Letter Z and Italy Tags

Greetings!  I apologise for my absence last week, but I was out of town visiting family.  Therefore, I will begin with a quick posting of my Letter Z tag before moving to the one inspired by Italy.

For the Letter Z, I was inspired by the King James (KJV) Biblical passage found in Revelations 1:8, "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty."  However, I substituted the Greek letter Omega (Ω) for the letter "Z," which is the last letter in the alphabet used in the English language.  To make the tag, I began by cutting a 2" equilateral triangular card to represent the Holy Trinity - it actually opens.  I illuminated my hand lettering with micron pens, Prismacolor pencils, a metallic PITT artist pen, and an ink pad.  As a finishing touch, I laced some strands though the spine using a binding needle and tied a bead to 3 of them.

For my Italy tag, I was inspired by Carlo Collodi's Pinocchio, the classic Italian fairytale about the puppet-boy whose nose grows if he tells a lie.  I decided to design a face changing puppet, so that I could illustrate Pinocchio's nose growth.  I began by drawing his body, and then used it as a guide to draw both faces proportionally.  The 2 faces are actually attached by a common neck piece.  I used micron pens, watercolor brush pens, and Prismacolor pencils to color him.  Next, I placed the 2-face piece behind the body piece and attached them with a brad, which I then covered with the bow tie.  To complete the tag look, I laced a tie with a binding needle through each of the hats' points.  By rotating the head piece, Pinocchio's truthful and deceitful expressions can be revealed.

I hope you enjoyed my double feature this week - LOL!  Thank you for your kind comments during my last post, as well as for all the inspiration you provide with your creative tags.  Blessings!