Q&A with Monique

Well I have a love of making things all together. I am a maker and so are so many in my family.

 

My grandfather, grandmother, great grandmother, my mother, aunts...so many love to create.

 

My grandfather gave me my love of photography and mixed media. He supplied all my cameras for me and shared his knowledge of how to take great pictures. He holds so much history in all his photographs.  My great grandmother used to own a small shop in Los Angeles that sold gifts and craft supplies. I get my Entrepreneurship from her I think.  I love to sew little things and crafty bits and that comes from my whole family. My grandfather used to make clothes from tablecloths and what ever he could find for my mom and grandmother. He even designed my moms wedding dress and more. My mom and aunt Cindy love to sew small projects as gifts. And we all have the "why buy it when you can make it just the way you want" mentality.

 

I have just always loved paper and all the possibilities you have to create with it; everything from recording memories with scrapbooking to creating a sculpture or flowers and molding it into something wonderful. I get excited just thinking of what I can make next.  I used to help my grandmother at Christmas time to transform her house into a wonderland. I especially remember helping her make ornaments and creating flower arrangements. She has great talent for decor pieces. I get that from her.  My grandfather would also make little mixed media diorama pieces before they were popular.  My mom just loves to craft and create things out of nothing. We tend to collect things together to transform and up-cycle.

 

 

I love being a maker because I love watching something transform from a simple piece of paper into a beautiful art piece someone can enjoy. I love making something old new and useful again whether as an art piece or functional storage item.

 

 

Remembering what it was like to craft with my family, I have nothing but smiles as I think of our creative process together. 

 

I do remember one day that I took time to craft with my children. We did potato stamping, painting, etc. and my son looked at me with his huge brown happy eyes and said "This was such a fun day!"  It made my heart so happy and huge that day.

 

 

Yes I do , I am an instructor at Michaels & have a blog

 

 

I love when people come to me and say "I could never make something like that but I will try."  Inevitably after our time together, there is the moment they are so proud of themselves for making something even more beautiful than they imagined. I really love the by the book, "no coloring out of the lines" type of people that I get to just let go and create.  It is so satisfying to see how free they feel by the end of the process.  

 

I love all the smiles that come with helping others and the friendships I have made as well.