best friend! This is my first attempt at a Diamond Window Mandala and it's maybe a 47% match to the idea that was in my head. So you'll probably be seeing something similar before too long. (I'll let you decide if that's a promise or a warning, lol!) :)

Peek-a-Boo Diamond Window Mandala

in my large Dina Wakley Journal from Ranger.

Drawn with Distress Watercolor Pencils 

and outlined with Letter It Fineliners

Liquid Pearls Winter Bluebird Card

Did you know that dry Liquid Pearls will act as a resist for diluted colors? It's a similar technique to using a heat embossed design as a resist for watercolor, and is currently one of my very favorite things to do with my growing collection of shimmery colors. Head over to the Ranger Project Tutorials Page to see, step-by-step, how I created this shimmery winter bluebird card, featuring Dina Wakley's adorable Scribbly Birdie Stamps and Simon Hurley's beautiful Stained Glass Stencil.

MM07: Paint Pens on Kraft Cardstock

It's a wild and whimsical Mandala Monday featuring pink, white and pale orange Posca Pens as well as my trusty Letter it Fineliners in my 6x6 Dina Wakley MEdia Kraft Journal.*

*This particular item is out of print, but if you're looking for a journal that's cool and super sturdy, anything from the Dina Wakley MEdia range will not disappoint!!!

MM06: Rub-on Transfers

A few weeks ago I stumbled upon the organizer containing what I thought were a few leftover packs of rub-on transfers (in fact A LOT of leftover rub-on transfers) and became utterly re-obsessed. Thus this is my first ever Rub-On Transfer Mandala Monday. (Probably not the last one lol!)