Day of the Dead Workshop

Join me at Ruth's Table this Friday the 26th of August from 6- 8 pm for a Day of the Dead Altar making workshop.
We will have a lot of material available to have everyone build altars. You can bring your own mementos from home to used to honor your loved ones. Last year Aiko Cuneo lead this workshop and I will lead it this year.

These are some of the Day of the Dead Altars made last year at Ruth's Table workshop. Every altar
was different and wonderful.

A resident of the Bethany House where Ruth's Table is located makes her altar.

I made this simple Day of the Dead Altar yesterday. I used a box lid and added the handmade flowers that
I made at the Mission Cultural Center made out of crepe paper. I made my own rubber stamp that I carved
using a large eraser bought at the Daiso $ store. I made a print of it. While I cannot draw very well the crudeness of my drawn skeleton looks a little like a wood block in my opinion.

Cempazuchitl Flower workshop

Last Saturday I walked with my friend Dorothy to the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts in the San Francisco Mission District. I have passed this center for years and this was my first time inside. We attended a Day of the Dead Workshop where we learned how to make Cempazuchitl flower known as the "flowers of the dead". These flowers are used to decorate the Dia De Los Muertos altars to honor loved ones that have passed away.

           

We started making the flower by scrunching and crinkling the crepe paper. We cut little triangle across the top.

Dora Luz Sanabria the instructor shows Dorothy her method of folding the flower.

You then add the 24 guage floral wire for the stem.

Using floral tape the flowers bottom and stem are wrapped to finish the flowers.

The finished wrappped marigold. Now just spread out the flower gently with your fingers to desired "bloom".

The finished Cempazuchitl flowers.

Terrarium Class Workshop

Join my daughter Elana and her friend Annakai-- aka the Succulent Sisters. www.succulentsister.wordpress.com -- -They are having a terrarium making workshop

in Mill Valley, CA.  on Sunday the 14th at the O'hanlon Center for the Arts. Check out ohanloncenter.org for more details on the class.

Craft, Cocktails and Cake-Toppers

Last week I invited five friends to attend a crafting party at Chronicle Books. It was hosted by Creative Bug and Hello Lucky. It was nice to see Julie Roehm, Jeanne Lewis and Kelly Wilkinson of Creative Bug. Check out Creative Bug for great online tutorials!  I couldn't wait to see the demo by Hello Lucky owners Eunice and Sabrina Moyle. I love their letter press cards! I forgot my camera so my iphone documented this event. It was a fun evening of craft, friends and cupcakes. You can' beat that!

Watching a demo of the cake toppers.

I love Chronicle Books. I have both of Hello Lucky's book. Even though I  don't
plan on getting married again I get great ideas from their Handmade Wedding book for
other occasions.

I captured someones cake topper. I had to finish mine at home since it was so crowded.

Coffee filter flowers..all over the room

Rubber Stamp Mania coming!!!

Join us at Ruth's Table for a fun workshop called Rubber Stamp Mania
We will make our own rubber stamps using a variety of techniques. Also
on hand will be several  huge collections of rubber stamps to use throughout
the workshop. Register at ruthstable.org and have some fun!

Use your new rubber stamps for postcards, greeting cards, mail art and collage and tags.

Here is a card I made using a readymade rubber stamp I found at scrap-sf.org many years ago. It is a mason jar. I "filled" it with my newly made rubber stamp using a piece of a flip flop. I used a heat gun and heated the flip flop for approximately 15 seconds and the pushed the warm foam into the keys, buttons and paper clips making an impression. It the impression it not deep enough simply reheat the foam and start again. Using a regular ink pad ink the foam stamp and stamp it inside the jar. I was amazed how realistic it looked. It has has a look of a film negative to me.

Bulletin Board

Last week a group of us tackled the Ruth's Table ruthstable.orgruthstable.org bulletin board. Dorothy, Liz, Margie and Sue and Tomoko combined our efforts and came up with this idea....

The bulletin board is a tree branch repurposing a old dictionary. The book
pages were scrunched and twisted and the leaves are photographs of activities,
projects and people at our workshops at Ruth's Table.

We used the Sizzix sizzix.com bird and butterfly and cut birds and butterflies from wall paper.

We also added buttons and a few sprigs of green to our tree branches.