Happy belated Valentine's Day, diorama style

Is it too late for a Valentine's?  Is it ever too late?  Unfortunately, we all know the answer to that now....yes.

I still thought I'd share these diorama Valentines cards with you.  I'm glad my grandkids are safe and sound.

I'd been playing around with diorama cards lately after watching this video.  These cards fold flat for mailing but stand up nicely to display and can have several layers.

Here's the first card I made after watching the video and I used the dimensions it suggested.  

From there I made adjustments.  It's nice to have the inspiration and then adjust it to make it yours.

I ended up stamping, coloring and cutting lots of pieces, then rearranging them in the little scenes before I was happy with their placement.  These Valentines used stamps and dies by Penny Black and Lawn Fawn. 

Hopefully you can see more of the 3D aspect in these photos:

And maybe this gives you the idea of how they flatten for mailing:

These square cards are nice to shows off Bijou tiles... or other bits of magic.   I used spellbinders dies to cut the heart, bracket square and hexagon, but really, you could use a stencil or template and cut it out too.  They appear to be 4 1/4 inch square cards until flattened for mailing and then they fit an a2 envelope perfectly.

Thanks for stopping by.

Power to the children.

February, ScaraDewd and Rumpus

My February calendar in my BuJo plays with the Zentangle pattern Scarabou (sorry, no online instructions, see your local CZT for instructions) and the new pattern, Dewd.

That influenced this Bijou tile...  I am calling the tangle combo ScaraDewd!  (Don't wait until Halloween to try it ;-).   I started with a rennaisance Bijou tile and used a pink micron (PN), colored pencils and gray marker.

And another new tangle, Rumpus, on this Apprentice tile.  I used a black micron, metallic colored pencils and there's a very light layer of prussian blue pencil in the background but it doesn't really show up in the photo.

I have been remiss in keeping up with posting my projects and photos.  I intend to catch up.  We'll see right?

Thanks for stopping by!

Enjoy this winter photo....

Inktober 2017 (2 of 2)

And on to the second half of the month.  Enjoy:

(fat)  My thought pattern went to a curvy ogee grid.  I looked up some ogee patterns and thought Mariposa could resemble a fat slice of watermelon.  Not to mention, Viveca's grid approach to the ogee grid is fabulous!

(graceful) Enyshou is my go to graceful pattern.  No instructions, (see your CZT) but some excellent examples at the link.

(filthy) I thought C-view looked like a microscopic piece of dust...maybe on Pigpen?

(cloud) at this time, NOAA was describing our weather pattern as a river in the sky.  Cloudfall seemed to fit the bill.  And those scales are Betweed and Shattuck.

(deep) Wellwellwell.  This is a fractal version of Well.

(furious) Floo (sorry, no instructions, but see your CZT!)

(trail) Luckily Bijou moves slow and I was able to still find him on the Skwim trail.  This was a really late night when I completed this.  I realized the next morning that I should have done the back side of Bijou for a proper snail trail!

(juicy) Molygon

(blind) This one stumped me initially.  But when I sat down to draw, Bronx Cheer easily emerged.  

(ship) Parasail-Z

(squeak) Nuwave

(climb) Static

(fall) Falz (slight variation)

(united) BB

(found) Organza Again.  This used to be a frequent tangle for me.  Through this Inktober, I found it again :-)

(mask) Enyshou and Rain

And the full calendar:

Yeah!I did it!

Have a good one!

Inktober 2017 (1of 2)

I have heard about and seen some participation in Inktober in the past, but not participated myself.  This year I thought I'd give it a go.

If you are unfamiliar with it, Jake Parker started it in 2009 as a way to improve his inking skills and develop positive drawing habits by picking up a pen and drawing every day during the month of October. It has grown into a worldwide event with thousands participating!  Please check out the link above for more information including his list of daily prompts for October 2017.  

Although I wanted to participate, I was a little intimidated about getting something done every day.  So, I decided to go small, challenging myself to draw in each calendar square of my bullet journal.  Each square is approximately one inch.  In hind sight, I wish I had gone just a tad larger, but I was successful!  I posted updates to the Zentangle® Mosaic ap. Sorry I wasn't able to keep up with daily posts here, but you get the better(?), all-over (or half over in this post) view!  Here is the first half as I thought it was too many photos not to split it into two posts. Enjoy! 

My initial calendar which is a variation of 1/2 Orbs.  This pattern is easy and makes a great calendar grid!

Day 1 prompt Swift (look for daily prompts in parentheses in the duration of my post...or on the calendar itself) tangle is Riverstones.

(Divided) Tangle:  Funsin

(poison)

(Underwater) Gnarly

(long) one long line of Amaze.  There aren't online instructions for Amaze.  In this version the line doesn't touch, however you can also just do one overlapping squiggly line.  

(Sword)  Knightspeek for Knightstar ;-)

(Shy) Bijou hiding in Skwim.

(Crooked) Static (I don't believe there are online instructions for this one either, however if you've attended a beginners class for Zentangle you've likely learned this one.  If you haven't been to class, maybe you should! ;-)

(Screech) Needing to follow Bijou's advice to Stop, Btreath, and go on.  

(gigantic) To Infinity and beyond, of course!

(running) MoFins, because it just keeps going and going...

(shattered) Shard

(teeming) teeming with Tipple!

(fierce) Dragonair

(mysterious) There's nothing more mysterious to me than how crisscrossing lines make up Oblique.  Again, no official instructions online but it's pretty self evident.  Or, see your local CZT!

All of the ink is done with microns.  Shading is done with a combination of colored pencils and graphite pencil.  

Hope you return for the second half!

Molygon?

Look closely, it IS Molygon!  Even Bijou got into the act...  Molygon is the focus of this week's Diva Challenge and the topic of a recent Kitchen Table Tangles from Rick and Maria.  The fragment you see here in the Molygon reticulum can be attributed to Antonine.  Check out her's here. (And while you're visiting her blog, remind her that we miss her!) Color on mine from Tombow Dual Brush pens.

Enyshou, today's MacNCheese

The Diva Challenge this week is to use your MacNCheese tangle, or comfort tangle.  Mine can vary from time to time, however I always get lost in Enyshou, even on a small Bijou tile (approximately 2 inches square).  Today, in keeping with the 30 days of coloring challenge, I did mine in Rose Pigma micron and shaded with a CretaColor watercolor pencil.  If you're viewing this from the card-making/coloring world, be sure to check out the Zentangle® world over at the Diva challenge, and if your a tangle fan, be sure to check out the coloring examples.  I think you'll find they blend, hilight, compliment and contrast each other well just like any fascinating art piece!