MM04: Pandala Punday

It's a PAN-tastic Panda Mandala Monday,

with warmest wishes for a Happy Lunar New Year!

MM03: Deconstructed

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. 

MM02: Snow Far, Snow Good

It's the second Mandala Monday of 2025 so here's not one, but TWO, snowy watercolor mandalas to start off a week that I hope will be equally bright and colorful but not feature any actual snow...

...Unless you're longing for actual snow, and then, I hope you will see some this week; unless you live in Central New Jersey where I will be voting for its absence. 

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! ♥

Five Faves of 2024: Mandala Monday Edition

Here's a shocking true confession: A few years ago, when I first adopted the crafters' year-end trend of picking favorites from various categories, it was mostly as a way to generate "easy" posts at the busiest time of year. But honestly, something I love even better than that, is the chance to look back at what I've made all year and start thinking about what I want to try next! 

This being the last Mandala Monday of 2024, here are five faves, in more or less chronological order. Click the bolded text under each pic to go to the original posts; there's a link at the end to visit the entire strand.

MM06

Since 2024 was the Year of the Dragon (my Chinese Zodiac sign) I was happy to have hoarded some (admittedly ancient) papers from Pearl River Mart in NYC.

MM22

When in doubt, go RAINBOW is still my motto for choosing a color scheme and watercoloring with inks or markers is always a fun choice, so I had multiple versions of both to choose from; this is the one that leapt out at me from the Mandala folder.

MM29

Another two popular categories for me are collaged mandalas and index card mandalas made during ICAD. While making this, I stumbled upon both the 1960's "executive" illustration AND a vintage business card for someone called Marvin Mandel. The result was obviously inevitable. PS: In this pic is my #1 favorite mandala tool: the Helix Angle and Circle Maker, which Stephanie and I stumbled upon in a tiny sationery shop on New York's Upper East Side. (If NYC isn't local for you, the link will take you to Amazon, tho, where you can also buy one).

MM43

I made a few diecut mandalas this year and several of my favorites involved Wendy Vecchi's Garden Party and NOT Your Ordinary Card Collections from Spellbinders. This one uses the latter's Halloween Add-On and clearly the kitty has, fair and square, stolen the show!

MM38

Something I hadn't realized I had done several times over the course of the year is build a mandala around a diamond rather than a circle. This one features Dina Wakley Gloss Sprays AND my Dina Kraft Journal. The "stacked" triangle repeats are what took it over the top for me; the Archival Inks on kraft are also very fresh. I get asked about my go-to pens which are Ranger's Letter it Fineliners, one of which is in the photo.

♥♥♥

I hope I picked some of your favorites from 2024 but if not, you can cruise through the whole collection HERE. Then stay tuned for 2025's crop of brand new Mandalas, coming soon to a Monday near you!

Putting the "Mental" in Ornamental! :)

'Twas the Mandala Monday before Christmas and all through the house, shiny, sparkly ornaments of all varieties... vintage, new or even hand-drawn... are making spirits bright as we prepare for the Big Day!

Drawn with Letter It Fineliners; watercolored with Tombow Dual Brush Pens; highlights of golden metallic marker

Dyamond Board Doodle Trees

It's a TREE-mendous Mandala Monday featuring a terrific TREE-o of Dylusions Dyamond Board Small Trees, doodled with Letter It Fineliners and then tinted with all my favorite green shades of Simon Hurley create Dye Inks. 

To make the trees into a card, I embossed Simon's Stitched Snowflakes background with Ranger's Cottontail Embossing Powder, applied Breakup Blue ink on top, then cleaned the excess ink off the embossed flakes.

A mat of dark blue cardstock, a sentiment from the Sketched Snowmen stamp set, and a little machine stitching complete the design.

As we cruise into the final full week of holiday preparations, I hope you're having fun getting ready for the big day (if you celebrate Christmas) or the big night (if you celebrate Hanukkah)!

Mandala Monday #50 of 2024

Getting straight to the POINT(settia) this Mandala Monday with a funky, splashy, zendoodle-y holiday bloom that I made into a 5.5" square card on a base of adoringly hoarded Hambly transparency from the Olden Days of papercrafting.

Watercolor effect with Tombow Dual Brush Pens; Outlined in Letter It Fineliners; gold details via ancient metallic paint pen. 

MM49: On the Map

It's a Marvelously Mappy Mandala Monday on which I wish safe and stress-free travel to all who are flying, driving, riding or sailing home after the Thanksgiving holiday! ♥

Letter It Fineliners and Posca Paint Pens on a vintage atlas page

Wet and Wild

It's a splishy-splashy, super-colorful Mandala Monday thanks to my Tim Holtz Distress Watercolor Pencils from Ranger. My current favorite way to use them is to both draw and fill in the shapes with the DRY pencils (adding more color at the edges and lighter towards the center of each shape); then take a waterbrush and "activate" the awesome watercolor blendiness (yes, that IS a word!) taking care to work from light to dark and rinse the brush whenever it starts to overblend the shades. 

At the end, it's fun to apply the wet brush directly to the pencils, create a little puddle of color, and then flick it onto the piece. As with most watercolor products, you get a lot of variation depending on: 1) how much color you pick up; 2) how big your brush/drop size is; 3) whether the piece is wet or dry when you flick at it; and 4) whether or not you blot the splatters off or let them dry on their own. With a bit of practice you can definitely learn to "steer" the piece, but there will always be a very fun serendipity factor that I love!

I used rainbow colors from Sets One, Two and Three of the Distress Watercolor Pencils; and added the outlines and details with three sizes of Letter It Fineliners after the panel was completely dry.

Will It Go Round in Circles? (YES!)

It's a Multi-Tag Mandala Monday in my Dina Wakley Kraft Journal* from Ranger. I made the shapes with Letter It Fineliners, filled in soft color with pencils, and added a few extra patterned paper circles in the background. Wishing you a happy and productive week! ♥

*The 6x6 Kraft Journal is currently out of print, but there are lots of other options in kraft, in square, and well, lots more choices; you should check them out! ;)

Bring on the COLOR!

This Mandala Monday started off with a sort of vaguely pumpkin spice color palette... but then morphed into autumnal pastels. Is that a thing? Maybe not, but I quite like how it came out. Hope your week is off to a satisfactory start! If not, more coffee might help!

Lines by Letter It Finerliners from Ranger; color by Tombow DualBrush Pens; shapes thanks to my trusty Helix CircleMaker Tool, which you can find at art stores, office supply stores and big giant online stores too, of course. An old-school compass from geometry class also works; as does a set of nested circle dies or stencils! 

Plaid(ish) Stripes

Stretching the concept of Mandala Monday pretty far with a (sort of) plaid design made by masking off a few horizontal and vertical stripes with tape, watercoloring over the masked bits with analogous colors of Liquid Pearls, letting them dry, peeling the tape, and doodling mandala(ish) shapes with my Letter It Fineliners inside the unpainted bits. 

There's a bit more detail about watercoloring with Liquid Pearls on this Thank You Card post and this Birthday Card post both on the Ranger Project Tutorials Page, which is absolutely loaded with awesome ideas from a variety of papercrafting artists. Plus you can filter or search by occasion, product or project type which is handy! ♥

Gourd-geous

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! ♥

MM43

It's a Very Vecchi Mandala Monday featuring the adorable kitty from Wendy's Halloween Add-On stamp and die set in Spellbinders' NOT Your Ordinary Card Collection. I haven't quite used alllllll the dies from this impressively substantial set, but I did manage to work in the cat, spider web, spiders, tri-color candy corn, smaller iced candies, stars, and it wouldn't be Halloween without bats, now would it? I cut nearly everything from scraps of cardstock and apart from the dies I only needed a supplemental scattering of Liquid Pearls dots (leftover from the fun Treat Bags last week) to complete this 5.5" square card design!

I hope your week is off to a good start and that you'll get the chance to do something creative today! ♥

Mandala Monday

Douglas Adams' fans will be (mildly) excited to learn that this is Mandala Monday number 42 for the year; and while it does not (as far as I know) solve the mysteries of life, the universe and everything, it's brightly colored and (mostly) symmetrical; as well as being contained in the tiny library catalog card journal that my friend Mary (@millwoodstudioart) made for me!

Stuck on Stickers

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!

 

MM40 (and 39!)

It's a Many Splendored Mandala Monday, once again working in my Dina Wakley 6x6 Journal* and letting the kraft pages shine. This time I did most of the basic shapes with a few different sizes and colors of Posca paint pens; then outlined everything with a Ranger Letter It Fineliner.

Last week's mandala was just lines, and a bit smaller, but probably as close to symmetrical as I'm ever going to get, so I was pretty pleased:

I hope your week is off to a good start and that you'll find time to do something creative and fun this week! ♥

*Sadly the Dina 6x6" Kraft Journal is discontinued, but you can still get a larger Dina kraft version; or an 8x8 Dylusions Journal in kraft, ledger or black; or lots of other cool journals and accessories from Ranger!

Diamonds (& Speckles) Are a Mandala's Best Friend

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! ♥

MM37

It's a splishy splashy Mandala Monday featuring some of my favorite shades of Tombow Dual Brush Pens with linework by Ranger's Letter It Fineliners and a few Posca Paint Pen details in white.