I teach classes on a Monday at the Dragonfly Shops & Gardens in Orange. Such a cute place,by the way!! Everybody is friendly and lovely and amazing that works there. 

So when the owner Beth asked if I could do a particular project as a class. I jumped to the opportunity! What a fantastic idea! A family birthday calendar. Now she only showed it to me on her laptop and my idea is very different from the original. But using mediums such as transfer gel and texture paste and antique painting techniques, you can create your very own calender and make sure you will never forget a birthday again. Needed, right? 


I will soon have dates and times available of more classes!

And Lisa said: 
"I'm so impressed with my class with Erna! Starting with a blank piece of wood from the hardware store, I had my doubts whether this could really turn out to be something I want to display in my house. Erna made everything so easy. She had everything ready and showed me exactly what to do. The making it was fun and she made me feel like I couldn't mess it up! Class was comfortable and relaxed and that plain slab of wood looks fantastic!"

A 2 hour art lesson normally consists of me showing and explaining what we will learn, describing the technique and medium we will use and show more samples. Today's lesson was complimentary to last week's lesson where we did the color wheel. We learned again about cool colors and warm colors and did beautiful landscapes. However as the lesson progress and we all are busy and know what to do, we make turns to pick a song to listen on my Spotify account on my iPhone.
Call me maybe is a very popular song, just so you know. Picked as a song of choice around 3-5 times in one single lesson. And then they sing... so I would love to share with you my sweet artists singing :-) Adorable!

A couple of months ago I donated stuff to a thrift store when this chair jumped in front of me... Ruan immediately tested it! (and then didn't want to get of) It can swivel, it can turn, go up and down, it has wheels... it's all wood AND in good condition! 
An amazing find! For sure!
And then I think... but do I really NEED it?

So Ruan sits and sits.. (swivel and turn) and I am thinking... So to convince myself even more, the next 'test' will be, will it fit in my car? If it does its a YAY if not well obviously it will stay... It did... and now it's in my study/studio corner in my house :-)

But although I love the wood and all... I sit a lot and it gets hard, really hard, so I decided to test my sewing skills. 

So below another DIY project. I LOVE how it turned out. Brighten up my corner for sure! :-)

Strips of colorful fabric sewn together on a piece of fabric that will become your cushion cover.

I kind of sew wildly there... no straight lines for me. Then i added some flowers... very easy to make. As shown in my picture. Three strips of fabric layered on a circle of fabric and sewn together. Then a tiny piece rolled up in a coil for the center piece. 
And just let go and sew. No need to be perfect. No straight lines.

and I am done! Happy & comfy! 

So last week we were filmed on location in Santa Ana, CA. The kids went crazy when they saw the camera and it was a hectic but really fun lesson.
We explored the color wheel and in stead of just having a painted circle... we transformed them into umbrellas! Look at our amazing water color paintings! btw. our umbrella can totally turn around. Kids loved them!

My first DIY project on my blog! A chalkboard Memo board.

I painted several coats of chalk paint criss-cross on the foam board. I used colored paper to cut out triangles so I could create the bunting flag idea. The glue gun came in pretty handy to get all the pieces together and I stuck my bunting flags onto the foam board. Cut out your cork in your desired size and shape and stick it on your foamboard. (make sure to see how foam board fits in the frame and stick your cork so it will not go under your frame)  Then I added the 'To-Do' in scrabble pieces. I had some washi tape and cardboard cutouts that I wanted to add. With a little paint I made a wash around my cutouts to create a 3D effect.

I recently discovered Dimensional Magic from Mod Podge. That worked perfectly for my word MEMO. I wanted to add a bubble effect to my plain flat surfaced stamp. So after I glued it with mod podge onto hard card stock I added the dimensional magic on top. It takes about 2-3 hours to dry. After I cut the circles out I used the glue gun again to add it to my bunting flags.
That was the very last step in completing the memo board.

* This will also be my project at Jo-Anns in Barranca Parkway in Irvine during the month of June.

Last week I had the most fun Art Camp at the community center in Santa Ana CA. It was so much fun to be in the company of girls everyday from 9-12. We did the most amazing artwork and explore working in oil and soft pastels. Acrylic paint and water color.  From cutting chain people out of color paper to making paper dolls.
Below are some of the samples of the classes.

Happy Easter everyone!
We made beautiful bunnies! We used soft pastels on white paper.

I am messy, disorganized and forgetful and need a little help...  well most days that is. I love to tick of on my list as the day goes on and also like to have my to do list all in one place. So I was thinking about some sort of planner to help me get more organized. Combined with my girl drawings I made a whimsical to-do and to-be list! A friend suggested a dry erase board and I couldn't agree more! What a perfect idea! Thank you Alana for your input and feedback :-)


Coming soon too purchase!

I love origami and I love to fold beautiful paper. I am always looking for fun and kid friendly activities and this is a cute way to make Easter crafts with your kids. 

A free download to try out :-)

Placement on paper, proportion of the mannequin, shading techniques, looking at shadows.. all of this was in our lesson today.