I've developed a new obsession: all things linocut.

It was a project we were assigned in a class, to create a linocut print. I had no idea what to carve or where to start in general. I purchased this starter kit that included an easy-to-cut block and carving tools.

I drew up a quick sketch which included elements from that Day Of The Dead illustration I did a while ago.

As it was intended, this block was super easy to cut and I finished carving in no time.
I printed with white acrylic printing ink.

To be honest, I sorta dreaded the idea of working with linoleum in the beginning. Of course, the nice part of experimenting is sometimes you discover a method of working that you really end up loving. I plan on messing around with linocuts this summer. #goal.

It's crazy how much time can pass. With the semester finally finished, I feel like I've jumped back into reality now that the summer break is finally here. The past few months, looking back on it, feels surreal, and not so much in a good way. I haven't been quite myself and I'm working on becoming myself again, which feels pretty successful so far. I miss blogging and am trying to get that started up again. This summer I have so much planned and I'm going to make it the most fantastic summer ever.

On the topic of the semester ending, I guess I'll post some projects that have kept me busy. This project resulted in one my favorite pieces. The assignment was juxtaposition. I created a scene of water life and galaxy life colliding with a deep sea diver observing underwater life.

I experimented on sheets of acetate and painted with acrylic. I created layers: the galaxy, underwater coral, the deep sea diver, and the deep sea creatures.

I stapled the sheets together and my brother created a wooden frame for me to give it a finished look.

And there you go.

I took advantage of my weird state I was in and experimented with a lot of different materials and subject matters. I'll post about those other projects another day.
Feels good to enter the world of blogging again!

Last semester we were assigned to create a pulp magazine cover for any topic of our choice. My mind normally doesn't go to sports, but I thought it'd be interesting to add a twist to it and explore the world of roller derby. For this project I was more interested in the vintage, gritty roller derby ways.

I moved from the sketch to the finish. Like usual, I built up in layers.

Painted the background in acrylic, and did the figures in ink and colored pencils.

It's been a thing of mine lately rework my own wardrobe. Example one, example two, and here's example three.

I made this shirt in high school years ago. I styled it to be somewhat of a tunic type of shirt with black and skull kind of fabric.

It fit a bit awkwardly, so I thought it was necessary to freshen it up. I took off the skull fabric from the bottom and the skull sleeves. Replaced the sleeves with dark floral-like fabric and sewed them on like baseball quarter-length sleeved shirts.

The pictures are a bit dark, so here's a closeup of the front of the shirt.

This shirt turned out to be the kind of shirt for nice occasions; I can't wait for some nice event to come up so I can wear it.

My friend Grace turned the big 21 this week. We went out last night to celebrate. Karaoke!

I wanted to make her something fun for her birthday. I bounced some ideas around in my head and decided to buy her a shirt and decorate it. You know, how I usually do. I took a trip to H&M to find her a nice sweater and spotted this one. I felt that it was very Grace-like.

I had slight difficulty settling on the patches of fabric. But I felt comfortable with my choices, so I sewed them on. After, I cut out stencils for the phrase and painted it with my handy fabric paint.

Grace is my Psych friend. When the show started using the Ed Lover "C'mon Son" catchphrase, we couldn't get enough of it, and we used it in every other sentence. I thought she'd get a kick out of the shirt, and she did. Win!

For Christmas, my brother bought me the Babycakes Donut Maker. I never got around to using it until today.

Made Glazed Applesauce Donuts and it surely was a success!

Love the recipes in the instruction manual, and it makes me really want to experiment with flavors and explore all tasty possibilities.
I would really love to try other Babycakes products for simple baking!

My song of the moment: Depeche Mode's new single.

Happy New Year!

I've been meaning to sign on and do a bunch of new year related posts. I still plan on getting around to them, but for now I wanted to post about this idea I'd like to share. Actually found it as I was browsing Tumblr.

THE JAR OF 2013
This would have been best to start it on the first day of January, but I figured eleven days into the new year isn't bad.
This jar is to help you keep track of all good moments as they happen.
Write your happy moments on pieces of paper and put them in the jar. (It's all about preference, but I am keeping track by writing the date on each piece of paper.) It'll be a collection of blissful experiences that you will reread on the last day of the year.
I wouldn't call this a resolution exactly, but it could be motivation to start experiencing more positive and happy points in time than negative. I surely feel motivated to create more feel good junctures.

I think this is a great way to pay attention to happy moments, even if they're miniscule. Start keeping track of anything that puts a smile on your face.
I wanted to pass this on to all of you. It's not too late to start!