Rain & Puddles.

 This calligram is a combo of 2 diff. ones I've done before -- Top: Rain; Bottom: Puddles.

I made it into a 5x7 insert for my Belgium snail mail pal, Nele.

 I thought it was rather plain (see next pic), so I added a vellum overlay that says, "without rain, nothing grows".

And a demo vid.

Yellow.

This started out as a piece for my 100 Day Challenge this year (used 2 old yellow markers), but since I gave that up, I decided to make it into a mini book!

I've always loved this song (it use to make me cry b/c of the melody). The tricky part of coming up with layouts, but it all worked out!

The Right side is actually a lovely happy accident, as I had to cover up a mistake (ink that bled through from the back -- wish I had thought to take before pics). Even using acrylic paint to try and cover up didn't work, but luckily, the vellum paper did!

Close up of L side: lyrics ("Look at the Stars, Look how they shine for you. And everything you do.")

Close up of R side: Definition of the color yellow -- "a primary color often associated with happiness, joy and warmth."

Close up of back. More lyrics.
I don't really like the back much, as it too was covering a messed up part of the paper (this was actually a scrap piece of paper, and I thought about cutting off the cover to assemble a book with loose pieces, but figured out how to fix).

The used part was a blue brush "p" i initially tried covering with white, and that's when it bled through. And again, the paint didn't cover. So I got the idea to add torn paper. I just wish I would have extended to the top as well.

And here is a video showing it all together!

Mr. Blue Sky

Lately, I've been taking past lettering projects (mostly IG or personal challenges) and adding to them, so they look more finished, and to give away as inserts.

This one is from a few years ago (not sure exactly when, but within the past 5 years for sure). I did a "colors" challenge with song titles and for blue, chose good 'ole ELO!

 

Finished piece with lyrics. (in white India ink and pp)

Side lettering with India ink and folded pen.

I added more color with white and blue cp's.

Close up of bottom lyrics ("I'll remember you this way.") Did at top of piece too in metallic light blue.

I also posted on IG earlier this week, as the day I posted, I went for a nature walk, and literally, there was not one cloud in the sky -- (Just like the lyrics! 😁). I'm always in awe when the sky is bright blue and cloudless (see vid below), but I also love clouds.

Pic from another path

More Blue...

Continuing on a bit with the "blue" song (Eiffel 65, 1999) -- 

I love when I get in this creative zone/mode -- taking one thing (quote, lyrics, poem, etc.) and coming up with a variety of ways to letter it.

I've also been into making mini books lately, with some scraps of paper. I just need to get better at binding.

Here are 2 mini books, similarly made. The first one (at bottom) started out with a scrap of marker paper I folded in half. I lettered the lyrics on the front part, then kept going with other ideas.

Although not the best paper for a book (as it's too see-through), I love the way it turned out! (except for the cover -- will explain below)

2nd book, cover. Love this. Used some old acrylic ink to paint as the base on some old scrap w/c paper. Tried to letter "blue" by scraping on the wet paint with my ruling pen (forgot to take pic). I then lettered over with metallic ink, and white WoS brush pen.

I thought it needed some splatters, but it would have been fine without.

Front & back

Back cover: akim lettering with Posca pen.

(Lyrics: "Here's a story about a little guy that lives in a blue world... Everything is blue for him.")

First page: Chorus in w/c brush lettering background then "i'm blue" lettered over in metallic ink.

Inside page:  More akim lettering with a glaze gel pen.

("Blue are the words I say and what I think...")

Opp. page: " i'm blue " in w/c brush, then more lyrics on top again in akim with a glaze gel pen.

Last page:  repeated chorus. Metallic ink and ruling pen (wish I had done akim)

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And now the original:

Tried lettering Blue in uncial using my paint shaper tool, but didn't turn out, so had to go over (WoS brush)

Love the back side (same as one above)

Love the layering here better.

Love this too, but hard to see.

Again, love this layering, but hard to see b/c of paper.

And final page of original.

And, here is a video of the original "test" one, bound together:

Although I'd love to give these away as inserts, hard for me to part with them just yet.

i hope...

Since I'm not really feeling the 100 Day Challenge this year, I'm switching things up: (I mentioned this in another post) -- I'm going to be posting pieces that I started a while ago (or pieces I did for IG lettering challenges) that I am adding to and/or finishing up.

So far, this has been a bit fun, esp. taking lettering challenge pieces and adding more wording to them, or making them into mini book, etc.

This one is from my 100 Days of Redos, where I tried to emulate the word "hope" in pink ink (Horizon nib, I think). i then added an "i" (with a little heart!) and on the side, an original poem (by moi!), in script lettering using my ruling pen and metallic ink.

Diff. lighting

close up of ink used.