Giveaway Time!

Today I'm doing a little bit of inventory and I've decided to have a giveaway. I pulled a few items that are now up for grabs.

 

Win one of 2 Lucha Mask pillows.

 

or a pair of Funky Chica sunglasses

 

a Frida pendant necklace  and moon earrings

In total I will be choosing 4 winners.  You can enter multiple times.

How to enter:

 (1)Share this link on your Facebook or Twitter page, then comment to let us know you shared.

(2) Refer 2 friends to our Facebook page and have them tell us you sent them.

(3) Follow our blog (already a follower, then just leave a comment.)

(4) Refer a friend to our blog.

Winners will be chosen at random and announced Friday, Sept. 7, 2012.

Good Luck!

 

Tutorial: Sequined Sugar Skull Hairclip/ Pin

 

 It's been a while since I've written a tutorial, but I thought with Dia de los Muertos right around the corner now was a good time. I LOVE shiny, sparkly things. Sequins is #1 on my list of favorite sparkly objects. Growing up my mom use to make sequined pins for every holiday. I loved to watch her make the pins. Every now and then she let me help out. I must say I've improved over the years. (Last year I made 2 giant sequined pieces.) Once you've gotten past the first few sequins it gets super easy, you can zone out in front of the tv for a while and just keep going.

 To make your own sequined hairclip/ pin you'll need the following:

White pre stiffened felt

Black sticker felt

Extra fine beading needles

Clear seed beads

Thread- black & white

Ball point pen

Scissors

Pin back

Hair clip

Sequins- 

8mm white

8mm black

5mm black

5mm purple

5mm teal

5mm orange

Glue gun

Pattern

 Step 1: Draw the image onto white felt with a ball point pen. (Ball point pens are best for drawing on felt because they write smoothly and do not bleed.)

I Love Comic Books!

I know it's probably something you don't hear girls say very often, but it's true. When I was younger my dad would buy me comic books. I'd look through them amazed with the illustrations, truthfully I didn't always read them , I just LOVED the illustrations. I'm a fan of both DC and Marvel comics but Superman has always had my heart. When I was in high school I would practice my drawing skills by drawing the images from my comic books.
This summer I took my kids to the comic book shop for the first time. I think I enjoyed it more than they did. I'm actually looking forward to them going back to school so I can head over there and really look around. I didn't purchase any comics, I went on a mission to find a Munny figure, which I did.
Back on track, comic books, I love them. I MADE ONE! Two actually. My mom had been telling me that I should write a book about my Cucuy characters. I had a few customers mention how cool a comic about my characters would be. I finally sat down and started drawing. At first I was going for a children's book, building off the story line my mom had in mind. I just wasn't feeling the story book format. That's when I decided I had to turn the story into a comic book.

It's not a full size comic book, but a cute little mini comic book. I've decided I'm going to make it a monthly series. I have two completed as of this week. Issue #1 has been for sale in my shop for a few weeks. Issue #2 will be for sale September 1st.

I'm growing addicted to creating them. I have the story line for Issue #3 in my head. I hope to have a chance to draw it out this weekend. I also have a few other series in my head, I think  Luchamals (masked wrestling animals) will be next.

Meet Mr. Longoria

I've been very busy the past few weeks. Jumping from one project to another gets exhausting. I plan on sharing some pictures of the work I've been doing but I thought that today I would share something else. Today I want to tell you about Mr. Longoria, aka the other half of Studio Longoria, aka Aaron.
He has been very busy lately too. Aaron does woodwork. He started a few years ago making small items, mostly crosses. Really beautiful crosses.

 

Recently he has started working on a larger scale. Last week he made this awesome cabinet for my studio. It holds all my paints, brushed, pencils and other supplies, it also doubles as a table.

 Today he finished up restoring this cool sewing table, turning it into an accent table. It's so pretty, I'm sad that I have no room for it in my studio or I'd keep it for myself.

Here are a few more pieces he's made recently. 

A hair on hide bench for his mom.

 

 A book shelf to replace the book shelf that mysteriously fell over and broke when no one was around (except the kids.)

 I've got to give it to him, for someone who is self taught, he's doing an awesome job. He has more projects planned. I can't wait to see what else he come up with. 

Fingers crossed it's a new kitchen table.

It's Lucha Time

For the past few weeks I've thrown myself into painting. Sometime I don't do often. I have to take my cousin Kristina for getting my into painting. Last month she asked for a custom painting, she gave me a little direction and let me at it. She loved it so much she asked for another painting, this one was going to be a gift for a friend. I had so much fun painting her paintings that I decided to paint something for myself.
I love flamingos, they are my absolute favorite animal. I started my flamingo painting and as I was about to finish I dripped black paint on its face! Who does that? Me of course. I cleaned up my supplies and turn out the lights in my studio, feeling super sad and defeated. The next morning I went back in determined to fix my flamingo. My artwork tends to be kind of silly so I thought how about turning that black splat into a cool mask, a super hero mask. So that's what I did. I left him alone for a week not loving the way he turned out. During this time we were on vacation when inspiration hit. I couldn't wait to get home and fix my flamingo once again. This time I knew what I wanted him to be... El Flamingo Feroz, or The Fierce Flamingo, the greatest animal luchador in the zoo!

The ideas came flying out from there. As of today I've painted 10 different Luchamals (Luachdor + Animals). Last Friday I took a shot and took some prints of my Luchamals to an art show. I sold 3 of them! I even had a customer order 5 custom Luchamal paintings!!! I'm so excited about the response to my Luchamals.
I was invited to vend at another upcoming art show called Vinyl Thoughts. This show features Munny's created by local artist. I decided to get in the spirit by creating my own. I bought my blank yesterday, I went for Trikky because he was shaped like a cat. Today I turned Trikky into "El Jaguar Jeopardous". I can't wait to show him off at the show. I may have to take a trip back to the comic book store and buy a few more blanks.

Here's a peak at my new series of paintings Luchamals . Prints are available in my new Society6 shop www.society6.com/StudioLongoria and on etsy www.StudioLongoria.etsy.com

Keepin' Busy

 I know it's been a while since I've posted but I've been keeping pretty busy. It's summer and the kids are home, on top of that I start my summer teaching job next week. I'm really excited to get the opportunity to teach kids how to draw. I remember growing up I would draw all the time. My parents fostered my love for art in many ways, my dad and I would sit together with a stack of paper and the newspaper funny pages. He would challenge me to try and draw the comic strips as close to the originals as possible. Mom always had craft projects that she would let me work on. All week I've been drawing with my boys. It's been fun and exciting to see their creations. All this drawing got me back to the computer. I've decided to turn some of the digital drawings that I've drawn for my dolls and pillows, into prints. I've been working on back grounds, settings and all kinds of details to bring my characters to life on paper. I still have to find the right paper and ink to print them, but I love the way they are coming out. I hope you like them too :)

 

Inspiration

I love flamingos! That being said I've been thinking about designing a flamingo plush. So last night I started to look for inspiration. I couldn't help but put together this lovely Flamingo treasury on Etsy.