Handmade valentines & learning Hebrew

I'm trying to learn Hebrew, and so for my valentines this year I decided to write "love" in Hebrew. It's pronounced "ahava" and spelled אהבה .

I made them out of repurposed thin cardboard from a coffee cup carrier (and some scrap card stock with drafts of illustrations on it), which I painted with watercolors, and then drew on with gel pens and markers.

Practicing drawing mouths

Recent illustrations

Some mail art and illustrations I've made recently. The map is meant to be Union Square in Somerville, Massachusetts.

Handmade Mother's Day card

I made this card for my mom with gel pens on card stock.

Illustrated Boom Boom the cat glitter holiday ornament

Happy December!

I made this Christmas tree ornament for my friend, with an illustration of her cat Boom Boom. I also used lots of glitter, because why not?

I drew Boom Boom on white card stock, then pasted him onto gold glitter paper which I cut into a circle using zigzag scissors. Then I cut a piece of cardboard into a slightly larger circle, wrapped gold tissue paper around it, which I secured with glue, and gathered the ends of the tissue paper on the front, to be covered by the glitter paper. I also added some extra glitter on top of the tissue paper to give it more sparkle. Then I used a hole punch to make a hold for the ribbon.

It's so cute in a little gift box!

Illustrated pecan pie magnet and fabric bag

I made this glittery magnet for a loved one whose favorite pie is pecan.

I drew the pie on card stock using markers and colored pencils. Then I covered it in a coat of Mod Podge, added a little gold glitter, and stuck a magnet to the back of it (on top of another layer of card stock to keep it firm).

The back of the magnet

I made this little fabric bag to put the magnet in.

Birthday banner with collage and stamps

I've been working on this birthday banner for my best friend Christine for the past couple days, and I finished it last night! It is double sided so it can either be hung in a large doorway/opening, or turned around to the non-birthday specific side and used at any time of year.

It says, "Happy birthday Christine!" in gold sharpie. It is easier to read in real life.

I stamped white card stock with bingo stamps that I got on a recent trip to Florida where I went to bingo night with my aunt. Then I put purple "HAPPY BIRTHDAY" stamps on top of that with a label stamp that can spell out anything. I colored white ribbon gold with a gold sharpie.

The back is collaged with prints, flowers, and hearts.

This was the back of one of the collaged sides, and I tested out a stamp color on it (which I decided would be too dark), but I thought it was a beautiful composition, even though it was unintentional.

Collage journal gift

I made this journal for my friend for a holiday present.

The front

Open

The binding

The back

Close up

How I made this:

I used half sheets of 8.5" x 11" printer paper that I had left over from making zines (there is an odd number of pages in one of my zines that prints two pages to a sheet, so I am always left with a bunch of blank half sheets). Then I cute a piece of card stock in half so it was the same size, and cut out a bunch of magazine strips that had prints I liked. Then I arranged them all on the card stock so there was no white space left, and used a glue stick to glue them to the card stock. Then I put all the blank pages together with the cover (card stock) page, and stapled it in the middle (it's important to get it pretty much exactly in the middle so it will fold in half correctly) with the long stapler I use for binding zines. That's it!