Tiny Bubbles... Day of the Dead Wedding and Party Favors by Bones Nelson

Now available in my Etsy Store, Bones Nelson are sets of bubble wands with gorgeous, colorful, festive Dia de los Muertos labels I designed and apply in house.

Day of the Dead for Christmas? Yes! And Krampus, too

if you've never heard of Grub vom Krampus then allow me to introduce you to a fella who has been terrorizing children up in Northern Europe for more than a hundred years now  He's a counterpart to Santa which sort of makes sense when you think about it; wherever there's a good guy there's his arch nemesis, right?  

Jolly Old Saint Nick looks even saintlier when pictured next to old Krampus.  

See what I mean?  

So I've worked on a few designs, stylizing the demonic creature a couple of ways in order to offer a funny, dark alternative to the usual cast of characters.  Have a look:

Gift Tags and Gift bags... I hand cut that stamp you see on the bags - my first time using that technique in nigh on 25 years, I'd say.  (you like that?  I said "nigh on."  I'm not as old as that makes me sound but it kinda goes with the medieval vibe of the photos, right?  sure, right.)  Anyway I loved carving - especially now that Speedball has this soft easy-cut material.  I'll likely do lots more in the New Year.  

For now though Christmas holiday season approaches so I've got a few new items on offer for that.  In the coming days I'll post more, but for now have a look at my little Mexican Folk Art Snowman cards, and see if you might want to pick up a printed set, or buy the file to print your own!

you gotta fill one or more of these, don't forget!

All of this stuff and a lot more is available through my Etsy shop, BONES NELSON .  You can also visit me on Facebook at Bones Nelson Art or have a look at my website (which I badly need to revamp soon) Sherri Nelson Artworks

All the best for Halloween!  
Sherri

All Things Unrelated: Paintings, Desserts & Highly Questionable Coffee Table Books

This is not an overly disciplined working day, I must say.  I have been going back and forth between listening to motivational speeches on the Youtube to looking up Thai desserts to painting.  The lack of focus on any one thing has produced lackluster results thus far. See photo of coconut vanilla mousse, below:

I know that this is nothing to write about, yet I can't seem to stop myself from doing it anyway.  What you are looking at, above, is Vanilla-Coconut Mousse.  If I left it at that perhaps you'd believe me to be creative and competent.  Hmmm.. should I?  Should I leave it at that then?  :)  Argh, I can't do it.  I have to confess that it's merely a packet of Dr Oetker mix blended with half a can of coconut milk and spooned indelicately into a fruit dish.  Even the photo of it is sub-par.  I mean look at the way the curly-q top seems to come out of the edge of the dish there.. *sigh*  but you know, the colours aren't bad.  And the background makes it look like I might live somewhere lush and exotic, so you know, it could be worse.

On to the work of art I'm creating with only a third of my brain engaged:

Look at the way the vase leans awkwardly!  Check out those checks!  And the funny little orchid blooms which I wanted to look subtly like skulls peeking out of hoods actually look very OBVIOUSLY like skulls and unfortunately the hoods are reminiscent of a dark period in US history  Well.. one or two of them are anyway.  

Which reminds me..

This book happens to be sitting on the side table up in the roof observatory of the building I live in. It's about the Olympic torch run in Canada, maybe for the Montreal Olympics or something.. but... come ON!  That is not the picture I would have selected for use had I been the editor, and it is not an item I would have selected for display had I been the decorator of the room, either.

So yeah, nothing brilliant up with me today.  Maybe tomorrow. I think it probably takes a day or two for those motivational messages to kick in.  Yeah, that's got to be right.