Thankful Mandala | by Crystal Komara

Hello crafty friends! This is Crystal here today sharing two cards made using the beautiful Thankful Mandala background stamp. I chose to work with this stamp set because it was something very different for me, and I am so happy that I decided to challenge myself because I love how these cards turned out! In fact, I had so much fun experimenting with this stamp set that I’ll be sharing even more cards using it at the end of the month!

The very first thing I did after receiving the stamp was to actually cut down the Mandala! Yes, this was equally as scary as it might sound! I knew this could go wonderfully right, or horribly wrong really quick and that I was taking a chance at potentially ruining a $25 stamp set! I didn’t particularly like the large square shape of the mandala, so I trimmed off the outermost layer to give it more of that peacock edge shape. Fortunately, it worked out just fine! Phew!

Card details:

The base of this A2 sized card is made from 80 lb. Neenah Solar White Smooth cardstock. I stamped the large mandala in Versamark ink on black cardstock and then heat embossed it with gold embossing powder. I cut the mandala in half in order to separate it on the card. I adhered each half to the top and bottom of the card base. I die cut the larger outline word “thanks” from gold foil paper and the smaller word outline from black cardstock. I mounted the two together using a Tombow tape runner and adhered both to the center of the card using 3M foam adhesive. Lastly, I stamped the sentiment “for all you do” in the middle of the card in Memento Tuxedo black ink.

For the second card, my card base is a sheet of turquoise cardstock. I stamped the mandala in Versamark ink on another sheet of turqoise cardstock and heat embossed it with white embossing powder. I trimmed the image down to 5″ x 3 3/4″ and mounted this stamped mandala onto a scalloped sheet of white cardstock. I adhered both sheets to the card base. I die cut the word “hugs” from both gold foil paper and white cardstock, layering the two together using a Tombow tape runner. I stamped the words “it’s your birthday” in Versamark ink on a thin strip of white cardstock and heat embossed it with gold embossing powder. I notched both ends before adhering it to the card below the word “hugs” using 3M foam adhesive.