Valentines – The Art of Cobwebs

Among the blogs that I follow, one of them, Tom, of Beyond the Sphere, talks of Valentines day as Vampyres Day. He doesn’t really like Valentines Day – as you might have guessed from the title he gives the day.

He recently said on his blog (and I quote):

The reason why I do these posts each year, every year, year after year, is because, well, to be honest, I prefer Hallowe’en to Valentine’s. I’ve never been a fan of Valentine’s. Never liked it in fact. Not because (sob) I’ve never been anyone’s Valentine, or (sniffle) nobody has ever been my Valentine, or (Bwaaaahoo boohoohoooooo boohoooooo) I’m a permanent singleton or anything (pull yourself together!), I just think it is a pointless celebration when everyday should be celebrated that way.

I commented on his post, saying:

“I’ll make you a Valentine Card, Tom… and it will be from all the girls who love you. Watch out for it appearing. 😊
Cobs. 🙂 “

So here I am with a Valentines card for Tom … from all the girls in Blogland. Only … it’s a card with a difference. I know that everyone is used to me actually making cards out of papers and pretties, flowers, die cuts and ribbons – among other things. But I have been known to play with digital manipulations. In fact some of my on-line friends only know me for making digital manipulations and don’t even know that I make actual cards!

Although Tom can actually paint pictures and create – he’s someone who loves to make digital art – so I thought I would honour his craft and make him a digital Valentines card – which you see at the head of this post.

But I’m aware that not everyone knows what digital art is, or how to go about playing around with things on the computer, so I thought I’d combine the card, with a little bit of show and tell so that you could see how I got to the end result.

It all began with this heart which I found on the internet…

Firstly I darkened the line of the heart . . .

Then I coloured the heart . . .

I tipped the heart upside down . . .

… can you see it beginning to ‘work’ now?

Next I needed to cut off the tip . . .

Then I did a little bit of ‘liquifying’ . . . ‘liquifying’ – or rather ‘Liquify’ is a bit of magic inbuilt into Photoshop. It helps you to manipulate things in a way that helps you to achieve what you have in mind. In my case, it was making a heart look like a bottom, with hips and a missing torso. Using the ‘Liquify’ helped me to push the upside down heart (with the tip cut off), in at the waist and bring the one side of the heart down a little so it would look like it was about to turn into a leg.

(I have a very ooold copy of Photoshop – but you don’t need this nowadays. Computers will normally come with a programme that allows you to do some magic on photographs – and that’s all you need to do a little digital artwork yourself!)

From there it gets a little more involved … you have to add all the shading, and the highlights from wherever the [imagined] light-source is coming from and then making the lines of the whole thing far smoother and flowing. Finally … I added the swimsuit bottoms – which I just ‘drew’ on and added the bows on the side for decoration, and then gave the bottoms some polka dots. (Well I had to – in honour of the famous song – Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini – it would have been rude not to!)

And that’s all there is to it. 🙂

BUT … now I have a huuuuge favour to ask … I wonder if you would make Tom blush from his toes to the tips of his hair by popping over to his blog (click here: Beyond the Sphere – it will open in a new tab for you) and leaving him a Valentine message – something like:

Cobs sent me. Happy Valentines Day Tom! 😀

. . . you could even simply copy that and then paste it into the comment section of his latest post on his blog – just to spread a little joy around on Valentines Day.

It won’t cost even a penny and it will make someone smile really broadly. Imagine that I’d done this for you. You’d be now smiling from ear to ear! Now I ask you … is that a great thing or is that a great thing?

In anticipation I thank you, sincerely, for sharing our love of fun here, with Tom, there on his blog.

All that’s left for me now is to wish you a Happy Valentines Day. May love touch your life today in ways that perhaps you didn’t expect. Be it from me, from your loved one, or even from a dog or cat or … well whatever or whoever you choose.

Much love from me, to you, ❤ and a bucket of squidges too!

When I first saw Hunkydory Box Pops (last year) I fell in love with them and bought two sets. Farm and Jungle. And … I bought them just to make for my Grandson, Little Cobs.

I made him one at Christmas (and forgot to share it with you! tsk) – a Christmas Crocodile – in a clear box, to which I’d added a bundle of ‘snowballs’ – and he loved it. (Who says you can only make Christmas cards for children with Rudolph or Santa on them?)

You can make these Box Pops as simple or as complicated as you like, and can use them for almost any occasion too! For Children, they fit the bill and work perfectly. But … I can actually see that they could work for adults. They inject an element of fun into a card.

You make up your chosen animal using the die cut elements. Then you can either press it flat and put it into an envelope (envelopes come supplied with the die cuts), or you can make an Acetate box and pop your card into it so that the recipient can keep the card held inside the box after they’ve displayed it – or you can seal the box shut so that the card will be held inside the box and protected. (If you’re not good at making boxes then there are boxes, cut to size and ready scored, from Hunkydory).

In the above photo – I tried to light piggy so that you could see the folds of the ‘box’ which make the body of the pig. Hence the reason they’re called ‘box pops’.

Once made up, you can simply press your animal flat and put it in an envelope – but it will pop back up when the recipient opens it up when they receive it. The head is fixed to the body by a folded piece of acetate, which gives the card ‘nodding dog’ look. (or in this case nodding pig). So cute!

valentine-piggy-loves-you — **This Little Piggy Loves You.** *(Well it would …. after all, it’s a Valentines Pig!)*

I made the lid of the box out of acetate, so that the pig can be viewed from the sides and the top. And … the funny thing is … when you look at piggy through the sides, he’s looking at you. But when you view piggy from above … he’s still looking at you! How does that happen? Is it magic? Maybe piggy is Super Pig – (like Super Man).

I added hearts and stars which I sprinkled around the inside, and finally added a ribbon handle, and ribbon around the base and the lid, and VOILA! One Valentines Card, from a Grammy to her 5-year-old Grandson.

So …. Happy Monday!

I know Mondays can be drab sometimes, but give it chance. You know they nearly always get better, even if you don’t feel the ‘happy’ straight away. Give the day chance to show you the warmth, the smiles, and even the love. Allow yourself to have a lovey day!

Most of all . . . whatever you’re doing today, be good to yourself … and to each other. It helps the world go around and makes life so much enjoyable and pleasant. And the world could do with a lot more enjoyable and pleasant in it.