Ornament-al Mandala Monday

My mom and I always decorate the Vintage Ornament Tree on Thanksgiving weekend* and of course it reminded me how much I love Christmas ornaments generally, vintage ones specifically, and whimsical zendoodle ones in my imagination!

I used my Letter It Fineliners to create all the shapes and doodles; and my Simon Hurley Stellar Inks with a waterbrush to add the bold, saturated color.

I hope your December is off to a good start and that it'll just keep getting better!

*The tree is artificial, bought several years ago during a BIG Black Friday sale at Balsam Hill, so there are no worries about it lasting until January; btw, we do also get a real tree in December because who can resist the scent?! 

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!

Mandala Monday (& Gina's Giveaway Reminder)

It's a Turtle-y Awesome Mandala Monday thanks to this adorably romantic pair of terrapins from my friend Gina's Clip Art Book which is now available on Amazon! 

The clipart book features five hundred (500!) bright and colorful images of @ginaisarty original, digital mixed-media collage art, and has lots of whimsical animals, fish, plants, anthro characters, headings, journal spots and more. There's a flip-through of the book on Gina's Instagram if you want to see every page before you decide; and this strand of my blog has some additional projects I've made. But let's just say I'm fairly confident that if you love collage, journaling or cardmaking and would like some beautiful and distinctive images to use in your art... this is a fabulous title to have.

Gina is giving away TWO copies of this wonderful stash of colorful goodness to two lucky USA-based artists who read and follow the instructions on THIS IG POST. The giveaway ends at 5pm this Thursday, November 20th, so hop on over and enter for your chance to win! ♥

MM45: Colors on Black

There are few things in the papercrafty world that are more magical (imo) than white and/or color on a black background. Whether it's via embossing powder or (as in this case) beautifully opaque paint pens, I always find the results impressive.

Did you know that the Ranger Store carries over thirty (30!) varieties of Posca Pens? From individual colors to variety packs; fine- medium- and thick-points; metallics, glitter pens... there are A LOT of awesome choices, just thought I'd mention it.

This mandala was drawn with colors from the Basics sets, in a mix of 1mm and 3mm points on Ranger's Black Heavystock; which, for the record, is the blackest black cardstock I have ever seen, as well as being my favorite.

Pumpkin + Patchwork

Here's a twist on the ordinary mandala: it's a zen doodle pumpkin drawn with Letter It Fineliners from @ranger_ink ...set in a patchwork of orange patterned paper. Inside my Dina Wakley 6x6" square Kraft Journal, which is no longer available but... there are lots of other amazing journal choices at Ranger; including large, small, Kraft, watercolor, square, ledger and more; you should probably check them out!

I hope your first week of November is off to a good start! ♥

Arachnophobes, Look Away!

It wouldn't be October if I didn't make a Spider Web Mandala... in pink, of course! So here's this year's model:

Spider webs are fun and easy to draw; they can be any size and shape; they can have doodles or not; they can have Spider Brads or not; this is a fun seasonal art project, even for folks who believe they cannot draw! If you'd like to see some other versions, click the italic text! ♥

Tiger, Tiger

It's a Wild and Wonderful Mandala Monday, featuring one of the beautiful jungle cat illustrations from my @ginaisarty Cut and Glue Book, paired with foliage, hearts and background patterns from the book; augmented with some of my own gel prints cut into hearts, tear drops and circles.

If you'd like to see a flip through of every single page of Gina's book, you can do that ON THIS POST on Instagram! (Warning: If you're a cardmaker, journaler, collage artist or planner chick you are going to WANT this book!!!)

More cards on the way. In the meantime, I wish you a wonderful week! ♥

Gina is Arty Clipart Book

If you love collage, bold colors and clipart I have the PERFECT book for you: Gina is Arty Colorful Cut and Glue Book of Illustrations is now available at Amazon and it is absolutely glorious! And I'm not just saying that because the artist, Gina Cunningham, is my friend (though I'm quite proud that she is!) but seriously, every illustration is her original art, so the book is full of fanciful animals, birds, fish, flowers, etc; then there are practical things for makers like journal spots, numerals and borders. There's a little bit of everything here, every page is glossy and extra vivid. Oh and I should mention that if you happen to find a page you don't like (hard to imagine, but I guess it's possible) the BACK of every page is one of Gina's beautiful, unique gel prints, so you can diecut, make backgrounds, even wrap tiny presents! 

I was lucky enough to get a preview copy of this beauty earlier this year, so here are just a few things I've made using Gina's beautiful illustrations. Many of these shots are staged on top of the reverse pages, so you can see they are quite useful as backdrops. 

Get YOUR COPY today!

♥♥♥♥♥

Hearts and Flowers

It's a Very Vecchi Mandala Monday! I'm using (somewhat non-traditionally) the stencils from the Thank You Bouquet 3D Emboss and Cut Bundle*, which is one of my favorite elements from the Tabbed Classics Collection that debuted on Friday from Wendy Vecchi and Spellbinders. For this creation, I used only the first three stencils in the set, because basically I just wanted the petals and the centers this time. I did, however, move the stencils a few times, so that I could have multiple repeats of each flower.

For this mandala, I "watercolored" a 12 x 6" panel of cardstock with Pink Peony Archival Ink and Isopropyl Alcohol; splashing on a little bit of Goldenrod Archival that was leftover from something else. After the panel dried, I used the Thank You Bouquet Stencils, as I mentioned above, quite selectively: coloring just the biggest flowers but giving them two sets of Rosy Posey petals, spread across the whole panel; finishing off with a coat of white gesso to make the centers pop. I filled in the non-floral areas with one of Wendy's older Studio 490 Polka Dot Backgrounds. At the end, I took a black Fineliner and added super-scribbly outlines. Then I cut out a large circle, and used the heart dies from last year's Heartfelt Thanks and Scallops set to make petals of various sizes, which I matted on bold brick red cardstock and attached around the edges of the circle.

As I said, it's not a very traditional piece in any way, but I absolutely LOVED making it and I think it shows how very flexible these sets are!

♥♥♥♥♥

*Just a reminder the Thank You Bouquet 3D Emboss and Cut Folder IS available without the stencils; but honestly... I cannot imagine NOT having the stencils, so I definitely recommend the Bundle!!!

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! 

MM39

Would this be a good time for a bold and funky watercolor Mandala Monday? 

My friend @sherriscott67 gifted me a set of  @carandache Neocolor II watersoluble wax pastels, so OF COURSE I had to test them out immediately. And WOW... they do not disappoint! Intense, high-quality pigments, beautiful shades and super-smooth consistency mean you can use them wet or dry; and layer them under or over lots of other media. Since I knew I wanted to add details on top with my @ranger_ink Letter It Fineliners, I chose to mostly scribble my colors onto a plastic palette and pick them up with a waterbrush. But I did also like dipping the tips into water and drawing with them. Oh and it's fun to wet the crayons and flick droplets onto wet or dry paper. I'm not yet expert at coloring them dry and then blending the shades with water, but I intend to practice more on that score.

After all of the basic shapes were in place, I dried the paper (front and back!) with my heat gun and added all the lines and details you see here. I'd write more but I kind of want to go back and play with them... so that's all for now!

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! ;)

 

Another Mondrian Mandala Monday

It's been a while since I've done a Mondrian Mandala Monday, so here's quite a straightforward version in which I've adopted both the primary color palette and the gridded structure of Piet Mondrian's Utopian abstract designs... then added mandala details into some of the blocks. 

Black Letter It Fineliners from Ranger (they're on sale!) plus a few red, yellow and blue Tombow Dual Brush Pens in my Canson Mixed Media Sketchbook. 

MM36

It's a Wibbly-Wobbly Mandala Monday which I cannot say I'm in love with... but it was fun to make and it's a colorful beginning to my latest sketchbook; it's the 12th one, I believe.

Handcut grungy patterned paper shapes at the center; more shapes added with brush pens further out towards the edge; lots of Fineliner and Posca Pen details throughout.

Triple Play Mandala Monday

The three-day Labor Day weekend surely deserves not one, not two, but THREE Mandalas, don't you think?

I used my Wendy Vecchi Archival Inks from Ranger to make three super-colorful Smoosh- Spray- Dip backgrounds; which are pretty much exactly like they sound: SMOOSH some ink (or scribble a marker) onto your craft mat... SPRAY the ink with Isopropyl Alcohol... and DIP your paper into the ink. Repeat as necessary until you have the colors and coverage you desire.

Since I knew I was going to make mandalas, I smooshed my first couple of inks for each piece into circle(ish) shapes to have a starting point. I recommend smooshing one shade at a time to avoid contaminating your ink pads. I also like to pick up any leftover ink with a paintbrush and flick it onto the wet paper to get the cool random splatter pattern. This is the first time I've outlined the splatters, but I like how they came out.

When the backgrounds were dry (you can use a heat tool to expedite) I went in with my Letter It Fineliners to add all the basic shapes, petals and details. When necessary, I added additional coordinating colors to some of the shapes, so they'd blend in... or stand out from... the rest of the marks. At the very end I got a bit dotty with a white Posca Pen.

Wishing all who are celebrating a very happy, safe and burger-centric Labor Day!!! ♥

MM34

It's a reggae rainbow Mandala Monday with ALL the colors blending together for maximum joy and happiness. Hope your week is off to a good start!

Inchie Mandalas?!

It’s a Micro Mini Mandala Monday featuring 1… 2… 3… 4 (!) tiny one-inch square mandalas, built around the circles made with my Zig Dot markers, purchased many moons ago at @theinkpadnyc which I still really REALLLLLY miss! ♥♥♥

Hope your week is off to a good start, but if not, there are only 4.5 more days until the weekend! ;)

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! ♥

Uno Mas

Technically ICAD ended on July 31st, but I couldn't resist making one last index card mandala for my 2025 collection!

I (sequentially) smooshed a few favorite shades of Simon Hurley STELLAR Inks from Ranger onto my craft sheet, misted them with isopropyl alcohol* and picked up the ink with an unlined index card. When I had covered the card in a tie-dye-ish series of colors, I dried it with my heat tool and then added outlines with my Letter It Fineliners and details with a white Posca pen. 

*Simon's STELLAR inks are water-based, but something I learned from the very clever and always inspiring Wendy Vecchi is that using rubbing alcohol to "watercolor" with dye based inks works pretty much exactly the same as using water, except the alcohol will not warp or pill your cardstock, no matter how wet you get it! Thanks, Wendy!!! ♥

ICAD (again!)

Rounding up the last full week of Index Card a Day, and here are the cards from the week that was: 

Day 58: Mandala Monday

I don't know why this particular brand of index card divider gives a sort of mottled effect when you apply/blend inks directly onto it, and I found that disconcerting at first, but if definitely adds another dimension to a super-inky design! In this case, the inks are the new Simon Hurley STELLAR Foam Ink Pads, which I applied in concentric circles with a Ranger Mini Ink Blending Tool. Design elements added with black Letter It Fineliners; details with a white Posca Paint Pen.

Day 57: One Staple Collage

Off-prompt with a One Staple Collage featuring Edgar Allan Poe. This one took longer to arrange than most, but I like how it (FINALLY!) turned out.

Day 56: Off-Prompt

Splitting the difference between an ogee pattern and florals, here are inky circles surrounded by brush-marker swipes and loose outlines. Simon Hurley Stellar Ink in "Prom Queen"; Tombow Dual Brush Pens in various shades of pink, orange and yellow; Letter It Fineliner (.04) in black.

Day 55: Cloverleaf or Roundabout

As anyone whose ever flown into or out of Newark Liberty Airport will tell you, New Jersey boasts many examples of both cloverleaf and roundabout traffic patterns. Here is my artists' impression of one such. In green. Which... irl they usually are not...

Day 54: River

Super-simple, very pared down version of a river featuring torn cardstock and machine stitching. Because I am emphatically NOT a minimalist, this design took me much, MUCH longer than something complicated would have done, lol. But I love the result.

Day 53: Ogee or Paisley (Part 2)

Because honestly, who can choose JUST Ogee or Paisley... I love both, so I did a version of each on successive days. This is (I hope it's obvious!!!) the Paisley one.

Day 52: Ogee or Paisley (Part 1)

The Ogee pattern is something I learned a few years ago during #ICAD and have enjoyed creating ever since! This version was rendered with Tombows; outlines and details added with Letter It Fineliners. PS: I find a gridded index card MOST helpful for making vaguely symmetrical patterns.

♥♥♥