Wednesday, January 16

2012 Holiday Gifts

   Wow, I can't believe it is 2013! I hope everyone had a great Holiday season and I wish a Happy New Year to all!
    This past Holiday season I worked diligently to make some nice gifts for my loved ones. I had a longer list than the previous year and greater resources to work with. So this time around I created a small series of drip paintings that I've titled "Letting Go", it is a symbolic piece for my personal life changes that have occurred in the recent months, and it is a general view of our perception of control as emotional beings. My personal statement about the work is: no matter how hard we try to control the outcome of our lives there are shifts and changes we may not be able to predict - or maybe we had seen them coming but did not want to believe it. No matter the outcome, life is still a beautiful thing to treasure. We need to be conscious of that visual and emotional beauty in which we are engulfed in every day. I see this series of paintings as a strictly visual piece for the receivers, but for myself in creating the work it was an emotional realization of strength, confidence and new beginnings. 
   The other items I had made for gifts were hand-cut snowflake cards. I laugh because I read my previous notes stating "create a simplistic holiday card," and although the piece looks simplistic - I can assure you there was nothing simplistic in the creation. I folded and cut each card and envelope out of various colors of card stock. I also created little Santa hat tags to label a homemade chocolatey treat.
   That chocolatey treat I created was Salted Chocolate Caramel Pretzel Bark - woo that's a mouthful! And it was quite delicious! This was a special homemade treat given to the people here in California that were on my list.
   Last but certainly not least - I had taken on a project that I absolutely love! I found a DIY homemade antique ring instructional on Pinterest. After searching through various thrift and antique shops in San Clemente, I found a great little set of what I think used to be ice tongs. I'm not quite sure what their purpose was, but I crafted them into some pretty neat rings! 
   In Addition to the holiday gifts I made for my personal list, I created some small journals for a special gift order. These journals were a bit more dressed up than the ones I've shown you in the past - I added a clasp! oohlala! These journals were intended for scrap-booking or photographs. I hope the recipients enjoyed their gifts!
   Well I hope you enjoy viewing this post and feedback is always appreciated! Happy New Year & do expect to see some great things posted here during 2013! I've got quite a bit in the making! Thanks for visiting!

Painting Series - "Letting Go" 








Hand Made Holiday Cards 








Salted Chocolate Caramel Pretzel Bark



DIY Antique Ring





Hand Made Journals