Butterfly Mandalas

I love butterfly stamps, I love mandala stamps, so when Wplus9 released a butterfly mandala stamp I couldn't wait to get it inky so I had some inky fun last night and came up with 4 fun ways to use it.

Firstly I went with a really simple treatment, just stamping and embossing the whole mandala, water colouring it in autumnal shades, and cutting it out with the co-ordinating die.  Mounted on a black base card for a dramatic touch and finished with die cut and stamped birthday sentiment.

I also thought the mandala was screaming out to be a sun catcher so I had a go at making one which was easier than you might think.

I stamped the whole mandala onto HEAT RESISTANT acetate using platinum embossing powder as it's close in colour to what you find on a leaded stained glass window.  Then it was simply a case of colouring with alcohol markers.  You only get one chance with this technique - you can't layer up colour - the second layer just lifts off the first!  So to get get a really strong bold colour that will shine through the window, I coloured both the front and back to get a bolder layer (alcohol inks would give you a stronger stain but I don't have enough colours in those for what I wanted)   You can see the colours a little clearer in the "before the window" shot below.

I just finished it with 2 die cut rings using two extra large circle dies with extra heavy weight card stock to sandwich the acetate between.

The other element that really spoke to me in this set was the Hello sentiment.  Dawn's handwriting style is just awesome and this is a sentiment to celebrate as the focal point of a card.  I stuck with kraft as I'm feeling autumnal, and went with reds and browns in pencil again.  Just one butterfly is all that was needed to finish it off.

I drew the red lines with a ruler and for the oval drew around the outer edge of the die I'd used to die cut the brown oval to  pop the hello on.

Finally as a pattern freak, I wanted to play with the extra pieces you get in the stamp which you could use to extend the mandala to be even larger or to create your own unique pattern.   I took just the one element which looks a little like ears of corn and made a border direct onto a kraft base case and coloured it with pencils.

I emphasised the border details by making a double sentiment border using Reverse Confetti's Birthday Wishes set.

That's all the inspiration I have for today - see you on Sunday!

Tara