I love the GAL-entine's Day and GAL-oween trends; they're the perfect excuse to celebrate our closest friends! I also love Ranger's Perfect Pearls, because they are indeed the PERFECT way to add color and shimmer to light or dark cardstock. I'm on the Ranger Project Tutorials Page today with the step-by-step process for using them both wet (like watercolors) or dry (by stamping or stenciling over Perfect Medium) to make a GAL-entine's card that really shines.
It's a Wavy Gravy Macro Mandala Monday in which we focus on the detail of the patterns rather than an overall design.
Tombow Dual Brush Pens, White Posca and Letter It Fineliners in my Dina Wakley 6x6 Kraft Journal from Ranger.
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! ♥
It's a Smashing Pumpkin Mandala Monday doodled with all three sizes of Ranger's Black Letter It Fineliners in my Dina Wakley Kraft 6x6 Journal. Hope your Halloween Week will be full of fun and treats! ♥
This fortnight at Shopping Our Stash is for the birds! Or, more accurately, about them. Because we'd like to see cards that feature our fine flying friends OR their feathers OR both!
I have A LOT of bird stamps... and dies... and vintage bird books; but as I was deciding which of those to choose from, I realized I've had a beautiful set of Jane Davenport Feather dies for at least a couple of years and NEVER used them, so this seemed like the perfect time. I diecut the feathers from a "rejected" Alcohol Ink background (no idea WHY I didn't use it at the time but happy to find it now!) and then used the cut out feathers to position the dies on a watercolor background and cut out the shapes so I could back the apertures with deep blue cardstock and inset the feathers. The sentiment comes from Dina Wakley's Scribbly Birds Stamp Set which I've had for probably close to a decade and used many mannnnnny times; I don't think I've ever used the sentiment WITHOUT the birds before, but I thought it was just right for this card.
The SOS Crew have been working hard to inspire you, so there are plenty of birds and feathers flocking together at Shopping Our Stash; why not fly on over and check them out? Then start planning what you will link up with us between now and Monday evening, November 4th.
I haven't made a sticker mandala in ages, but I had so much fun with this, I predict you'll be seeing additional ones fairly soon! I used my Helix Circle Tool to draw some concentric circles and a Letter It Fineliner from Ranger for the smaller shapes that hold the puffy animal stickers. Reinforcement circles (cut in halves) and tiny triangles give the design more structure and tiny flowers have a bit of sparkle irl. In the center the sweet kitty from Dina Wakley's Pocket Circles Stamp Set is the perfect mascot!
It's a 6x6... (plus a little bit extra!) ...Mandala Monday in my Dina Wakley Kraft Journal, with Letter It Fineliners laying down the basic shapes; a combination of inks, markers and paint pens adding color; and a finishing touch of splattered White Gloss Spray.
Wishing you a wonderful week ahead! ♥
It's an extra-wide Mandala Monday, taking place across two pages of my Dina Wakley MEdia 6x6 Kraft Journal!
Yes! Well, sort of. Today's pair of mandala cards were built around a piece of carstock I had used to blot off one of the fun geometric Dina Wakley Coaster Stencils I used for my Ranger Liquid Pearls Tutorial last month, and though the shimmery, glittery pattern was not perfect, it was too pretty to throw away, so I decided to draw on top of it with my Letter It Fineliners. Then I smooshed some Archival Ink on top (Aubergine and Beach Cruiser, diluted with a spritz of rubbing alcohol) and finally I double matted both cards and sewed around the edges.
I've been working off and on in my Dina Wakley 6x6 Kraft Journal from Ranger for several months, but I hadn't gotten around to decorating the cover... until NOW!
Of course I raided all of my favorite Dina Wakley MEdia goodies: Fly High Stamps, Collage Sparks, Transparencies, Typed Ledgers and Collage Paper; not to mention a bit of Marine Gloss Spray mixed with White Gesso, which added color to the tissue and transparency pieces as well as adhering them to the journal cover.
And now it's even more inspiring to work INSIDE the journal, so I think I will!
It's a Multi-Tag Mandala Monday drawn with Letter It Fineliners in my Dina Wakley 6x6 Kraft Journal from Ranger... the size and shape of which is making it a current fave. I staggered/overlapped the tags* then added all the shapes, and finally colored and shaded with a mix of Tombows and Prismacolor Pencils.
*Apologies in advance for the fact that this technique is likely going to be a Serious New Obsession!
It's a Rowdy Rainbow Mandala Monday featuring about fifteen different tone-on-tone shades of Tombow Dual Brush Pen with white Posca highlights and outlines courtesy of my skinniest Letter It Fineliner; in my Dina Wakley 6x6 Kraft Journal from Ranger. Hope your week is off to a colorful, creative start!
A few years ago, Stephanie gave me this amazing set of @kohinoor_hardtmuth Tri-Tone Pencils, which I don't use nearrrrrrrly enough, but when I do, it's always a lot of fun. I like to combine them with my original Koh-i-noor Magic Pencil and I often pop in a little more structure by adding outlines with my Letter It Fineliners from Ranger. This creation is in my Dina Wakley 6x6 Kraft Journal which I love for its sturdy, square pages!
It's a Marvelously Modular Mandala Monday featuring three of my favorite new Ranger Archival shades... Aubergine, Beach Cruiser and Mountain Lake. I painted one large mandala using my Archival Reinkers and a waterbrush filled with rubbing alcohol; added random patterns with Dina Wakley Coaster Stencils; did some outlining with Letter It Fineliners; used the leftover diluted ink to add splatters galore; et voila!
After I finished the one big mandala, I sliced it into four ATC-sized quarters, added a few color-coordinated mats and made them into four A2 cards.
As Kermit the Frog once observed, "It's Not Easy Being Green" and although we've taken it as our challenge title this fortnight at Shopping Our Stash, as a matter of fact, it's not alllllll that difficult to make a card that is *mostly* green... which is what we'd like to see this time. Here's my card:
Our SOS516: It's Not Easy Being Green challenge will run until Monday evening, March 11th; why not unearth some of your favorite older stash items and play along?
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.
I made a background of torn, strongly patina-ed, sheet music layered over a few different ledgers, then added bits of collaged script on top. I inked up some of the larger Watercolor Flowers with a combination of Oxide Inks (Prize Ribbon, Wilted Violet and Chipped Sapphire) then misted the stamps lightly with water to get sort of a blurry, faded look... like vintage fabric.
