Wax paper Mandalas

A few days ago I found an interesting pin on Pinterest about creating art with wax paper and sharpies. Curious, I tried my hand at it and decided I wanted to share it as a therapeutic activity. I decided to add an extra layer to it by incorporating a mandala focus in order to add some additional therapeutic benefits. You don’t have to add this extra piece in if you don’t want to though by just drawing what you like or changing the focus to something else.

For a little background, mandalas are often a center for meditation as well as artistic expression. They are also utilized in expressive therapies where participants are given a focus (example: how do you feel right now?) Mandalas can be used in many different ways so consider  the focus when you try this activity. I recommend this activity for older school-age children and adolescents, but young participants are also encouraged to try, or perhaps they might enjoy the activity without the mandala component, it is up to the facilitator and the participants.

The activity itself is fairly simple, it is basically just like drawing on paper, just with a different medium. If you are trying out the Mandala approach, take a piece of wax paper (any size you wish) and put a dot in the middle with a sharpie:

Next, add a shape around the circle, perhaps a flower, star, butterfly, or other symbol or shape (I made a sort of wheel):

Continue adding shapes in a pattern around the circle like so:

Here are some examples of finished products:

What I think is cool, is you can hang these up in the window and the light shines through which makes for great decorations, like so:

Wax Paper Mandalas Activity Notes

Age Group: Older school age and up

Materials needed: Wax paper, Different colored sharpies or other permanent markers

Goals:
To experience the emotional responses that mandalas can invoke
To encourage creativity and self-expression by drawing unique mandalas
To encourage fine motor skills by using markers

Therapeutic value of activity:
Creativity
Independence
Self-expression
Self-soothing

For other ideas about Mandalas, or to learn more about them, check out this  interesting blog post I found: Creativity in Therapy: Mandalas

Thoughts or questions? Don’t hesitate to ask!