Rhinestone Heart Mandala

Recently I've seen a lot of mandala dot art on Pinterest and Instagram and I really like it.  So I started a Dot Art Pinterest board for inspiration and took a couple of classes about it that I found on Skillshare.  I was just about ready to give it a go, but then while tidying up my craft stash I came across some acrylic rhinestones and gems that have been sitting around for a very long time.  I bought them about four years ago planning to create lots of sparkly Christmas decorations, but, as is so often the case with me, I didn't do anything with them.  Anyway, I thought why not use them to create a mandala instead of the paint?  So I did and this is the result.  😍

I was so eager to get started that I didn't map the mandala out first.  I basically stuck the large gem in the middle (approximately) and then played around with the design as I went.  At least I had the good sense not to glue down the rhinestones until after I was happy with their placement, but because I was designing it on the fly it took much longer than it probably would have if I'd mapped it out first.   I also might have gone a teeny bit overboard with the decoration, but then again can you really have too much sparkle?  No. No you can't.  Overall, I'm very happy with how it turned out.

As I was working on the design I noticed a few gaps in my rhinestone collection - I wanted more teardrops and horse eyes (the pointed ovals) and more of a gradation in size, so of course I went and ordered a bucket load more! 😄  Surprisingly I haven't found many references to rhinestone mandalas online, which is kind of surprising considering how pretty they are.  But I guess that just means that I'll have to create some more myself!

In case you're interested here are the mandala Skillshare classes (if you aren't already a member you can get 14 days of free Premium membership):

Learn Beautiful Dot Painting - Mandala Design

Dot Mandala for Beginners

Mini Dot Mandala

The third class has a good lesson on designing a mandala.