Illustration pen pal: octopus card

-
My illustration pen pal loaned me another Griffin and Sabine book, and I returned it with a handmade card. This one plays around with the format, and features an octopus holding a message in a bottle.

Photo of finished card, featuring a red and yellow octopus holding a green bottle topped with a cork


Process video:

I ended up making several of these, but I think I want to go back and adjust the design a bit. I love the look of the suckers being cut from the front piece of paper to reveal the back, but the finer details are hard for the Cricut to handle without tearing. This card also doesn't fit into a standard envelope. The plan is to make at least one alternate version of this concept that is easy to replicate, to be added to my (brand new!) Etsy store, which currently features kokeshi doll cards.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

MYSTERY GIFT: Cats

-
Image
I shaved my head for charity last year. For a small number of donors I offered thanks in the form of a mystery gift, built around a theme of their choosing. This isn't the first one I've started, but it's the first one I've actually finished. I was inspired by  Hari and Deepti 's light boxes and I'm just thrilled with how mine turned out. This theme was "cats" and I know this particular person likes fables and fairy tales, so I started with the illustration of the Jabberwock from Through the Looking Glass. Step by Step (including some trial and error) Hello pen tool, my old friend. Add some happy (stock vector) trees. Figure out some basics for layers. Add some detail. Start to think about how the environment might look. Also realize those layers are completely impractical and consolidate all of the Jabberwock into a single layer. Test cut several practice Jabberwocks (not by hand! I have a  Cricut .) and struggle w...
Read more

Tauntaun

-
Image
The group voted on costume themes and we went with Star Wars. I debated between a twi'lek and a tauntaun , ultimately deciding that I'd rather make horns than head tentacles, and a creature from an ice planet would be more in line with the northeast Halloween weather than a member of a race known for their tendency to skimp on clothing. If you're not familiar, a tauntaun is the thing that they ride on the ice planet; the moment in the movie that tends to stick with people is the scene in which Han Solo slices open the carcass of one and shoves Luke inside so he wouldn't freeze to death overnight. This scene was very upsetting to me as a kid, so I have mixed feelings about referencing it in the costume plan, but I couldn't not. It's just too good a setup. Overall plan: light gray, tan/gold accents. Coverage somewhere between  bikini  and  fur suit . Headwear I started with a light gray wig from Arda  and made some ears and horns to clip in. Ears ...
Read more

Year of the Dragon

-
Image
I had so much fun making the Hawkman helmet in 2011 that I wanted to make something bigger the next year. My concept was the Chinese zodiac  Year of the Dragon . Body Construction   I started with some foam-wrapped heavy-duty wire and decently thick craft wire and made the skeleton. To add thickness, I surrounded the wire with soda cans stuffed with paper and added a foam ball as a placeholder for the head. Testing for size and wearability: It wasn't as thick as I wanted it to be, so I added packing peanuts and sheets of packing foam. This is where I should have worked out how to attach it to myself, but I didn't until later and it was a bit more difficult than it should have been. Note to self. Legs are made from cardboard boxes, paper, and duct tape. More on those later. The tail flourish was drawn paper, cut out of a yellow plastic binder, and glued to a shape that became the end of the tail. Scales With the basic structure in place, I ...
Read more