Dangan Ronpa Monokuma Greeting Card

My sister, a hip teen ever in sync with the pulse of what's popular these days, made me watch Dangan Ronpa.  It's an anime based on a videogame, and the genre..well - think Ace Attorney meets Battle Royale.  There are teens locked in a world where they have to kill each other to escape, and there's also a heavy element of "who dun it" courtroom drama.

Though interesting, it's also kind of gory/morbid, so I have yet to finish the series. Though all the blood is like, bright pink, so I guess it's not that realistic :P

Anyway, there's a creepy evil bear named Monokuma in the show, and I thought he'd make a great cut-out card.

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Pupupu!

Such texture! 

His right eye really should be red, but I didn't want to glue extra paper in. I guess you could just color it in. Glitter would be cool too.

Perfect greeting card for skeeving your friends out, just a little.  Like a sister card to the Kyubey card, really. Looks like the beginnings of a creepy-cute mascot line.

(And a repetitive note: this is card 3 of 4 of my new designs.  After memorial day I'll show all the designs and you'll be welcome to request them if you like. Freebs, naturally!)

Hiking Hawaii: Oahu's Manoa Falls

Since I have a lot of Hawaii pictures floating around my hard drive, I figure I should just get at it and write before I forget what happened. I'm going to try little mini-series topics, since wading through huge slews of pictures intimidates me.

For example, I have like 20 pictures of this white rump shama bird. Most the shots are of his bum!

Oh! And I'm also working on a big google map of Oahu, to pin point food/beaches/shoppy places I liked.  My boss shared hers with me before we went on our trip, and it was pretty cool.  Better than reading through Yelp reviews of people I don't know.  She asked me to share one with her since she's going back soon, so that's the plan! Maybe I can share it here too? I'm not sure how that works.

Anyway, other than the Kawaii Kon convention, Sak and I really wanted to do some hiking this time.  The past few times we've gone in winter it was too rainy and muddy, so I was glad that early April was a bit drier!

Our first stop, the popular Manoa Falls Trail.  It's about 1.6 miles (0.8 miles each way), with a small incline.  We packed a water bottle and got there around 9-10 am. We weren't sure where the road stopped, and where we could park, so we ended up on a residential street curb next to a small tour van.

We walked about five minutes or so into the "paradise park" area, where there was a full lot and a parking attendant for $5. Oh well, at least we parked for free!

The trail began shortly after the lot, and right away it was like stepping straight into Jurrassic Park.  Breathtakingly surreal.

What? Need help visualizing?

Legit.

Ahem.  Anyway, I decided to photograph all the ferns I could find, because they are so weird and cute - my favorite plant!

Okay, fiddlehead bottom right ain't so cute, I admit.

Not a fern, but kinda cool to see a plant growing out the body of fallen tree.

The trail was for the most part, fairly wide and gravel filled.  Also it wasn't very steep, and the big trees shaded us from the hot sun, so it was very relaxing and enjoyable.  Being off-season, it also wasn't too crowded.

Pretty sure that's a bamboo shoot? I spent a good fifteen minutes looking for one >.>"

Toward the end the trail gets a little rockier, and suddenly you're at the waterfall!

It was pretty tall, and there's a roped off pool at the bottom - though there were stupid people ignoring the signs and hopping the fence anyway. Sigh.

I loved this creepy little cave nearby the fall. Water droplets were pouring down the plants, it was so cool.  very much a Princess Mononoke setting.

oh hai there

The hike back was mostly downhill, and there's *real* bathrooms at the Paradise Park giftshop at the bottom, which is nice.  A beautiful, non-strenous hike!

Sherlock Greeting Card

Today's greeting card is Sherlock themed! If you haven't jumped on the BBC Sherlock fandom train yet - you really should. Each episode is pretty much a movie by itself, and there's only nine episodes so far, so it won't take long to watch.  Plus, Benedict is studly. I love his voice!

Earlier this year Penga-Sis and I watched the PBS premiere of the seventh episode, and there was much shrieking and squawking at "that-one-fangirl-dream-scene".  Anyone else react the same? So funny. I can't wait for the next season! How long do we have to wait? One, maybe two more years?

Anyway, this is a subtle card on some lovely black linen paper. A few people I showed it to "got" it, so that's good!

It's based on the wallpaper in Sherlock's apartmment. Though it's not a complete pattern match, it does come complete with a smiley face!

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Works as a good, all-purpose greeting card I think. Or if you want to give your favorite detective a clue!

And speaking of Sherlock's wallpaper, I saw a girl at a con (forget which one) that wore a damask dress with the smiley face on the corner of the skirt, and on her waist sash was the apartment number, 221B.  It was very clever! Tardis dresses may be a dime a dozen now, but apartment wallpaper dresses are still pretty unique. Ha!

(And a repetitive note: this is card 2 of 4 of my new designs.  After memorial day I'll show all the designs and you'll be welcome to request them if you like. Freebs, naturally!)