A friend emailed me the other day about a Frida Kahlo-inspired class taking place at the Mesa Art Center in January. I rounded up some girlfriends, headed out for Mexican food and off to the center we went to play with watercolors, stamps, construction paper and embossing guns. The class, which was subsidized by Target (how I love thee Tarjay, let me count thy ways), cost just $1! It normally costs $30, but thanks to Target and all those community dollars they spend, we got to make 5 cards for a buck. Plus, the awesome instructor told us there were extras and if we had enough time to make more — so I made 10.
One of my favorite memories of the day was when I sat next to Paul, a 60ish gentleman who was obviously out of place. He first asked me who this “Furda” person was and I told him about Freee-duh. I explained the Mexican artist holds a bit of a spell over many women.
I’d never seen this technique before. The card’s inside paper is attached with embroidery thread woven through two small holes.
We admire her intelligence, curiosity, creativity, passion, strength and ability not to kill the great love of her life, who ended up sleeping with her sister. I wanted to say, “Haven’t you at least seen the movie? Yes, Salma has a mustache, but wowie. She is gorgeous regardless.” By the end of the afternoon, Paul and I had bonded over rubber stamping and Mexican artists. I nearly had him hating Diego Rivera too.
I learned a new technique on this one too — masking. You cut out an exact replica of your major stamp (Frida) and then place it over the original image so you can stamp a background stamp perfectly around her. Then you remove the mask and voila — background without marring your original image. You can’t tell, but she is embossed and sparkly — perfect just as Frida should be.
No word yet on the February $1 Target class, but you’d better bet my crafty, frugal self will be signed up pronto.
~K