Frida Times Three and One for Me!

Frida Kahlo is a life-force for me. Her strength, her sense of self-empowerment, her ability to deal with the life curves she was given inspires me.  I want to grow up and be this strong of a woman.

Back in June, I had this grand idea to honor all that is Frida with a month long hommage to Frida in July, her birthday month, through our swaps at Artful Mail Groupies.  We had a swap a week for 5 weeks.....the "Blue House" swap, the "Hair Adornments" swap, the "Black & White" swap and the generic Frida Art swap.  Due to my own time constraints, I only participated in the Art swap.  Sure, I had an idea what I wanted to do.  But for whatever reason, it wasn't coming together. Not the sketches. Not the paint. Not "nuthin'".  I started and threw away about 10 efforts, not satisfied with any of them.












I received this beautiful piece from  Sharon Denny Parcel and after seeing her gorgeous work, felt even more helpless and hopeless in my grand scheme to create something wonderful to exchange with my partner.

So for several days (or was it longer?) I anguished over my seeming inability to create something exciting and wonderful to share back with her.  In a fit of pique, I went trolling on Pinterest, YouTube and tons of websites looking for some sort of divine inspiration. And then, there is was. Right in front of me.  The lightbulb went on.  I didn't have to draw or paint at all. I could push that big, fat failure to the floor and silence my screaming Inner Critic and make something fun, unique, pretty & different!  Yay!

Set the stage at Retro Cafe Art website and there she was. My possibility.  And the ideas were flashing through my head like an old flip movie. Flash! Flash! Flash!  Flowers, beads, lace, crowns, jewels.....do it!  So I did.

I ordered three Frida Shrine kits from Retro Cafe Art (and there were 3 to choose from, so deciding was difficult) {{see them here}} and awaited anxiously for their arrival. Thankfully, shipment was prompt, as always, and in just a few days, they were at my doorstep.  Oh boy!  I couldn't wait!


The directions for putting them together were easy to follow, although I did have a couple of issues. It was the "comprehension" part that made putting mine together harder. ha!  I gathered up my favorite adhesive glue and got busy assembling the shine. Great. The first one is together.  The second and third assembled much faster, of course.  The material was a good quality, heavy Masonite, with a dark stain. When put together, the center is the size of ATC's, great for storing Frida ATC's, or to decorate like a real shrine (which is what I did on Frida #1).  I thought it looked very nice in its arrival state. So I was very pleased with everything about these shrines. (sadly, I didn't take a picture... I was too excited and ripped right into them).  They came in 5 pieces, that you just pushed out of the framing. Easy peasy.

Now for the fun part!  My thinking was that I would make one for myself first to see how it went, how it looked and what I might want to do differently on the 2nd and third ones.  I knew I would not store ATC's in my shrine.  So I began to "build" the inside of the shrine with some nifty little circle mirrors on the back wall, tarted up with some flat acrylic jewels.   So what to use for the pedestal? I really want to make it like a shrine. Shrines have shrine like things, like pedestals!  Dig, rummage, dig.  Idea!

I have a huge supply of glass beads (used in my fused glass projects), and they are rather flat on the top and bottom. More glue to create a pedestal, another mirror circle on top. And to sit atop my newly formed pedestal is a treasured prayer box charm sent to me quite some time ago by a dear friend.  Voila!  Interior of the shrine is complete! I used these same jewels to build "feet" on the shrine to elevate it.  I had been saving this beautiful green stone star that would make a perfect base for a pedestal.

Next, I direct my attention to the exterior and to Frida.  More digging and rummaging through the supply cache (this took a while) to find the perfect bits.  I selected a dark scrapbooking paper for the sides of my shrine that looked like tree bark, that was cut to fit both sides.  Textile trim added to the front, along with a nifty little oval label.  I'm pretty happy with that. And of course some beaded "feet" to elevate the whole shrine. I didn't like it flat on the surface.


Then, and at last, Frida herself.  

How tarted up should she be?  This definitely required quite a few minutes of thought.  More digging in the stash.  I was pretty sure I wanted her to be wearing blue, symbolic of The Blue House.  So I selected my Peacock Blue Copic marker and colored her top.  I added the very tippy edge of some lace trim I had, fussy cutting it very carefully and affixing to the edge of the top. "Lipstick" was applied with R29 Lipstick Red Copic Marker, and highlights to her cheeks with V01 Health Copic Marker.


A beautiful woman must wear jewelry, right?  More digging. Aha!  Seed beads were the perfect thing and the perfect size. So a "necklace" was created to cover up the printed one, which I didn't care too much for.

Now, I must pay attention to her hair and her head.  Frida seemed to always wear some type of adornments in her hair.  More digging, of course.  Flowers, jewels, and there it was......a crown. That was it!  This cute little crown was sent to me in  Happy Mail. And curiously enough, some of the gals at AMG call me the "Queen Bee" so it seemed just fitting my MY Frida would have a crown.  But it was plain and boring.  Out came the gold Stickles.  I selected several graduating size "jewels" for her crown and got those all applied.  Very happy with that, and then another decision.... straight? angled left? angled right?   I finally settled on the jaunty angle to the right. Gave her some great attitude, didn't it?  I have attitude.  So it worked for me.

And while the Stickles was out, little dots were added to the center of the flower trim around each shrine, giving each a touch more glimmer and shine.  Can't have too much bling, right?

So now, I step back and admire the handiwork.  Loving it!  So I eagerly got busy and finished up the other two so I could ship both off to my assigned partners, albeit with a late mailing date.  Both were similarly prepared with fussy cut lace textiles, Copic markers, seed beads, and since the other two were planned to go to members of my mail art group, I made both just alike, with a flower and jewel hair adornment on each, both with decorative paper on the inside of the box by PapayaArt.  Both oval buttons were alike but different, giving each her own little flair.  And, there can only be one Queen, right?

Don't you think my trio turned out super cute????

Overall, I was very pleased with these little kits. The price on each was reasonable, ordering and shipping was user friendly and blessedly fast. They were very easy to assemble and made my Frida project way more fun to finish and get off to their intended recipients.

So if you love all things Frida Kahlo like I do, this little project would be a great addition to your collection.

My Queen Frida now lives on a bookshelf, adjacent to my art desk where she watches over me, giving me inspiration from the great beyond...ever watchful that I get as much joy working on my new projects as I had working on her.

Keeping it artful~~








Betty