Perfect Pearls Mandala Monday

I don't always fill an entire page in my Dina Wakley MEdia Watercolor Journal, but this time I was having so much mixing Perfect Pearls powders with clear water and painting shimmery concentric rings, that before I knew it I had gone from the bottom right all the way up to the top left corner.

After my rings were dry, I added lots of lines, dots, scallops, hearts and faux stitching with my Letter It Fineliners et voila: another Mandala Monday in the books!

Perfect Pearls Winter Cheer Card

Ranger's Perfect Pearls add magical shimmer and shine to any project, whether used wet or dry. Hop over to the Ranger Tutorials Page and follow along as I mix them with water to create pearlescent watercolor effects on this sweet and snowy winter cheer card.

What I Did with the Perfect Pearls Trees

Before Christmas I made a bunch of TREE-mendous colorful diecuts, inspired by THIS POST on my favorite watercolor guru, Andrea Nelson's, Instagram.* Instead of using regular watercolors, I decided to get out my Ranger Perfect Pearls, figuring that the only thing better than watercolor trees would be SHIMMERY watercolor trees. I didn't show my finished items at that point, because they were intended as surprises for Christmas. But now, they've all been bestowed, so I can show them!

Project 1: Fancy Gift Bags

It's no secret that I love giftwrapping and I like to be extra fancy at Christmas. Sometimes folks say, "The wrapping is a gift in itself!" which is quite handy because, I'm not great at choosing actual presents; so 99% of the gifts I give contain some combination of:

1. Money or a giftcard

2. Something that I knitted or crocheted (often amigurumi food, lol!)

3. A silly novelty gift from Five Below or the Target Dollar Spot

4. A book I loved, with a bookmark I made

(Ta-daaaa!)

I used to feel a bit guilty about this, but I've stopped. I'm not good at everything, so I play to my strengths. It's efficient.

♥♥♥

Project 2: Framed Holiday Decor

These are inexpensive balsa wood frames from the big box craft store, painted white, adorned with diecut and blingy snowflakes, topped with the aforesaid trees. Not to brag, but I love how these turned out and if I ever do any kind of craft fair or holiday market, this will be one of the ideas I use.

♥♥♥

*If you like to watercolor at all... or even if you've previously been frustrated by watercolor and would like some easy/inspiring beginner project ideas, Andrea Nelson's Instagram is a fun, funny, fabulous destination, imo; my whole family loves her videos!  

Five(ish) Faves: Mandala Monday Edition

Not to be braggy, but I had a hard time only picking FIVE of this year's fifty-one mandalas; not because I'm conceited (well maybe a little, lol!) but because I love drawing/ composing/ dreaming them up. My advice to artists and makers who want some time to make something for themselves: start a weekly, fortnightly or monthly post based on something you LOVE doing; whether it's coloring or collages or frosting cakes or... WHATEVER; create a regular strand for your blog or socials and honor it like any other deadline. You'll be glad you did!

MM05

Using Ranger's Perfect Pearls as watercolors is a lot of fun and the results are SO SHIMMERY!

(Shout out to Dina's Watercolor Journal which has VERY sturdy watercolor paper!)

MM08

I love the concept of viewing a traditional mandala through a cluster of "windows"; I'd like to try some more of these with different shapes next year!

MM11

For a sticker-loving, cupcake-eating Irish American girl, a Mandala Monday which falls ON St. Patrick's Day MUST be made of Pusheen stickers, right?!

MM15

Becca Sadler had the GENIUS idea of starting a weekly strand called "Mondrian Mondays" in which she posted journal pages inspired by Dutch Utopian artist, Piet Mondrian. And when I saw how creative and cool her interpretations were, I wanted to try it in Mandala form. I did five or six versions throughout the year (you can see them together HERE) and this one miiiight be my fave!

MM42

My friend Gina has published her first clipart book on Amazon, I was lucky enough to get an advance copy, and I had a blast making cards and mandalas and all sorts of things with it this year.

(You can see all my Gina is Arty stuff HERE!)

MM45

I sometimes neglect my Posca Pens quite shamefully, but truly, there are few artful things more dramatic than drawing a bright and colorful design on BLACK paper... so luscious!

♥♥♥♥♥

To read more about the process and supplies used for any of these Mandalas, just click the link beneath the photo. To see ALL fifty-one Mandala Mondays of 2025, click THIS LINK!

TREE-mendous

Christmas trees are always colorful, but their foliage is usually only available in green. Which is fine in real life, but in art life, we might like to consider a few additional options. Luckily I have a nice palette of Ranger's Perfect Pearls, which, when mixed with a bit of water become the loveliest, sparkliest sheer watercolor paints you can imagine.

These trees were inspired by an Instagram post by @andrea.nelson.art in which she painted a piece of watercolor paper with streaky colors; then added some gold acrylic. After the sheet was dry, she hand-cut triangle trees, circle ornaments and funky letters. 

I followed her lead, but used my Perfect Pearls as the paints. (Note, when mixed with water, you don't need to use Perfect Medium and the PPs do not need to be "set" afterward!) Since I knew I wanted to make a bunch, my trees are slightly larger and diecut with Memory Box's Marvelous Pine die. (It's retired... sorry ...but literally ANY tree die; or the aforementioned handcut triangles, will work really well.)

I went with four colorways: Pink (obviously!), Purple, Blue and ok yeah Green is admittedly a nice color for trees, so why not? I used multiple shades of each color and painted them in random stripey swooshes. I initially left a bit of white on each panel so that, when the colors were dry, I could come back in with Perfect Gold. (You can add the gold while your colors are wet, but I felt it stood out more when done as a separate step.) 

After all the panels were dry, I did the diecutting; and now they are ready to be used in... a couple of very cut projects I will show you later this week! ;)

PS: If you haven't seen @andrea.nelson.art in action, I insist you hop over and check out a post or two. In addition to being a fantastic artist (and a very good teacher!) she's a sunny, bubbly, sparkly person and her videos are fast, fun, colorful and inspiring. (Warning: there's a pretty good chance you'll get hooked on watercolor and want to make EVERYTHING she demos ASAP, so plan accordingly lol!)

More ICADs (Weekly Round-Up)

Another seven days of art-making on index cards has flown past and here are the ICADs that emerged:

Day 44: Hawaiian Eye Mandala Monday

It's a collage + doodles mandala with a vintage Hawaiiana theme and ingredients, plus color-coordinated doodle shapes made with Tombow Dual Brush Pens; on a vintage library catalog card.

Day 43: Giraffe

Giraffe(ish) spots with Zen Doodles!

Day 42: Bronze

 I painted and stamped a background with Ranger's Perfect Pearls (in Perfect Bronze of course) then added stamped seashells which were watercolored with diluted shades of Blush, Perfect Gold and Blue Patina. Alas you cannot really see all of the fabulous shimmer in a photo, but IRL it's very cool!

Day 41: Checkerboard

It's a fanciful, doodle-centric #checkerboard in shades of pink and orange. Because... ok, just because!

Day 49: Autumn

I’ve recently become slightly obsessed with layouts that are situated on a diagonal axis; its harder than it looks to get them right but I’m enjoying the experimentation phase.

Day 39: Off-Prompt

Just got my hands on the new Simon Hurley create Foam Ink Pads and believe me, "STELLAR" is absolutely the correct word! Super-juicy, super-intense, they ink a stamp or an applicator with just a couple of taps and you have gorgeous saturated color that blends beautifully. Yep, I'm gonna need them all. For the test-drive I went off-prompt and blended five rainbow shades through Simon's Deco Diamonds Stencil, then added lots of fun doodles with my Letter It Fineliners. 

Day 38: Bicycle (sort of)

You know the old saying, "When life gives you (paper-pieced) lemons, make incredibly funky riding-really-fast bicycle wheels!" Ok yeah, so: I started out with the idea of spokey, spinning wheels and... somehow... it all went a bit citrussy. But that's the beauty of ICAD, imo. 

Perfect Pearls Beachscape Card

Perfect Pearls are, in my opinion, one of Ranger's most flexible products, since there are so many cool ways to use them! I highly recommend the Perfect Pearls Kits, which contain everything you need to get started: several coordinating shades, a small pad of Perfect Medium and two brushes... one for application and one for dusting. Head over to the Ranger Project Tutorials Page to see the step-by-step process for how I used Perfect Pearls (& some very cool Simon Hurley create stamps and stencils!) to create pearlescent stamped images with Perfect Medium; then mix the powders with water for a dazzling emboss/resist effect.

Painting with Perfect Pearls

It's a Perfect Pearls Mandala Monday with extra shimmer and shine in my large Dina Wakley Journal from Ranger, which has the thickest and sturdiest cotton rag watercolor paper I've ever used; it's seriously dreamy and will stand up to any amount of paint, water, ink, sprays, gesso... pretty much ANYTHING you can think of.

Did you know you can watercolor with Perfect Pearls Pigment Powders? It's super easy, you don't even need to use Perfect Medium OR set the colors afterwards! Just add a bit of the powder to some clean water in a palette, mix it up well... et voila! You've just made your own pearlescent watercolor. Combine shades together and make custom colors, or use them as they come. For soft subtle tomes, mix just a little powder in; for bolder hues, add more pigment.

This mandala was painted using the newest additions to my Perfect Pearls collection: Iris, Turquoise, Sunflower Sparkle, Blush and Perfect Bronze. Outlines added with Letter It Fineliners.

SOS540: Crafty Remnants

It's an extra-fun challenge this fortnight at Shopping Our Stash, as we'd like to see you take something that is already out on your desk or workable, and use it on your card. I am nearly always spoiled for choice on these occasions, and this time was no exception. There was actually a bit of a pile on my worktable, but these are the remnants I decided to use:

There's a purple ombre Oxide Ink blended panel leftover from a kit I am working on; my last really big scrap of glossy black cardstock; a Tim Holtz floral diecut that I cut out of its background; a Simon Hurley Funky Chevron panel festuned with Perfect Pearls; plus a tag and panel featuring only partially successful versions of watercolor stenciling. NOT on the worktable, but possibly my favorite part and crucial for making everything work together: a truckload of ancient black and white rub-on transfers that I am now entirely re-obsessed with!

Visit SOS to see what the rest of the crew have made and then have a good look at your own crafty remnants so you can join the fun. This challenge runs until the evening of Monday, February 10th.

Perfect Pearls GAL-entine's Day Card

I love the GAL-entine's Day and GAL-oween trends; they're the perfect excuse to celebrate our closest friends! I also love Ranger's Perfect Pearls, because they are indeed the PERFECT way to add color and shimmer to light or dark cardstock. I'm on the Ranger Project Tutorials Page today with the step-by-step process for using them both wet (like watercolors) or dry (by stamping or stenciling over Perfect Medium) to make a GAL-entine's card that really shines.

Dina Wakley + Perfect Pearls = Journal Joy

Ranger's Perfect Pearls add a beautifully soft shimmery effect to any project. My art journal is my favorite place to experiment with new (to me) products and techniques. Since there are so many ways to use Perfect Pearls, and they look different on every shade of paper, I think I could fill an entire volume! I haven't quiiiiite done that yet, but today on the Ranger Project Page you can follow along as I use them three different ways with Dina Wakley's beautiful "Everyone is Welcome" stamp set, in my Dina Blue Edition Journal.

I'd love for you to head on over and check it out!