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Flaming Fall Colors – a haiku

By on August 25, 2017 in Art Neko Galleries, Sabrina Friel

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.

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Paris is always a good idea

By on August 11, 2017 in Art Neko Galleries, Sabrina Friel

It’s Sabrina here today with a Paris-themed card ~ I totally endorse Sabrina Fairchild’s sentiment that Paris is always a good idea. I have to confess, though, that August is a month I have never visited – I think I like it best on crisp, cold, sunny days in the winter, or perhaps in Spring when the trees are all turning green and flowers are just starting to appear.

Paris is Always a Good Idea sentiment from Art Neko stamped on ATC collage sheet

 

I used several images from the Spring in Paris plate from Art Neko.
To start with, I used distress oxide inks on watercolour paper to create a wrinkle-free distress background – I used seedless preserves and cracked pistachio. I stamped the main Eiffel Tower collage image on this, and also the Paris postmark on a patch that was mostly the green colour. The main image was trimmed down, and I distressed the edges. I used a punch to cut out the postmark, and added three layers of UTEE to give it a glassy smooth finish. When we visited last December, Paris was experiencing heavy smog, and only about half the Eiffel Tower was visible – quite beautiful at night when it was all lit up. But I’m glad we can see it all on this wonderful collage image. The postmark, Paris text and that wonderful old-fashioned postman’s bicycle are also available as a set of French Stamps (3).

Eiffel Tower collage image from Art Neko stamped on distress oxide background

Since it’s autumn and not Spring, I used autumnal colours on my front – a street map of Paris, sponged with distress inks to tone it down a little, and then crumpled and sponged again. You can’t actually tell, since so much of it is covered, but I chose a piece of the map which has the area around the Bois de Vincennes. There is a lovely linear park (the Promenade Plantée)  starting just off the Place de Bastille, much of which runs along a disused railway track, and if we walk to the end of it, the Bois de Vincennes is where we finish up.

I dry-embossed a piece of vellum, trimmed it on the diagonal and added this to the map, to tone it down a little more, and stitched with heavy-weight thread.

Inside, I used the sentiment from Sabrina Fairchild. I wanted to make the inside of the card fancier than I normally do, so I stamped the sentiment on this lovely Victorian Roses ATC collage sheet. To match the feel of the printed collage sheet, I dry-embossed some tissue paper after first scribbling a Gelato over the inside of the embossing folder and misting it with water. I tore the tissue down to size when it was dry, and edged it with Stickles and a few gilding flakes. Finally I added the sentiment and a gold die-cut swirl.

Paris is Always a Good idea - sentiment from the Spring in Paris plate, stamped on ATC collage sheet from Art Neko

 

Remember, Paris is always a good idea – and if you can’t actually go there, watching the movie isn’t a bad substitute, de Givenchy’s costumes for Audrey Hepburn are just wonderful.

 

Here’s the finished card front…

 

Eiffel Tower collage image from Art Neko's Spring in Paris plate, stamped on a distress oxide background

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Stylized Geisha Pear with a Faux Leather Background

By on July 7, 2017 in Sabrina Friel

Happy Friday, everybody; it’s Sabrina here today with a card made using the beautiful Stylized Geisha Pear image from Art Neko. This image features two geishas and a large fan set in a pear, with a filling of calligraphy.

Stylized Geisha Pear - image from Art Neko with two geishas and a fan in a pear shape

Isn’t it lovely? I stamped mine with Versamark Onyx Black on watercolour paper, and then coloured it with Inktense pencils. After cutting out the rectangular shape, I sponged the edges with distress inks, and then I masked the pear image off and spattered the background with some gold Twinkling H2Os.

I thought a vintage look background would suit this, so I created a faux leather background using masking tape.

To do this, you start with a piece of card the desired size, then you simply tear small pieces of masking tape and stick them down till the whole piece is covered. Smaller pieces look better. When you have done this, you simply sponge or pounce colour onto it till you get the look you like. The torn edges will be darker than the rest. I used Tea Dye and Vintage Photo distress inks, but this looks good in all sorts of colours.

Faux leather - stage one

 

Faux leather - stage 2

 

Faux leather - stage 3

 

After adding colour, sprinkle clear embossing powder over it and heat it – as the surface is rough and a little tacky you shouldn’t need to use any Versamark. You get a lovely slightly glossy finish with a great vintage look – and I’ve always thought this type of faux leather works well with oriental style images.

Faux leather - finished

I discovered last night that not all masking tapes are created equal! The first one I tried felt very tacky, and in fact when I heated it up at the embossing stage it curled off the paper – shock!!  So, I had to go downstairs and hunt out some other tape, and second time round it worked perfectly. In fact, having done this I decided I wanted to take it up a notch, so I embossed mine with a vine-design and then added some copper gilding wax, buffing it in.  I edged all the panels with a black Sharpie – including the Ginkgo leaf panel, which was cut from this lovely collage sheet. I think they are such beautiful leaves. There must be a tree near work, because a few times over the years I find a ginkgo leaf lying on the path as I walk up the hill – but it’s a rare treat and I’ve never been able to spot the tree.

To finish the card, I popped the main image panel up on foam tape and added some black half-pearls. Here’s the finished Stylized Geisha Pear card.

Stylized Geisha Pear image on a faux leather background

 

Thanks for visiting the blog this week – make sure to stop by again and see what new delights the team have been creating to share next week.

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Daffodils and Sunshine

By on March 10, 2017 in Sabrina Friel

It’s Sabrina here today, with some daffodils and sunshine for you, no matter what the real weather is like for you today.

Daffodils in Sunshine - detail of floral ATC stamp from Art Neko featuring daffodils

Some daffodils here were coming up very early here and there because we have had such a mild winter, but now that March is here they’re out all over, a lovely splash of colour on the dullest of grey days and a beautiful glow of light when the sun shines. For my card, I used the daffodil image from the Set of 9 Flowered Artist Trading Cards.  I stamped it on watercolour paper with Versamark Smokey Grey to give a slightly softer look, and coloured it with pencils.

To create a sunny, soft background I used the starch and cling-wrap technique: I sprayed some glossy card with starch, sprinkled some coloured pigments over, laid a piece of cling-wrap over it and moved the pigments round a bit to mix them. Then I left it (wrinkles in the cling-wrap are what add the lovely textured look to this) for about half an hour, removed the wrap and left it to dry thoroughly. Then, I added a marker border around the edge (picking up on the frame of the ATC), and embossed it with a sun-ray embossing folder. The one I used comes from Taylored Expressions but there are several available. I used soft pure pigments, if you use something like Brusho or Colorburst powders for this technique you can get some beautifully vivid backgrounds.

I thought this Gift of Sunshine sentiment was perfect to pair with the golden daffodils. I created a small background piece with a stencil and some acrylic spray, and then stamped the sentiment with black ink. I trimmed it to a tag shape and added a dotted border with a green marker, and then punched a hole and tied some natural raffia through it.

The tag is popped up on foam tape for dimension, and I added a whole lot of sequins for some extra sunny sparkle.

Daffodils in Sunshine - floral atc from Art Neko with sentiment tag

 

Thanks for coming by the Art Neko blog this week! May you have some sunshine – or even better, daffodils and sunshine,  somewhere in your weekend.

 

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