Thrifted and Altered

I noticed artprints/artwork were being altered  so figure why not.  I found this framed print at the thrift store and knew I was going to alter it into a Halloween theme piece.  

Loved the animals.

What do you think?  How'd I do?  This was fun and I will be setting it out during the Halloween season!  Great trick or treaters!

 

Little Road Trip

Headed to Mexican Arts Imports, 340 N 24th St in Phoenix.  This place is filled and I mean filled with so much fun, colorful, beautiful, unique and fabulous things.  Pottery, wood carving, metal works, clothing, textiles, flowers, leather, home decor, garden decor, dishes, crosses, paintings, religious statues, water features, etc.

I recommend checking out the store.

 

Creativity

I found my gel plate roll off sketchbook! I also found one of mini gel plates. I know where my paints and gel plate rollers are, too. Guess what I'll be doing soon!

Attitude

I collect "Blue Boy". This is only one I've found so far. I set him along the wall until I find a place for him. When I saw it this morning it's a though he's looking at me with attitude saying "lady this is not for me" "you better find me a better spot!".

Another muralist

Meet Pablo, "Kaper".  Him and I crossed paths about 30 years ago.  He was an artist who loved to paint "tag" walls and one on occassion he tagged a wall that he didn't have permission to paint on and which lead to meeting me.  I loved his artist talent and he has some community service hours he needed to do so I got permission to have him paint a mural on my office wall.  It was beautiful, bright colors and the word PEACE.  I loved the mural and I can't believe I don't have a photo of it.  A number of coworkers thought it was a negtive message encouraging a "tagger" to paint.  Well fast forward 30 years and I came across  his instagram.  He is a fabulous muralist and artist.  I had the pleasure to met up with him.  Actually, I surprised him and he did remember me.  On this particular day he was painting a mural at the Barrio Cafe, downtown Phoenix.  It makes my soul happy to wittness the success story of Pablo the artist!

 

Murals

I have never painted anything on this large of scale, but boy are these artist amazing.  First one was painted by my friend  Emily, she is so talented.  After we stopped at her mural we stopped in her studio/shop Mucho Mas in downtown Phoenix.  The kids and my sister got to meet her.  She was so generous with her time and has the best loving energy.

This is a mural painted by my friend Emily Costello (Instagram @emcostelloart) in Phoenix.  

Another large wall mural painted by Emily Costello, Mucho Mas Studio Phoenix.

Mural of Chef Silvana Salcio Esparza by Lucretia Torva.   @torvasm
 I love the strength this mural represents and the "Si, Se Puede" tattoo!  Chef Silvana is one of my favorite people.  I don't know her personally but I have met her,  I donated masks to her cause she was feeding so many people during the covid shutdown.  

My sister showing her angel wings.  Grant, Nebraska   @popperposies

A storage shed in Winslow, Arizona.

 

Card making around here

I need greeting cards and I rarely buy them.  I make them.  Here's today's cards.  Started with white card stock, glued down a vintage dictionary page then washed them with a soft pink matte paint.   Punched one inch circles from a variety of scrapbook paper to use as the flower pedals.  The leaves are cut from vintage wallpaper.  I'll make the original cards but also scan them and reuse them over and over by adding my own  sayings like "hello"  "thank you"  either using a cool calligraphy pen or printed words.

 

Paintings

I needed something to do.  Found a pile of  5"x7" canvas panels and so got my paints out. Found some paper scraps and the glue stick.

It's all in the details!

Why one painting when you can do nine!

Decided on painting assembly line style!   This actually was kinda fun.  I plan to paint Latina inspired angel girls on each panel and then I will continue to embellish them.

"Shelter In Place"

Shelter in place = Studio time!

I started working on two art pieces.  I haven't painted in awhile and it feels good!  They're far from done and that's the fun part of doing these pieces!  Gotta add more paint, more texture, some glitter, lots of glitter, words, detail outlining and finishing touches.  The details of the face will be my biggest challenge I think.  I hope you use this time to get creative and feed your soul with positivity.

Art from a child's eye.

This year's card, part 4

This is my 2019 Xmas card!  I ended up using only one of the girl photos.  I altered five or six of them and time was not wasted because I will be using the altered photos for another project.  You'll need to stay tune for that.  I added texture by using a star stencil with texture paste I tinted with green glitter!  I love glitter!!!  I added red glitter drops to the crown stars and glitter to her wings.  I titled the card  "La Princesa de Naveidad"  The Christmas Princess.  I added a papals banner. 

The Christmas Princess

Handmade envelopes and labels

Back of envelope.  Open end style

I made a template and cut the envelopes out of this wonderful green thin paper.  The paper is a paint masking paper you can find in the paint isle in any home improvement store.  I love everything about this paper!  I use it for so many projects.  The labels are printed on Japanese rice paper.  Both papers are strong even tho they are thin.

I'm really happy how my cards turned out.  I never stress about my xmas card.  The ideas for my xmas cards come along all year long.  I like to use a technique, a paint, a color, a paper, a image, words I come across throughout the year.  If I must be honest my head overflows with creative ideas all the time.  I write or sketch ideas daily!!   

This year's card, Part 3

Scoured the internet looking at label image ideas.   I found this great looking one which will be perfect.  I used Photoshop to edit and clean it up so I could use it as my mailing label!  I love, love, love how it looks.   Handmade envelopes are ready, too.

Working on embellishing my card images.  And of course, my printer needs ink so no printing as of today.  Ordered ink and it's on it's way!

This year's card

Sneak peek....

Vintage (public domain) images I found on the internet.  Resized them,  desaturated, and painted using my iPad and Procreate app.  I have more embellishing to do!  So far I love love love!

Holiday project with friends!

My friends, Becki and her mom, Alice asked to get together for a holiday craft day.  Becki is very crafty but he mom is not really all that interested but we insisted she joint in.  

Becki found a number of ideas on Pinterest.  I decided on this one.  I pretty much had all the supplies in my craft stash and that's the reason I picked this one.

This is mine.  Free hand painted the wreath and red berries.  Not bad.

Alice's sign, not bad for someone who brags about not having any creative talent.

Becki's sign looks good!

My finished sign!  Love, love, love it!  Had so much fun with Alice and Becki.  Oh, Becki's 4 yr old daughter joined in the fun...she's adorable and full of creative energy!

Sticker crazy!

I used my Cricut machine this week.  I made stickers!  It's been a journey of so many unfortunate events to complete satisfaction!

First, I needed to design the stickers.  I ventured into my stash of inspiration drawings and images.  I came up with a whole set of greenery/floral tiny designs.  First, I sketch.

Once I get the basic designs on paper it gives me a good idea of what I want to use for my stickers.  I kept the designs simple as for my first attempt of making stickers.

From this point I get out my iPad and use the Procreate app to draw up the stickers.  Here's the process in video.

  Once the sticker sheet is done it's time to import it to Cricut Design Space.  Here's where the problems began!   Once I sized up the sheet I made two side by side and attached them.  Set up print/cut option.  I watched a tutorial on what settings to use on the Cricut for stickers.  I was making stickers on white sticker paper and clear glossy sticker paper, both for inkjet printers.  I have a Canon Pro 100 printer.  Once I hit printer I could not get the print settings  box to open.

Last week we had a electrical outage and all my printers were lost since the modem and router were shut down.    I had to add them and the setting just weren't coming up the same.  I added drivers and software updates, geez what a process so I figured this was the reason the Cricut software was not showing the print settings.  After more research I finally got it figured out.  One reason I needed to figure it out was the Cricut could not read the cut markers, what a mess.  Once all this got figured out it was  magic!

I was able to print and cut the stickers out.  I printed some on clear glossy sticker paper and a few sheets of white sticker paper.  The few sheets the Cricut would not read I cut out with scissors and craft knife.  

I put samples of both the clear and white paper stickers on some brown kraft paper to show you how they look.  I'm so pleased with how they turned out!  My brain is on creative overload on new designs, holiday designs, kids sticker designs, bullet journal stickers, planner stickers!  I must admit I'm really liking the clear ones.

Inspired

I finished a two week road trip and being in a car all those miles sure stunted my creative soul.  Normally, I make stops on my trips that inspire me, but this trip was way different.  The destination was a family wedding, driving was the goal.  I was able to stop and visit a few friends who are creative souls and I realized how I haven't been in the mood to work in the studio.  Before I left I cleaned up my studio space and I'm glad I did.  Today I started making some necklaces.  I haven't made jewelry in a long time and it feels good to get back at it.  Next I'm going to finish my soldered pendants!

New pens

I watched one of my art journaling online courses.  The artist used these pens!  I had to buy some.  I love love love them!!  Chromium green, light cobalt turquoise, dark naples ochre, sky blue, cobalt turquoise, medium flesh, and indanthrene blue.

Faber-Castell PITT artist pen big brush.  

Holiday show!

It was a nice day so having the show out on the patio worked out perfectly.  I had enough merchandise to fit both tables.  Overall the show went well and it was so much fun seeing friends.  I'm so grateful for their support of my art!  The only new jewelry was earrings made from recycle metals and loose beads.  

Wooden bead garland.

Vintage music pages used to make these cool trees.  The bases are  disc cut from our trees.

Recycle medicine bottle with a hand punched  metal disc.

Ornaments fun to make!

Fabric tree in all kinds of fabrics!

Love these pillows.  They were popular and all sold.  Making a few extras this week  on order.

Recycled frames with holiday greeting words.

Chalk art

Some of my handmade cards.  Not really a holiday item, but what the heck.

Vintage book pages with a printed "Merry Christmas" as a garland.

These turned out to be the best idea.