Doodle Mashups are all about combining charts from different sets to "tell a story" with motifs! It’s the ultimate customization project using Doodles because if you get creative, you can make almost anything!

Your design can be inspired by your favorite book, a classic movie, a binge-worthy tv show, a popular song, a holiday, or even a personal event. Whatever your inspiration is, all it takes is a little creativity with charts and colors to get something that is really, extra uniquely custom for you!

Want to see all our personal Doodle Mashup project examples (and get all the design notes)? CORE Level Members in DoodleHQ have access to our Mashup Channel, where you can find ALL the information, including the full assembled chart that we used to make our samples, including any custom charts we designed for the project!

WHAT IS A DOODLE MASHUP?

Officially, a Doodle "Mashup" is any project that uses charts from more than one Doodle Collection.

Compared to many of our samples, which showcase charts that are all from the same set, Mashups are about thinking outside the (card) box and using your full Doodle library to search for anything you think would fit for your project!

Why do we LOVE Mashups?

Because Doodle Mashups really are the ultimate version of our "endless customization" model of designing and are a super fun way to get extra creative. 

You're not bound by what other people have already designed, or whether or not the theme you want to make is popular enough to have a pre-made pattern. You can be inspired by any idea at all, and then you just have to search for the pieces to put it together!

Once you make your first Doodle Mashup, you will start seeing the possibilities everywhere! Whether it's taking notes while re-watching your favorite movie, or even thinking about how to pull images together to represent a specific book or city that we haven't make a Doodle Collection for yet - you can really create anything that you can think of. 

HOW TO DESIGN YOUR OWN DOODLE MASHUP

You can plan a Doodle Mashup using almost any Base Doodle Pattern you want to use, but the real fun comes from choosing your charts and choosing your colors! So let's go through some helpful tips for brainstorming your Mashup!

STEP 1: Choose your Mashup Theme

This could be a favorite book, a classic movie, your most binged TV show, a popular song or artist, or even a memory of a personal favorite place or vacation!

For this example, we're going to use my kiddo's favorite superhero - Spiderman!

STEP 2: Brainstorm a list of images

When thinking about what charts you need for your project, think about some of the iconic images from your inspiration such as: scenery, clothing items, food items, animals, weather, patterns, quotes, etc. 

For example, while making this Spiderman-inspired Mashup, I might end up with a list that looks something like:

• Spider webs & a spider (of course)
• New York City icons like buildings, cabs, food carts, etc.
• Iconic Spiderman saves like a monorail, ferry boat, or even a carnival or London bridge (in Far From Home)
• School stuff (since Spiderman is still in high school), like a backpack, books, notebook, etc.
• Science or lab equipment
• Newspaper and camera for Peter's job at the Daily Bugle
• Spiderman's mask
• Super villains and their costumes/character features like Doc Ock or the Green Goblin
• Lots of red and blue
• Use our Alphabet Doodle to write out quotes like "With great power comes great responsibility"

STEP 3: Find your charts!

Once you have a list of ideas for the kinds of images that work for your project, you just need to find the charts!

Not sure if we have the chart you need? Head over to our Doodle Chart Search, which is a searchable directory of every single Doodle Chart we have ever published! 

BONUS DESIGN TIPS:

Think about which chart sets will be the most useful for your project!

See if you can find Doodle Collections that might contain multiple charts from your list above, so that you don't have to buy as too many new sets:

• Autumn & Haunted Doodles for all the spider imagery + NYC Doodle for all the city icons
• Travel Doodle contains tons of stuff including subway, monorail, ferry, camera backpack all in one place
• Science Doodle contains all our lab equipment charts all in one place

Some Doodle Collections might be helpful for your project, but less necessary, depending on the scene you're trying to build. If you only need one chart from a set, see if you can modify something you already have to fill that spot in your project!

And if you are pickup up a few sets, don't forget to use the BOGOPATTERN discount code for buy-2-get-1 free on digital downloads!

Get creative with color choices!

For some of the motifs, you might be able to change the colors of a chart that was originally designed for something completely different to make it work for your project! The Alien chart from the Monster Doodle looks like a Spiderman mask if knit in red!

Modify existing charts!

Even small changes can make a chart work just a little bit better for the project you're trying to make! For our Batman-Inspired Doodle Mashup, we wanted a slightly more menacing cat face to represent Catwoman, so we just modified the expression on an existing chart.

Add words or phrases!

We didn't end up adding any words to our Spiderman-Inspired Doodle Mashup, but we did add some words on our Wicked-Inspired Sweater! 

We used our FREE Doodle Alphabet charts to write out some truly iconic lyrics!

DOODLE MASHUP EXAMPLES

One of our favorite examples is the Wicked-Inspired Doodle Mashup Sweater!

Not only was it super fun to design and knit, it's a great example of some of the ways we find and use charts to make a Mashup. 

For both Glinda and Elphaba, we have a few similar items for each of them, done in their signature colors. Pink Crown & Green Witch's Hat (accessories), Pink Bubbles & Green Broomstick (mode of transport), plus phrases in pink & green for each character! 

The rest of the design has lots of items that are familiar images from the movie (or play, if you prefer) like the green castle and spell book, a magic wand, and the yellow brick road!

My personal favorite is this Monsters Inc.-Inspired Mashup Infinity Cowl!

We have a TON of cute little monsters and monster-y motifs in our Monster Doodle, so that was the obvious place to start for this project. But you can also see how color plays a big role in this one as well, with the Cow Print chart from the Farm Doodle made to look like Sully spots by just changing the color. Same with the Eyeball chart knit in green to look like Mike Wazowski!

This Project Hail Mary-Inspired Doodle Mashup kept it relatively simple, with most of the charts coming from the Sci-Fi and Science Doodles. Project Hail Mary was all about doing science in space, so mix-up a bunch of charts from those two sets with one adorable custom Rocky chart, and you've got a perfectly on-theme project!

One of the biggest fan-favorite mashups is our Scooby Doo-Inspired Cowl! Again, this one is relatively simple - you just need ghosts, a dog, and a van! We have a ton of ghost charts to choose from, and even more than one haunted house and graveyard, so we could have used any of those for this project. We had to modify the Dog chart just a little to make it look a bit more like Scooby, but the Mystery Mobile is just the Van from our Tropical Doodle knit it the right colors!

Want to see all our personal Doodle Mashup project examples (and get all the design notes)?

CORE Level Members in DoodleHQ have access to our Mashup Channel, where you can find ALL the information, including the full assembled chart that we used to make our samples, including any custom charts we designed for the project!

HAPPY DOODLING!

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Blog co-written by Jamie Lomax and Grey Lundy