#i made the mood board and dividers in canva!

[zorosdimples]

this is a little gift for my beloved kendall @strawberrystepmom—the light of my life and my better half! after the two incredible fics she wrote for my birthday, this is the very least i can do. happy endings are the only acceptable endings here 🤍

˗ˏˋ ꒰ satoken ꒱ ˎˊ˗ slow burn, idiots in love, soulmates, domestic bliss

nikita gill - what does love feel like?

one day you will meet someone / who will see the universe / that was knitted into your bones, / and the embers of galaxies glow to life in your eyes. / and you will finally know / what love is supposed to feel like.

[late-to-the-party-81]

The Look - Chapter two

AN: Roll up, roll up for week two of Hot Bucky Summer. In this chapter our boys will be investigating a kink clbg and trying to work out if it’s right for them. Catch up with Chapter One.

Once again a big thank you to @kingofsorrow20 for beta-ing.

Buckyquín sluts, how are we feeling?

Likes are loved, reblogs are golden.

Mood board by me and dividers by @firefly-graphics

Join my tag list here

Master list | HBS Master list

Summary: Joaquín worries that his desire will lose its shine now that he’s voiced it, but Bucky won’t let that happen. If his baby wants to perform in front of others, he’s gonna make sure it happens.

Relationship: Bucky Barnes x Joaquín Torres

Word Count: 2.2k

CW: Mean Dom Bucky Barnes, Sweet Sub Joaquín Torres, Domesticity, Developing relationship, Discussions of exhibitionism, exploring fantasies, Bucky’s dirty talk, Impact play, Masturbation, Blow jobs, voyeurism, exhibitionism

Bingos and Challenges: @buckybarnesevents HBS - Week 2 - “What should I call you?”

It had been two weeks since Quín had first raised the idea, since Bucky had taken him apart on the sofa. His boyfriend’s words and actions had sent him so far into his soft, happy place that it had taken the entire bath before he’d started to come back to himself.

Fourteen days since he’d lain on Bucky’s chest, clean and relaxed, having his still damp hair finger-combed and being asked by his boyfriend if ‘that’ was something he really wanted, or just a fantasy spoken of in the heat of the moment?

He’d been nervous at the question, because he didn’t want Bucky to think that he thought there was something lacking in their relationship, but once again Bucky proved that he could read Quín like an open book.

”There’s no right or wrong answer here, baby. I’m just curious as to whether it’s something I need to look into further. Because it’s not a ‘hard’ no from me.”

Glad that Bucky couldn’t see his face due to how they were lying, Quín idly drew invisible patterns across his boyfriend’s right shoulder, linking together errant water droplets. “Before, when we were at risk of getting caught, the idea of Sam, or one of the others - anyone -  seeing me like that…” He couldn’t suppress the full body shudder of pleasure that rolled through him just at the thought. “I knew it wouldn’t have stopped me. In fact it would have probably made me be even more into it, if that’s at all possible.”

Bucky had shifted under him then and Quín had smiled slyly as he’d felt the nudge against  his hip. 

“Okay,” Bucky had replied, obviously aiming for nonchalance. “I’ll look into it, sweetheart. If you think it’s something you wanna try, I wanna try too.”

Quín had lifted his head, trying to get a look at Bucky’s handsome face, despite the awkward angle. “Thanks, Bucky. I love you.”

Bucky’s arms had tightened around him, the world’s most feared assassin dropped a kiss to his forehead. “I know, bub.”

In that fortnight - yes, he’d been listening to TTPD, so sue him - he’d then worried that having voiced his desire it would make it wane and lose it’s urgency, but in the end the idea was just as welcome as it had been at the moment he’d spoken it out loud. Bucky had helped to see to that with the way he continued to tease and torment him. 

For instance, one evening, having just gotten out of the shower, he’d fumbled his toothbrush, dropping it on the floor, where it had rolled under the cupboard. He’d been on his knees, head down, ass up, when Bucky had snuck up behind him, announcing his presence with a sharp - right handed, thankfully - slap to his right ass cheek and then headed straight into the dirty talk.

”Damn, baby. Look at that fucking peach. Can’t wait to put that on display for people to look at. Maybe I’ll let ‘em touch you. Take turns to make it glow. Get you mewling and needy, and let them all jack off over you. Paint you like a canvas.”

Teeth cleaning forgotten for the moment, Quín had breathily asked Bucky to demonstrate. Bucky had been more than willing to oblige.

Another day, he’d been in the middle of giving Bucky a blow job, his lips stretched wide around Bucky’s veiny length, when his boyfriend had whipped out his phone, taken a picture and then held it up for Quín to see, even as he continued to choke Quín on his dick. “This is what they’ll all see, sweetheart. A little slut eager to suck cock and drink cum. How many loads do you think you could swallow until your stomach started to swell from it? How many different cocks would it take for you to go so deep into subspace that you’d have to rely on me to keep you safe?”

Obviously he hadn’t been able to answer, outside of a muffled whimper, but Bucky had kept up the filthy dialogue until he finally gave Quín permission to touch himself and come, before coming so hard himself that his spend overflowed Quín’s lips and dribbled down his chin.

There was a third and a fourth time too, but it was still a bit of a surprise to him when Bucky announced one evening at dinner that he’d identified two kink clubs within an hour’s drive of the Brooklyn apartment if Quín wanted to look at the websites and decide which one he preferred the look of. He hadn’t been surprised though, to find out that Bucky had not only run background checks on the club owners and managers, but on most of the regular clientele, who shouldn’t have had enough information in the system to identify them that well.

“I thought’” said Bucky, twirling some spaghetti onto his fork, “that we could go along just as spectators for our first time. They have some private rooms if we get all worked up and can’t wait until we get home. But it would help us get familiar with the place.” He placed the forkful of food into his mouth and pushed his phone across the table, open on the first club’s gallery page.

Quín’s throat went dry as he swiped through the pictures.

 A set of glory holes, where he could just kneel and accept any cock that appeared. 

A dark room where he wouldn’t be able to see who was touching him. 

A dungeon with a spanking bench, a St Andrew’s cross, a cage, and leather manacles hanging from the ceiling. Space for Bucky to put him on display and do whatever he wanted.

“Earth to Joaquín.” An amused voice broke into his thoughts. He looked up, knowing he looked like a deer caught in headlamps. Bucky gazed back at him, darkly. “That club has a specific kink night coming up next Thursday. Doms and their subs only.”

Quín swallowed thickly. “Okay. That sounds… good.”

Bucky had just smiled dangerously. “That settles it.. Now eat your dinner, baby. Don’t let it go cold.

When they pulled up outside the club, just over a week later, Quín wasn’t sure what he’d been expecting the club to look like, but a warehouse in a generic downtown district had not been it. Although, he mused, it probably wasn’t the type of business that wanted to overtly advertise itself on the street, in case it became a focus for puritanical protestors.

Bucky opened his car door and drew him to his feet, fussing over him in a manner that was both endearing and frustrating at the same time. “You alright, J? Need a minute? Or changed your mind? It’s okay if you have.”

Quín gently shook his head before stretching up for a brief kiss. “I’m fine. A bit nervous, but also excited, too. Let’s head in.”

At first it seemed like any other private member’s club. At the reception, which was separated from the main club area, there were forms to fill out and terms and conditions to accept. An attractive woman smiled at them from behind the counter. With the membership fee for the year paid, they were buzzed through the security door and walked into… a bar? 

There were some high tables with stools and a couple pool tables and it would have been easy to forget where they were if it weren’t for the fact that a large number of the people in the place were just wearing towels around their waists or combinations of lingerie and fetish gear.

The hostess showed them around, stating that for the tour they didn’t need to get out of their street clothes, but if they wanted to return to the back rooms afterwards they would need to be in an appropriate outfit or naked. The first areas - the changing rooms, hot tub and sauna, felt like those you might find at a gym or resort - possibly a European resort with the amount of flesh on display but nothing too out of the ordinary - but then she led them into the back rooms area and the dungeon.

Quín came to a sudden standstill as he took in the sight before him, the spell only being broken by Bucky’s snort of amusement as his boyfriend almost walked straight into his back. A woman, tall and curvaceous, had her hands locked above her head into the leather manacles he’d seen on the website. Behind her, another woman - her domme, possibly her girlfriend - held a leather flogger in her hand and was bringing it down onto the meat of her ass and upper thighs at irregular intervals. The sound of each impact echoed through the room, followed by either a cry, a whimper or a moan, depending on where it landed and how much force had been dealt. Around the pair were a semi-circle of spectators. Some were easily identifiable as Subs by the looks on their faces, the revealing state of their dress, the way they were kneeling on the floor in front of what Quín assumed were their Doms, and the fact that some of them had collars on. His breath hitched at the sight of those. A collar - a tangible symbol of Bucky’s ownership of him - was something he’d never really considered until this point.

A loud cry brought his attention back to the Sub being punished and he watched, enraptured by the pleasure that was evident on her face and echoed by the obvious sheen of arousal between her thighs. She shook and jerked under each impact and then leaned into the caress of her Domme in the lull between them. Her Domme spoke gently to her, checking in and reassuring her how beautiful she looked, and how everyone was enjoying watching her be a good girl. Quín felt an honest-to-god jealousy build inside him as he heard that. He wanted that to be him. He wanted to be in her place.

”You wanna go check out one of the private rooms, bub?” Bucky whispered in his ear. Quín couldn’t speak - his mouth was too dry - but he managed to nod. Bucky must have picked up on his excitement with his enhanced senses. He followed Bucky back to the changing rooms where his attentive Dom helped him to strip out of his clothes until he was just clad in his black boxer briefs. A classic, almost boring, choice to be sure, but Quín knew how he looked in them especially with his cock half-chubbed and pressing against the fabric. Bucky stripped out of his own clothes too, although he then placed a black silk robe on, over his shoulders, covering both his scarring and his left arm. He kept his gloves on too. Suitably un-attired, Bucky then steered Quín back along the corridor, heading towards a room where they could choose to leave the door open to invite others in, close the bottom half to only allow spectators, or shut it completely for privacy.

”I’m not ready to share you yet, baby,” Bucky said as he fully shut and locked the door. “But next time… that’s a different story. Now, get up on that bed and get on your knees.”

”Yes, Bucky,” he replied with a sigh, already sinking into his soft head space.

Bucky clucked his tongue. “I think, if we are going to play here, in public, you’re gonna have to call me something else. Calling me by my name doesn’t really have the right deference to it for a good sub, does it?”

”What should I call you then?” Quín asked as he climbed up on the bed that appeared to be foam covered in a waterproof, wipe clean material.

Bucky tapped his lips with his finger. “I don’t feel like a ‘Sir’ - that’s too much like a school teacher. And I’m not a ‘Daddy’ - I like to punish you and see you squirm too much. How about ‘Sarge’? Could you call me that, baby?”

Quin nodded enthusiastically, eager not only for what would come next, but also on their follow-up visit

”Yes, Sarge.”

“Good boy,” Bucky drawled at him, and then he crawled up onto the bed, a feral smile on his face. “Don’t think I didn’t see how hypnotised you were, watching that. You wanted it, didn’t you?

Bucky placed his hand on the back of Quín’s head and tugged it backwards, exposing his throat. Bucky leant down and sucked a dark mark into the delicate flesh, just where his pulse was jumping under his skin. He couldn’t answer under Bucky’s erotic attack, only let out a hiss pleasure and followed by a squeak when his cock was grabbed roughly and squeezed. Then, just as quickly, Bucky gave him a shove to his shoulder, sending him sprawling onto his back, and Quín looked up as Bucky pulled off his gloves and shrugged off his robe.

“If you wanna earn what you want, you better put that mouth to good use, baby. Once you’ve swallowed down a load, I’ll fuck you so hard that everyone in this place will hear you and get a preview of what you have to offer.” Bucky reached into his briefs, pulled out his cock - head tinged dark pink and leaking profusely - and jacked it a few times. “Come now, baby. Don’t waste a drop.”

“Whatever you say, Sarge,” Quín replied with a smile before he rearranged himself and took Bucky’s cock deep into his mouth. 

Chapter 3

Tag list: @km-ffluv, @wheezy-stucky, @kmc1989, @kombatfather1796

@christywrites, @doasyoudesireandlive, @endlesstwanted

[inklore]

Hey dear! How long since I wrote to you, I don't know if I can ask but could you give me some advice on how to edit/theme/customize your blog in an aesthetic way?

Idk, even basic tips are fine, I really love seeing your blog and I think you have really good taste in aesthetics ❤️

hey lovey! it would be my pleasure to try and help you <3. i say try because my explaining skills are the absolute worst but i will do my best lmao. gonna do this in bullet points ok:

have an idea / inpisration / a crumb of what you want your blog to look like! you can find inspo literally anywhere, a friends blog even (but please remember to always ask and don't take it harshly if said person declines you doing so). pinterest is also amazing for this, looking up graphics, different aesthetics, templates, i literally have a board on my pinterest i've had for years now where i get graphic inspo or where i go when i just need to feed my creative juices to put me in the mood to create something. canva is also great, i literally go on there and look up headers, moodboards, etc and just star them for later. keywords are everything as well, so like 'aesthetic here + color, vibe, look, graphic, template' helps sites like canva and pin lead you in the right direction. same with just typing things like 'green, grunge, lovecore, etc'.

edit on desktop! now i know not everyone has a laptop or ipad or the ability to do this but i highly rec it over editing on the janky mobile app where sometimes things save and sometimes they don't. plus i always use one of the random saved user blogs i have to make a test layout / theme so if i don't like it everything on my main blog is fine, didn't change, and i didn't waste all that time on a theme i don't even want to look at lmao. so making a side blog where you do that is also great cause you can just copy and paste your nav post over, you can take the graphics you've already made and upload them onto your main without second guessing if they look good because you've already seen what it all looks like!

start small! by that i mean start with a simple theme or idea and build up from that. don't just start with seven graphics and ideas and overwhelm yourself. sometimes i just think of a color and be like yeah i'm make something with this color or wrapped around that color and i create something great.

ask a friend for help! i can't tell you how many times i've asked friends if this theme looked good or to send me inspo pics or what theme they think i should do, or even asked them to help me find resources. utilize your besties and mutuals.

not everyones aesthetic is the same! some people like messy themes, some like overdone, some like super simple. don't compare yourself to anyone!!!! everyone creates differently, everyone sees colors and aesthetics amd themes differently. no matter what you decide to go with is all your own and great and special.

etc: putting all your most important links in your nav is always a good rule of thumb (anything you really want to highlight as well), if you use pngs they're all over tumblr and pinterest 'transparent' + 'png' at the end or beginning of what you're looking for will always lead you in the right direction, and when it comes to pngs i highly rec adding them to a white background or transparent one and make the size of the background 500px and move the png halfway / towards the bottom (centered) of the background so tumblr doesn't make your header all the way at the top and ugly, don't make your nav post too long, take colors from your images / aesthetics to incorporate throughout the whole theme so everything meshes well together, don't use flashy dividers because it's not good on a lot of users eyes and unless you state a tw in the tags it's just not as cool as some people think lol.

that's all i can think of but if you have any more questions bby my pms are open!!

[mayullla]

Mayu helphelp I wanna revamp my writing blog’s theme @/bamboowrites and I wanna learn 🥺🤲🏻🪤

look at other people's blogs that you admire and mix and match the ideas from there you would find something that you might be satisfied with.

consider if the BFY and DNI are absolutely important for your blog... some people just don't bother to read those things if they are in another link. having it on the pinned post above the masterlist link can help as they end up glancing at it just dont make it too long if you do.

now the theme itself depends on what you are going for but you can go for a. pick a theme like maybe cottagecore, gothic and such and build a mood board from it on Pinterest and from those pictures choose the colours for like the accent? b. would be picking the colors first (maybe a certain shade of color, or maybe a palette you like) and then the pictures. (another idea/way could be like a "3 words" too, like my main account theme @mayulli has a star, royalty, navy theme, but not necessarily galaxy tho. My reblog account @mayullii focused more on a princess fairytale pink.)

Build a pinterest board, everything usually starts from there to be honest lolll

Now for my own... uhhhhhhhhh okay this is mainly for the people who cant pick a theme and wants them all (or at least most)

A lot of people say that sticking to one theme and staying with it is a good idea and to be honest, they are not wrong, and absolutely right it is just that I don't like staying in one theme I guess lol? Example:

Something like this! Or-

Look at all those differences hehehe. Nowhere here do you see green forest themes except for like Diasomnia (twst)? And then I also have the borders of all my writing posts:

I have like probably over 100 fic/original oneshots by now all that uses the borders above which is like alot and gonna be supppperrrr tiring to edit everything if I think about swapping everything. (will cry if I must.) but one thing is very obvious in all the pictures is that all have this pastel, soft dark, neutral tones, and has a mix of flowers, nature/outdoor and vintage themes/vibes.

I tried to make the blog as colorful as possible with the mindset that I will be changing my blog theme often. I just made the blog take all the themes that I personally like and mix and match. The forest green I currently have matched well with all the leaves in the pictures above cause of the leaves of the flowers. With an odd one here and there, but it is not necessarily painful to the eyes.

For me, with all this, I have multiple options of things I like so from like a white background which I can make it look like a canvas where the pop of colors would be from the multiple masterlists, blue where you could call it the outside/sky and the posts are the flowers essentially a garden, dusty tones, most pastel colors but more so the neutral tones like both dark and light academia would be a-okay most of the time. princesses and fairytales also~

Now what would not match with everything here would be neon colors, most bold/bright colors (my heartslabyul dorm masterlist is suffering rn cause of that red), pure black, city street and downtown, sci-fi stuff would stick out like a sore thumb for me but they are themes that I don't care for much so it is fine.

It doesn't have to flower only, to be honest if you want you can go for something jewels which has an array of colors, or maybe fabrics/clothes as like the main theme. really just make a pin board and add everything that you like and pick all the common stuff they have with each other.

Ah! one more thing that probs might help but who knows but like as you saw my twst wonderland masterlists are all different colors. So I use gray as like a divider from the main theme and the dorms. I also did the same for General/multiple characters masterlist and school staff and other characters. The gray is like a refresh for the eyes in a way (like how you sniff coffee when you smell multiple perfumes so that the scent won't mix?) so that the color of my main theme and the masterlist theme won't mix/crash in the eye much.

Genshin is genshin lol but the colours matches well with the colours of the flowers i have so it is fine. my original works masterlist is white as it was part of the white theme that i had once before, but since it is not related to any fandom it is essentially my own empty canvas (lol) so i kept it like that, naruto masterlist is obviously yellow cause... naruto lolll

[yr1fmp]

Creating A UI

To make the game look a little bit more polished, I wanted to add a UI to it, this would also be super helpful to the player because it allows them to see everything that's happening a lot better - it'd give m a way to show them their health, which gun is selected, how many objectives are left, how much ammo they have left, and I could also use it to show the controls too - I went to pinterest to create a mood board of UI designs:

I really liked all of these styles, some of them are very futuristic, I thought that this could be good, but I'm not sure that they'd fit with the style of game that I was going for - I still kept them in the mood board just in case it was something that I ended up using.

I liked the simple designs more, and some of the designs that look a bit more fancy too, because I thought that they would fit a lot better with the game - something that came to mind though was that the UI would have to be mostly bright colours, because the game was going to have a more dull background, so I could probably still use some of these designs, however they'll have to be altered so they stand out against the background so that the player can see them a lot easier.

The next step was to make the UI within the game, starting by making a new widget blueprint in the content drawer of the game:

After making the widget, you'll be given an empty screen, so what I did was place a canvas panel into the viewport - a canvas panel acts as a "screen" so when you place different objects onto the UI, it makes sure that they stay in the right spots if the player is playing the game on a smaller or larger screen.

I added a few other objects to the viewport that I was going to change later, I kept it very basic for now because I was aware of how much time I had left:

There is also a background blur but it covers the screen so I turned it off to show what it looks like normally.

I then started to code the parts of the UI that were going to change - starting with turning off the blur and the massive bit of text at the start of the game - I did this with animations:

By bringing up the animation menu, you can create a sequence of events using keyframes (in red) - these allow the user to set a value of something at one time, and what they want it to get to and when - then the engine will fill in all of the values inbetween - I did this with the opacity of the blur and the text, then went to the event graph to code:

I wanted this to play once the player starts the game, which is why I made it run only once the player presses they key to unpause the game - this code starts by unpausing the game, then playing the animation that I made earlier - I needed to make sure that I checked a box on the event though, otherwise it wouldn't work when the game was paused:

The other bit of code that I needed was going to change the text boxes in the top right based on which gun is selected, and how much ammo it has left.

Here's the code I used to change the ammo counter:

How it works is it takes the ammo from all of the different guns by casting to the player - then it also gets which gun is currently selected, this goes into a "select" which chooses a different output based on the number that it receives, it then turns this integer into a string so it can be shown properly, and outputs it to the text block.

I also used a similar bit of code to show which gun has been selected:

The difference with this one is that it has the different strings already in it, as they don't change I didn't need to get the variables for them.

The only bit left to do was to make the health bar work:

This is still similar to the last two bits of code, however we need to get the player's health as a percentage instead because we use a percentage bar to show the health - this just means we need to divide the player's health by their max health and return the value.

Here's a clip of all of the code working:

[dorissssli]

‘Thin skin exhibition’

Jennifer Packer, Untitled, oil on canvas, 2017

“I am excited to know that what I’ve made has physically never been made before. That’s enough for me.” – Jennifer Packer

Kieren Seymour, Rivers of Drool from the Dog of War, oil on canvas 2022

“The human/animal hybrid thing – I don’t think it so much, I feel it. I have many dreams where I’m a quadrupedal animal; I can run and pivot and exploit the athleticism of being a non-human. I want the creature [in my painting] to be both things – a dog of war and us – something outside of logic that still feels familiar, truthful.” - Kieren Seymour

Tom Polo, divide in the dark (no less, no you) 2022, acrylic, flashe and wax pastel on canvas, 182 x 138cm.

“For me, a thin skin is a pit stop, a threshold between two zones – of curiosity and desire on one side, to a decision, an action on the other.”

“I am often thinking about our eyes, mouths and hands as pit stops and that’s why they feature so frequently in my works. They are the space between something witnessed or unseen, said out loud or swallowed back down, touched, and gestured towards or just simply imagined.” – Tom Polo

Nick MODREWSKI, Quorum at the sinkhole, acrylic on board, 181 x 161 cm, 2023  

“I like the forms to emerge naturally from the paint. They’re bodily forms but what body they belong to is in flux.” – Nick Modrewski

Michelle USSHER, Sunset in a Blackhole – Lightbulb in a Plughole, oil on linen, 75.2 x 60 cm, 2012

Thin skin is an exhibition that features the works of thirty-six Australian and international artists, both contemporary and historical, who delve into the liminal space between figuration and abstraction. As the name of the exhibition suggests, the theme of the collection is about skin. However, it refers not only to the thin membrane that separates body, mind and environment but also to borders. A threshold exists between reason and instinct, between wisdom and foolishness, between life and death, between consciousness and unconsciousness, and between laughter and tears. The curator, Jennifer Higgie, said, “To have ‘thin skin’ is to be hypersensitive to the world around you.” This quote resonates with me, as I often feel that I am highly sensitive because of having a good sense of hearing, taste, and smell. The sensation allows me to explore myself and my place in the world. Consciousness and unconsciousness are one of the significant themes in my work. Thus, by seeing how the artists use various aspects such as absurdity, caricature, and dreamlike logic to explore themselves and their place in the world. Other artists portray bodies engaged in intricate dialogues with the psyche, nature, domestic or work environments with various creatures. Furthermore, though investigating myself, I started to be attracted to the mysterious and unknown in the world, such as energy and life. I am amazed to find that many artists in this exhibition are also involved in this aspect of exploration. 

“Thin skin also embraces the idea of ‘thin places’, an ancient term of mysterious provenance that refers to locations with a unique or peculiar energy. These are places that attract spirits that appear when the distance between earth and heaven narrows.” – Jennifer Higgie 

The artists are inspired and received by the power of non-humans, such as plants and animals. They are attuned to different energies: nuances, moods, dreams and reveries. They explore the worlds that hover between the physical and immaterial realms. They view bodies as channels for emotions and ideas that can ultimately find expression solely through paint. Overall, I feel very benefited.

[sakshialevelmediablog]

Instagram

Category:- Coursework Development/ Production

To avoid having a lot of people posting at the same time, same things, as well as to prevent miscommunications I appointed rutvi to handle social media so all of the posts went to her and she was the only one who posted on the main account. 

As the director, I had a few posts that I knew I wanted on social media and so I created this list of posts that sort of became the baseline of our planning for social media. Later Rutvi, Aaryaa and I sat down and discussed post ideas, such as types of challenges we can have the actors do, types of reels, interviews etc. then rutvi and  I came up with the idea of creating a calendar to stay on track for posting. Aaryaa helped rutvi take all of the posts divided them and create a calendar for our posts to indicate which post goes up and when. This was particularly helpful as it not only helped us stay on track and ensured constant engagement for our audience, but it also created deadlines for us to come up with the posts.

With each different type of post, I gave Rutvi a template of a sort- for eg for the stories I told her to use the same shape if she was adding more than one picture if it was a mood-on-set type of post. This was to try and ensure uniformity as well as to make it look more aesthetic. From early on we made sure that we use reds, blacks and whites as the main colour for our Instagram and overall brand. 

So for the initial posts, we wanted to start by teasing the film and adding a poster. I worked on these posts I used Canva I tried taking inspiration from some of the templates and mixing and matching elements to make something more custom and unique. One of my main ideas for the teaser was the paper that I spoke about before during the photoshoot. I faced a lot of issues making. I originally wanted to have Jiya’s face as the main thing but then there is a ripped paper effect around her eyes that would actually reveal Rhythm’s eyes. The lining of the face took a while but no matter what I did it looked off it looked like we put a Snapchat baby filter on Jiya. I even tried to add a black-and-white filter on jiya and let the eyes be the only colourful thing but that again didn’t fix much. I then tried scrolling to try and find an effect that I could use and then came across the vertically torn paper effect. This worked out really well, the only thing that was a little hard was to line the face. I added the black and white filter on jiya because I liked how it indicates that she is the one stuck in time because of that moment. I then made 2 more posts like this one of them was a poster so I didn’t add any animation to it. I made multiple variations to give us choice. We choose the one that we like the best and rutvi posted them.

For the introduction to the actors, I wanted to play off of the newspaper that we incorporated in our film to introduce them it would be a simple layout with a catchy smart and funny headline about them and a byline saying that they are playing which character. But aaryaa and rutvi weren’t fully on board with this plan and so we dropped it and went with the Polaroid idea. I like it as the template that we created was still linked to our film, the polaroids being a part of vivan’s room. All I told Rutvi was to add the background as red. When she was done with it I told her to add a black-and-white filter on the actor’s picture to tie it in with our grid a little more. 

We then needed interviews and challenges. When discussing these I had given rutvi all the control over the fun walking interviews while I handled the longer ones. Rutvi had already gotten one of the shorter ones with Jiya and Aaryaa filming a longer interview but the questions weren’t up to the mark as well as some of the questions gave away the ending. Since we needed to fill all of these interviews we needed to call the actors again to school, so we fixed a date that I then informed the actors about. Since we were filming at school I informed our media sir as well as our coordinator about the same. Originally we wanted to film in the studio but since it wasn’t available we went with one of the free classrooms. Aaryaa and I came up with questions for the interview. And then I would ask the questions or interview the actors while either Aaryaa or Rutvi filmed. The fun walking interview was done by rutvi(asked questions) and aaryaa(filmed) the editing for the same was handled by Aaryaa, Rutvi and Samarth. For the crew interviews I came up with the questions and asked them. Rutvi edited and posted all of the videos.

Samarth worked on the merch Rutvi and I explained to him how we wanted the merch to look and then he followed. We also made a list of what items we want for merch. While Samarth worked on the rest of the merch, I handled making stickers. I used our logo as well as used some iconic lines from our project to use turn into stickers. I used our red and black theme to incorporate in my design for the stickers. We also wanted a logo for our film which Aaryaa and Rutvi worked on. They gave multiple options but in the end, we went with a skeleton holding a dead rose. The dead rose symbolises sadness and grief and in a way, both Isha and Vivan’s lives are kind of sad because of how their struggles have a tight grip on their actions. Isha still grieves about the child that that man killed that day by doing what he did and again how sad it is that she is just too broken to understand her feelings. The skeleton hand symbolises the grip that her assaulter still has on her and her actions even though he is long gone and all is him in the past but how it still haunts her.

Since our film sort of highlights sexual assault and how it can affect the survivor, we wanted some informational posts about the same. Aaryaa and I worked on the same. We decided what we wanted these posts to be, I sent her the content and then she edited it. We choose sos and emergency protocol/precautions, basics of consent, sex education. We then started working on the content and added that and made slides for the same.

To bring uniformity to all of these posts I told Rutvi to add a grey filter to the cover page for all of the videos and the informative posts would either have a black background with the text in red or visa versa. I also made cover pictures for the highlight. I also helped Rutvi organise and post some of the highlights.

The link below is to our Instagram:

[leseandbsavetheworld]

WIP post - the Realms - To Kill For Pain

hey everyone! as i said in the last post (at some point) that the previous story i introduced here was 1/2 books in a series. here's the intro for the second one! notice, there will be minor spoilers for the legacy of the last knight in the summary/post! <3, Bat p.s. - creds at the end

ɢᴇɴʀᴇ/s: fantasy ᴛᴀɢs/ᴍɪɴᴏʀ ɢᴇɴʀᴇs: romance, teen drama, royalty, LGBTQ+ ⤷ 2/2 books in a series, but there are other books in this universe with these characters ▸ ᴄᴡ fighting, duels, survival, minor gore (probably), death ◂

sᴜᴍᴍᴀʀʏ: Even though he's proved to the king of Gladiodel and his people that he's worthy of being his father's replacement as Knight of the Fourth Order, Marco Krieger's work is far from done. Now, he has to go on another quest just to get his sword. As he searches for his sword, he finds something else out: Ratchlen the Great, one of—if not the—worst of the Realms' Starlords, is determined to keep it from him. He's hesitant enough as it is to leave Gladiodel and set out on his own again blindly, a task only made more difficult when he realizes that his boyfriend is trying to buy him some more time.

ᴍᴀʀᴄᴏ ᴋʀɪᴇɢᴇʀ—ᴘʀᴏᴛᴀɢᴏɴɪsᴛ ⤷ he/him ⤷ 16 ⤷ Overrealmer (our world) ⤷ bisexual ⤷ Knight of the Fourth Order (Gladiodel) 🟉 birthday: May 26th

ʜɪᴛᴇʟʟ ⤷ he/him ⤷ 17 ⤷ Realms ⤷ gay ⤷ crown prince of Gladiodel ⤷ Marco's boyfriend 🟉 birthday: November 14th

Mood board—made by me on Canva Dividers—Firefly Graphics on Tumblr

[selestial-palettes]

Hi! I've been following this blog for a while, and I've been thinking of making my own palette blog! I was wondering if you had any tips? Also, how exactly you make those palettes (with those perfect congruent rectangles)? Is there a specific website?

I do all of my editing and palette creation on my IPad Pro (2018) so some apps I use might be unavailable to you if you are staunchly anti-apple or are restricted to Android or PC.

For palette formatting and testing swatches, I use Procreate. It has a guidelines feature that allows for the creation of the perfectly straight lines that divide the canvas into a grid. I made a solid square brush for my palettes using their fantastic brush creation engine/resource library (along with some stock images). It also has some very basic palette creation tools like a color relationship guide (complementary, monochrome, triadic, etc). It does cost money, however, it’s $10US the version for phones is cheaper at $8US I believe. I don’t know what features are included in the pocket version so definitely check out their website first. 

I also highly recommend it in general for artists and people wanting to get into digital art at a low price with a decent brush engine. If you are on a budget, any program that lets you see color values/hex codes, draw straight lines, and have a fill/paint bucket tool will do the trick. Some free art apps/programs include similar functions are Krita, Gimp, Medibang Paint (this is the best free option for all mobile devices imho)

I use Pixlr for isolating colors from a reference photo using the pixelate brush. Pixlr is free and is available on both Android and Apple devices. It’s a decent photo editing app. Not a necessity but, it's part of my plethora of resources. It's useful for creating my Procreate Palettes because I can bring in photos I've taken and make mood/inspiration boards with it.

Coolors is an Apple exclusive app that a lot of other palette blogs use. It is good for beginners as it is very intuitive and simple to use and you can directly export to image files. I've played around with it a bit, but I prefer my somewhat involved method better. I do believe it costs money though I'm not sure how much.

Pigments is a good app for Android, and very similar to Coolors. They have a free version and a premium version. Premium has live color picking from your camera as well as removed ads.

I also have some non-tech related resources that while aren't necessities were important for my process of learning about creating effective palettes for art. If you are interested I can drop them as well but they are more in-depth or are resources for professional designers. Color is one of my longest-lasting hyper-fixation interests and so I have been collecting this kind of stuff for years and years.

If I didn’t answer your question properly please let me know. I’m really bad at explaining any sort of process regardless of how used to it I am.

[bsawinart]

Oh where to start on this piece? 4 foot tall by 5 foot wide Ouija board. 

Available for purchase at BSSart.com/ordering LINK

Available for purchase at BSSart.com/ordering Hand painted on antiqued and mached bible pages on a stretched canvas frame.  Colors are metallic, flat black outline. Outline is partial acrylic paint, partial Sharpie. many different types of glitter thinned out and spread through the piece.  The entire piece is stained and aged, then coated with a sealant.  Pictures are with 2 different cameras in different lighting. The piece changes mood through the day.  One of 2 made, while this one is available, the other has been sold and is already in its happy new home.  (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); “I was truly inspired to make a huge Ouija Board while in a hotel room in the Ozarks during off season. There I was in the middle of Missouri, and there was this bible in the drawer. I looked at it and thought what a waste of good paper. There has to be something I can do with it.  So I threw it in my bag and forgot about it until I arrived back home in Florida.  I actually own one of the very first Ouija Boards, it was handed down to me after my Mom passed away. It was coming up on the anniversary of her death and I decided I was going to pay a little tribute to her memory.  The first one I started was the last one to finish. An old Army buddy wanted to purchase it, but I didnt want to ship a piece that big, all stretched out on a frame. So I started a copy, an un-stretched one that could be rolled up and shipped.  That second piece had a cloth backer, while this one is canvas.  There are some coloring differences, and this one has specific passages pulled out for each of the icons. I love them both, and hope to hold on to this one for a bit before it goes.” -Benjamin Sawin

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); The ouija, also known as a spirit board or talking board, is a flat board marked with the letters of the alphabet, the numbers 0–9, the words "yes", "no", "hello" (occasionally), and "goodbye", along with various symbols and graphics. It uses a small heart-shaped piece of wood or plastic called a planchette. Participants place their fingers on the planchette, and it is moved about the board to spell out words. "Ouija" was formerly a trademark belonging to Parker Brothers, and has subsequently become a trademark of Hasbro, Inc. in the United States, but is often used generically to refer to any talking board. According to Hasbro, players take turns asking questions and then "wait to see what the planchette spells out" for them.

Following its commercial introduction by businessman Elijah Bond on July 1, 1890, the ouija board was regarded as a parlor game unrelated to the occult until American spiritualist Pearl Curran popularized its use as a divining tool during World War I. Spiritualists claimed that the dead were able to contact the living and reportedly used a talking board very similar to a modern ouija board at their camps in Ohio in 1886 to ostensibly enable faster communication with spirits.

The Catholic Church and other Christian denominations have "warned against using ouija boards", holding that they can lead to demonic possession. Occultists, on the other hand, are divided on the issue, with some saying that it can be a positive transformation; others reiterate the warnings of many Christians and caution "inexperienced users" against it.

[ladyofpurple]

answer all of the questions!!

holy SHIT ok bless you omg

(sorry it's a full day late i took this shit SERIOUSLY. don't ask me how many hours this took, i was in A Mood™️ last night. removed the ones already answered xoxo)

angel; have you ever been in love?

yeah. didn't end too well, but i loved him.

petal; favorite novel and author?

this is like asking me to pick a favorite child. i guess favorite author would be stephen king, if only based entirely on the sheer quantity of his books i own alone. favorite book would probably be special topics in calamity physics by marisha pessl, and i'm only saying that because it's been my go-to response for years. i have lots of favorite books. ask me again in five minutes and i'll give you another one.

honey perfume; favorite perfume/scent?

freshly made coffee. lilacs. jasmine. cut grass. the ground after it rains. chocolate chip cookies in the oven. cigarette smoke on skin. my mom's shampoo. my grandma. my dog when he's just had a bath. thanksgiving dinner. acrylic paint on canvas. sawdust. that one cologne i can't name but can smell on a guy from a mile away. mulled cranberry and apple juice. vanilla. coconut. fresh laundry. peppermint.

sweet pea; what’s your zodiac?

virgo sun, pisces moon, scorpio rising ✨

softie; talk about your sexuality.

i'm biromantic asexual, primarily attracted to men more than women (but have had too many crushes on girls to consider myself het), generally sex repulsed when it comes to the thought of having it myself. i prefer to call myself queer in passing conversation, it's easier than explaining asexuality and the differences between sexual and romantic attraction. if someone asks more specifically, i'll usually just call myself bi for simplicity's sake, even though the ace part is a much more important (to me) part of my identity. monogamous as fuck.

i'm still struggling with internalized homophobia and a lot of "am i even queer enough" thoughts, which is super fun. took me a long time to even consider the fact that i might like girls at all. i'll probably never come out to my parents. not that they'd, like, disown me or whatever, but they're juuuuust homophobic/transphobic enough that my few attempts to educate them when they say something A Little Yikes have shown me that i should probably just stay in the closet unless i absolutely have to come out. like i'm getting married to a woman or something.

sugarplum; what’s the color of your eyes and hair?

i usually say my eyes are green because it's easier, and they mostly are, but i have rings of greyish blue around the irises and sometimes they're more hazel in the middle. they always have a green tint to them though, even if the intensity of the green varies.

my natural hair is brown, a little on the darker and slightly ashy side of completely generic. currently a former blonde, although i'm hoping to bleach my fucking YEAR of growout soon, and then go some crazy color as a last hurrah before i have to go dark again. being broke fucking sucks.

wings; coffee or tea?

tea!! black tea. chai, to be specific, with an irresponsible amount of milk and sugar. chai lattes are a fucking drug okay? coffee makes me sick (not a judgement, a literal fact. last time i tried some i threw up).

fairytale; are you a cat or dog person?

cat!! but my family has a chihuahua named sonny and you can pry that little monster from my cold dead hands ok i will fight you.

snowflake; favorite time period?

okay, i wrote and rewrote my answer to this about 10 times. then i tried to divide it up into categories (aesthetics, history, fashion, vibes, geographical location, etc), but that didn't help. so basically: i don't have one, because i have too many.

i like the american 20s-60s for the aesthetic, music/movies, and the fashion. i also like the european 1600s-1800s for the interesting history and also vibe. i love the french and russian revolutions — the fashion! the art! the wars and political upheaval! I FUCKING LOVE HISTORY. then, of course, we can't forget the rennaisance. or the witch trials (pick your continent). and ancient greece? the roman empire? hello?? did i mention empires? how bout we mosy on over to south america — can i interest you in the mayans? incans? aztecs? what about china and japan? korea? vietnam? and don't even get me fucking STARTED on the black plague.

ancient egypt? sign me the FUCK UP. vikings? yes please. the celts? oh boy. the MYTHOLOGY. the ARCHITECTURE. the LANGUAGES and POLITICS and LITERATURE and REVOLUTIONS and GOD HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO CHOOSE BETWEEN ANY OF THESE

i uh. might have gotten a little excited. basically i like history a lot. and mythology. and linguistics. and cultural practices. and the politics and prejudices behind wars and stuff. and learning in general. moving on.

vanilla; do you believe in ghosts?

let's put it this way: i don't not believe in ghosts??

listen. we don't know jack shit. we don't know what happens after we die, there are constant scientific revelations that turn our understanding of the universe completely upside-down, and there is literally no way to know which religions or myths or urban legends could have some grain of truth to them. like, dude, i've literally thought i was haunted before. psychology is bananas and the universe is infinite.

demons could be real. ghosts could be real. what if we just haven't invented the necessary technology to prove it yet? what if we never do, and they just fuck around alongside us, moving furniture and making shadow puppets on the walls just for kicks until the earth explodes? what if that one tumblr post was right and ghosts are actually real people from alternate universes or timelines that we see accidentally bc some cosmic wires got crossed? who fucking knows.

i love horror movies and scary stories and ghost hunter shows just as much as the next gal. but listen. psychics? mediums? people who accept every single creepypasta retold third-hand from their neighbor's kid's classmate's second cousin who "totally knows a guy"? doubt.jpeg

i don't understand the sheer amount of assumptions made willy-nilly about the nature of ghosts and demons and things that go bump in the night. the assumption that "oh this machine that totally doesn't look like a coathanger taped to a walkman will work because ghosts have this temperature and can always communicate like this and are electromagnetic" or whatever just baffles me. to a certain degree, following a general consensus is one thing — some basic things everyone can agree on? that's cool. ghosts can walk through walls and are probably dead people or whatever. but oh my god, taking every single story as absolute, undeniable proof?? taking these stories and expanding on them to infer intentions and scientific facts to something that by it's very nature is unknowable and assuming, like, every spirit is created equal?? and yeah, ghost hunting shows are fun and campy and kinda creepy but like. you really, genuinely don't think any of them have ever faked anything at all??? even if ghosts are real, it's fucking reality tv, my dude. it's the entertainment industry. at least maintain the slightest ounce of critical thought before taking zak bagans' word as the goddamn gospel.

and sidenote, maybe it's just my limited exposure as a white woman in the western world, but of all the shows and podcasts and movies and documentaries and whatnot i've been able to find and consume, there's the constant use of christian ideology applied to every situation that just really burns my bacon. what, there's never been an atheist ghost? if you see a shadow person and you don't know the lord's prayer by heart, are you automatically fucked? why are there never stories about, i don't know, viking ghosts? does your religion in life preclude you from becoming a ghost in the first place? is that why people never mention buddhist ghosts? i don't get it, and that's why even though i'm self-admittedly the most superstitious person i've ever met, true believers make me roll my eyes so hard they almost fall out. makes me come across as more skeptical than i theoretically am. I HAVE VERY STRONG FEELINGS ABOUT THIS OK

but like, you couldn't pay me to fuck with a ouija board. i'm not stupid.

delicate; diamonds or pearls?

both have their appeal and their place, but diamonds, i guess. i like the sparkle. but fake ones!! or synthetic. diamonds are overpriced and artificial scarcity is a scam and i don't need a dumb rock that some poor person in a mine somewhere was exploited and possibly died for. no blood diamonds in this house, thank you very much.

if i ever get engaged, i don't want a diamond ring. i'd want something cool, a little unusual, like a ruby or a sapphire or some other sparkly gem that isn't literally shoved in your face every waking moment as the expected standard symbol of True Love. they're cheaper, they're cool-looking, as a ring they still hold the cultural symbolism of an engagement/wedding ring. and honestly, as long as it's well-made and durable, whatever hypothetical gem it is doesn't have to be real either. i'm a woman of simple needs and demonstrably low standards. no point in going into debt for a fucking piece of jewelry, regardless of ~tradition~.

lavender dream; favorite album?

oh lord. welcome to the black parade, i guess. or anything by panic! at the disco. there are dozens of possible options — my interests are mercurial and my memory is garbage. but i'll always be an emo little shit. black parade and vices and virtues were also the first two albums i ever listened to where i loved every single song on them, and i happened to listen to them for the first time at around the same point in my life (i got into mcr super late. like, 2012 late. rip).

silky; what’s your biggest dream?

it's cheesy but i guess i just want stability and, by extension, happiness. emotional stability, mental stability, financial stability, stable living situation, stable routines, stable relationships... you get the idea. i have ambitions and passions, of course, but my ultimate goal is happiness at this point in my life, and i'm pretty sure stabilizing all those things would go a pretty long way in achieving that goal.

a little apartment with walls i can paint because white walls make me angry. bookshelves and posters and fandom merch on every wall. a computer i can actually play games on again, and somewhere i can paint and draw and record my podcasts. someone who loves me, maybe. a cat, if i'm stable enough. space for people to come visit me, and a place for them to sleep if they need. a tiny balcony, if i really want to shoot for the stars. a job i don't hate. the spoons to hang out with my friends, and the money to not worry about buying little presents for the people i care about sometimes. i don't need much.

strawberry kiss; do you have a crush right now?

nope.

glitter; favorite fictional character?

another loaded question. like books, if you ask me again in five minutes i'll probably give you a different answer. but in this particular moment, caleb and jester from critical role (please don't make me choose between them). i won't go full shipping mode rn, but jester is so funny and silly and sweet, so much more complex than she seems, and she tries so hard to make everyone happy even when she's so sad inside. the healer who treats healing as an inconvenience in battle (she's so fucking valid and also mood), the glue that keeps the party together. and caleb learning to trust again, facing his trauma and coming out of his shell. he loves his friends so much he plays wizard as a support class and i love him so much.

i love the mighty nein in general, of course, and all the guests/honorary members they've had. pumat!! pls don't be evil reani!! keg!! shakäste and grand duchess anastasia!! cali!! kiri!!!! the brotps! empire siblings! chaos crew! nott the best detective agency! i still love molly and all his assholery to bits (fight me), and mourn his lost potential. i adore yasha, even when she's gone; fjord has grown so much; beau and nott and caduceus — i love all their flaws and disagreements and their character arcs and the excitement of watching them grow and learn. but if i had to choose, caleb, jester and molly have always been my top 3 since day 1 and, well, molly isn't really an option anymore.

but like i said, ask me again in a minute. i have a fucking list.

swan; share a quote or passage that means something to you.

a collection of things off the top of my head:

Elinor agreed to it all, for she did not think he deserved the compliment of rational opposition. — Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austen

a tired feminist Mood™️

"What I say is, a town isn't a town without a bookstore. It may call itself a town, but unless it's got a bookstore, it knows it's not foolin' a soul." — American Gods, Neil Gaiman

i got my love of books from my grandma — some of my favorites i got from her. sometimes, as a treat, she used to take my sister and i to bookstores and we'd stay there for ages, getting to pick one out, roaming the shelves, the mental torture of having to choose. the peace of being surrounded by thousands of potential worlds, so much information, so many stories just waiting to be told; being surrounded by strangers who share that same wonder. the anxious drive home so we could read them, being unable to wait that long so i inevitably start reading in the car and make myself sick. telling her in excited detail all my favorite parts. if we were lucky, maybe we got to split a bear claw, or she'd drive past starbucks and get us something there too (tall vanilla soy steamer with one pump of vanilla syrup, whipped cream on top that always melted too quickly and squirted out the hole in the lid, so hot it burned my tongue but so good i didn't care). i have never felt more at home than i do when i'm surrounded by books.

"There are a lot of different types of freedom. We talk about freedom the same way we talk about art, like it was a statement of quality rather than a description. “Art” doesn’t mean good or bad. Art just means art. It can be terrible and still be art. Freedom can be good or bad, too. There can be terrible freedom. You freed me, and I didn’t ask you to." — Alice Isn't Dead, season 1, chapter 2: Alice

as cringey as it is to admit it, this line made me cry a lot after my breakup.

"So you aren't American?" asked Shadow.

"Nobody's American," said Wednesday. "Not originally. That's my point." — American Gods, Neil Gaiman

[side-eyes white america real hard]

there's more, of course. there's always more. don't even get me started on song lyrics, we'll be here all day.

lace; what’s your favorite plant/flower?

lilacs and roses.

mermaid; do you prefer the forest or the ocean? why?

both, i guess. but in different ways, and in different circumstances.

the sea is wild. it is endless and deep and unknowable. it is beautiful and dangerous. i am terrified of the ocean, and yet my favorite place in the world is an empty beach on the oregon coast. i have picked sand from between my toes for days with hair crusted in salt, danced around bonfires and watched the stars while marshmallows burn, gotten pulled under the waves as a child and nearly swept out to sea. picked starfish and crabs from small pools in the rocks, and swum (accidentally) with wild sea lions. in a long skirt, too early in the year to be swimming, i once took off my shoes and waded fully clothed into the water to my waist and just... danced. splashed and kicked and laughed with a boy i barely knew until our throats were sore and our toes were numb, walking home hours later with our soaked clothes clinging to our legs, shoes squelching, dripping algae as we went. the ocean is freeing and overwhelming all at once. i love it and am petrified by it in equal measure.

the forest is beautiful in a different way. it is silent and dense and serene. you are surrounded by life and yet, somehow, completely alone. there is magic in the forest, and history, and even when all else dies, that will remain. the trees grow from the corpses of their ancestors, and some have lived dozens of our lifetimes — with luck, a few dozen more. it is quiet there, peaceful, even the tiniest wood in the middle of a city muffling the outside world through the trees. you can feel the ancient ways deep in your soul as you follow winding paths strewn with fallen leaves, the mystery and wonder and superstitions of your forefathers. you wonder what it would be like, to run your fingers over the moss, to take off your shoes and socks and just run, leaping and dancing over rocks and roots, hair wild and air filling your lungs in deep, pure gulps as you shed the responsibilities and struggles of modern life, for just a moment remembering what freedom tastes like. it is primal, this connection to nature, one we have nearly forgotten over time. and as the sky grows dark and the silence of night presses against you, shadows looming, every footfall deafening, perhaps you begin to understand why some believed in monsters.

honeymoon; do you keep a journal?

i used to. honestly, that's a good idea, i should start doing that again. lord knows i have enough empty journal-type books.

starlight; do you believe in love at first sight and soulmates? why/why not?

i want to. i want to believe there's someone out there for me, the love of my life, someone to whom i'll be the love of their life, and that when i meet them i'll just... know.

but when i met my ex, i didn't really look twice at him for a while — no love at first sight. and when we were together, when i loved him and he swore he loved me back, i thought he hung the stars in the sky and knew i would marry him someday. couldn't even consider the idea that that wouldn't happen. and then when he broke up with me, he ghosted me so suddenly and thoroughly that he even preemptively cut contact with every single one of our mutual friends he thought might side with me in the breakup, before anybody even knew we'd had a fight. so, not soulmates either.

i really want to believe that someday the perfect romance will just fall into place and i can have the happily ever after i've always dreamed of. but the reality is i might never even have another s.o. for the rest of my life. maybe i'll get hit by a car tomorrow, or my hypothetical soulmate moves to argentina to become an alpaca farmer on a mountain somewhere and we never even meet. maybe i'm so traumatized by the betrayal and lies that i'll never have the courage to even try again.

and even so, happily ever after doesn't have to include a fairytale romance, regardless of whether i want it or not. i still like to cling to that hope though, deep down.

princess; what do you value most in people?

i'm going to assume you mean "real people" as in people i have positive relationships with, and not random strangers on the street.

loyalty. kindness. support. humor. similar values. patience. being able to grow together and teach each other things, so we can make each other better. honesty. trust. compassion. confidence. emotional vulnerability. communication. intelligence, or at least a willingness to learn. strength.

[zorosdimples]

︵‿︵‿୨ ಇ ୧‿︵‿︵ september 26, 2023 ︵‿︵‿୨ ಇ ୧‿︵‿︵

@crysugu ಇ happy birthday to my sweetest birthday twin, dilly bean! i hope suguru is treating you to the most special day you deserve! this is a little dilsu mood board i put together by stalking your asks (this one in particular). you are such a bright shining light in our tumblr community, and i am always excited to see you and talk to you! i hope the coming year is the most magical yet. love always, kae

dilsu ಇ but we loved with a love that was more than love—

[late-to-the-party-81]

The Show

A/N: Steve's been in a bad mood, and you know fro conversations with Bucky that in times like these he needs a certain type of loving, so you ask him to help you. This is part five of An Artist and an Engineer.

Part Four | Part Six

Find my Masterlist here

Un-beta'd. Divider's by @firefly-graphics. Mood board and banners by me.

Relationship: Steve x Reader (Established), Steve x Bucky (pre-poly), little bit Bucky x Reader (pre-poly)

Word Count: 3k ish

CW: Minor D/S undertones, Anal Sex, Oral sex (M receiving), Spit-roasting, aftercare, pre-poly, threesome, voyerism, exhibitionism, female masturbation, squirting.

“God damnit!”

Steve’s shout resonated through his apartment from his studio, followed by the sound of a canvas being snapped and shredded. You sighed from where you were laying on the sofa, reading through a book.

Steve had been in an almost constant bad mood for the last week. He was suffering from a block with his art and it was aggravating him, leaving him short tempered. You’d tried helping him in a variety of ways, staying away to give him space, and trying to distract him when you were around. Nothing seemed to work, not even going through a heavy scene together. You still carried the weight of the bruises on your ass, a delicious reminder of how he had made you fly. Yes, he had been fine in the moment, as attentive and caring as always, but his good mood had vanished almost as soon as aftercare was over, leaving him tossing and turning in bed for a few hours before he got up and secluded himself back in with his easel and paints.

“It’s not you Cali, I swear” he’d reassured. “My brain just gets so fogged up sometimes and it just makes me so annoyed with myself.”

This latest outburst was the second one of today, and you knew it couldn’t continue any longer; he needed to get out of his head. You picked up your phone and fired off a text. The response was almost immediate and you shifted in your seat as you thought ahead……

Less than an hour later there was a knock at the door. You almost skipped over to it, and as you pulled it open you yanked your visitor into a hug.

“I’m so glad you’re here. If there is anyone who can help him out of this funk it’ll be you.”

Bucky smiled at you, and you could feel your insides melt. The pair of you had already been intimate on a number of occasions, although never quite going all the way. It was a line that wouldn’t be crossed until you were both sure that Steve was okay with it.

And speaking of Steve, another crash echoed through the space, followed by a frustrated cry.

“You go get the bedroom ready, darlin’, pull up a chair nice and close and I’ll bring our boy through.”

You dropped a quick kiss to his lips before rushing off, shedding clothes in your wake, and leaving a giggle in the air. You turned the bedside lights on, pulled back the comforter and retrieved a few items from the drawer. Next you grabbed the arms of the comfy chair that Steve kept in his room and drew it closer to the bed, close enough that you could sit in it and prop your feet up on the mattress.

Steve and Bucky crashed through the door a few moments later, locked in each other’s arms, kissing fiercely. Steve was already missing his t-shirt and the fly of Bucky’s jeans was open. You felt yourself starting to get wet, just from looking at the pair of them. Bucky pulled back from Steve, who chased his lips and let out a small whine.

“Stevie, you need to go and get all washed up for me, hmmmm.”

You chuckled at the sight of your normally domineering boyfriend looking all needy and soft, like a giant Labrador, whilst Bucky shoed him towards the en-suite.

As you settled yourself, only clad in your underwear, in the chair, Bucky turned to look at you.

“Getting comfy there, darlin’?”

“Absolutely.” You grinned and leaned forwards, drawing his eyes to your breasts that were threatening to spill out of your bra.

“Fuck, sweetheart, you trying to distract me?”

“Of course not, Bucky. Just keeping you occupied and revved up whilst you wait.”

He lifted one of his legs over yours where they were propped up, straddling you, and then, resting his hands on the arms of the chair, he bent down to capture your lips in a searing kiss. You’d kissed a few times now and you loved the way that kisses from him were different from Steve. Steve rarely let himself go, there was always an underlying restraint to him. But Bucky was pure, uninhibited passion. And you couldn’t wait to see Steve enthralled by it. Hopefully this would be what he needed to put his current demons to rest.

And speaking of Steve, his deep chuckle had you and Bucky pulling apart, as your boyfriend came out of the bathroom, hair damp, and a small towel around his waist. A small towel that was slightly tented.

“You trying to get my best guy all for yourself, Cali?”

“Of course not, baby. Just keeping him warm for you.”

You placed a light smack on Bucky’s jeans covered ass to send him over to Steve, but before he moved he looked down at you with dark eyes. A look that made you want to whine and press your thighs together. Then he was striding across the room and claiming Steve again with his mouth, enfolding him in his arms. Your boyfriend moaned, looking so very wanton; his hands were fisted into Bucky’s shirt and he looked as though he was trying to crawl inside him. After a few moments Bucky pulled away, spinning them so they were both facing you, Steve’s back to Bucky’s front. Then he unhooked the towel and let it drift to the floor. Steve’s cock stood out hard in front of him, tip flushed and weeping.

“Look at your girl, Stevie. She can’t wait to see you come apart under my touch. She’s already wet at the thought of it. Ain’t you darlin’?”

You smiled at them, something addictive about the glassy look in Steve’s eyes. They were so beautiful together, such raw masculinity, but also softened and tender at the same time. Bucky was running his fingers lightly up and down Steve’s torso, dragging over his pecs and abdominals, making him shiver in anticipation. Or maybe it was those sinful lips trailing over Steve’s shoulder and neck that were causing that reaction. Steve’s eyes fluttered and his head fell back onto Bucky’s shoulder.

“Bucky, please…..”

“Aw, Stevie, so needy. Want me to touch you?” He slid his hands down over Steve’s hips, gripping onto the muscled flesh before moving his left over to wrap around the hard length. He slowly moved his hand up and down, and your own hand travelled down inside of your underwear as you watched. You let out your own moan of pleasure as your fingers moved through your slick folds.

“OK, doll. Time for you to show your sweetheart how good you can be for me.” Without another word, Steve turned in Bucky’s arms, then sank to the floor. He finished undoing Bucky’s half open fly, the jeans dropping to the ground, as Steve, like a man entranced, released Bucky’s cock from the confines of his boxers. He licked his lips, before taking hold of it and starting to run his tongue up it from root to tip. Now it was Bucky’s turn to let out a moan, steadying himself with one hand of Steve’s shoulder and the other on his head.

“Fuck, your mouth Stevie. I bet it’s just as good for her.” You couldn’t help your own indrawn breath as Steve fastened his lips around the mushroom head of Bucky’s thick cock and started to suckle on it. You couldn’t get over how wet you were, and decided you needed to slow down otherwise you’d finish too soon.

Removing your hand from your panties you got up from the chair and walked over to the boys. Steve pulled back and they both looked at you.

“Steve, you need to stop teasing Bucky.” You wrapped your slick covered hand around Bucky’s cock, the first time you had touched it so. “You need to get all the way down to the bottom baby.”

You’d never been this domineering in the bedroom before, but seeing Steve like this seemed to have ignited something within you. You jacked Bucky a few times, liberally smearing your juices on his cock. Then, once you’d let go of it, you placed your hand on the back of Steve’s head and pushed him back towards Bucky.

“Come on, baby. Taste us together.” Your boyfriend didn’t need to be told twice. With his hands gripping his best friend’s thighs, he swallowed him down, Bucky shouting at the sensation and Steve moaning at the taste of you combined with Bucky’s pre-come. He hollowed his cheeks and moved his head, the sounds lewd in the relative silence of the room. Drool was running out of his mouth, running over his chin and Bucky’s sac.

Whilst the two were wrapped up in each other you removed your bra and panties and settled back on the arm chair. You hand went back between your legs, now spread wide, with your feet propped back on the bed. You pressed two fingers inside your cunt, leisurely pumping into yourself, but without any real sense of urgency. But the noises that you made caught Bucky’s attentions. He pulled Steve off his cock, a string of pre-come connecting it to your boyfriend’s lips.

“Our audience is getting restless Stevie. Time for the next act. Up!” He gave Steve a gentle tug on his hair to encourage him to his feet and then, equally gently, pushed him towards the bed.

“Hands and knees, baby, then turn your face towards your Cali.” Steve followed the direction, his body perpendicular to you. His cock was red-tipped and leaking profusely as it pointed heavily towards the sheets. His expression was completely fucked out already. Bucky shuffled up behind him, settling on his knees between Steve’s spread thighs. The snick of the lube bottle opening had some kind of Pavlovian response on Steve, as his breathing picked up so he was almost panting.

Then Bucky was trailing a slick finger up from Steve’s taint to swirl around his tight hole. Steve shivered, and you bit your lip as you watched.

“So, here’s what’s gonna happen. I’m gonna open you up on my fingers, get you all needy and whiny, then I’m gonna fuck you on my cock whilst your girlfriend watches you come apart. If you’re good, and she enjoys herself, I’ll let you come. You understand?”

Steve nodded into the sheets, a breathy “yes” escaping him. Bucky drizzled some more lube right onto Steve’ opening, smearing it with his middle finger before sinking it in to the first knuckle. Of all the noises Steve has made so far, this was by far the most salacious. You palmed one of your breasts as you increased the pace at which you were fingering your pussy. It wasn’t long before Bucky’s finger was sinking all the way in and he added a second. Steve was so lost in the pleasure coursing through him that he was humping back onto the invading digits and you and Bucky looked at each other, the brunet’s face plastered with a shit-eating grin. You saw Bucky twist his wrist and Steve’s shouted, his eyes rolling back into his head and his heavy cock twitching. His friend just chuckled, before adding a third finger.

You knew what was coming, so you pulled your fingers from yourself and grabbed the dildo of Steve’s cock that normally resided on the Sybian. You lubed it up and held it ready. Bucky’s full attention was back on Steve. With his free hand he poured lube onto his own straining cock, and smeared it over the full length. He pulled his fingers from Steve’s ass, and lined himself up. As he sunk the tip in, his head fell back and Steve’s eyes closed. You started to work the dildo into yourself, forcing yourself to match Bucky’s slow progress.

He bottomed out, and both men groaned in pleasure.

“BuckBuckBuck…. oh god…. please…. please.” Your boyfriend was begging and it was such a delicious sound. His friend obliged, pulling back, oh so slowly, building the tension before snapping his hips forwards, causing his thighs to clap against Steve’s ass cheeks.

All three of you moaned this time and you started to fuck yourself with the dildo as Bucky fucked Steve into the mattress. You couldn’t believe how hot it was, watching them together. You’d fantasied about it a lot since that evening you and Bucky had been introduced and Steve had told you about their ‘special’ relationship. You knew that Steve was the only person Bucky didn’t use protection with, and as all three of you had been recently tested, you knew you didn’t need to worry on that score.

You readjusted so you could rub at your clit as you fucked yourself. Fuck, you’d never been this turned on. Steve’s eyes were closed and he was letting out little punched-out moans as Bucky drove into him.

“Steve, open your eyes, doll. Look at your girl. Look at how much you turn her on. Look at her fucking herself and creaming on that dildo, just from watching you take me.” Christ, Bucky had a filthy mouth. But Steve’s baby blues sought out your eyes as asked before his gaze drifted to your core watching your pussy stretch and swallow up his facsimile.

“Oh fuck……..”

God he was barely able to talk. He was actually drooling of his own accord now. You changed the angle of the silicone cock inside you so it rubbed against your g-spot. Your head fell back and your eyes closed, but the image of Steve wrecked in front of you remained in your mind, and the sounds the pair of them were making were really doing it for you. Your moans joined theirs as you drove yourself higher until you were bucking your hips up onto the dildo and screaming your release.

There was a sudden quiet in the room, only punctuated by three sets of lungs breathing hard. You opened your eyes to find both Steve and Bucky staring at you.

“Well look at that, Stevie. Your girl squirted.” You looked down and saw the damp splatters trailing from where you were sat over onto Steve’s side, where creamy drops were running down his skin.

“Guess that means she did enjoy herself. Which means, you get to come, doll. You want that?” Bucky rotated his hips as he spoke.

“Yes… god... please… Buck. Want to come.”

“Hey, darlin’, care to help?” You nodded through your daze. “Well come on up here.” God, his grin.

You pulled the dildo out of your messy cunt and climbed up next to Steve’s head.

“Open up Steve, gonna help Bucky stuff you full.”

He looked at you, eyes lustful, as he opened his mouth and allowed you to slide the toy inside. You pumped it in and out, a hand on his head holding him steady.

“Come on, clean it off for me. You’re the one who made me mess it up.”

As Steve got lost in your dominance of him, that’s when Bucky started moving again. You matched your speeds, taking it in turn to fuck Steve back and forth between you. And you were hypnotised by it.

“Fuck, Bucky. Is he like this every time?”

“Every time I fuck him? Pretty much. Aaaah fuck, he’s almost there. Can feel him gripping me. Christ, I think he’s getting off on us talking about him.”

Bucky moved his left hand from Steve’s hip and grasped his hair, bring his head up, the dildo still in his mouth. “Is that it, slut? Like just being an object for us to use? Jeez, I felt that, you do!”

Bucky picked up his pace, losing his own control now, so you kept the dildo still, the brunet making all the movement necessary for the three of you.

“Come on Stevie, give it up for me, come on doll, want you to come on our cocks, that’s it. Help him along darlin’, yeah jack his dick, aah fuck, you feel so good.”

Bucky came with a shout, his head thrown back and his hips jerking as he spilt inside Steve. This seems to tip the blond over his own edge. A high-pitched whine came from him as he trembled between the two of you, his cock shooting ropes of come across the bed and your hand. The dildo fell from his lips and you let it roll off the bed onto the floor as Steve collapsed forward and Bucky rolled to the side, both panting hard. You stroked Steve’s hair, as Bucky pulled him into a hug from behind.

After a few moments, you rose and went to the bathroom. You gave yourself a quick clean with a washcloth, then dampening two more, moved back to the bedroom and passed one to Bucky. You wiped Steve’s face gently, removing the remains of your release and his own saliva, before carefully cleaning up his abdomen and groin. Bucky cleaned both himself and Steve’s ass, before collapsing back down.

You returned the soiled cloths to the bathroom and by the time you came back through, Steve was already soundly asleep. You stopped by Bucky, and bent down to give him a lingering kiss.

“Thank you for being here.”

“Any time darlin’. I’m always available for my best guy and his gal. You’re pretty special, you know that? Not many women would be happy to share their man.”

“Aahh, but he needs both of us, I think?”

“And what about you, sweetheart?” His voice was almost a whisper, a hint of something like worry in his voice.

“Oh, Buck, yeah, I’m starting to think I need both of you too. Let me sleep on it with my two guys, okay?”

“Okay, yeah, I can get behind that.” His eyes were almost closed now, and you brushed a lock of his hair off his face and pressed a second, but chaste, kiss to his forehead. You walked around the bed, thankful that Steve had a California king, and climbed in beside him, where he lay peacefully between you and his best friend.

[crowdoeszine]

Evaluation

My project is about the Multiverse and looking at how context is used in art. I started off by choosing 12 words and researched them – with the outcome being I would create a Zine based off of them, however, my final outcome would not be the intended result as due to remote learning I would not have the resources to create a Zine. My project started out with me researching my 12 chosen words which were, Universe, Space, Time, Reality, Botany, Archangel, Freedom, Galaxy, Dimension, Darkness, White Noise and Anthropology. I researched the meaning of the words then found images that represented them and what I thought about when I thinking of the words – I also created mind-maps for each word, linking ideas and other concepts.

For my project, I also looked at context in art and how it is presented – for this I watched a couple videos and read a few articles and compiled my thought into a blog post. Context is important in art because a piece of work can hold an entirely different meaning if the context is known or unknown. For example, by adding context to a piece of artwork, it gives it a meaning and a purpose and makes it a visual story, in a way. Designers create context in their artwork by portraying it to the viewer via image and colour and communicate their intent and meaning through the work.

Another thing I learnt about was how to create a Zine in InDesign and what the history behind them was – after researching, I found out that Zines were first used in the 1930s but became more popular in the punk era of the 1970s – with bands and other members of the music community using them to promote. While I could not produce my own Zine, due to lack of resources, I found it very interesting how Zines have developed over the years, how they were once very popular but are not, not as popular but still hold the core values that makes Zines what they are.

In my project I used a variety of materials and resources, that I could use despite the circumstances. I did a lot of my editing and digital creations on Photoshop but I also experimented with photography and other digital art apps like Snapseed and Ibis Paint X. I used Snapseed to edit my photos that I took, you can edit contrast, brightness, hue and edit separate sections. Ibis Paint X is a free drawing app for tablets and phones – I used it to start the base of my final outcomes. On Photoshop, I used the paint brush tool to add small illustrations onto some of my photographs as I was experimenting with the idea of mixing reality with un-reality. I also used previous skills with the saturation and hue effects to edit my final outcomes and make them unique.

The photographs I took were themed around some of my chosen words and I took inspiration from the American photographer Daniel Kranken. I first discovered Kranken on Instagram and his unique style of photography caught my eye – his pictures are dark and he uses shadows to emphasise his main subjects and he likes to capture city spaces and life. I also experimented with different photography techniques, such as long exposure – I tried out this method during the night and I took long exposure shots of cars going down a road, the long exposure made the lights look like long tails behind the vehicles. Capturing their trail and movement in a still image, I like this idea of how you can use long exposure to capture moving objects in a still image but they can still appear to be moving.

I also looked into space and the colours in space, as it was one f my words. I was fascinated by the various colours you can find – lots of red, blues, yellows and purples – created by gas, dust and tge distortion of light in the vacuum of Space. This research led me to my main idea for my final outcomes as I looked at Nebulas in Space and how they are bright and vibrant in contrast to the black and darkness of what is around them. After creating a mood-board post about Nebulas, I started designing my own on my phone by creating a canvas and had a black background and added bright colours swirled into patterns. I used the smudge tools and blur tools to create a sort of swirling and whispy effect then experimented by crystallising the colours so that they would be spread out and gradiented more. Next, I set the layer to the divide option so that it would show through on the layer below, but with inverted colours. The outcome was this purple-red mist with a denser orange and white form in the middle. I took it to Photoshop where I used the hue and contrast effects to change the colours so there were multiple variations and turned them into postcards. I really liked the outcome because it feels as though each postcard artwork holds its own emotion. 

A strength of my project would probably be my photography experimentations and understanding how and why context is needed in art. However, my weaknesses would probably be how I could have made more physical artwork, if I had the chance to do this project again with more resources, I feel as though my outcomes and other artworks would be more varied as I would have access to a larger variety of materials. During this project, I did learn how to efficiently work remotely and has helped me develop my at home working skills.

[tipsycad147]

How To Create A Beautiful Oracle Deck In 8 Steps

Julie Hopkins

An Oracle deck is a series of cards with images or words on them that can be used for divination, goal-setting, to lift your mood, or to connect with your intuition or a higher power. Each deck has a theme, and really, anything goes. There are many oracle decks out there with a variety of themes such as angels, animals, and positive affirmations.

How Are Oracle Decks Different Than Tarot Decks?

Oracle decks (generally) differ from tarot cards in three ways.

A tarot deck consists of 78 cards, and an oracle deck could be any number cards.

Tarot decks have major arcana cards and minor arcana cards divided into four suits. An oracle deck can be structured similarly, but there are no set rules around it. Usually, the theme dictates the structure of the cards.

Tarot cards are usually read in spreads of multiple cards, and oracle cards tend to be read one card at a time.

Why Create Your Own Oracle Deck?

Maybe you’ve experimented with other oracle decks and felt your intuition nudging to make your own. Maybe you’re working towards a goal and want a personalised deck that speaks directly to your hopes and dreams.

Whatever your reason, I say go for it! There is power in creating something inspired by your intuition. Intention is the “secret sauce” behind spells and magical tools, and when you make something from an idea in your head, it’s supercharged with your personal power.

Let’s Get Started!

Step 1: Check Out Other Oracle Decks.

Head on over to Pinterest and check out the different oracle decks that others have created. Which decks are you drawn to? Do you like larger cards or playing card size? What colours schemes catch your eye? Notice the intentions behind each deck. Some are geared toward divination, while others are all about adding a little inspiration to your day.

After browsing what’s out there, you’ll start to see some patterns. Most oracle decks fall into one of two categories: topical or character-based. For example, a topical deck might have a different affirmation on each card. A character-based oracle deck could have a different animal on each card.

Step 2: Brainstorm Themes for Your Cards.

Now that your brain is brimming with great deck ideas, take some time to jot down ideas for your own deck. As you’re doing this, let your creativity flow. Write down every idea that pops into your head without judgement or censoring. You might surprise yourself with the themes you come up with.

If you get stuck, think about the things in your life that “feel” magical and spark something inside of you. This could include nature, sacred spaces (in your environment or in the world), magical tools you use in your rituals, shapes, people you admire, characters from books, musicians, affirmations to keep you motivated, food, quotes or poetry.

After you settle on a theme, make a list of all the individual card design ideas around this theme. Decide if you want to include words on the cards or just an image. Sift through the design ideas and pick the ones that resonate with you most (even if you don’t know why). Plan out as many or as few cards in your oracle deck as you want. This deck is uniquely yours so you get to make the rules.

Step 3: Pick Your Materials.

You have a lot of options here. You can head to your local craft store and buy your materials, or just use what you have on hand. Witches are resourceful people, and I think it’s fun to go looking around my house for unconventional art supplies.

Here’s what I’ve used to make oracle decks:

4 inch by 6-inch note cards - These are great because they’re all the same size and sturdier than regular paper. Plus, they’re already card-shaped. No cutting required!

A pad of cardstock - You can trace your cards on this paper and cut each card out. This gives you more freedom with card shapes and sizes. (And keep in mind, no one said these cards have to be rectangular. Circles, triangles or hexagons work, too!)

Cardboard from cereal boxes, cracker boxes, etc - This thin, firm cardboard will make for durable oracle cards. And it’s a magical way to recycle stuff you already have in your house! I usually paint over the cardboard with white so I have a blank canvas for my card designs.

Elmer's Glue - It always comes in handy.

Gloss Medium or Mod Podge - This can be used for adhering paper to non-paper materials, or for image transfers.

Paint brushes - You can use these with paint, glue or gloss medium.

Paint - Acrylic paint and watercolours work better than oil paint because they’re less textured when they dry.

Spray Paint - This is perfect for stencils. Make sure you use this outside. It gets fumy!

Markers, coloured pencils or calligraphy pens - Drawing your own designs and handwriting the words will give your oracle cards a totally custom look.

Glitter - Use with caution because it gets everywhere, but I’m kind of obsessed with the stuff.

Old magazines - Cut out the images that fit your oracle deck theme and adhere them to the cards with tape or glue.  

Photographs - If you have personal photos that fit your theme, go for it!

Postcards or Birthday cards - Infusing your oracle cards with things that hold meaning to you will increase the power of your deck.

Pressed dried flowers, leaves or grass - Get all earthy with it! These adhere to the paper better when you paint the gloss medium or mod podge directly on the paper and again right over the plants as you’re adhering it to your cards.

Tissue paper - I love cutting out shapes of tissue paper and using gloss medium or watered down Elmer’s glue to stick them on. This creates a “stained glass” look.

Gift Wrap Paper - This is great for giving the back of the cards a uniform look.

Scotch tape - I use this for image transfers.

Clear packing tape - This works for image transfers or as a way to create a smooth finish on your cards. It’s kind of like laminating.

Whatever the heck you want!

Step 4: Design the Back of Your Cards.

Decide whether you want the back of all the cards to be uniform or more of a “mixed bag”. Traditionally, decks of cards will all have identical “backs”. The benefit of this is you won’t be to identify the cards as you’re drawing them for a reading.

To achieve this uniform look, I recommend using pattern stencils, gift wrap paper, or pieces of masking tape.

The other option is to make each card different. This is not traditional, but it’s super fun. Because you’ll be familiar with differences in your cards, you’ll have to keep your eyes closed when drawing a card, but it could make for an interesting reading for other people who aren’t familiar with the cards. During readings, their intuition can guide them towards a certain colour or pattern from your assortment of mini masterpieces.

Another method I love to use for the back of my oracle cards is paper weaving. I take two pieces of coloured paper (both the same size) and cut them into strips. I’ll line up one set of strips vertically side-by-side and secure it to a flat surface with tape. Then I weave in the other set of strips horizontally, alternating over and under until all the strips are weaved in. This created a checker-board look that you can glue to the back of your cards.

Step 5: Design the Front of Your Cards.

Remember that list you made from step two? Take that out and look it over. Assign a design idea to each card in your oracle deck.

You can use whatever medium you like to design and decorate your cards. Just keep in mind, you want these cards to be shuffleable. Go easy on the textured materials.  

If you can draw, try sketching out your symbols or characters on the cards. If you’re not that confident in your art skills, find images that fit with your theme and glue them to the cards to create a sort of collage-look.

Tip: It helps to work on one card at a time to keep from getting overwhelmed. Creating these should be fun, not a chore, so only work on these when you’re feeling inspired. Your cards will absorb your energy while you’re making them, so make this process joyful!

Step 6: Create Your Card Meanings.

Gather up all your finished oracle cards take some time to connect with each one. Hold one card at a time and focus all your attention on it. Close your eyes and notice the energy that the card carries. How does it feel in your hand? Does it bring up any emotions? Then open your eyes and examine the details of the card. Notice what thoughts float through your mind. Ask yourself, “what does this card mean?” Write down your observations and create meanings for each card based on your notes.

Don’t be afraid to edit meanings as you get to know your cards more. This should be a fun, fluid process. Don’t overthink it.

Step 7: Make a Unique Cover For Your Deck.

To avoid losing or damaging your cards when you’re not using them, decide on how you want to store them. You can tie them with a ribbon, keep them in a pouch, or store them in a decorative box. I like to keep my cards wrapped in a white cloth that I’d used to wipe my paintbrush on while painting my oracle cards. This leaves me with a beautiful cloth that matches the colours of my deck AND it’s already charged with my creative energy.

Step 8: Discover How to Use Your Oracle Deck.

Experiment with your oracle cards. Try pulling a card a day, or create some spreads around the theme of your deck. Add or take away cards to your deck if you want. This is YOUR creation, so let your oracle deck change and grow along with you!

Do you know how to get the best readings from your Tarot yet?

If the answer is no, then you’re missing out on one of the most useful tools in the craft!

Getting started with Tarot can be intimidating. There are a ton of rules and a bunch of them contradict each other and then there’s memorising all those cards… it’s too much! Not anymore though.

In my Intro To Tarot class series, you’ll learn step-by-step how to become a confident, spiritually attuned Tarot reader so that you can make the most of this amazing tool for yourself.

Learn More Here >>

https://thetravelingwitch.com/blog/2018/4/17/how-to-create-a-beautiful-oracle-deck-in-8-steps

[samgibbsgamesterm1]

Pixel art research and experimentation.

We looked into how artists used pixel art to create characters and backgrounds. We did mood boards so we could analyse images of different styles of pixel art. 

On this mood board I looked into different styles of pixel art characters. I was quite interested in the different styles of pixel art characters and didn't expect there to be such a huge variety. When I think of pixel art characters I instantly think of the retro Mario and Legend of Zelda instead of taking into consideration recent pixel art games such as Terraria. 

On this mood board I looked into different styles of pixel art backgrounds and themes. I was quite fascinated to discover the different types of pixel art backgrounds and how creators use darker shades of the same colour to make the background clearly look like the background. I have done some analysis of each of the images and annotated them on the photoshop document.

Once we researched some of the pixel art styles we then did some of our own pixel art where we made our own characters out of pixel art.First we had to make a custom canvas in Photoshop. The canvas size is very important as you have to stick to the power of 2. 

First we made a 32 x 32 pixel art character (8 bit).

Doing the 8 bit character was a challenge as you couldn't get in much detail due to the small amount of pixels available. It was also hard to get proportions right.  

Then we made a 64 x 64 pixel art version of the same character (16 bit).

After doing the 64 x 64 pixel art character I realised how much more detail and shape you can get on the character. I definitely prefer this way as the character has more detail and a better structure which makes it look less blocky.

To get the pixel grid to show up all you need to do is zoom in.

While making our pixel art characters we had to change the brush tool to pencil so we didn't get a gradient when we drew our pixels and also meant our pencil tool gave us a square instead of a circle to draw with which made things easier. We also did our pixel art character on a new layer so if we export the image as a png our character doesn't disappear with the background.

The power of 2 and rations:

In the gaming industry the power of 2 is that the sizes should be 2 to the power of a value which means your value can always be divided by 2. Its best to use a ratio of 1:1 for example 32 x 32.

We also looked into dithering which is used to create a gradient using pixels. It is a time consuming process but creates an effective effect on the pixel art.

As you can see the more dithering you do the more blended the colours become.

These are different forms of dithering which give different effects. There is also an example of bad dithering which is caused when the 2 colours you are dithering have too much contrast to each other.