Tag: glittery

Laminated mandala bookmarks 🔖📖

~ Ari October ~ 2 Comments

I’ve gotten really into reading again lately, and we’ve been frequenting the library. It’s hard to come home with just one book so we often find ourselves short on bookmarks! I’d been meaning to make some personalized ones for a while and I finally got around to doing it.

First I removed a sheet of paper from my sketchbook and divided the sheet into 6 neat rectangles on what would become the back side. My partner helped me with this part, I kept doing something wrong with the measurements and it became very frustrating. She managed to make perfect sixths. Thanks, Jazzy!

The second step was to lay guidelines for the mandala. I used an orange colored pencil so I wouldn’t have muddy graphite lines. Decided to use tools this time, even though I love fully freehanding mandalas. I knew if I wasn’t satisfied with the artwork I would start from scratch, and using guidelines usually prevents that from happening, so I decided to play it safe this time.

Then I doodled away until finally all of the white space was filled! As a finishing touch I added some glitter pen here and there, I just can’t resist sparkles! ✨

Next up was slicing up my work! A bit nerve wracking but I knew the results would be worth it. I signed each bookmark separately on the back before arranging them in the plastic lamination sheet.

Finally, the part I’d been waiting for, running it through the lamination machine! It’s my mom’s and it’s over 15 years old now but it still works like the first day we got it. Shout out to my mom for her help with this project! Couldn’t have done it without her. We ran it through twice, then I cut out the bookmarks to their final sizes and then ran each through the machine one last time.

And there you have it, some cheap DIY bookmarks that are built to last!

I used Tombow water based marker and INC glitter pen on Strathmore mixed media sketchbook paper. I want to try doing watercolor bookmarks next time!

Lamination machines are probably not a common household item, but if you know someone who has one or happen to have one yourself I really do recommend trying to design your own bookmarks. There are some alternative methods to “laminate” things that you could also try.

It’s really nice to have that personal touch added to a frequently seen and used item. I know these babies are gonna be used a ton and I’ll always remember making them! Hopefully they will even motivate me to keep up my reading habit!

An art challenge that did not go as planned- a successful failure!

~ Ari October ~ Leave a comment

Armed with my new monogrammed lidded mug and fresh home-made poppyseed bread, I made a feeble attempt at filling 9 pieces of marker paper in 24 hours or less.

I only accomplished one piece in 5 hours, most of that time spent researching references or procrastinating, and now I’m mentally exhausted!

I’ve had this idea floating around in my head lately- “wouldn’t it be fun to try to fill an entire sketchbook in a day?” And since I haven’t touched this Strathmore marker paper pad in over a year, I asked my partner if she’d like to partake in a silly challenge with me.

There were 18 sheets left in the paper pad, which I divided into 9 sheets for each of us. I thought that if we really gave it our all we could definitely get this done in 9 hours or less… Oh how naive I was! Sure, it’s only been 5 hours since we started, but I can tell for certain there is no way we will successfully fill all 18 sheets in the next 19 hours.

For starters my partner and I are both perfectionists. Part of the point of this challenge was to overcome our perfectionism, but to the surprise of absolutely no one: that’s easier said than done. Second of all, we both have ADHD! That part speaks for itself. It’s probably hard for anyone to dedicate a whole day to one activity, but it’s especially so with ADHD in the mix. And lastly… Making art takes so much mental energy!! I was hoping we would really let loose and just do some really bad doodles… and my partner was attempting to do just that… She still ended up calling it a day after two sheets full of thumbnail sketches. I got totally sucked into wanting to make something that looked good, so in the same amount of time I only accomplished one piece. At the very least my partner got down several different ideas!

Despite all of that, I’m so happy we decided to take on this silly challenge! It got us to draw, it got us to start using up materials that have just been collecting dust, and it got our creativity flowing. We probably won’t fill up all 18 sheets in 24 hours, but even then the challenge still accomplished exactly what I hoped it would!! A very successful “failure” from my perspective.

I went into this challenge with very low expectations, knowing full well that this exact scenario might occur. I accepted the possibility of failure in advance and gave it my all anyway, and in doing so I was able to do more than I probably would have today otherwise.

It’s better to quit 15 minutes into the race than to never pass the starting line in the first place! Trophies for participation might be unnecessary, but I find that participation and the experience that comes with it is it’s own reward.

We will still try to fill up this paper pad as quickly as we can, perhaps modifying it to another “fill one page or more a day” challenge like we’ve done in the past. Definitely more manageable and a lot less pressure!!! Maybe one of these days I’ll be able to succeed at a sketchbook-in-a-day challenge, but I’m content with today not being that day.

Prompt drawing with our nephew! “Unicorn on a lazy Sunday”

~ Ari October ~ Leave a comment
This cute doodle took about 25 minutes total, just a fun little quickie.
Doodled on the white inside of a Banquet dinner box! #Upcycling 🙂
Like I always say, if it’s not glittery, why bother!?

I asked my partner’s nephew if he ever draws. Apparently he does! When he’s not playing video games or bored to death with school work. He said we should all draw together, using this prompt generator he downloaded onto his phone.
My partner and her nephew both went off something I said, since they were having trouble figuring out what exactly to do with the prompt. I said, “what do you guys do on a lazy Sunday, why don’t you draw a unicorn playing video games or something?” So they both did that. Hilarity ensued!
And I of course took a cutesy route, because I am a sucker for cute stuff. Plus, I had already grouped my 3 purple Copic Ciaos together, thinking about doodling a mandala or something, and figured that’d be a perfect pallet for a unicorn 🙂
Certainly not a masterpiece or anything, but this prompt got me drawing something I normally wouldn’t have even considered drawing, and I think the result is quite endearing.
I gifted the finished piece to my partner ❤



Rainy Mandala – A “collaboration” with my cat.

~ Ari October ~ Leave a comment
This is what I get for leaving the paint water out while the cats are in the room…

Not going to lie, when my cat Rain Rain suddenly ran across the art desk and got paint water all over my multimedia sketchbook my immediate reaction was to cry and curse god. So after saying a few regrettable things and getting snapped at by my partner for doing so, I went to take a shower to get away from everything.

While drowning my sorrows in soothing hot water, I remembered the story I heard about a woman who let her daughter draw in her sketchbook and called it a collaboration rather than a mess.
I also remembered how Rain Rain’s birth mother, Sula, used to bring me moss from the roof. It irritated me to no end! It was so gross!
But eventually I realized that one day Sula would leave me too soon as they all do, and that I should cherish these gifts she is bringing me out of love.
Now because of that realization I still have a ziplock bag of the roof moss in my closet, despite my practicing minimalism it’s something I chose to hold on to for now. (Sula ran away when the kittens were 3 months old. It’s been 2 years now and I still think about her every day…)

Remembering my vow to tolerate mistakes, and out of love for my cat-daughter, I decided I would take Rain Rain’s idea and run with it. I would turn something painful into a sentimental memory… once I dried off the sketchbook of course 😉

Miraculously this was the only painting that was damaged in the whole sketchbook, the one I had just finished that day. I thought to myself “maybe this doesn’t look so bad after all” and I added more water to it for a “rainy” effect. The irony of her name and the resulting mandala does not escape me.

I now have plans to frame this piece and hang it on our bedroom wall 🙂