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.

Spring Flowers

The background for this image is cardstock stamped with the single daffodil bloom off the Floral Sheet 1A (actually, all the stamps in both these cards are off that sheet), then embossed in Moonglow embossing powder (which allows it to have lots of texture, but not compete with the main image). The main image and text are stamped on a piece of polished stone on semi-gloss paper, with more moonglow embossing on the single "daffodil" word stamp. It's simply finished with layering over a bit of hand-made paper, and two brads.



For this card, I colored the stamp with chalk inks, and stamped it onto a piece of semi-gloss paper that had been slightly pounced with more chalk inks, over the text stamped in the bright green ink. Two layers of cardstock--a very simple card with a lot of color punch!

Newspaper reveal Tech

Violets image was stamped on newspaper using VersaMark ink and embossed with clear embossing powder. You could also substitute pages from an old dictionary or book, or scanned or photocopied pages from a dictionary or book for the print background.


A rainbow type ink pad was used and brayered over the clear embossed image. Tear around the image and highlight edge with gold Krylon pen.

Mount on cream card stock and tear again.
The background is fabric paper.

I learned this technique from Technique Junkies.

Chalked Violets

Violets were stamped with VersaMark ink and then colored with chalks using a Qtip. Just gently dab the chalks onto the image. Use soft brush to remove excess chalk dust. Gel pens were used to add detail. The magenta background is polished stone using Ranger alcohol Inks.

Yellow Skunk Cabbage

One large and two small sizes of Skunk Cabbage were stamped in olive green Stazon and colored with various markers. Images were cut out and layered to simulate a group of plants using pop dots.

Editor's Note: On our recent sight-seeing jaunts with our visiting guests from Germany we passed quite a few swampy roadsides with the Skunk Cabbage in full bloom on our way back to Portland from the coast. It was nice to view, from afar! It doesn't get it's name for nothing! CJ

Fairy Bells

Fairy Bells were stamped with Stazon olive green and then
colored with various markers. Accents were added with Diamond Glaze.

Spotlight was created by placing a punched circle over the blossoms as a guide and gluing small jewels touching the outside edge of the punched circle.

Wild Ginger

Markers were used to color directly onto the Wild Ginger rubber stamp.

The image was stamped on very pale pink card stock. The words were stamped on a separate piece of paper in Adirondack Cranberry and then punched out and edged with coordinating markers.

This was then layered onto coordinating pieces of decorative paper with the edges also inked with marker or Krylon gold.

Editors Note: These are one of my favorite spring wildflowers here in the Northwest. We have both Trilliums and Wild Ginger in our garden, purchased from the annual native plants sale at Tryon Creek Park. CJ

Trillium Trio

Small Trillium stamped three times onto Basic Grey paper using waterproof ink.

The trillium leaves are colored with Tombow markers. White pen, (Inkessentials) and water colors were used for the other coloring.

Main image is mounted on magenta card stock.

At that point the magenta was overwhelming the image. I added ecru colored lace to solve the problem.

March 2009 Cherry Blossom Special

I am debuting our new blog with Cherry Blossoms as this week's theme. Go to the Search Box at the top of any page of the Art Neko website and enter the word Cherry. This should bring up two pages showing most of the items on the Art Neko website that are somehow related to the word Cherry or Cherry Blossom, including images of stamps, sheets of stamps, sets of stamps or decorative papers. Click on the small image of any of these items to get the complete information for the item.

The flowering cherry (Sakura) and flowering plum (Ume), common motifs in Chinese and Japanese art are often confused by westerners. Both are considered harbingers of the coming of spring with the plum blooming at the end of winter in February and the cherry in April when spring is in full sway. In addition, cherry blossoms are generally very pale to pink while plum blossoms are usually white or a much darker pink to red than the cherry (although they are depicted in just about any color on Japanese decorative papers). The petals of the plum are generally smoothly rounded while the cherry generally has a slight notch on the edge of the petals.

The two flowers have differing symbolism in Japan and China. In China the plum blossom (really more of an apricot than a plum) is much more highly revered than the flowering cherry whereas in the 9th Century the cherry overcame the plum in popularity in Japan. In China the plum is more representative of winter than spring as it is in Japan. In Japan the plum is believed to be a charm to protect against evil. In China the Plum represents resiliency and perseverance and the cherry is representative of feminine beauty and love. In Japan the flowering cherry represents the transient nature of life owing to the brief period, though spectacular, that the trees are in bloom. It is traditional in Japan to have picnics under the blossoming trees and to celebrate this time of year with festivals and other Cherry Viewing activities.

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!

Cherry Blossom Branch

These two cards were created using Taylored Stamps Cherry Blossoms on Pond from Art Neko issued last winter. The effect is very different, even though the image is the same. The image in both cards has been stamped and then embossed in gold. Both were colored with twinkling H2O's and touched up with gold pen highlights. The darker background is more sedate, or mysterious, with a darker stream; but the shimmer of the twinks gives it an almost magical feel. The pastel background and brighter colors in the other card make you believe that springtime is here! The card on the left is layered onto washi paper and a pattern-stamped background paper; and the darker card is layered onto purchased scrapbook papers embellished with a metallic ribbon.