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, Part 2

Working on the envelopes.  I couldn't find what I want on any  online shops.  So what do you do?  Make your own envelopes!   I made a template and I'm using a green tinted paint mask off paper I got at home improvement store.  I love the feel of the paper and it's study but thin.  It'll work perfect for my handmade cards!

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!

Wood project

I saw these little white wooden block decorations on Pinterest and thought I'd give it a try!  There are so many examples of these types of holiday decorations using simple wood shapes.

Dug through my wood pile and found a couple of 2x4 pieces.

Used the compound miter saw to cut the shapes.

First coat of white paint.  It cover well for a first coat.

I'll post an update when I finish them.

I'm also working on holiday sign with some friends this week and I'll post them, too.

Monday thoughts

Hello 2019,

Let's see where do I start.  December was a busy month.  I had a open house the first weekend of December.  It went well and I had fun putting it all together.  Lots of work but well worth the time.  The night of the show I was putting things away and moving patio furniture.  I made the mistake of not using my legs to lift a couch and pulled my back out!  A trip to urgent care with the rest of the week resting.  I have never had a back problem other than some minor soreness that a good nights sleep heals me right up.  Not this time.   But, once it healed it was amazing how the pain just goes away.   Then it was time for  the holidays!  Christmas was quite around my house.  Traditional tamale making on Christmas Eve.  New Year's was fun, we had a visit from a college friend.  On January  3rd we headed out to sight see and have breakfast.  It had been cold overnight in the Phoenix area and we had some freezing.  As I walked from the parking lot to the restaurant I stepped on some ice and fell right on my back!   Wow!  I'll tell ya, that hurt a lot!  I could hardly move.  We had breakfast but to be honest I could hardly concentrate on eating because my back was killing me.  My friend noticed a used bookstore he wanted to go into, so I stayed in the car and turned on my seat warmer!  Yep, my car has seat warmers!   I decided to video call my sister to cry on her shoulder....she answers and before I can say a word she tells me she is in the ER with my mom and that it was very serious.  OMG!  She wasn't able to talk and I then sat in my car stunned.  As the day went on my back got worse and back to a muscle relaxers, heat and ice and to bed.  I later found out my mom suffered a heart attack and needed surgery.  Fast forward a week...I'm heading to Nebraska to help with my mom.  The weird thing was the 18 hour drive in a car saved my back pain.  I was completely pain free by the time I got to Nebraska.  I think I needed to sit and do nothing in order for my back to heal.  I stayed in Nebraska for over three weeks and have just returned to warmer Arizona.  Yep, the deep freeze weather hit my hometown.  I haven't been in that kind of freezing ice cold weather in a long long time.  Good thing I had seat warmers in my car, lol.  While in Nebraska there a lot of time spent on rearranging, reorganizing, educating ourselves on my mom's needs.  My mom's recovery was amazing. She is a fighter and boy did she show us what determination was.  It was nice seeing her do so well and leaving her was not as bad as I thought it would be.  She is in good hands with my family.  I was reminded ... rest is important, self care is important, saying NO is good, prayer is powerful, family is important, having fun and smiling heals, love, love and more love is good.  Here's to 2019!

Me and my Mom, Kay

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.  

House prep before the show!

The Open House went well.  I didn't realize how much stuff I had to sell.  A couple of friends helped decorate the house to get ready for the show.

Used greenery with couple glass jars.  Wooden trees I cut out last year.  I also decorated a  soy bean screen with a glitter reindeer  and a fabric tag.  Added my wooden bead garland, a evergreen garland and finally my vintage book page garland.

Using my metal tub for the tree was perfect.  My friend decorated the tree with what I supplied him with.  It's beautiful!  I made a burlap fabric star tree topper.   The metal was a bed spring and the fabric was an old coffee bag.  It came together so well!

Loved the tin filled with gold ornaments and a vintage postcard.

Holiday Open House!

It's been awhile since I've had a craft show.  This year I thought "why not", so here we go.  I have a number of stuff I've made these past few holiday seasons and have them stored away.  Time to clear out the bins.  I'm excited to get the house all dressed up for the season and share it with friends.  I'm working on earrings, holiday diorama boxes, holiday garlands, signs, snowmen, etc.  I'll post photos once I get stuff out of storage.

2017 Christmas Cards

It all started with dressing up my vintage camper in her holiday attire.  This was a fun day.  I printed them out two by two.  Inside message, signatures, and logo all printed, what a time saver.

I use a Canon Pro-100 printer on all my print jobs.  I love it except when I have to replace the ink!  It has 8 inks and that shit's expensive...never have I understood the high cost of ink.  We should write letters to our congressman about that, maybe they'll do something about it, NOT.  Anyways, this is a great printer.

I love this paper cutter, accurate and quick.

I've had this tool for many years and I love it.  Scores nicely.  I've learned having the right tools always makes the project go smoother.  I make so many cards, this tool sure saves me time and the cards look so much better.  

I took a on-line class, more of a mini on-line class from one of my favorite artist, Stephanie Lee.  I learned a bit about encastic wax.  I decided to use the wax on my cards and the result was so cool.  I can't wait to use it on my paintings.

I added glitter and some gold glitter stars onto the wax.  I could of added more stuff, but I had over 80 cards to make and I was running out of time

I found these vintage labels and added my "Season's Greeting" and our return address.  Time saver!  I was able to print them directly onto blank label sheets.  Again, what a time saver.
Here's the website I got the template from ....   https://blog.worldlabel.com/2012/vintage-gummed-parcel-post-shipping-labels.html

Addressed and stamped ready to mail!

Snow people

 When I began this project I had no idea what I was doing.  But I tell you it was fun making them.  I started by making balls out of aluminum foil.  That was hard on the hands, gloves helped.

I made five with arms and legs using wire and foil.

After getting the shapes done I covered them with paper mache using tissue paper.  This was easy.

The next step was covering the shapes with paper clay.  I made the paper clay and that was a challenge.  I found a website with the best tutorial videos.  You use toilet paper, water, drywall compound and white glue.  What I found is I needed to follow the recipe exactly in order to get the right consistency.  Once the paper clay dries I sanded them to get a smooth texture.

 The next step was painting them with gesso.  I even made my own gesso.  White glue and drywall compound with a little white paint.  Easy enough.  This gave them the neatest texture and feel.  I sanded them a little but not much was needed.

I started by painting their faces.  Oh, I did add noses either with clay or orange painted tooth pick noses.  This is when their personalities started to show up.  Once the faces were painted I lightly sprayed them with a spray adhesive and showered them with white glitter flakes.  I loved the look of the glitter.  This is a project I will do over and over again.  I loved making them even though it was a very time consuming project.  Most have found new homes this holiday season.  I must admit it was hard to let them go.  Each one definitely spoke to me.   Once I make more I will post for SALE.

I have an abundance of supplies, lots of holiday theme stuff, glitters, ribbons, papers, garland, bells, words, streamers, eyelets, wires, greenery, and imagination.  This was the best part of the whole project was dressing them up.