Guesting with Concord and 9th, volume 3! 

Good morning! I’m back with my third guest post for the fabulous Concord and 9th. It still makes me giddy every time I type that! Today, I wanted to focus on the absolutely gorgeous new Many Mandalas stamp and die set. This is seriously so clever, and I’ve not done them nearly enough justice with these cards. We will consider them a jumping off point for future projects, okay? 🙂

For this first project, I wanted to showcase the simple beauty of the images included in the Many Mandalas set. I know that they are inspired by the fabulous mandala coloring books that are all the rage right now, but I thought they looked like a doily, especially when coupled with the largest die from the coordinating die set. The beautiful edge that the die creates was so pretty that I just had to use it on its own. So, to start, I die the largest die from Many Mandalas from the center of an A2 panel of aqua colored card stock. This would be my guide for the heat embossing.

Using the die cut aqua panel as a guide, I laid down an A2 panel of heavyweight vellum and used the negative space and my MISTI to heat emboss the two largest layers of the mandala stamps with white embossing powder. I left the center open in order to add the greeting from Many Mandalas, also white heat embossed. I added a circle of foam adhesive, then filled my shaker with a variety of sequins from my stash. I used a medium gray card stock to back my shaker, to add a bit of contrast to the vellum embossed focal point. The final step was to tie a twine bow around the top, which I think really adds to the “doily” feel. Aren’t those dies just divine?

For my second project, I wanted to show how beautifully the Many Mandalas set worked with my (ahem, copious) collection of Concord and 9th products! I love creating custom background patterns, and the Many Mandala set is absolutely perfect for creating your own patterned paper. I went for a stark black and white color scheme, but can you imagine how gorgeous it would be with a rainbow of colors? Or using pastels? I can’t wait to play more! Anyway, I stamped my entire A2 card front using plain black ink and the mandalas in a variety of sizes. Next, I cut a 3.75×5″ panel of aqua cardstock and die cut “kind” using the Double Cut Alphabet dies. I wanted that pretty black and white pattern to show through from behind! I die cut another “kind” from black card stock and set it aside for assembly. I heat embossed the rest of my greeting using Versamark and clear embossing powder.

I adhered the aqua panel directly to the card front, inlaying the black outlines from the “kind” die cuts I had saved earlier. For the florals, I die cut the pretty flower die from the Brushed Blossom set four times, twice from a scrap of white card stock upon which I’d stamped a full mandala from Many Mandalas, and twice again from black card stock, leaving the cutouts within the white die cut. I trimmed a couple of the leaves off of the ends of the top black die cut and left the bottom one intact, adhering them to my aqua panel. I then used my Mandala-stamped die cuts to inlay the center of the flowers, just to add a little interest. The final step was to use my T-ruler to add a thin black box towards the outer edge of the aqua panel. If I’d had time, I probably would have remade this card to add a thin mat of black card stock behind the aqua, just to add a bit more definition between the patterned card base and the aqua panel, but oh well. Hindsight is 20/20, right?

Well, that’s all for me today. I hope you’ve enjoyed my musings on the Many Mandala set. It’s such a classic set that I foresee getting quite a bit of use at my craft desk! Have a marvelous day, friends!