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! ♥

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! ♥

More ICADs (Weekly Round-Up)

Another seven days of art-making on index cards has flown past and here are the ICADs that emerged:

Day 44: Hawaiian Eye Mandala Monday

It's a collage + doodles mandala with a vintage Hawaiiana theme and ingredients, plus color-coordinated doodle shapes made with Tombow Dual Brush Pens; on a vintage library catalog card.

Day 43: Giraffe

Giraffe(ish) spots with Zen Doodles!

Day 42: Bronze

 I painted and stamped a background with Ranger's Perfect Pearls (in Perfect Bronze of course) then added stamped seashells which were watercolored with diluted shades of Blush, Perfect Gold and Blue Patina. Alas you cannot really see all of the fabulous shimmer in a photo, but IRL it's very cool!

Day 41: Checkerboard

It's a fanciful, doodle-centric #checkerboard in shades of pink and orange. Because... ok, just because!

Day 49: Autumn

I’ve recently become slightly obsessed with layouts that are situated on a diagonal axis; its harder than it looks to get them right but I’m enjoying the experimentation phase.

Day 39: Off-Prompt

Just got my hands on the new Simon Hurley create Foam Ink Pads and believe me, "STELLAR" is absolutely the correct word! Super-juicy, super-intense, they ink a stamp or an applicator with just a couple of taps and you have gorgeous saturated color that blends beautifully. Yep, I'm gonna need them all. For the test-drive I went off-prompt and blended five rainbow shades through Simon's Deco Diamonds Stencil, then added lots of fun doodles with my Letter It Fineliners. 

Day 38: Bicycle (sort of)

You know the old saying, "When life gives you (paper-pieced) lemons, make incredibly funky riding-really-fast bicycle wheels!" Ok yeah, so: I started out with the idea of spokey, spinning wheels and... somehow... it all went a bit citrussy. But that's the beauty of ICAD, imo. 

MM17: Collage +

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

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!

MM10

It's an un-FROG-gettable Mandala Monday thanks to this adorably whimsical amphibian, almost certainly a powerful magician whose flying spell has gone somewhat awry. As you know, I adore my friend Gina's colorful anthropomorphic critters, and if you do, too, there's an impressive variety of very cool products available in her Redbubble. Zazzle and Teepublic stores, all of which can be accessed via the bolded text above OR from the linktree in her IG profile @ginaisarty ♥

Hope your week is off to a good start!

♥♥♥

MM01: Butterfly

It's a Magnificent Monarch Mandala Monday thanks to this beautiful glossy butterfly photo snipped from the back cover of a magazine last year and saved, "to do something with"; in this case, the "something" turned out to be a mostly symmetrical mandala in coordinating colors in my large Dina Wakley Media Journal from Ranger.

I hope your first full week of 2025 is off to a warm(ish) and wonderful start! ♥

Double Page Dina Wakley Journal

It's an extra-wide Mandala Monday, taking place across two pages of my Dina Wakley MEdia 6x6 Kraft Journal!

Basic shapes and black embellies drawn with my Letter It Fineliners, I love the set of three in black which are the perfect sizes (.1, .4 and .9) for a variety of line weights.

Colored lines and accents added with Posca Paint Pens in white, pale green, and metallic pink. Splattery bits are White Glossy Spray, flicked on with a wet paint brush.

Collagey corners composed of torn sections of Typed Ledgers, layered with Collage Paper and finally pieces of Dina's colorful Collage Sparks.

Index Card a Day (Week 7)

We're rounding the corner into the second half of July (already?!) and here's my own output of Index Card Art from this past week:

ICAD24-45: Mandala Monday

Wouldja believe... It's a Marvin Mandel Mandala Monday?! In perhaps the most stunning case of vintage-paper-related serendipity EVER, I found this business card stuck into one book, and the illustration of this (completely unrelated) gentleman in another book about ten minutes later. I went looking for the name "Mandel" in an old telephone book I rescued to use in collages and did NOT find a Marvin, but there were half a dozen others which are partially obscured by the mandala petals. I used a combination of Wendy Vecchi Archival Inks, a white Posca pen and Prismacolor Pencils to add color; and Ranger's Letter It Fineliners for all the shapes. As always, my Helix Circle Maker Tool was invaluable.

ICAD24-44: Seashell

Super-literal take on the prompt: I white-embossed a set of HoneyBee Seashell stamps; blended some of my favorite Wendy Vecchi Archival Inks on top; then splattered and outlined and played with the results.

ICAD24-43: Fragile

 My collage admittedly has a #FRAGILE connection to both the prompt and to reality. But… you know… in a good way! I am especially proud of the way most of the design is built around a similar color palette; AND, especially the fact that the banana, the ballet dancer and the Chinese character for banana all have a similar shape to them. 

ICAD24-42: Off Prompt OSC

And here we have world’s most random One Staple Collage! FYI, One Staple Collage is an ICAD tradition; the brief is to create a collage which is held together with… wait for it… one staple! Slightly trickier than it sounds but a lot of fun!

ICAD24-41: Forest Green

I set out with the intention of working on today’s prompt of #FORESTGREEN and thus handcut some beautiful wonky leafy shapes from every green EXCEPT forest green… then branched off into altered/doodled patterned paper scraps in various shades of blue. But that’s why they’re called “prompts” rather than assignments… they’re meant to get you started and you can go in any direction from there! 

ICAD24-40: Off-Prompt

Today's is actually not my favorite card, although I love the funky ink-splotch colors; and stand by my decision to cut around the flower edge on the right hand side. Plus… to enjoy and learn from the process rather than focusing purely on outcome is (to me!) the true spirit of ICAD, so woohoo!

ICAD24-39: Off-Prompt

Yes, I do tend to save my scraps of patterned paper, even quite small ones that I probably shouldn't bother with, but they're excellent for stamping and paper-piecing, not to mention for those nights when I just feel like cutting out random shapes, stacking them, and arranging the result into a funky pattern. 

MM16: 101 Polkas

For today's Mandala Monday, I set out to make a mandala with a bit of collage; but wound up with a collage that's reminiscent of a mandala. Having said that, I really love the finished product; both for itself and also because it's another page in the tiny library catalog-card journal that my friend Mary @millwoodstudioart made for me. I wish you a week that's full of creativity, successful acquisition of cabbage (real or metaphorical) and... if you like that sorta thing... 101 polkas!

Mappy Mandala Monday

I'm celebrating this Mandala Monday by parking my tiny car collage in the tiny car garage! I stumbled upon this fun library catalog card on which I had apparently, at some point, started drawing some mandala shapes... but then, for reasons which now elude me... stopped and abandoned said card. So it seemed like a good idea to finish the mandala, add some color, a scrap of map, a peachy rose and a tiny vintage car. Hope your week has started off well!

Dragon Mandala

The Lunar New Year is technically still a few days away (February 10th) but it's never too early to celebrate, imo, especially since it's a Dragon Year (my Chinese zodiac sign) and specifically a Wood Dragon Year (I was born in 1964). I've read conflicting ideas about whether the year of one's own sign is generally lucky OR the reverse. But I love dragons, and mandalas, as well as interesting holidays and traditions, so let's just go with it! 

I found this beautiful dragon illustration in a children's book; the zodiac calendar and sheet music are from my stash; and all the flowers and circle motifs are cut from gorgeous paper I found at Pearl River Mart. The substrate for all this collagey goodness is my Dina Wakley 6x6 Kraft Journal from Ranger.

Happy New Year!

And here's the first Mandala Monday of 2024! 

This very vibrant mandala features lots of my favorite shades of Wendy Vecchi Archival Inks from Ranger, including Rosy Posy, Sunflower, Prickly Pear, Sky Blue, Carnation Red, Leaf Green, Violet and Peachy Keen. Scroll down to see a little bit about the process, and how I finished off this extra-large piece.

I *think* I invented Ink Over Collage, or at least, I don't believe I've ever seen anyone else do it...? The first project I made with this process was the GIANT pair of Mandala Canvases from January of 2016. If you want to see a step-by-step tutorial featuring the process This Post is not bad. In the meantime, here's a bit more detail on today's mandala.

Ink Over Collage generally starts with (...wait for it...) a collage. I use plain white 110lb cardstock as a base, a good quality gluestick for my adhesive, and mostly white or slightly off-white vintage and found papers (sheet music, text pages, etc) that I tear and stick on fairly randomly. I'm not too worried about being absolutely symmetrical, but I usually like to start with a perfect circle; you can use an old school compass, a Helix Circlemaker or just trace a roll of masking tape or a Tupperware lid. You can definitely outline first and then fill in with color, but using Archival Inks and an Ink Applicator, Detail Applicator or dauber, I found it hard to be 100% accurate, so at some point, I started putting the ink on first and outlining around it (I use Letter It Fineliners) afterwards. 

Obviously you don't need to fill an entire 8.5 x 11" sheet, but in this case, I had a plan (which you'll see in the next step) so that's what I did. 

At this point, I should apologize for a bit of a cheat, because in between the photo above (where all the shapes are just solid Archival Ink) and the photo below (where there's LOTS more detail) I somehow skipped photographing the step where I added extra black line work, as well as tone-on-tone colors applied with markers, and some dots and outlines with a white paint pen. This intermediate step can take five minutes or a year, it just depends what you feel like doing on that particular occasion. 

I will say that for me (here's a bit of a secret) usually the places that have the heaviest lines or the most dots, details, cross-hatching, etc... are "inspired" by the fact that I made some sort of mistake that needed to be covered up; which then had to be carried consistently throughout the entire piece. (So now ya know!)

Here's where the aforesaid Plan came in; why I made such a big mandala, and why I placed it dead center of the paper: I knew I wanted to split it into four panels, to make a set of notecards!

After using my guillotine trimmer to make four equal rectangles, I rounded opposing corners, matted on coordinating cardstock, and machine stitched each one to a white A6 card... Et voila! 

Stay tuned for another Mandala Monday... approximately a week from now; in the meantime, Happy New Year to you!

Mandala Monday Round-Up

The last official Mandala Monday of 2023 kind of crept up on me, so this seems like a good time to choose a few of my favorites for the year. So here they are, in no particular order:

MM13: 

A collaged mandala from back in March... featuring a particularly lovely (to me, anyway) bit of vintage map and (of course) a tiny car!

MM12: 

It's a well-known fact that I consider the phrase, "too much color" absolute nonsense, and this super-stripey marker mandala (coincidentally also from March) made with about a zillion shades of Tombow Dual Brush Pen is proof of that!

MM46: 

I was surprised to find that I only made a couple of sticker mandalas this year, must do better in 2024! Meanwhile, I do love this one (which admittedly is LOOSE in terms of mandala structure) composed mostly of ancient Mrs. Grossman's stickers from last month. 

MM18:

I suspect that anything made with Dina Wakley Collage Paper and Typed Ledgers is automatically going to be fairly awesome, but I (immodestly!) confess to being extra-proud of this collaged mandala. 

MM01:

Going all the way back to January to include this ink-over-collage mandala colored with some of my favorite shades of Wendy Vecchi's Archival Inks from Ranger.

♥♥♥

To see ALL the Mandala Mondays of 2023 you can click this link to see them in blogpost form OR head over to my Instagram account for the complete compilation in convenient Flip-a-Gram form! 

Brand new Mandala Mondays will resume on January 1, 2024.

This is BIG

It's an Elegantly Elephantine Mandala Monday thanks to this gorgeous Pink Momma and Baby Elephant Sticker from my friend Gina's Redbubble Shop where there are pages and pages of stickers, stationery, tees, accessories and sooooo much more... all adorned with Gina's colorful stylized designs, which I would call Whimsical Realism. You should probably go take a look... afterall... it's Cyber Monday, right?!

This mandala was created with Black Letter It Fineliners in my (now sadly discontinued) Dina Wakley Blue Edition Journal both from Ranger Ink. The gorgeous orchids, which serendipitously match the pachyderms perfectly, were cut from a freebie calendar.

Vroom! Vroom!

It's a Library Car(d) Mandala Monday combining collage mode (vintage library card, funky auto and book paper) with doodle mode (hand drawn mandala rings) and a random diecut that just happened to be sitting on my worktable when I wanted one more element.

Week 9: Index Card a Day Concludes

Incredibly enough, we've (already?!) reached the end of ICAD; it seems like June and July fly by faster each and every year! Here are my cards from the past week:

Day 54: Mandala Monday

This rosy, leafy, semi-collaged mandala finds itself in Manhattan's Chinatown, at the corner of Mott and Pell Streets, which poses the deep philosophical question: Should we walk across Pell to Doyers and eat at Nom Wah Tea Parlor; or head down Mott to Chatham Square and go to Golden Unicorn? Decisions, decisions...

Day 55: Lemon or Lime

Lime, please!!!

(Handcut lime-slices made up of scraps of various green patterned papers)

Day 56: Winter

Snow and Ice (and doodle!) covered hills doodled with Tombows, outlined with a Letter It Fineliner and with sparkly bits of gel pen that utterly fail to show up in the photo!

Day 57: Bird

Inspired by all the amazing bird doodles in the Wendy Vecchi Facebook Group, I decided to make my own paper-pieced version. I may have gotten a little bit carried away...

Day 58: Illustration

This seemed like a good time to slide in one last #OneStapleCollage in this case all of the pieces in the stapled stack are vintage illustrations. From top to bottom: A 1965 Corvair; an example of hand-lettering for advertising; a gorgeous yellow rose from a gardening book; S & H Greenstamps (technically not an illustration, lol); a machinery diagram; and a black and white forest from a children's book. Attached with one staple to a funky olive green index card.

Day 59: Peaceful

There are few things that make me feel as #PEACEFUL as doodling randomly on an index card whilst watching British Mysteries on Acorn TV. Specifically, in this case, rainbow striped doodles during Brokenwood Mysteries, series nine.

Day 60: Filigree (Sorta)

I started out with the intention of doodling a #FILIGREE design for Day 60 of ICAD2023 but it morphed into more of a geometric repeating pattern in rainbow shades, so I just rolled with it... 

Day 61: Mosaic (Again... Pretty Loose)

One of my favorite things about ICAD is that you can use the prompts to get you started, but when your original idea morphs into something else entirely, it's still cool. It might, in fact, be even better than your original idea; but the main point is... you feel inspired and then can let yourself follow that inspiration WHEREVER it takes you. Maybe you'll also end up with a beautiful finished piece; even if you don't love the outcome, the process has likely given you a new idea of something to try in future. Whatever happens, you've gained something valuable. My other favorite thing is all the awesome artists I've met and interacted with over the simple act of creating art on index cards for 61 days in a row. Many thanks to everyone who has stopped by to say hi, and as always the biggest portion of my gratitude goes to Tammy Garcia, aka @gypsy999 who dreamt up this fun and inspiring shindig thirteen years ago and is still the biggest motivator and cheerleader I know. I'm already looking forward to June 1, 2024! 

♥♥♥♥♥