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Haha I look like that creepy girl from The Ring

It’s a week late. But  Beautifique Homemade is finally up.

I actually wasn’t sure if it was a good idea to make this site live or not yet because there’s still a whole lot of stuff to do. So I’m considering this the beta version until I figure everything out. I just didn’t want to prolong it from being live anymore as I did set up a deadline for this. It’s still pretty empty, but thankfully I’ve managed to finish setting up most of the hard stuff….! Stay tuned for more updates! Until then…

Happy Hump Day!

Last Thursday I had a pleasure of visiting the fabulously decorated  boutique of designer Michele Varian (in SoHo) for the Creative Inc. book signing event where I got to meet and greet with the wonderful authors of such a resourceful book (and might I add so well designed), Meg Mateo Ilasco and Joy Deangdeelert Cho! It was quite a turn out! It was so great to see such an overwhelming amount of people who came out to show their love and support to these two very talented and inspiring women. I wish them and this book much success!

HAPPY MONDAY!

Oh thank goodness I’m finally done with a significant part of this revamp project. If you’ve been visiting the blog and studio lately it’s undergone a slight face lift but I’m glad we’re coming close to the finish line. Now I can focus my energy on the gazillion and one other things to get done like setting up the boutique which I haven’t touched since last week because of this main site over haul.

Bah. I’m going to stop now before I bore you to death with my nerdy babble. Have fun looking around the new (old) site! Let me know if you find any problems while navigating your way around it.

The DUMBO Arts Festival is always a fun (and might I add free) way to spend a weekend. There’s always a ton of installations and artwork to take in it which can be a bit overwhelming at times but art is suppose to overwhelm..right? We got there a little late last Saturday night but we still managed to see some thought provoking (or mind numbing which ever direction you prefer to go) shows like Eric Corriel, “DUMBO Underwater” which was right across the street from Adam Matta‘s sidewalk performance as a “human beatbox”. Walking into this annual festival I had to be prepared to take in the creativity that sprung out from every which way which is what makes this one of my favorite art festivals in NYC because it feels more like a ride than anything else. This festival is what I always imagine the cirque du soleil family would be doing behind the scenes and during their down time..hehe. An overall good weekend for me…now back to work. HAPPY MONDAY!

Christmas Radio’s playing on Pandora, drinking a nice cup of hot coco, doodling snow flakes, reindeers and elves …‘tis that time of the year again! At the studio at least. Lately I’ve been in complete holiday mode busy preparing for the season rush. Having a ton of fun creating illustrations and design ideas, but what I’m mostly excited about is that a lot of this years cards are predominantly inspired by Parols (traditional Filipino Christmas lanterns).

Growing up I’ve always been fascinated with Christmas Parols. I love everything about them, from the various types of designs, their intricate details, to the scent of baked ube in which I’ve somehow associated them with. Traditionally Parols have two components, the five pointed star and a pair of tails to represent rays of light (think shooting star) which symbolizes the star of Bethlehem that guided the Three Wise Men on their journey. Above is a sneak peek look at this years Parol inspired cards. More updates on this in the weeks ahead!

Happy Thursday!

the Etsy Blog

I usually don’t like getting generic emails from the gazillion online communities I’m apart of, nor do I take the time to open, read and exert my clicking finger to explore the spam-in-disguise-as-a-friendly-email even further. But I’ve got to admit I’m a sucker for Etsy’s blog updates. They’ve got such a great team of bloggers who know just what it takes to inspire .. check out the latest blog about how to photograph 2D art. I totally appreciate the pic by pic play !

Here are a few more Etsy How To Faves: (in no particular order)

Handmade code: Pocket Shop

Etsy Success: Web Analytics Tips

Merch: October Delights

UK EDITION: Photography Tips

Oh those two pirates!

Check out the wonderful collection of Pirate Lovin’ at IvyRoad’s  Treasury ! A list of awesome finds. I’m still pretty amazed at the talent that makes Etsy truely one of a kind community.  So proud that our boys made it to the list! THANKS IVY ROAD! Happy Friday!

Ahhh! So much to do this week and for many weeks ahead!

Taking some time off from juggling work and work and..WORK to express my uncontainable excitement in the upcoming launch of the Boutique! I’ve still got a lot of things to iron out in the weeks ahead before that happens but its definitely taking shape! And hopefully will be ready of its official launching just in time for Halloween! YAYAYAY! Also with this I decided to revamp the portfolio and blog just so everything looks consistent so be sure to come back for those updates soon too.

Happy happy Thursday!

Only 2 days away from my bday! WEE!

A few of weeks ago I got to work on a flyer, featuring the amazing pin up work of  legendary Alberto Vargas, for Bare Escentuals & Sephora at the Venetian to promote their Buxom Babes event for Rockabilly week in Vegas.

I really really had a lot of fun doing this flyer  I’m an extreme fan of pin up art (and Bare Escentuals!) so this job felt no where near like work. An even cooler payoff I just received an awesome “thank you” care package in the mail today chock full of my favorite Bare Escentuals items and then some!

So awesome! Totally excited to play with my new toys! I’m pretty much set for the year. Sweet! Thanks Dee!

So I’ve been slightly obsessed with trying to make a decent looking critter doll. One that wont make my cat runaway. I’m also trying to stop smoking and now my hands are constantly looking for something to do. Seriously? It’s annoying…maybe that’s the nicotine talking but its REALLY annoying that I’m constantly trying to find something else to do other than smoke… So…

This is Malvo. He likes rocks (and long walks on the beach..) and he has a nasty habit of throwing pebbles at people. He’s currently working on diminishing that habit…

This one was a lot of fun to do. I actually made some patterns and had some sort of a plan when putting him together. And although he’s a little lopsided I like this little guy lots…his arms are so fun to swing around!

Here’s a link to the pattern if you’re interested in making your own version. If you do let me know how it turns out!

Since I’m almost done with my Love Es Strange Critters (12 in all), I decided I try to make my own critter doll yesterday…

I’ve always been a GO FOR IT kinda girl when it comes to trying new things. But when it comes to planning and strategizing on how I was actually going to make this such doll,  I didn’t really have a plan (as you can tell).

Even my cat wont go near this one!

Made from one of my many abandoned shirts laying on our attic floor and some freaky ass buttons my mom likes to save (for what? I dont know maybe she hopes that 1910’s  fashion would be back in style soon.)

Happy Hump Day!

Being on a really tight budget totally sucks doesn’t it? Even more so when you’re in the business of self-promoting. Since I realized I can’t afford to pay for new prints every time I need to send out mailers, I decided to have a go at making them myself. Which was quite a daring move for someone who if asked  to cut a straight line it’ll end up looking like a map of Lombard St. in San Francisco.

My office is pretty stocked up with all types of paper and last year I bought an Epson Workforce 500, which is a good printer but really drinks up its ink pretty fast…I’m sure there are plenty of better printers out there.

I actually had a lot of fun doing this. I started off printing my fishy monster on a 6×9 envelope and with that I also printed out some  stickers shaped like  cloudy bubbles with mailing addresses on them. I made them stickers incase I decided not to send it to the company I wouldn’t feel bad about wasting an envelope. Can’t waste paper!

After the envelope and mailing sticker labels I had to plan out an execution for the actual samples and since I’m making them myself I decided to have a little bit of fun with this:

Step 1: Marinating The Meat

I chose some work to print on an 8.5×11 card stock front and back, this would be my main sample so I made sure to include my information in every nook and cranny (tastefully of course…)

Step 2: Cooking The Meat

I folded the sample set four ways so that it would have a front, interiors, and a back. Yes like a card.

Step 3: Creating the Meat Tray

On an 8.5×11 card stock again, I printed out the little case in which I would place my samples in, I also used it to print out my letter of introduction. I then cut the paper in half – 5.5×8.5 – so that I can