Heleine's Handmade Etsy Shop

Please check my mom's new Etsy shop!! This is something i've been trying to do with my mom for a long time.  She's an extremely talented creative lady and she knows crocheting, embroidery, quilling and of course scrapbooking (she actually gave me my first scrapbook when i got married).  People have been telling her for a long time that she should make all of the creations available for sale and we finally did it! Go and see some of her beautiful creations.  We only have a few items in the shop right now, but we'll be adding more very soon!

Technique-a-palooza!!!

Last saturday was the last day of class for Technique-a-palooza with Julie Fei Fan Balzer.  i can't tell you how much i enjoyed this class.  Julie shared her best 30 techniques for paint and ink in 30 days.  Each day we had a new technique to try with it's corresponding video and pdf tutorial.  The class was so well organized with an embedded chat room where all of us interacted and shared our concerns and ideas.  We also have a flickr group where we added all the wonderful things we created (click on the link to take a peek!).  At the beginning of the class, my desk looked like this:

And at the end of the class, it looked like this:

i can honestly say i feel transformed.  i never played with paint and ink before and didn't know how to use it.  With Julie's guidance, i slowly started to express myself through this medium and now i feel so empowered.  Here are some samples from the class with the name of each technique (you can also stop by my flickr page to look at all the goodies i created as a result):

If you have a chance to take the class, i highly recommend it! And don't be afraid to use paint, what's the worst that could happen?

Pumpkin Carving

I found the idea of carving initials on Young House Love and decided to go for it. It was our first time pumpkin carving and we're so happy with the results! I'll confess that it wasn't easy considering we just had a regular kitchen knife and my xacto knife. I'm definitely getting a carving knife for next year and see what crazy design we can come up with!

The Highline

Hi all. I created these collages and wanted to share them with you. The photos are from my first visit to the HighLine in New York. The High Line is an urban park created on abandoned freight train tracks. I loved this park It's so New York and I love the mix of vegetation and the roughness of the tracks. I invited my girlfriends to come and they loved it. It's truly a great response to what could've been sees as an eyesore or a problem.
Hope you enjoy the photos.
Thanks for visiting!

Views of Chelsea

Scrapbooking Class

 I'm currently taking the Scrapbook 101 Class at PortraitBug in NYC and I'm learning soooo much.  My teacher is none other than the very talented Julie Fei-Fan Balzer.  An artist I admire greatly.  She wrote a very nice post about her teaching experience and she posted a photo of me and my fellow classmate! I was so excited to see it there.  If you have a chance, visit her blog and take a look at her work.  I promise it'll be of great inspiration!

obamiconme

  Go to obamiconme to turn your photos into an art icon...so much fun and so easy.  Have fun!