Merry Christmas to those who celebrate! Christmas is my favorite time of year, so I did this little cutie to celebrate. She is inspired by my favorite vintage greeting cards. I have some more art to post but that probably won't happen til the new year. Happy New Year to all! thanks for the support by reading my blog, coming to see me at conventions, liking my work on social media, commissioning me to do artwork and all the other ways that you support me. I really do appreciate it and it means a lot to me. Can't wait til 2015. I already have East Coast Comic Con lined up and lots of ideas for new work!

xoxox

Maria

I am having a Cyber Monday sale at my etsy site in case anybody is interested! 15% off everything in my store which right now includes tote bags, lots of prints, pin up coloring book and a Christmas greeting card. Happy Holidays to all!

Merry Christmas and a happy New Year!

so another holiday season and year is about to come to an end. the year flew by pretty fast! it was a pretty big year for me, as I put my apartment for sale early in 2013 and actually sold it for a decent price, moved to a new place in Manhattan, all in under one year! Also did some conventions which went really well, so it was a pretty good year. Art wise I am trying to come up with some new products like maybe jewelry? I haven't done any yet because I am fussy about jewelry and want it to have a certain look and feel. The next thing I am definitely going to be working on is an art book, since my coloring book did pretty well. (only 3 copies left!) I am also thinking about getting a tshirt that I designed made. Of course I'd also love to continue working on new artwork, especially new paintings. With that said, I'd like to wish everybody a wonderful and healthy New Year, and for those who celebrate a very Merry Christmas :)

oh and here's the Christmas card I designed this year!

xoxox

Maria

Holiday crafting

I restocked my etsy store and am offering 15% off sale on everything in my store, no minimum order required! Hope all who celebrated had a nice Thanksgiving. I enjoyed the time off and decided to craft a holiday wreath for my new apartment.

I have been really into pompoms for a while (I even started a pompom rug a number of years ago) and they seem to be all the rage these days on pinterest, so I decided to try my hand at making a Christmas pompom wreath! I love to make crafty things and bake, but this is probably the biggest craft project I have actually taken on and finished. The whole thing took a while because I made a pretty big wreath. I used craft yarn from Michaels (the cheap stuff works way better than good quality yarn)  and I used this clover pompom maker to make the pompoms. For the base I used a Styrofoam wreath form and I hot glued the pompoms directly on it.  I would recommend slowly making the pompoms over time and then assembling your wreath. I finished it off with a premade bow and some jingle bells and hung it over the fireplace.

I did not use a specific tutorial, I just found things at Michaels I thought would work but here is a pretty good tutorial courtesy of Blue bird vintage

Hope you are enjoying the holiday season!

Holiday Baking

I hope everybody who celebrated had a very Merry Christmas! I said I'd be back with some of my holiday baking, and while I didn't make as much as I wanted to, I did manage to make some stuff I am proud of! First I set out to make cake pops again, as I have for the last few holidays. For some reason, most of them did not work out. out of about 25 I only got 12 good ones! I also didn't manage to get too many good pictures either. Here is one from inside my fridge.

These are chocolate peanut butter with white chocolate shells. Luckily, the few that made it were very tasty and pretty too!

I really wanted to make salted nutella fudge but again, time got away from me, as I worked right up until Christmas Eve, and these cake pops took longer than anticipated. On Christmas Eve I went to my sisters place and we attempted to make French Macarons. We made the batter twice, and I am happy to say, they worked out perfectly the second time! We made them plain with chocolate ganache. Of course them being one of the most notoriously difficult cookies to make, the second batch cracked in the oven and did not look like the first one. Same exact batter, same everything! Our theory is that the oven was just too hot after the first batch. But we figure one good batch is better than none! Behold!

so shiny and perfect!! we are not sure they are worth the effort to make them from scratch again (but we probably will. hah!) but we are so proud to say we got perfect French macarons on our first try!

As for art, I am hoping to be back with a New Years pin up before the New Year :)

Hope everyones Christmas was sweet!

Christmas time!

Its almost Christmas and that means new Christmas art! Christmas is my favorite time of the year and I always try to design a card for the occasion. This years is my favorite! I took inspiration from vintage greeting cards which I have a small collection of. They are my absolute favorites! So here is my card and some inspiration:

 

and check out this wonderful flickr for some examples of vintage greeting cards. I love them all so much! here are some of my favorites for Christmas

      

I will be back before Christmas to share some of my baking with everyone. I find baking is something I am enjoying more and more so why not share it! :)

Happy Holidays

Ok, I know its not Christmas yet, but I am a bit of a Christmas nerd--no not a bit, a lot! I love it all! I started decorating my apartment and got inspired to design this years Christmas card. I actually love the way it came out! I put this card up for sale on etsy if you'd like to send your friends and family a naughty Christmas pin up. Grandma would love it! :)

Holiday show update/Merry Christmas!

I didn't get to participate in the girls drawin girls holiday show this year, unfortunately. It seems my package was lost in the mail and never made it to LA! and sadly I did not get insurance on it (but luckily it was not original artwork, just prints, but it was still signed artwork in frames and it hurts that they are lost) here is hoping that somehow they get sent back to me.

I would like to start participating in more shows in the NYC or surrounding area, I love participating in GDG shows and events but the stress and cost of having to send artwork and merch to LA from NY--and facing the real possibility that the work will get lost, is getting a bit too much. I need to just focus on maybe participating in 1 or 2 shows and events with the group per year and focus on that instead of trying to over extend myself and participate in more!

In happier news, my cards over at snapfish are doing well and it has been a lot of fun designing for them. I am actually planning on branching out and selling a collection of greeting cards that can be customized on my etsy site, so stay tuned for that. In the meantime, please visit my snapfish store!

I would also like to wish any and all readers a very Merry Christmas if they celebrate, and a Happy and prosperous New Year filled with lots of art, happiness and love!

New Holiday art

Hello all!
happy December! I recently completed a new Holiday themed piece for the upcoming Girls Drawin Girls Holiday show. Check it out! This peice will be on sale, framed and matted for only $20. I will post more information about the show soon!

Merry Christmas 2009!

Merry Christmas! Since I did not have time to make a Christmas card this year :( here are some of my favorite Christmas images from flickr!

1. campbelles_bellringer, 2. Christmas Pinup, 3. R.I.P. Bettie Page, 4. BE HIS CHRISTMAS STAR! 1963 Frederick's of Hollywood Holiday Catalog, 5. Ballantyne Calender/December, 6. elvgren christmas, 7. Christmas pinup, 8. Cowgirl Christmas, 9. Two blue gifts, 10. BH&G Magazine Ad: Christmas Ideas For 1963, 11. 1950's PLAYBOY Christmas Card...Features Playmate Janet Pilgrim, 12. Xmas 09