Frida Ornament, A Zine & Visitors From Cuba!

In the midst of my hectic life, I finally managed to finish this poor girl's ornament.

(If you're reading this Megan, I'm soooooo sorry!)

I made this for Megan for the Frida Kahlo Ornament Swap over at.... you guessed it, Swap-Bot. This is one of my favorite paintings by Frida. Probably because she felt like shit at the time and cut her hair to liberate herself a little bit. I don't know about you but I've felt like that, myself, before. In the beginning I thought I would go all out with sequins...maybe some glitter but I didn't feel like it needed it. I didn't want to take away from the painting. I also included the gold stand and Zine about Frida. Yes folks, I made a frickin Zine. How exciting. I'm seriously thinking about hosting a Zine swap now. So much fun.!

Isn't this a powerful part of the movie?
The whole reason for my love of this particular painting.

Now on to the Zine.

Top left painting by: Jerrold Carton
Bottom left painting by: Amanda Schreiber
And of course, on the right side, my ornament

Download Zine Template
Watch How-To Video

Well I have a full house right now to top everything else off. My Mother-in-Law has 2 sisters here from Cuba. They're having a great time in Florida. Poor things live such a difficult life in Cuba. They're very poor over there. It's very sad.

Left to right: Hiredida, Yoli (my mother-in-law), Nina, and Me

More Art Journalling!

Addicted is the only word I can think of to describe how I am about art journalling. I just can't stop myself. I even work on my art journal on my lunch break, everyday at work. Yes I do! I sit in my car and art journal my heart away....for a whole hour! Then I have to snap back to reality and head back to the "hell hole", as I've been calling it lately. lol Here are my latest entries.

This entry is about my daughter Brianna.

This entry is a quote from Pablo Picasso that reads:

All Children are artists.
The problem is how to remain an
artist once he grows up.
-Pablo Picasso

Pretty Spanish Paper Flowers

These are really simple to make and very pretty. The book pages I used are from a very old book that was sent to me from Mexico. Perhaps I will write a tut on how to make these later. Gotta hurry...gotta hurry. Don't wanna be late for work!

Cool Downloads Found

I found these really cool bookplates at Martha Stewart.com. I think they have a kind of Old World look to them. They would look great on my favorite hard back so I will be printing these out later. You can download there --->Here<---






Oh-M-Gee! Just what I needed for the summer! I also found this great recipe at Martha's site to make body scrubs. It's a really simple recipe. You can use sugar or salt. She even provides the template for the labels. My daughter and I decided to make these for my mom and some for us too. Everyone could use a good exfoliation from time to time. I'll be making pink grapefruit for myself. (my favorite!) My 14 year old wants to make a Sweet Pea scented scrub for her. I think I'll make a mint scrub for my feet as well. I have fresh mint in my garden that's taking over! I might as well put it to use. Might even make some Mojitos to drink while I'll doing all that mixing. :)

Look at how simple the recipe is.

Tools and Materials
2 cups Epsom salts or organic cane sugar
1 cup carrier oil
8 drops essential oil(s)
1 drop food coloring
Special equipment: plastic pipette, canning jars


Get the Recipe and Download Label Templates

PS. Speaking of Martha, does anyone know what happened to her show. I used to watch it everyday and now I it's not recording anymore. Strange. "Oh Martha...Please come Back!!"

I climbed out from under my rock

Thanks to those of you who have visited me. You've convinced me to post! I guess I've been a bit lazy. Here are the things that I've been working on. I am obsessed with art journaling! I mean truly obsessed! Below are a couple of pages that I've done recently. The boy on the red page is my son Alex. The other pink page with the eye on it is a poem that I have fallen in love with by Bertrand Russell. Enlarge the photo to read the full poem.












This a notebook that I altered for the Shabby Chic Altered Notebook swap that I hosted. I had so much fun making the paper flowers. I book pages I used to make the flowers are in Spanish. I swear I looked high and low for a French book, but no luck.







And finally....just look at this handsome guy. I caught him hanging out in a tree. His colors were so vivid I just couldn't resist.

My Daughter's Friend's Quinceanera Present

For Emily:


This was a gift that I made for one of my daughter's good friends. It is her 15th (Quinceanera) birthday. Hispanics celebrate the 15th birthday kind of like a Sweet 16. I really hope she likes it. Some people aren't into handmade things. I know I would have loved for somebody to make something like this for me. If I say so myself....damn it came out good!

It's Easter!

Happy Easter Senoritas!

Handmade Tag Overload!

I seriously did some tags! A lot of tags. I'm hosting a handmade tag swap and you have to make only 20 tags. I just can't seem to stop. Notice the cute packaging. I luff cute packaging. Sometimes I even imagine that I have my own little craft line. lol I really envy Martha.

These are what I'm sending in the swap.

You can make these cute sugar skull tags too. If you downloaded my tag template that is. I think I may only have it up for a limited time, then retire them. Get them while ya can.




The 2 tags above were made from a Martha Stewart template. You can find the link in my Downloads section. They turned out quite nice. (These are for my partner in the 20 tags swap as well)

These are for bigger gifts. You would 1st wrap your gift, then tie the strings all the way around the gift. It's different. Also from Ms. Martha.

Hippity hop

OOOoooooo.....with a cherry on top!

French and English

Birds wiff an attitude