dear kiki...: diy

January 25, 2013

Oh hello there...

Hello January 2013!

It's been a busy year and I'm knee deep in plans and making and creating for 2013 already! I've been working on a website and it has taken me longer than I expected to get it finished up. When it is finished it will house my portfolio and a new blog and everything else. I haven't been posting hoping to wait to unveil it but alas it's taking to long so I'm back to blogging here in the meantime.

I decided to try a 365 challenge this year and I've been working on that without being able to blog it so I'll be posting and catching that up as well. I chose to draw something every day this year! I'm using the book 712 more things to draw as a prompt for my project and it has been fun so far, I imagine some day soon it will become harder to keep up!

Here is a little round up of a few of the things I've been working on:

First I made this, and it has been doing very well which is a nice surprise for a self-published comic!

You can buy it now in my Shop

Then I made this:

It was a lot of work and so important to me. A few copies may be available soon in my Shop as it is almost sold out. Sometime this year I will do a new special print run, with new work and extras.

Finally I made this:

I'm pretty much in love with everything about this comic! This is also almost sold out, I may put a few copies in my Shop I'll announce it here if I do, there are very limited quantity of both Feathers and Heartbeats. I will also be doing a new print run of feathers later this year with a new cover, pages and extras.

Just a few of the things I've been working on and made, I'm also working on finishing the Poor Little Dyke Girl series and will be printing Issue 1 very soon! Many other things are in the works that I can't share about quite yet! I've received so much support, advice, love and encouragement from the alternative press community that I am immensely grateful for! Comics are a labour of love, a hard labour of love and sometimes I wonder why I'm doing it, and then I remember it's because I love the medium, I want to do something different with it and I have some fans (at least 10!).

xoxo

Posted at 09:00 AM in Art, Comics, diy, Inspiration, queer | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

August 18, 2011

The New Creatives - Feature Story -Sacramento News & Review

via www.newsreview.com

I was lucky enough to be featured as one of Sacramento's top 25 up-and-coming talents, super flattered. Thanks to the lovely Rachel Leibrock for reaching out to a queer artist! I'll post some photos of the print version soon. I'm gearing up for SF Zine Fest and working and working on a grant proposal whooo busy tired! I'm working on finishing a special limited print run full color 24 page mini-comic for SF Zine Fest, crazy work time. Please grab a copy if you are local or check out the article and talent online here if not! I'm not a fan of the photo but I was stressed out and forced a smile against my better judgement as I hate fake smiley photos and photos of me in general. Le sigh, I'll live.

Also don't forget dissection is up at The Lexington Club in San Francisco through Sept. 6th, I'll also post some photos of the show, I just didn't get great photos, my friends got some better ones. The pieces are selling well already!

I also re-stocked Poor Little Dyke Girl at Modern Times Bookstore and Needles and Pens in San Francisco and working on getting it into some shops in Sacramento, I just haven't had any time!!!

I have been very bad at keeping up to date here with all of my activities and work because well I've been working like a crazy person, all the time, this will continue until after APE in October then I can take a little break. I think the hard work is paying off, very excited about everything that is happening! Stay tuned!

Posted at 10:00 AM in Art, Books, Comics, diy, queer | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

June 02, 2011

Take Root Art Opening!

via www.facebook.com

Come and celebrate the opening of Take Root, a visual art show celebrating the queer tradition of turning trash into beauty and magic. Take Root is a part of Dirtstar 2011 and the National Queer Arts Festival. This show features Jamie Q, Allyson Mitchell, Gabby Miller, Lee Balan, Ector Garcia, Levon Fox, Jen Lorang, Ariel Springfield, Flo McGarrell, Sarah Biscarra-Dilley, Micah Bazant and Lewis Wallace, Dinah Dinova and James, Siobhan Flood, and Adee Roberson.

Art Opening Event

This Show is going to be complete MAGIC!!! I'm going, you should go, don't miss it because we all need more magic in our lives!

Time	Thursday, June 2 · 7:00pm - 9:00pm

Location	Tenderloin National Forest

Posted at 10:38 AM in Art, diy, Photography, queer | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

March 23, 2011

into my bedroom.

I've been meaning to share these photos for a couple weeks now as you will see from the calendar...I finished my room in my new place and I love it. My whole apartment is really amazing and magical but I love how my room turned out. It has been a really loooooong time since I've had my bedroom be just my bedroom. There is also an adorable little balcony off my room including the original screen door from the 40's I'm guessing. I get tons of light.

part of my wall collage.

The hat storage idea was not mine, I found the tip here however I didn't measure anything, I am not a measuring person, I eyeball everything, I just know where I want things and I put them there. I'm too impatient for measuring, luckily I have a decent eye...but I fuck shit up sometimes too.

It's funny I got this glasses display idea off of a beautiful mess too!

This blanket was an amazing gift from an amazing roommate I had for a mere 3 months, she was one of the sweetest, kindest most giving people I have met.

So I made 5 million pom poms of varying sizes for an art show these are some of the left overs, my sister has some in her room and there are some in our hallway and a hatbox full of more...yeah I got a little carried away...awesome tutorial can be found here on honestly WTF I love that blog...I mean it's called honestly WTF...its like we are soul mates.

trees and windows. This is why we call our apartment the Treehouse, also the living room is one huge long wall of windows in the trees.

The whale print is by Tara McPherson of course! Love her, love her work, it's tattooed on my body, I have 2 other prints of hers and so does my sister!

Art on the left starting from the left and moving clockwise, Vintage Disneyland Tiki Room Print from when they re-opened it and shag did a bunch of art for it, I have a pair of his prints of the jungle cruise too. By the way I'm mildly obsessed with the tiki culture of the 50's and 60's. 2) oh I LOVE this piece taco head print by John VanFleet love him love his work. and then 3) my dork original which is basically a self portrait.

i just like these colors.

artwork starting from the upper right moving counterclockwise 1) vintage hawaiian print inherited from my grandparents 2) print from the super talented Scott Barry 3) fucking amazing "sketch" of Harry Potter by Tommy Lee Edwards I love his work so much, his work is just insane! 4) cover from the first issue of our little mini comic anthology from back in the day called Nice by Lee Bermejo yes it's me at 18 holding a chainsaw...not much has changed.

collage wall again. Unicorns print by Vol. 25

The artwork in the blue frame is a little painting of my favorite Sandman character delirium by the watercolor genius Rebecca Guay it was a gift from a very good friend. I love her work. The photo is a beautiful one of my grandparents on their porch reading the paper. The brown hat hanging on the wall belonged to my grandfather. It still has his business cards in the rim.

daily reminder It's ok.

So that's my room!

Posted at 10:30 AM in design, diy | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

February 22, 2011

Pretty party time decorations!

oh hello!

Valentine's Day was my little sister's Birthday so we had a party for her this past Saturday at our beautiful apartment. Obviously I had to go crazy making massive decorations and cupcakes...yus! I had an idea in my head how I wanted it to look and gathered inspiration from the following sources...............

Source: confettisystem.com via Katie on Pinterest

and

Source: abeautifulmess.typepad.com via Katie on Pinterest

I had originally planned on making these..............

Source: jordanferney.blogspot.com via Katie on Pinterest

On my hunt to find crepe paper however, I failed to find any in sheets, it was more difficult to find than I thought. If I had planned better I could have found some I'm sure but I had to come up with a plan B. I had a beautiful pile of tissue paper and decided to come up with my own version of all of these!

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First I chose my colors and then I cut out a random triangle pattern through several layers of each color.

Then I cut fringe into the triangles like so »» »» »» »» »» »» »» »» »» »» »» »» »» »» »» »»

and then you get this awesomeness!! »» »» »» »» »» »» »» »» »» »» »» »» »» »» »» »»

Then you take your fringe pieces and wrap the folded edge of 1 fringed piece over twine, securing with tape; repeat.

»»»▲I also had two yes two other banners I planned to make first up this glitter letter banner▲«««

Source: lovelyindeed.com via Katie on Pinterest

Find the full tutorial HERE and I actually first saw this on Creature Comforts one of my favorite blogs! Well anyway I made this »» »» »» »» »» »» »» »» »» »» »» »» »» »» »» »» »» »» »» »» »» »» »» »»

It was a big hit, that's my sister's artwork below it so beautiful! I also fell in love with This Banner and made my own version for the party (This is for PERSONAL use only this is NOT my design!!) Here is the finished look for the party minus the twinkle lights because I took these pictures during the daylight!

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through the windows is our sun porch/studio space so many windows isn't it a dream???!!! So right there you can see some of the stuff I was talking about covering yesterday but now you can't see it because I turned my storage bins into a Bench check it out HERE it's freaking awesome, I felt productive this weekend! I had so much fun and we are kind of in love with the banners...they may be a permanent installation...loves! I also made vegan cupcakes for sister, her favorite, chocolate and vanilla with chocolate buttercream frosting! I also made these little cupcake toppers out of cut wood pieces, sharpie oil paint pens and wood skewers...I didn't get a good picture of the detail though, they were painted in patterns and triangles.

»»»▲I had so much fun creating all of these pretty things for my sisters party!▲«««

We had glow bracelets »» »» »» »» »» »» »» »» »» »» »» »» »» »» »» »» »» »» »» »» »» »» »» »»

»»»▲The Birthday girl and her friend Kirsten▲«««

oh and Albie had a good time too!

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Posted at 10:34 AM in design, diy | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

February 21, 2011

Convert Storage Boxes Into No-Sew Seating DIY!

via www.re-nest.com

I saw this how to on Apartment Therapy today and got really excited!!! I have 3 of these storage bins that were out on my sun porch/studio area and driving me nuts! I was thinking of making curtains to cover that storage area but they were blocking the windows as well so that would still be a problem. Not anymore!!! Now my problem is solved, I think this took me like 35 minutes in total and is super cute! I'm so HAPPY!!!

For the full tutorial look here it's super easy, super useful and all you need are your bins, some plywood, which I already had (a future canvas) and some fabric and then you get this.............

YAY!!!

Posted at 06:00 PM in design, diy | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

February 15, 2011

diy doggie Birthday Party!

Last weekend was my friend Amber's dog Pesto's Birthday and being the nerds that we are, we wanted to throw him a little Birthday Party! Also any excuse to get Pesto and Albie together because Albie loves Pesto and playing with friends and Pesto reluctantly loves Albie back. Amber and Pesto helped choose Albie when we were adopting him because they were our roommates!! Did I mention Pesto is a cutie pie who was turning 3???

So this was the plan of attack..........

Make special doggie cakes
Make doggie party hats
light candles sing happy birthday
take a million pictures
let the pups pig out and play!

It worked out quite well! For the cake we used a version of this recipe totally easy, the dogs went nuts for it and the yummy PB smell (we let them lick the batter and spoons!) We didn't use an egg, we used Bob's red mill egg replacer instead and the honey can easily be omitted/replaced for vegans like me! I also have a great recipe in My Sweet Vegan that is basically the same but vegan! We popped them (we also made cupcakes instead of one big cake) in the oven and then started on making the puppy hats! I also found some great recipes here with cool frosting ideas if your feeling extra adventurous!

For the party hats I found this pattern and even though the design was cute we wanted to make our own so we used it as a template instead!

we printed out the regular sized party hat

then we cutout the template

and got ready to trace it onto a nice thick card stock

then we cutout the outline

Yay time to decorate!!!

we used stickers, glitter pens, wasabi tape, ribbon and little pom poms I had left over from another project!
After we were done decorating we made the cone shape and taped it on the inside with regular scotch tape. Then we cut little slits one on each side and thread the ribbon through taping on the inside to totally secure. For the pom poms we pulled the yarn strings at the top through the hole at the top of the hat and then taped those as well!

Pesto's hat

craft time!

SO CUTE!

Happy Birthday Pesto!!! (Albie's hat!)

Yeah we are GOOD! :)

Time to cool the cakes on a wire rack!

Get the pups ready! They were already tired from playing before it was even cake time haa haa!

um did you know I'm cute???

Seriously MOM i'm CUTE!!!

Birthday boy and mom!

mom please stop taking photos...

ADORBS!

GIVE US CAKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

wait where did the cake go????

CAKE TIME!

Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday dear Pesto, wait he's eating his cake!

I can't see the cake!?!?

Finally CAKE!!!! OMG CAKE!

caaaaaaaaaaakkkkkkkkeeeeeeeee!

So everyone had a blast!!!!! It was super easy, tons of fun and the pups were even more tired than us!!! I hope you enjoyed this puppy party diy as much as I did!! Super fun nerdy, crafty Sunday!

Oh and for kicks this pic of of Albie and Pesto, Albie's hat kept sliding down and with the flash and his light green eyes he looks like an evil villain!!!!

heee heee hee!