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.

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

For my next project, I have a Christmas card which was inspired by Michele F's sketch, the white kitchen at CC, and ribbon.  I used a generic Nativity Scene Ornament die cut, which I cut out of white shimmer card stock.  I embellished it using a small red bow and a small red acrylic rhinestone.  After cutting the square background, I used an old EK Success corner punch I had in my art tools collection.  For the sentiment, I used a precut Kraft tag, along with some red and black markers.  I lettered the word "Noel" using my humble calligraphy skills.  I assembled all the pieces using various adhesives.

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.

Randomosity - Little Things Thursday 

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+