It’s Sabrina here on the last Friday in August with Flaming Fall Colors – a haiku. The haiku is a very stylized traditional form of Japanese poetry. Traditionally each poem only had seventeen syllables; while that stricture has been loosened for more contemporary poems, they all hold true to the three-line format. I have always loved this format, ever since reading Miss Happiness and Miss Flower, by Rumer Godden as a child. Part of the book describes how a boy builds a Japanese-style dolls-house for two Japanese dolls sent to his sisters. He and a younger cousin living with the family do a lot of research on how to make as authentic a house for the dolls as possible and one of the important decor items was a tiny scroll with a seasonal haiku on it. The appendix in the book listed four different haiku, one for each season of the year.
Here I have used an autumnal haiku from the Japanese Haiku (poem) plate . There are also many other haiku stamps available from Art Neko, in a variety of fonts – check them out here. I think this one is really lovely: “My heart will find peace in the light of tomorrow after the dark storm”.
I took my inspiration for today’s card from the technique challenge on Splitcoaststampers this week, which was an ink spritzer background technique – the tutorial can be found HERE. I’ve also seen far too many leaves on the ground already round here, which was a secondary inspiration when it came to creating the tag.
For the background, I followed the tutorial, using homemade sprays with distress re-inkers and picking rich autumnal colours to tie in with the haiku. When when the cardstock was dry, I embossed it with a leafy embossing folder from Darice, and gently swiped over the embossed leaves with Wild Honey, Fired Brick and Brushed Corduroy distress inks for some “flaming fall colors”. I distressed the edges, and added it to a brown card base.
Then I took a leaf from the garden (appropriately enough, I used a Japanese Anemone), inked it up with Antique Linen distress ink, laid it on a sheet of card, put a sheet of kitchen towel on top to protect my plates, and put it through the Big Shot, creating a soft leafy background to stamp the verse on. I used a tag punch, and sponged the edges a little for definition, and then threaded through an assortment of fibres, ribbon and gold cording. I popped the tag up on foam tape, and finished the card off with a few sequins die-cut from gold card.
I hope you enjoyed this Flaming Fall Colors – a haiku, and that you have been inspired either to try out one of these fun techniques or to write your own haiku. Thanks for visiting this week -have a creative weekend, and make sure to stop by soon for more inspiration from the team.