Cute Kids

This little Boy With Daruma is representative of the art of Helen Hyde. Two sheets of Taylored Stamps Helen Hyde are available as sheets or singles. More information about her is listed in the final post for this week. Daruma are used for making wishes for the new year and giving thanks for wishes that have come true.

Creating this card was fun and easy! I don't do a lot of images of children, but this little guy stole my heart. Stamped and embossed with black, the image was colored with Tombow markers for the boy, and red and gold twinkling H2O's for the dolls. I stippled around the edges with rose and yellow colors of ink, highlighted parts of the images with gold metallic marking pen, and layered the small square daruma image over gold metallic floss. The background paper is washi - an unusual design, but just right for this celebratory image.

Apricot Blossom is also designed from a Helen Hyde print. The main image was stamped with black ink on a white cardstock panel. I colored the little girl's dress with twinkling H2O's and other parts of the image with Tombow markers. The little girl image was layered onto a background panel made by stamping the cherry blossom background image from Judikins in deep rose ink onto white mulberry paper. That panel was layered to a deep pink cardstock so the main cherry blossoms stand out against the white and the white looks pink over the cardstock! A piece of the pink carstock was stamped with the blossom border on a Judikins Asian bolio, embossed in gold, and then layered underneath the little girl image.

Washi background

For the background two pieces of torn washi paper were used. The base piece for this layer is in greys to simulate a winter landscape. The upper piece of torn washi is in colors and print evocative of a winter sky, and the lower piece overlapping the upper piece, representing the sea. The layers and torn edges separate land from sea and sky.

Five Snowy Egrets are stamped and embossed in white and then colored in with a white Glaze pen. This is then layered on complimentary layers of paper to complete the card.

Looks cold doesn't it?

Be sure to click Older Post on right below to see the rest of this weeks projects--through to Washi Easter Eggs!

Plum Blossom Branch

I've used the Plum Blossom Branch and the small Sakura Branch (Cherry Blossom) images to create these two cards, once again offering contrasting effects by changing backgrounds. The primary plum blossom image in both cards was stamped in black ink and embossed on background papers created with color sprays and pigment inks. Flower blossoms were colored with twinkling H2O's, and buds were given extra dimension with pearl stickler dots.

In the green card, the cherry blossom branch was stamped in pale pink on a pink panel and in pale green on the folded white cardstock. In the purple card, the branch was stamped in white ink on a black cardstock panel, and layered with other cardstock to complete the card. Once again, the impact is considerably different - one is fresh and gentle, and the other is more dramatic; but the floral images are great no matter how you use them!

Three Friends of Winter

This card was made with the Three Friends of Winter stamp. I stamped it with black Versafine ink and embossed it before coloring with twinkling H2O's and sponging the edges. I like the bamboo, pine, and plum image; and the twinks gave it a nice vibrancy that brightened my day!

Pine, Bamboo and Plum are referred to as the Three Friends of Winter, and are used to signify the season of winter when used in Asian art.