The coming of the Lord is near!
Hello! ¡Hola! I love the Holy-Days season, with all the blessed festivities involved. This week alone, we had an Angel Tree party for 20 children and their families that my parish adopted for Christmas; a diocesan-wide zoom discussion on an Advent podcast series titled, Stories of Movement and Migration; my wife and I volunteered to ring the bell for the Salvation Army at our local Walmart; and a celebration of the Feast of Guadalupe at my church. Of course, I also had a chapel service for our parish school children, which is always a blessing.
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| Holy Family Mixed Media Tag Tag Along December Challenge - Red & Green or Anything Goes Creative Artiste Challenge #122 - Anything Mixed Media |
Whenever I have spare time, I like cutting and assembling focal point pieces using my die cuts, like the Gemini by Crafter's Companion Christmas Nativity set that I used for this tag. Except for the Star of Bethlehem, which I cut out of metallic gold card stock, I cut the different pieces out of different colors of felt. I glued the felt pieces together to form the figures, and finished them by sewing black beads for the eyes. To give them support, I glued them on white card stock. It was VERY helpful having these figures done ahead of time, as I didn't have much time to spend in my art studio/study this week. For the tag base, I used a premade wooden tag that had been covered in canvas and gessoed. I used a sponge to stipple blue and white acrylic paint to create the sky. For the ground, I used a paint brush, as well as brown and black acrylic paint. When it was dry, I used a black acrylic paint pen to write, "Peace on earth, Good will to men" around the top portion of the tag's perimeter. I arranged and glued the figures on my tag, along with some small stars I punched using a Fiskar's star punch. As a finishing touch, I used jute twine cord for the tag tie. ![]() |
| Noel Christmas Card Freshly Made Sketches #716 - A Sketch by Michele F. The Card Concept #222 Alphabet Challenge - R is for Ribbon |
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| Watercolored Self-Portrait Friday Face Off 12/12/25 Art For Fun Friday What's On Your Workdesk? Wednesday 862/82 |
For my last project, I have a quick and easy watercolored portrait I did in one of my handmade art journals. I played around with negative space, which is a little challenging for me, but fun to do. I finished off my page by writing a quote by Leonardo Davinci about water, which seemed appropriate to me. BTW, I want to thank Nicole, at Friday Face Off, for featuring the self-portrait I did of me wearing a Santa Hat, during this week's post. I'm truly humbled, for she's so awesome at portraiture.
Last, but not least, I leave you with some pictures of the different festivities I told you about at the beginning of my post, as well as one of my cat Sammy relaxing in a Christmas sled bed I got for my art studio/study this week. And remember the words from James 5:8, "Strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near." Thanks for visiting! ¡Gracias por su visita! Shalom!
Arnoldo+










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