So I'm hosting a brown paper bag art journal swap (whew what a mouth full) , over at swap-bot. They're so inexpensive and easy to make. I've finished two pages so far. Really four. I also went ahead and made four more journals for personal use, but with lots of pages. Here's a tutorial if you want to give it a try. You can sew down the middle if you want. I stapled because me and the sewing machine aren't the best of friends. Have fun!
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 .
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.
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 FridaKahlo 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
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
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
So I'm hosting a brown paper bag art journal swap (whew what a mouth full) , over at swap-bot. They're so inexpensive and easy to make. I've finished two pages so far. Really four. I also went ahead and made four more journals for personal use, but with lots of pages. Here's a tutorial if you want to give it a try. You can sew down the middle if you want. I stapled because me and the sewing machine aren't the best of friends. Have fun!
