Snow Far, Snow Good

We're still creating cards that feature snow this week at Jingle Belles and we'd love for you to join us. In the meantime, here's what I made this week:

One of my favorite "specialty" mandalas is a Snowflake Mandala. Because to me, snowflakes are (in a kinda sorta way) basically natural mandalas; at least, they're an arrangement of crystals in a more or less concentric circular pattern; which lends itself to being doodled and played with as a format. I feel similarly about Spiderweb Mandalas, and make at least one per year, generally in pink; but that's another story. A few weeks ago, when I was at Ranger HQ drawing mandalas with Patti Behan, someone watching the Live Video asked if I had any ideas for mandalas that would work for Christmas/ Winter Holiday greetings and I mentioned both Snowflake Mandalas and also Poinsettia Mandalas, of which I've done fewer, but I also enjoy them because you can easily make them recognizable... without having to make them realistic. I stand by this belief, lol. 

So of course, when I realized we were featuring SNOW this fortnight, I knew this would be the perfect time for the first Snowflake Mandala of 2026. I made a nice inky background with some of my favorite blue Archival Ink shades, dried it thoroughly, and then drew lots of snowflakes with a Letter It Fineliner. I added details with a few blue markers and finally put additional white in there with a Posca Pen. Since the design is quite busy already, when I turned my mandala panels into cards, I only added bright blue mats, a chunky (sparkly!) sentiment and some small Eyelet Outlet Snowflake Bling.

Hop over to Jingle Belles to see Stephanie's card, check out the Readers' Gallery, and get a peek at the tiny Snow-centric prize that one lucky cardmaker will score, just for linking up with us this fortnight. JB2610: Dashing Through the Snow runs until the evening of Wednesday, May 20th.