Zine On!

What is a zine?
A zine (pronounced “zeen,” like “magazine”) is a self-published, small circulation, non-commercial booklet or magazine, usually produced by one person or a few individuals. Zines come in all shapes, sizes, topics, and formats. Most zines are photocopied, but they can also be printed offset, like a magazine or newspaper. Zines range from handwritten and sloppy to cut-and-paste (text pasted on top of background images) to artsy with handmade touches to produced on a computer with a professional looking layout. Zines may incorporate screenprinting, linoleum cuts, and hand-stitched bindings. Most zines have print runs of a couple dozen to a few hundred copies.
In a zine, you might find typos, improper grammar, and brilliant or radical or just plain honest ideas that you don’t normally see in Time, Newsweek, or People. A zine can be about whatever subject its creator decides upon, or it may contain a variety of subjects and writing styles within the same issue. Zines can include personal essays, political discussions, fiction, craft or do-it-yourself advice, articles about music or movies, comics, poetry, reviews – anything under the sun, really. Zines are personal and idiosyncratic. The best thing about zines is this: There are no rules.



I'm hosting a zine swap over at swap-bot and here's my finished Frida Zine. I am officially "ZINE OBSESSED"! There's a lot more work involved in making one than I anticipated however they're super cool. You can even have it published. Ever wanted to try making one your self? Here's a tutorial and here's a template
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Freezer Paper Stenciling

So I found this cool diy tutorial on how to do freezer paper stencils. It's kind of a fake out home-made screen printing technique. (as if ANY of that made sense) Eclectic Chica hosted a Frida Kahlo party for her 9 year old daughter, and she made her very own gift bags for all the girls. I would have never guessed that these were made using nothing more than a stencil, paint and freezer paper. Here's the tutorial and here's the template. I plan on trying my hand at this as soon as I get a day off.

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

Mexican Swaps

Mexico Whimsy Jar

I'm currently hosting this swap at swap-bot. (I really feel like I type "Swap-bot" way too many times) I've already finished mine, since it's not profile specific. I had way more fun than I expected to have making this. I really had to be creative though. I think my favorite item is the little skeleton socks. I love em sooooo much that I bought myself a pair too. They're the kind of socks that you're not supposed to see but I would want mine to show. They're too cute to hide.

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Potty Mouth ATC Swap

This one was fun because you actually get to have a potty mouth. And it's all good. I won't type what mine say but I use those 2 words together quite often. I have to be pushed though. he he he

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250 ct Mexican Cultura Matchbox Shrine Swap

I hosted a big matchbox shrine swap at Swap-bot. The theme was "Mexican Cultura". You
got to choose whatever you wanted to base your shrine on, just as long as it had to do with Mexican culture. It was lots of fun even though a lot of people didn't sign-up. 3 people that did sign-up, dropped from the swap. In the end we only had 4 participants. I was kind of bummed but it's their loss because the girls did such a great job.

Sent:

I Chose to base my shrine on Frida Kahlo. Nothing says Mexico more than Frida. Right? I made the little calavera out of clay and beads. My partner was LaTosi at swap-bot. Hope she likes it!

Received:

I received this awesome shine from HoneyBunny over at swap-bot. Her theme was a "Charro", which is a Mexican cowboy. I just love it to death! She did such a great job. This is going in my china cabinet. All the stuff in there is from Mexico. This fits right in.