A mandala is a bidimensional design that represents a multidimensional experience.  - Luis Daniel Maldonado Fonken

 Hello everyone!  As some of you may know, I work third shift (Thursday through Monday nights) in a retail industry.  Therefore, my weekend begins Tuesday morning, which can be a little strange.  Since retail is currently gearing up for all of the upcoming holidays, the workload is a bit much currently and only going to get worse.  Sooooo by the time Monday comes around we have geared up, survived and are now recovering from the weekend at work.  Which all equals a very, very, VERY exhausted and drained Andrea.

That's where these beautiful mandalas come in.  Creating mandalas is a very calming and peaceful process (at least for me and many agree...).  Mandala creation seems to have originated with Buddhism and Hinduism philosophies and has morphed into an art form that I really enjoy.  I mix doodles and zentangling into my mandalas.

For my mandala I started on the next page in my Book of Days journal that I had previously glued down some scrapbooking paper and done a little stamping on tissue paper on (during my background making spree).  Then I traced a CD (including the inner hole) so that I could start with a circle shape to doodle in.  After I doodled to my heart's content, I went back over my designs with my pearlescent watercolor paints and a dark colored sharpie.  I really, really love this mandala.  Its so sparkly and pretty.  And I feel so much better after having completed it.  Much more relaxed and ready to really enjoy my weekend, come morning.

My mandala that I created today

Detail shot showing the bottom left side where you can see the scrapbooking paper showing through.

Detail of the center of the mandala.

Detail of the top left of the mandala.  Notice the layered tissue paper beneath the painted mandala.

Check out some of these videos on mandala creation and let me know what you come up with!

• Expressing the Self has a great video to start with, which shows you how to grow a mandala.  This video is especially helpful if you haven't drawn a mandala before.
• Rainbow Elephant does some amazing mandala templates to help get you started.
• Milliande did a video on a zendala - combining zentangling and mandala making.

Any other favorites on mandala making?  Let me know!  I'm always seeking new inspiration.

I'd love to know when you feel really inspired to create mandalas.  Do you create them during stressful/emotional moments, during joyful moments or for other reasons?

Love & Light