My First Giclee Print: Girl and Dragon

Hey everyone!

I couldn't wait to share with you all some exciting news! As you know I have ordered my very first giclee print and I finally picked it up today! There were some complications with the printer (as in it broke) so I had to wait an extra week for them to order a new special printer before it was ready. I'm so happy with the results and so I took some pictures for you :)

Here is me with the unveiling of the amazing print! It's the the first time I've seen it though, since I had to see it at the print shop to confirm, but still, that sounds way more dramatic. In any case, I was still happy to see it again. The owner of the print shop (River City Digital Graphics), Jim commented that he liked the painting and that I did a great job with it :) That was so great to hear, especially since he has been painting for a very long time. He also said that I did a great job with the digital image as it looks as good as if it were scanned (I took a picture with my camera with strategic lighting). That also was amazing to hear; it's always good to get confirmation that you are doing a good job.

Now that I have an archival quality print of this painting, I will be happy to share both with Andi and have him pick which ever one he wants to have. After all, this painting wouldn't have existed without him.

So that was my exciting news for today. That makes two posts in one day! Yowza :) Until next time!

<3 Kara

DIY Lace Trimmed Shorts

Good evening y'all!

While visiting Seattle last month, my best friend Elyse and I worked on a sewing project and I wanted to show you what we did!

Many people were pinning and re-pinning these cute lace trimmed shorts and I wanted one so bad! The only problem: I didn't have a sewing machine. But I knew that there was one at Elyse's house, and she was more than happy to help me with this project. We had a blast hanging out, talking and doing crafty things. She helped me with the shorts and also she crocheted these super cute headbands that I will blog about it another post! She is so talented, she could probably make good money selling her stuff. Furthermore, she is so generous for letting me use some of her lace from her stash, the sewing machine and also helping me sew it. I was quite incompetent at the sewing machine (something I plan on fixing) so she had to step in :)

So we started by going to Goodwill to find a pair of jeans to cut up. That day I left Goodwill with an awesome pair of boot cut Banana Republic jeans that fit me perfectly all around. They were even hemmed up to the perfect length for me. After going through Elyse's lace collection together, and choosing potential lace pieces, we agreed to meet another day to sew.

The next meeting, I really didn't have the heart to cut up such a perfect pair of denim. The funny thing was that Elyse mentioned on the first trip to Goodwill, "What if you liked these so much you didn't want to cut them up?" So we made a second trip to Goodwill and felt pretty hopeless when I saw a pair of destroyed Hollister jeans hanging on the discard rack. Those also fit me perfectly and I didn't hesitate cutting off the legs because the knees were too destroyed to my liking.What a lucky day!

Step 1: The lace I decided to use is pictured in the top right. Notice the cute piggies embroidered on it? I was so excited when I noticed it way late. Think about it: who puts piggies on lace trim? So cute! Anyway, the bottom right image shows the Hollister denim that I decided to use. We started by marking the line where we wanted to cut on the leg. I chose it to be just above mid-thigh because I am not a big fan of short-shorts.

Step 2: We turned the shorts inside out and sewed up the hem about half an inch. Elyse started the hem and I tried to finish. The key word here is "try" because I failed miserably. I couldn't keep the hemline straight, so Elyse took over. Isn't she so kind? She actually ended up sewing the rest of it. She doubled sewed the hem to ensure that it was sturdy since this is denim.

Step 3: The finishing step was to sew on the lace along the inside of the denim. We made sure the lace would overlap on the inner thigh so that the lace would be uninterrupted around the rest of the leg.

The finishing of finishing step is to try on the shorts and see how it looks.  And I think it looks pretty cute, don't you? They are so cute I  wore these shorts the rest of that day :)

We went to her backyard to take some pictures for this blog. She also let me use her Buddy scooter for the pictures and they turned out great! Thanks Elyse for helping every step of the way. I had such an amazing time with you ^_^

I hope you enjoyed this post about the process of making these shorts. If you have questions about this process or would like to make a pair for yourself, please let me know! I I would love to see what you came up with. Until next time!

<3 Kara

Dragon Boat Painting

Here's my caption for the piece:

"As an immigrant in the fast paced America, it’s becoming harder and harder to stay connected to the Khmer culture. That’s why it’s so important for Khmers to come together and help each other keep the connection strong. Similar to the dragon boat needing all of it’s paddlers to move together to race for the goal, our culture needs every Khmer to stay dedicated to preserving our culture."

During the 2009 Khmer New Year celebration, I heard an announcement looking for artists to paint something about our Khmer culture because the municipality is having an APA Heritage Month Exhibit from late April to late May, and there was a segment about Khmer and Cambodia. SO! I jumped right to it. Although I got really short notice, I finished it in 3 days, which shows through because there are many things that I could improve on. In any case, I was able to get it in on time, and it was up in the 3rd floor lobby of the Seattle Municipal Tower for about 2 or 3 weeks. I was HAPPY!!!  This is the first time my art has gone up any where outside of school!! I submitted a short bio of myself and the piece and everything! Sadly, I was unable to attend the reception because of class, but my piece on a public exhibit is pretty darn cool! Also, I submitted this piece for a publication in my university called the Matrix. The issue's theme was "Identity & Culture" so I thought this was perfect!

I need to take a moment to say a special thank you to my high school art teacher, Ms. D! She's so amazing! She hasn't been my art teacher since high school (which at the time of this painting was 2 years past), but she was still very willing to help me with my art when I needed it!! Also, thanks to my friends for all the support and encouragement in those 3 stressful days! They had to deal a lot with my crankiness and frustrations.

All in all, this was an exciting piece for me. I was very passionate about dragon boat racing, so the subject matter was very personal. In addition, this was the first time my piece was shown outside of a school environment. However, I do wish I had more time with it to work on hand studies, body proportions, siting poses, etc. Plus, it would be nice if the people on the boat had life jackets! >_<

I hope you enjoyed reading about this painting. Until next time!!

<3 Kara

MLK Backdrop: A Poster from my past :)

Good afternoon Lured Ones!

I hope you all are having a great week, but if not, have no fear for the weekend is here! ... well it's coming!

So it's been a couple days since my last post and I want to keep the goodies coming! I just started on a new project-- a 17"x13" colored pencil piece. I will not be showing updates for this as I go along because it's going to be someone's Christmas gift! I love giving gifts, especially things that I've made, but my problem is being too excited to hide the secret. So we will see how long it takes for me to crack. I will also be starting on two other pieces that are also going to be holiday gifts, so I won't be updating about those either. Or at least I will try my very best not to. If the secret gets out then I guess there's no harm in that, but for now the secret remains!

In the meanwhile, some eye-candy for you all! I am sharing a poster I did back in high school. I was in ASB (student government) and organizations pretty much the whole high school experience, and I was of course the one to make or take part in a lot of posters. During my senior year, I designed and rallied a small team to make sever huge posters for assemblies. The one I am sharing was from a Martin Luther King Jr. assembly. I am not sure on the exact dimensions, but it's even taller than me! I did it with some help from my art teacher and ideas from friends. This was acrylics on butcher paper. Since they were usually gigantic and put up only to be taken down after the event, I didn't have the resources to use actual canvas or panels. So butcher paper was my best friend :)

I hope you like it! More posters to come your way soon! I will be going back to Seattle stay with my baby sister while my parents are out of the country for a month. So I won't have my supplies to paint or anything, but I will be bringing my nice colored pencils that my husband gifted me for Christmas one year. Hopefully, I get some colored pencil stuff done and will be able to share those. Otherwise, I will be sharing older things that I've done in the past. In any case, it's fun to look back.

Have a wonderful weekend, Lured Ones! Until next time...

<3 Kara

Poppies with Courtney

Good afternoon y'all!

It's been a while since my last post, but don't worry, I haven't forgotten! My friend Courtney was visiting from out of town for the last 6 days, so I've been spending lots of time with her; lots of sun and lots of pool time! While she was here we also went to Whimsy Art Studio for a painting class and had a blast! We went for the Poppies session and it was so much fun. You can see the paintings we did above. I love doing these type of wine with painting classes because you don't paint alone. When I'm alone in my own painting space, the way I go about painting is very different than when I'm socializing with others in a class and enjoying a glass of wine (not that I can't enjoy wine in my own painting space). The class and socializing frees me up and I paint more fluidly and freely. I don't have to agonize about the technique I must use to produce the results I'm looking for. In the class, I just follow the instructor's tutorial, relax and let go. It's nice too that I can add my own flare to the painting if I want to :) I've done classes like this 3 times now and I love it! It's a great date or double date night and also girls night!

I've noticed this new trend in painting where people can go to tutorial classes and drink the wine they bring. The first time I had this experience was at Painting with a Twist, and Whimsy Art Studio is the second place I've visited. I have also noticed another location in San Antonio called Vino van Gogh and want to check this place out too. Maybe I'll do a date night with my husband at Vino van Gogh in the near future. This location is the closest to where we live, so it's a lot more convenient. I'm sure there are more studios that offer this painting class where you can bring your own wine, but these are the 3 I know of. If you think this is something you might want to do, I highly recommend looking for one in your area. It's so fun! And if you go with your boy/girl-friend, friend(s), or your spouse, you guys can have matching paintings!

The way these places usually work is they have a calender with different paintings you can do. Each day is a different painting and they rotate each month I think. You sign up and pay for a class for one evening to do one painting.. You can do this alone but usually people sign up in duos or groups. Each class lasts about 2 hours.You may bring wine (or other beer or soda if you prefer for some places) and drink that while you paint. The instructor will walk you through each step of the painting and the whole experience is very relaxing.

At Whimsy Art Studio, I learned that the instructor is an attorney and paints as a hobby. She decided to open up a wine and painting class studio and rocked it. She's only been open for 2 months, but it looks like she's doing great. I was so excited to hear that because I want to earn a law degree but I also want to paint, so there is hope for me yet!

So that's my latest art adventure. I hope you enjoyed reading about it :) Until next time...

<3 Kara