Soooo... I'm doing this again this year. I thought I'd have my October stuff up and ready to go by October but Life happened. This led me to the decision to do this again this year. I've adjusted the rules for this year. They may or may not be different to last years, I can't find the post that lists them from then. I have picked minis but have too many on the list so I need to cull it down and then write out my calendar.
 
Rules:
 
Paint 30 (or more) unique minis. This means you can paint a bunch of one sculpt but it only counts as 1 mini towards the count. Example: I painted over 70 minis last year but because of the number of sculpts that I did it only came out to 30 discreet minis. You do not have to paint one a day but one for each day. Prep beforehand is totally permitted (washing, mold line removal, priming, etc.) Any paint other than liner (any color) for Bones is not permitted.  
ETA:
This is starting in November.
 
 

One of the pieces from Bones 4 that I was most excited about was this one. The Fungal Queen is very regal IMO. I'm using a color palette based on a Blood Mushroom. I hope to not add (many) more colors than the ones shown below. I may not even use all of those. So far I've gotten her skin (somewhat) base coated and the mushroom top is more or less finished. Lots of touch-ups and tweaks but very happy so far.
 

I've been working on her simce September or October and finally done. It's a shame I have to give her away.
 

So I'm going to be making a diorama for a friend soon. I have a pretty solid idea of what I want to do but no idea how to go about it. I've never worked with cork before and am going to be using quite a bit of it. I want to pour water effects(?) into it but don't want the cork to soak it up. My questions are (photos to be added below for reference):
 
How do I seal the cork so it won't absorb the resin water effects? Do I need to seal the wood I am basing it on as well? If so what is the best way to do that? What is the best glue to put the cork on the wood, sealed or not?  
ETA: 
How do I fix the small hairline cracks in the cork (not sure if they're visible in the picture)? Kind of related but what is the best glue for plastic to wood (I'm going to be putting the wood on top of a painted Tropicana lid)?  

I got this for myself:

 
I'm having tons of fun with it. I've finished 2 so far and am onto a third. I'm trying to implement my 3D painting techniques onto paper, like highlighting and shading.
 


 
ETA: I'm using colored pencils not paint.