La Calavera Catrina: Mixed Media Day of the Dead Painting

Here's my latest redone canvas. I thought I'd show you the before and afters. La Calavera Catrina is a companion piece to the Shadow Man I posted on Monday. Basically I took an old canvas that we'd painted on years ago, covered it in gesso and then spray-painted through stencils to add a little something to start with.

My next step was to add collage pieces, acrylic paints and pen work to personalize it. Then I splashed alcohol ink here and there to bring all the disparate parts together.

Then I started blocking out the main image and deciding what parts to keep and what t conceal. 

I imagined her as a Painted Lady Calavera so I left her chest designs exposed but covered over a lot of the stenciling on her face.

Her mouth and necklace are two of my favorite parts.

I used caran d'ache neo colors for most of the drawing. They blend into the acrylic paint beautifully and provide their own shading when they smear. 

Her hat is decorated with My TCW Balzer Designs Feather stencil.

This canvas was originally painted by one of my boys in a spider web pattern with thick dimensional paint you squeeze out of a tube. You can still see the raised sections. To highlight the texture, I scraped off the acrylic paint and gesso down to the spray paint. I love the effect.

Thanks so much for visiting. Have a great weekend!

Bombshell Stamps Blog Hop

The Bombshell Stamps August Hump Day Hop theme is "Let's Hear it for the Boys." We were free to interpret this however we like, and all I can really say is that I pretty much assure you that you will be singing that oh-so-popular 80's song from Deniece Williams for the next week. 

You're welcome :)

I decided to try the sketch... 

 

 

Now you know my interpretation of sketches can be a little loose.  But the elements are all there, I promise. The scallops, the circle in a square, the line down the left... it just all went to Funky Town.  

I decided what's more 80's than neon so out came the cool neon variegated thread that I JUST. HAD.TO. HAVE!!!!

OMIGOD! Can you imagine if they made hyper-color thread?

Or hyper-color NEON thread...

*head explodes*

It was a great chance to use one of my very favorite stamps in the whole wide world, Senora Muertas.

 

 Now go visit the other girls :)

Bombshell Blog 

Alison 

Alex

Rachael

Alaine

Kelli

Jodi

Laura

Sparkly Mary

Terra

Kim
Stempelientje
----> Nicole: You Are Here <---

Glittery Katie

Kas

Kathi

Dia de los Muertos Catrina Collage

Anyone who has been reading this blog for any amount of time knows two things about me.

1. I love Dia de los Muertos, Day of the Dead, and I find Catrinas so beautiful

2. I get really bored doing things the same way more than a few times.

So what I needed to do was make a collage that was really different (in this case, she's sitting on an over-sized chair) and I wanted to include my passion for Day of the Dead imagery.

 

What do you think?

Different good? Too weird?

My favorite parts are her collar bones (first time and I love them!), her necklace and the fact that she isn't a waif. This girl is stacked! *grin*

 

It's making me pretty happy. I'm really enjoying branching out and the challenge of trying to make new, more difficult poses. I tell you, any collage artists out there - go buy yourself a bridal magazine. They're AMAZING inspiration.

I'll be adding this to my Etsy shop. It'll be $50 and you can contact me directly if you'd like to purchase it before it's listed.

P.S. Did you see the texture! Love it!

Three Pin Cushions: Zakka Style (GIVEAWAY)

Right now there is a Zakka Style Sew Along going on

 and I'm really excited about it as I love the book (read my review here) but sometimes need a nudge to actually make the projects. Since this week's project is the easiest on in the book I decided to go for it and instead of making one, I made three. The first is fully following along, very little wandering off script in as Zakka  a Style as I can muster. 

Love that covered polka dot button!

Here's the back:

The second, is taking the general idea and cutting guidelines of the pincushion and doing it my own way with my hand made fabrics.

It has a plain linen back.

and here's the fabric panel I started with:

 and the third is pulling it back, making a me-ish and zakka-ish hybrid... day of the dead style,  of course, using a Bombshell Stamp.

What do you think?

Tell me which one tickles your fancy the most and I'll draw a lucky winner to get the pin cushion of their choice in the mail.

Edit: I forgot to mention that I added dried herbs in between layers of poly-fil so they smell divine. 

Wedding Shrine

I've been wanting to make a wedding shrine for Chris and I ever since I started making them a year or so ago but I was intimidated by the importance of the event and didn't want to do it wrong. So silly!

Then, a few months ago I thought up the theme that I wanted the shrine to have and it all came together.

Pin It

I wanted to make a piece that spoke to the glamor of a wedding and the blissful utility of marriage. What better to represent blissful utility than an old well-used and truly worn cake pan? Cake, what we celebrate our occasions with, how we delight our children and fill our husbands stomachs? It was perfect.

So I scouted out the thrift shops until I found the perfect pan with the right amount of distress.

Then, employing paint stir sticks, an old wedding topper, skulls from a dollar store garland, Tim Holtz dangly sparkly expensive embellies and more hours then you'd ever imagine, I ended up with this:

Be still my beating heart!

This is a project I will treasure for the rest of my life. So pleased it came together.

Just an FYI, I have some extra architectural elements (the big plaster flourish) that I'm thinking about adding to my Etsy shop. Is that something any of you would be interested in?

Here's a picture of the plaster attached to the cake pan to give you an idea of how they look plain:

Linked Up To:

Tatertots and Jello

Whipperberry

Blue Cricket Design

House of Hepworths

Fireflies and Jellybeans

Tip Junkie

Fingerprints on the Fridge

Family Ever After

Momnivore's Dilemma

Dia de los Muertos Ofrenda (Alter)

(Please click for larger pictures)

Yesterday I set up our Day of the Dead shrine. Last year it fit on our printer table; this year it's about eight feet tall. Wow. And we all love it. Madly and passionately love it.

My regular readers should recognize a lot of the projects included. It's such a special time for our family to reminisce about loved ones, tell their stories, laugh together. 

I wanted to make a shrine for Grandma Maki and my Auntie Myrtle but wasn't able to. Hopefully they'll be added by next year. 

Left Side (Note the traditional Tequila... it's missing a snort or two *grin*)

Center:

Right Side:

One of my favorite parts of this shrine is the flower garland I hung around it.

They are all made with water bottles. My DH hosts a large meeting each month and I asked him to bring home all the used water bottles. I bet he didn't expect me to make this. LOL.

In case you haven't seen these before, they were popularized by Anthropologie and everyone was making them back at the start of 2010. Mine got all the way through painting and then hid in the basement for six months.

Here's how you do it:

1. Wash

2. Cut in Half

3. Dry Thoroughly

4. Cut Petals using scissors

You do this by cutting out a piece like this

5. Bend the petals down. Some won't stay down, don't worry.

Side View

6. Do this to all your tops and bottoms

7. Spray Paint. I like mixing colors but I also prefer my projects to be very imperfect.

Assemble. I hot-glued a top into a bottom piece and then used a bottle cap for the centers. You can then further embellish them with Sharpies and paint pens if you like.

All that was left from a huge box of "trash" was this:

Not bad!

Most of the items in my ofrenda were made using Bombshell Stamps and supplies by Gauche Alchemy. My inspiration came from the lovely Crafty Chica.

Have a great weekend, everyone.