2012 Calendar Collaborative Project

A couple months ago I was asked to participate in a 2012 Calendar Collaborative project. This was my first organized collaborative/swap project. Chris Capista is the organizer and the theme was Catherine Moore's Character Construction stamps (http://www.characterconstructions.com/).

The way it worked was Chris first picked the calendar theme. Next, Catherine selected 12 people to participate. We're each assigned one of the months and we had to create a 8.5" x 11" portrait calendar page using Catherine's stamps. We then had to make 11 copies of your finished calendar page and send them to the other 11 participants.
My month is April and the picture above is my calendar page. As you may know, one of my latest obsessions are Santos dolls, so I knew that was going to be my focus. Here's the envelope I sent my calendar in, all ready and lined up to go!

Last year, Chris created a calendar using images from Paper Whimsy. She has a wonderful article about it in the recent issue of Somerset Studio Gallery (Winter 2012).

Chris's calendar page for 2012 was the first one I received. It was so exciting to open the envelope. I just love her page and all the little details she added.

I look forward to the mail arriving every day now, in anticipation for the next calendar page! We have participants from Canada and France too. I'll make sure to post them as they come in. What a great way to celebrate the new year!

Holiday Handmade

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas, I know we did. It's great to see family & friends ,enjoy yummy food, play games, open gifts and also get some crafting in. I wanted to share some holiday handmade projects.

Made by: Connie, Frances & Pat

My sister, Frances hosted a wonderful Christmas gathering. At the end of a great dinner I brought out the paper, glue & scissors. The craft project of the evening was to make calendar dolls. I had bought these mini calendars from the flea market for just ten cents each.

 We spread out the supplies over the table and we were all cutting and gluing.

We first made paper dolls and then attached the mini calendar to the doll.

Made by: Barbara & Lana

As you may have noticed, we primarily used Catherine Moore stamps - she has such a great variety of doll images to use.

Made by: Maryl

I brought Christmas paper, in case we were going to make Christmas dolls, but it turned out to be a hybrid project...so the Christmas dolls turned into Christmas calendars.

Made by: Star

Made by: Kacia

I also wanted to share some beautiful hand made cards/projects I received this season...

Made by: Lois

Made by: Tiffany

Made by: Ruby

Made by: Pat

Made by: Laura

Don't you love these? They're all wonderful and creative! Last, is my Christmas card for this year, "Peace on Earth".

Next week, I'll start sharing with you a project my sister Lana and I are involved with, a Catherine Moore calendar swap. Stay tuned.

Happy Holidays!

Paper Xmas Village

This weekend, I made 12 paper Christmas theme houses. 

It all started when my sister, Lana, gave me these adorable stamps from Michelle Ward - Twelve Days of Christmas.

I first stamped them on kraft paper and cut them in different house shapes.

The next step was to add some odd shape roofs using a variety of xmas paper.

Then I embellished them with chimney, doors and windows.

I added an "L" shaped piece of cardboard on the back so they can stand up on their own, but then I decided to put mine in a garland.

Here's some close up shots...

Christmas Paper Dolls & More...

I've been buying some of the recent Christmas paper pads & embellishments at Michael's knowing that I was going to make some Christmas paper dolls.

Well, tonight was the night. This is what my table looked like during the process...but it wasn't all me, my sister Pat and Lana were over too.

For my paper dolls, I used a variety of  stamps from Catherine Moore (http://www.characterconstructions.com) and stamped her girls on a bunch of different Christmas papers. I mixed and matched doll parts with embellishments and came up with these...

She reminds me of the Green Hulk's wife

Opps, left off her shoes

Now that's a funky dress

My poinsettia girl

Bringing holiday goodies to you

Like her stocking?

This afternoon, my sisters Pat and Lana came over for an artful playdate. Pat was showing me how to make the watch face ornament below. It's hard to see, but there's a glass dome over the ornament.

I found a box of  watch faces at East Bay Depot for Creative Reuse long ago...so it was perfect for this project. This one measures about 4" tall.

BookBook for iPhone

Okay, so you could say this is a product endorsement, but I just have to share my latest find that is too cool!

It's called a BookBook by twelve south. It's an iPhone case that looks like a vintage book. It's made from real leather and has this nice worn look.

It feels so soft and luxurious, and looks like one of my mini vintage books.

And when I'm holding my iPhone (to play Sudoku), it kinda looks like i'm reading a book...ha!

Is that too cute or what? Thanks to my sisters, Frances, for helping me to get the bookbook from ebay at a great price and Lana for giving us your iphone hand me downs.

Xmas Girls Getting Ready & Kawaii Nail Art

These are my girls for my Christmas cards. They're not ready to go out yet, I still have some accessories to add, but I thought I'd just share a sneak peek.

My daughter, Rachel, has recently been into creating detailed nail designs. Here's a couple designs she's done. The first one is sushi themed...

The one below is Totoro themed. Totoro is a famous Japanese character from the movie, "My Neighborhood Totoro". Every time she's doing something with her hand, it makes her smile. Cute huh?

Below is an image of Totoro.

Great Class with Kristen Robinson

Last Sunday, my sister Maryl and I took a wonderful class with Kristen Robinson in San Jose at "A Work Of Heart" (http://www.aworkofheart.com/). I've been admiring Kristen's work for some time now and I was thrilled to be able to meet her and take a class from her.

Kristen did an excellent job of teaching us about making resin pieces and also metal etching. The class was so much fun and the studio was so inspiring! We started with filling our round bezel with objects.

I used a repro frozen charlotte in mine

My sister Maryl did a lovely job with her bezel

This is Kristen showing us how to mix and pour the resin. She's made some beautiful pieces and has a great book out with step-by-step instructions.

Below, the students are focusing on their art pieces. This is only one half of the studio.

We had the option of mounting our round bezel on our etched bracelet, but I'm not sure if I might put mine on a necklace instead. That's why mine is still unmounted.

Then the second half of our class was to make the etched bracelets. This is how we started.

The next step was to stamp images on the bracelets. Wherever the black ink is visible, is where the etching will not take effect - all other areas will be etched away.

Here's Kristen checking the progress of the etching in the ferric chloride.

After the etching phase was over (30 min), we then soaked the bracelet in a petina solution, which turned the bracelet completely black. We're thinking, that's going to come off? But, that's where the steel wool comes in - scrubbing off the black and revealing the metal. It was like magic to see your image emerge.

Here's a close up of Maryl's finished bracelets. They turned out REALLY nice.

Thank you Kristin for a wonderful class, I look forward to taking another class from you soon!

Andrea Chebeleu is the owner of the studio. She's done a wonderful job creating a fun and inspiring atmosphere for creating art! She has all types of classes offered there. You should definitely check her out. Andrea has asked me to teach at her studio, so stay tuned, this might be one of my New Year's resolutions.

Below is the other side of her studio...nice huh? She has all the supplies you could ever wish for.