Last weekend, I went out and had a bit of a shopping haul.  I picked up a ton of cool stuff that I'm still in the process of playing with and discovering (no worries, I'll tell you all about it soon) it all.  However, this week I got really sick with some kind of flu and spent the entire day on Friday and Saturday on the couch moaning, miserable, and praying that I wouldn't have to get up.  So in my more coherent moments, I decided to play in the new adult coloring book that I picked up.

The book is part of Dover's Creative Haven series of adult coloring books, and I picked it up at Michael's for about six dollars.  The title of the book is Entangled and the drawings are by Angela Porter.  I originally bought it for Jamie, because he has been wanting something to focus some mental energy on and get some creativity into his day.  And to be perfectly honest there are half a dozen amazing artists that I follow on Instagram that have coloring books that I would have purchased from first, if this had been a thought out process instead of a splurge kind of deal.  However, I will definitely be picking up some of these as Christmas gifts now that I've seen how this one has gone over!


Anyway, I just played around with some basic color pencils (read - nothing fancy), which are probably a step below Crayola.  I choose a mandala style piece, because, well, I love them so much!  Mandalas are one of my favorite doodle forms to draw and decorate.  I messed around a little bit with shading, but I honestly have no idea how to shade with colored pencils.  I'm still trying to teach myself about that!


Once I was about halfway done with my piece, Jamie decided he needed to play too.  He decided on a page that reminded him of steampunk.  And then he whined that he had such limited colors (because I refused to give him any that I was currently using).  So I suppose some additional colored pencils should go on that Christmas list, as well!

Work has been pretty stressful.  But creating these weekly mandalas has helped keep the migraines at bay and let me relax during my home time.  This week has been very strange with Jamie working at the new job.  We've also hit some random snags here and there - like when my phone randomly died and wouldn't turn on....making us have to buy a new phone on payday.  But now I have a super awesome phone which does EVERYTHING I've been wanting it to do for like 6 months now...  Anyway!  This week I created my mandala with the CD method and decorated it with pen doodles.  I colored it with my glittery watercolors and then used it to document a bit of why my job is stressing me out (as in my backroom is always a mess when I come back and its very pretty by Monday, but I know it'll be a nightmare when I come back from my days off).

Mandala created with CD Method

This is my final page in my art journal. :)

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