Aloha!

I have made another card for a friend. This time, it is Kill Bill themed with a (kind of dry) Christmas twist.

I decided to make a Kill Bill card because this friend is a Tarantino fan and likes the Bill Bill volumes. He favours Vol. 1 over Vol. 2, so decided to use the poster from the first film as a jumping pad (although the posters for both volumes are similar). 

You should have seen his face when I said I preferred Vol. 2.

Here's an initial sketch. I like the face of this Santa, but the dimensions of the body could not fit on the A5 card (I forgot this at the point of drawing) so I had to either replicate the Santa or switch it up.

New Santa on the right.

Santa inked himself. Everywhere.

Boom. Now for words.

Yeah, I told you it was pretty dry.

Merry Christmas, and don't forget to wiggle your big toe.

Christmas Time!

Hey there. Here are some pictures of an Adventure Time Christmas card for 2013. This is for a friend who loves all things Ooo.

I forgot to take a picture of the pencil drawing (gosh darn it).

So here is the pencil sketch after ink. The thickness of lines comes naturally. The line smoothness is also a factor -- if there are blotches, you can mask them with a thicker line (what's the academic word for this?) Don't go too thick, though.

Added detail on the word "TIME".

Tools, glorious tools, green, purple and mustard...

Bit of colour.

Bit more colour.

Using glitter gels for the candy cane. For the Jake-sleigh-body, I used a Faber-Castell colouring pencil. It does leave little white marks in certain places that are hard to fill...

...in this case, I went over the pencil with a matching felt tip (also Faber-Castell). Looks a lot better.

There we go! Now to cut it out and mount it on a card.

Jake's sleigh body is too shallow, but hopefully that won't matter too much.

Making Bad...Cards

I can't draw. You should know this up front before you witness my atrocity. Don't laugh, either (okay, you can laugh a little bit).

This is for a friend who watches Breaking Bad.

Here is the envelope.

I have included Hector Salamanca's bell (dingdingdingding!), some Blue Sky and the eyeball from the teddy bear.

Did you know that the pink teddy bear appears on Jane's bedroom wall? It is painted swishing around in a fantasy land of some sort. This is definitely not an accident. What could it represent? A loss of innocence? The destruction of beauty? Could it reflect the dangers of Walt's ambitions? Who knows.

Now, for the front. You're still allowed to laugh a little bit.

It's some wordplay from a couple of episodes' dialogue.

The value of the puns is reinforced on the inside of the card. Behold!

And there we go. Four more weeks of my heart slowly breaking as the bad stuff (which is really, really great) finally ends...bitch.

Cards, Thanks

Thank you cards.

I had a lot of thanking to do.

I should mention...

I should mention that I make my cards with whatever materials I find around my current place of residence. Sometimes I replenish card stores and what not, but I have a very, very tight budget.

I have been making homemade cards for quite a while. Sometimes they are very personal, other times they echo the more generic or 'slightly quirky' types you find in shops. It all depends on the individual and my assessment of their taste.

I need a small guillotine to cut straight lines, so if you see wonky lines, it means I tried and tried again to cut a straight line with scissors and whatever you are seeing is the result.

I feel you should know these little things. 

Here, have an Avengers balloon, the balloon that avenges all prematurely deflated balloons.

50 and 70

I made two cards for my two wonderful uncles. Uncle number one turned fifty and uncle number two turned seventy. 

I selected the colour schemes first and worked from there (blue, gold and white for 50, bronze, green and white for 70). The colours were not inspired by the age they were turning, but rather, their personalities. I find that colours attributed to age have a ghastly factory feel, although they can be charming if used well. You'll have to be the judge of that.

The actual card that I use to stick things onto is a colour/tone in itself (as previously stated, the colour here is white). I have no word to refer to this card, but consider it the skeleton, if you like, or the foundation. Yes! The foundation card. Don't forget the foundation counts as a colour, too. What you don't use, what you do not fill, is there for a reason. 

The buttons on the 70 card have been glued on with superglue (the type that doesn't smell and bleed out too much, trial and error can help you here). You can of course use a glue gun/more professional card making equipment, yo. I use what I got, bitch (if I start sounding like Jesse Pinkman, ignore me. Breaking Bad marathons do that to you). 

The little jewels on the fifty card are adhesive gems from Papermania. They are reliable and stay on cards for a while. This is not an official endorsement, by the way. Just an honest recommendation.

That reminds me, I  must plan my trip to Italy with my antique fountain pen at some point today.

Now for some dope envelopes!

Envelopes are a part of the card, in my opinion. They offer design space, so why waste it? Think of a film with amazingly good opening credits. The filmmaker(s) use that time to their advantage to build atmosphere, character and even story! They might even foreshadow things! Doesn't that sound flippin' great?