"Greatings Season"

The title is not misspelled, I just wrote great instead of greet, because I think greeting cards are great. Anyway, the holidays are getting closer, and so is the perfect time to send a thoughtful card for christmas, new year, a christening, a birthday, a happy new year and/or a hello card. Also, cards for the gifts to let the person know who has a good taste in giving gifts (oh thank God not a weird shirt!). This brings me to this week book from my library to yours:

 It was given to me on my birthday by two dear friends of mine (great taste ladies).

I love this book, the title is perfect. Is not just cards ideas, but envelopes, pop-ups, locking devices, frames and windows and simple folds. All the ideas featured in this book are beautiful and unique and for every occasion. It is very straightforward, you don't' read the instructions, but rather you follow the illustrations, which are easy to see. The book gives you templates on the book and the best part is that it comes with a CD included with the files of the templates so you can print them out. The CD also contains graphics if you want to decorate the idea you plan to fold.

Here, you are welcome to peek:

A proud member of my library.

 

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

 No D.I.Y project today, but rather wishing you all a happy thanksgiving with an x-tra ecollustration done with my watercolors and typewriter. Hope you share this holiday with people you love and  with yummy food.

Be on the Re-bound!

This week from my library I'm sharing a book that gives you good reasons to keep your old game boards, gift cards, potato chips, wallets, and anything you never though you could reuse. 

Ladies and gentleman I'll bring you *drums rolls*

Written by Jeannine Stein (thank you Jeannine!) who has been creating beautiful books for 15 years, not afraid of experimenting and trying new techniques. She's also an award winning journalist and has written  about paper crafts. There she's a great source, so you won't be disappointed at all.

The book is not hard to read, the instructions are clear and the  illustrations make it even easier for you. There's also pictures and templates to help you. Also at the end of the book she introduces you to other book artists out there who do the same art (amazing work, there's one who did a book with cans). It was thanks to this book that I did my first roll up sketchbook. 

Here's a little peek

From my library to yours, this is a great addition.

I love milk...cartons

In my household we are milk lovers, so we finish them fast and end up with lots of milk cartons. I'm loving making projects with them, but for now I will share how to make a necklace in the shape of a polaroid. So when you are done with your milk don't throw it away! wash it and let your creativity begin.

Remember you can see the steps by seeing the milk-polaroid necklace photo album.

"A Tree Grows in the Toilet Roll" thanks to Yuken Teruya

As artists we have the ability to change the way a person sees an everyday object. That bring us to this week ecollustrator Yuken Teruya. A friend of mine introduced me to Yuken Teruya's beautiful work when I was going through a phase of cut out illustration. By just cutting and folding he's transforming an everyday object such as a toilet roll, a paper bag or even a pizza box, while at the same time delivering very strong concepts dealing with consumerism, the misuse of natural resources, globalism,cultural traditions and identities. My favorite projects of his are:

THE CORNER PROJECT

NOTICE-THE FOREST SERIES

 Go and explore this week ecollustrator Yuken Teruya's creations at

WWW.YUKENTERUYASTUDIO.COM

 

 

Tlapanochestli

This ecollustration is not done with carmine watercolor, or ink and neither acrylic, but with "Tlapanochestli." Which stands for Cochineal in Nahualt(an aztec dialect). Cochineal is parasite insect of the "Nopal". The Cochineal  produces a natural red coloring known as carminic acid. I was first introduced to this parasite, when my elementary school in Oaxaca, took us in a field trip to the Cochineal farm, also known as the "El Centro de Difusion de Conocimiento de la Grana Cochinilla y Colorantes Naturales". It was fascinating and I'm still fascinated by it. It is one of nature's gift and is free, talk about actual giving. Thanks to these cochineal it can be used to dye fabrics, for make up, ink and even food coloring.

I tried painting with the cochineal in watercolor paper but the paper sucked in all the pigment leaving the paint in black and white. When I tried with transfer paper, the result is the ecollustration you are looking at, which is the element of air helping a humming bird take off.

To learn more about it, read this article written by Alvin Starkman M.A.,LL.B 

"THE BEST KEPT SECRET IN OAXACA: GRANA COCHINILLA"

 

From my library to yours: D.I.Y Design It Yourself

I love being an artist because my inspiration gear is always on the go. I get inspiration from stories, moments, words, blogs, and my favorite source books. I want to share every week, a book from my library that has given me a wonderful case of inspiration as well as motivation. 

The first book I introduce is:

I call this my quickie book, because is the quickest way to learn about the many possibilities you can design, from making a book, starting a blog, creating a business card, personalizing your stationary or beginning your unique photo album. And is always nice to look back at it to see options and to give you ideas. Pretty much an introductory book to get you started.

Here I show you a little peek from my book

Also you can take a peek through Google books, here is the link:

D.I.Y:Design It Yourself

A good book to add to your library :)

Sharpie + Cup = Boey man

One of the best way to get inspired when you can't go out because is raining, and you don't have an umbrella is to surf the internet. While I was surfing I came across this ecollustrator. That's right I'm not the only ecollustrator and it has become my new mission to find others and share it with all of you. I'm talking about Cheeming boey.

He also combines recycling with illustration. Main items styrofoam cups and sharpie pens. No really that's all he uses, quite simple. Simplicity can be amazing check it out

We all know about styrofoam cups, the main reason not being biodegradable. 

This is the reason why I love creativity, because something that we see everyday, that we usually discard can be totally transformed. Witness the transformation:

To quickly know about him here is a link to an interview from the Sharpie blog 

So definitely go check out all his amazing cups, read his journal and other news about him at his website

www.Iamboey.com

Greetings from Honey Bunches of Oats

If you ever want to send a postcard to a loved one, it'll be more meaningful if you make it yourself. Is so simple and you'll have the freedom to have the illustrations you want. Here I used a cereal box from costco, they are huge! and from it ten 3.5"x5" postcards were made. Can't wait for them to get it, each of the illustrations of the postcards represents a specific trait of the person I'm sending it to. For the illustrations, which I kept very simple were a combination of pencil, gouache and watercolor.

Click on image to see bigger version.

Typewriter+watercolor= great combo to illustrate me

Thanks to technology my father has no use of his typewriter. Thanks to technology it was given to me. I love it! I plan to play with it and incorporate it into my illustrations. Here is the first try :) 

This ecollustration is  an union of symbols that represent who I am and thanks to the typewriter it can be explained.

FELIZ DIA DE LOS MUERTOS- Happy day of the dead

This has nothing to do with ecollustration, but I wanted to share with you the beautiful Altar my family and I put together  for the day of the death. I love the process and the collaboration to set this up and later remember those who we put the altar for. I am so blessed and happy to be born into this culture :), and I'm looking forward to eating some "pan de muerto" tonight accompanied with some hot chocolate.