Friendship tag shaped card

Hi, everyone!
 I'd like to share you a card finished yesterday.
I made this one to put into the binder pocket for my friend.

Here is the tag shaped card.

Wanted to have this a soft look and the Japanese traditional feel.
Stamped Old french Writing with distress ink and put Ranger perfect pearl Rust on it. And then, heat-embossed with Gold-pearl powder to use the Cling Floral Garden (I stamped it a little slanted.) And colored with distress inks with foam brush. Sprayed a mist of Perfect pearl with water for finishing the center piece.


This is a closeup photo around the layered flower.

The flower on the right above has the layers of the watercolor paper and the vellum. Put those flowers together slightly off-set. I also colored with distress inks on a vellum flower, and put the Perfect Pearls on it.


Stamp used:
Hero Arts Old french Writing / H2365
Hero Arts Cling Floral Garden / CG107
Hero Arts Sparkle Clear Hello Birdies / CL177

Supplies:
Bazzil CS, Kuretake CS, DCWV PP, White Vellum
Tsukineko Versa Fine / Onyx Black, Gold-Pearl embossing powder
Ranger Distree Ink / Antique Linen, Tea dye, Spun Sugar, Victorian Velvet, Wild Honey
Ranger Perfect Pearls / Rust, Pearl
Embelishments: HA, Cloud9 Design, paper cords, braid, ribbon

Thanks for stopping by! :)
Have a beautiful week!
Tomo

Gift of a Japanese Miyabi (a Washi paper binder etc.)

Hi, everyone!
 Finally, and just finished this Washi paper binder to join the Hero Arts July challenge Round 2, and I'm going to send it to one of my foreign friends as a gift.
 Used two HA digikit, 'the Hues papers' and 'the Seed and Pod Backgrounds' for the background papers of the binder cover to have a washi paper look.
The center piece was a little different colors from the card that I made on July 19th. Probably the receiver likes the orange color, I guess.

Here is the result. (finished size: 6.5"w x 6"h )

 After looked at a wonderful technique article by Shari Carroll on the Hero Arts web site, I hit upon making a washi paper folder binder for my friend.
 Two kinds of the digi papers were created by a few layers of colors (applied a transparent effect on each Hues papers.), and I put 'the Seed and Pod Backgrounds' on the top layer.
Heat-embossed on the orange paper with Copper powder to use the Dots and Stripes Cling Stamp.
For the beige paper, I applied the Photoshop effect 'embossing filter' on 'the Seed and Pod's data.
* I wrote about the Photoshop embossing filter at the downward of this post with a picture.


 This binder cover image was inspired by my Japanese Urushi dish and fork (the Japanese lacquerware), and the lovely Hero Arts Cling Stamp 'Floral Garden'.
*This lacquerware is for the Japanese sweets. I put the leaves and flowers. :)
I sometimes play like this way... Though I prepared the Japanese sweets to take pic with this dish, I had a several sudden visitors yesterday afternoon and I served all for them.

This is the binder inside. The tag shaped card is in a 1/4 circular shaped pocket.
Put the small size of washi papers into the 1st sheer pocket.

 I used the method the French 'Cartonnage' which is very popular around me as same as in France, the place of origin for making this kind of hard covers or the boxes. - wrapping around the thick paper board with papers or fabrics. I used the digi papers this time and the 7 gypsies Kraft Bookboard, approx. 2mm thick. You can probably easy to find how to make it like this way in books or some resources on the web related on the bookbinding.

And the 2nd pocket. There are bigger size of Washi paper in it.

And 3rd pocket. Wanted to see through the stamp of  'Imagine, Play, Create' at inside of the back cover. So I put into a few paper cords to wind the circular shape.

And this is the inside of back cover. I always love to use this inchie stamp to give some materials to friends.
I added a HA gemstone heart on it. The ♥ is lilac color.

And this is a quite simple look of the binder back.

 This binder has 3 sheer pocket pages. Those were made to cut A4 size document folders of office supplies, and made holes by Zutter Bind It All.
 I didn't stamp on the sheer pages at all. I came to the feeling that I wanted to stamp a bit on those. But it's up to my friend! ;)

 And I applied an embossing effect to use Photoshop on 'the Seed and Pod Backgrounds' on the beige paper.
Here is a comparable data.

To use the embossing filter brings a subtle mixtured different colors on the drawing lines of the pattern. Hope this helps.
*I used the PS CS5 this time. Probably this effect is in the PS-elements or other paint (raster based) application software. Because this is not a high level effect. Sorry, I've been a Photoshop user since PS3, and haven't ever use any raster based softwares. So I don't know the details. Glad that you look at and read your manual of your software, or visit the manufacturer or distributor web site to get the details of your's. Thank you.


Stamp used:
~ for the center piece ~
Hero Arts Old french Writing / H2365
Hero Arts Cling Floral Garden / CG107

~ for the binder base ~
Hero Arts Cling Dots and Stripes / CG150
Hero Arts Digikit Seed and Pod Backgrounds
Hero Arts Digikit Hues Papers

~for inside of the back cover ~
Hero Arts Clear Design Mix & Match Elements / CL266

~ for the tag ~
Hero Arts Sparkle Clear Hello Birdies / CL177
and the same stamps for the center piece

Supplies:
Bazzil CS, Basic Grey CS, watercolor paper, Printer paper
7 gypsies / Kraft Bookboard 12"x12"
Tsukineko Versa Fine / Onyx Black
Ranger Distree Ink / Victorian Velbet, Broken China, Spiced Marmalade
            Stormy Sky, Antique Linen, Tea Dye
Ranger Perfect Pearls / Rust, Pearl
Ranger Embossing Powder / Copper, Acrylic Dabber / Copper
Embelishments: HA, Cloud9 Design
Braid, Zutter Bind It All etc. Adobe Photoshop CS5

Thanks for stopping by! :)
Have a beautiful week!
Tomo

Shadow work embroidery with fillet lace --- シャドウ・ワークとフィレ・レースのテーブルセンター

こんばんは♪　本日、再びの投稿ですが、夜中だというのに、32℃というのは・・・ --;

この写真から判断すると、私の作品のようにも見えませんか？　笑
そうです！　そんな筈はありませんねぇ・・。
これは購入品ですが、技術的に素晴らしいので、撮影して載せました。

シャドウ・ワーク刺繍と、フィレ・レースの組合せ。
フィレは試した事がありませんから、これがどれほどの物かは、良く解りませんが、シャドウ・ワークは、本当に素晴らしいです。


こちらが表

そしてこちらが、感動の裏側！

2010/11/01 更新：
上２点の写真ですが、ピクセルの小さい物へと差し替えました。
※拡大写真に半月程前から、海外IPからのアクセスが、本当に異常とも思えるほど多く、当然ながら、コメントも無く、ダイレクトに写真にアクセスしてきており、
掲載分が図案を拾える大きさに近い為、企業損益の可能性も考え、差し替えを行いました。　ご了承ください。

そして最後に、全体像。

30×58cmのテーブルセンターです。
近沢レース。中国製品。

急速な経済発展に伴う人件費の値上がりによる価格高騰の前に購入した物です。
それにしても、中国の方はどうしてこんなに器用なのかしら？
では、おやすみなさい♪　tomo

















Hi, there!,
 One more post today for sharing.
How do you think this table center? Did you think this was made... by me?
Sorry... This embroidery with lace was a wonderful purchase made in China, distributed by Chikazawa Lace in Japan.
 I bought it just before the raise of the labor costs in China by the rapid economic development.
I've been wondering why the Chinese peoples are so clever with their hands.
I took pics and posted to share, because the skills are amazing.
* You can see all of the bigger photos by clicking them.

UPDATED: July 31st, 2010
 I forgot to write about the first photo.
To tell you the truth, this table cloth needed to mend a little. I noticed it when I ironed. The photo with my needle work goodies was from the reason. Sorry for the begining of this post to take you in.

UPDATED: Nov. 1st, 2010
The second and third photos were exchanged to small pixel photos.
The direct accesses to the enlarged photos from oversea's IPs have been extreamly increasing since a couple of weeks. So I changed them to think about the industries concerned with the product. - I don't know their real purposes, and I want to think that they are just only looking at those photos. But the frequency of the access is extreamly high. And the size of the previous photos are guessed to be easy to trace the pattern.
* The distributor doesn't open the photo of this product to the public. Thanks for your understandings.


Thank you for visiting!
the Graphideart, tomoh's attic
Tomo

My beading after a long interval --- 夏 = ビーズ!?

2012/01/15更新
このページに、掲載していましたビーズ作品2点は、WEBサイトの方へ掲載いたしました。 ご希望の方は、Beadingのコーナーをご覧ください。
尚、ご紹介していました以下のリンクは、既にメーカーホームページには存在していません。
在庫の有無につきましては、直接トーホービーズ様にお尋ねくださいますようお願いいたします。 トーホーのビーズキット　”黒のタッティング結び”

コメントを頂いた皆様、どうも有難うございました。*^^*



Updated : Jan. 15, 2012
To the foreign friends and visitors (not speak or read Japanese),
Two necklaces that I posted on this page were moved to the gallery of my website. Thanks so much for your comments! :)

Thank you for visiting!
the Graphideart, tomoh's attic
Tomo

B-day card for the Caardvarks Challenge

Hi, there!
 This morning, I made this birthday card to join the current challenge over at the Caardvarks.
*They showed us so many sweet designed cards by DT members. I hope this qualifies to entry.

Here is my card, 'happy birthday'.

 The fact that I needed a birthday card soon. I could finish this one since I noticed the challenge at the Caarvarks this morning. Thank you for the Caadvarks! :)

 The bird staying up all night caught the worm??? Haha.I stayed up all night yesterday.
 For the infant children or other school age children.
 'The early bird catches the worm.' is a correct saying.

* I have a favor to ask of you, English native speakers.  If I mistook to write the saying, please tell me about it. Thank you.)
UPDATED: July 25th, 2010
My question above was solved by a lovely lady (her blog) on Jul. 20th.
Thanks so much, Heather!!! :) - I almost forgot to update this post till today... I'm sorry!

 I choose the color combo for the coloring on the stamped part, because the receiver loves mauve colors.
And I'm going to send this to one of my German friends tomorrow.
This spring, actually I sent this Cling Floral Garden stamp to her. Made this one as one of the samples, though this is not a good one, I know.

 After stamped the cling stamp with Ranger distress inks Worn Lipstick and Victorian Velbet first, put the Perfect Pearls Rust slightly on it with a brush. Drew the line of the flower petals with opaque Bronze color marker. And then I added the colors of Distress inks -See my surpplies I listed below, please.- (I used the Distress inks as water colors.) And again, I put the Perfect Pearls Rust slightly on it with a brush.

Stamp used:
Hero Arts Old french Writing / H2365
Hero Arts Cling Floral Garden  / CG107
Hero Arts Sparkle Clear Happy Greetings / CL180

Supplies:
SEI CS, Bazzil Basics CS, watercolor paper
Tsukineko Versa Fine / Onyx Black
Ranger Distree Ink / Worn Lipstick, Victorian Velbet, Broken China, Antique Linen,
            Spiced Marmalade
Ranger Perfect Pearls / Rust, Stickles / Platinum, Fruite Punch
Hero Arts Accent Pearls, Opaque marker Bronze, ribbon

Thanks for stopping by! :)
Have a beautiful week!
Tomo

Soccer ball shaped card

Hi!,
 This is a bit noisy shaped card for the kids of my German friend to celebrate the 3rd place on the FIFA World Cup 2010. Germany took third place at it for the second tournament in a row - this was really great. But I think that all of the players belonged to other national teams did a great job with their responsibilities. I enjoyed looking at almost of the games from the group league to the final game of the 2nd stage. There're so many good plays, performances, and the scenes that I moved.
(Of course I saw the bad manners and the fouls etc. at the moments the judges couldn't notice them. But I recognize that those are one of the factors of the football game.)

 Well, here is the card that I finished a few days ago, 'Yippee!, Deutschland'.

 Used 2 types of frogs and a sentiment 'Yippee!' from Lilypad Greetings stamp set to combine with the soccer ball die and the 2 types of font by QuicKutz.
 The coloring of the four frogs are all Copic markers. And added the googly eyes on three small frogs. The sentiment 'Yippee!' was stamped inside with a signature.
 Made a Grungesheet piece diecutted the upper letter D shape. And tapped with Acrylic dabber Gold, and used a heatgun to make texture on the surface.

*This method was learned from the 2 peas stamping class last year, maybe. after I find the resource, I'm going to add here the link to the page.
UPDATED: You can see more details and beautiful samples by Jennifer McGuire
on the page, 'Thinking Inking Week 3 - part 1' at 2 peas.
* This resource was published on the web in 2009. I used the method of 'Faux Textured Metal' for my upper letter 'D' among the techniques of this class.

 I have the several reasons to use this frog stamp set. Of course, I love this set! and this set was the one that I bought through the Hero Arts Online store soon after this was released. This was a story before I belonged to the Hero Arts community.
I bought two sets at the same time, and I presented the one to my friend, the receivers of this card.

 I enjoyed many kinds of the flag paints on its face of big frogs. :)
Because I had foreign visitors come from four different countries - that was the Americans, the English, the Hollanders, and the Korean peoples - to watch the football games on my catv. The broadcasting by terrestrial was really minimum by the expensive televising right.
They loved the frogs and brought them home. I wish I could take pics of those.

Stamp used:
Hero Arts Lilypad Greetings / LP119

Supplies:
American Crafts and Bazzil CS, Tim Holtz ideaology grungesheet
Tsukineko Memento / Tuxedo Black
Ranger Acrylic Dabber / Gold
Copic markers, QuicKutz dies, ribbons, googly eyes

Thanks for stopping by! :)
Have a wonderful day!
Tomo

My summer vacation went somewhere? and my teddy Paul

Hi, there!,
 I was back blogging a little at the end of last month, and I've been enjoying my summer vacation for a while.
But, at the begining of this month, my father was taken into the hospital again, and he has been in there. (He was in serious by high blood pressure for a few days. Now he is so so.)
I almost go to meet him twice or three times a day since then. Can't believe it? A half that I go there is independently, but the other half is his request. Fortunately, it takes me 10 minutes to go there by car from my house.

 Till the end of the World Cup Soccer after he improved a little, I was 'a carrier of the recorded films' and 'a commentator' of the games. It was totaly disaster! Because, there're many good games which we could watch only on CATV, and the broadcasting by terrestrial was really minimum. The expensive televising right made it, I guess.
 And why did I have to be a commentator for my father??? - despite the proffesional commentator exsisted -, his both eyes have 40 percents of normal visual field by glaucoma. So I often stopped the film and explained it to him, and started it again. Repeated the same thing, the same thing, the same thing.... :(
It took him about three hour to finish watching a game. I was so tired when I finished it.
 I expected that this kind of my services would be over when the Japan national team lost the game. Because, one of the players among the eleven was his student when my father was an educator. (Happy to see my father's smiling face. He looked he was proud of his past student. I heard that he settled to join one of the soccer clubs in Euro countries.. - So sorry, I'd like to close his name and the club name to escape the crawler of the search engines and the noisy visitors.- )
But the watching the recorded films at his room of the hospital continued to the finals. I watched the live films at home with my guests (friends, clients, etc. almost every day) at midnight to the final game, and watched it again with my father at that afternoon, I was really tired.
 This was the first time to watch it with peoples come from several countries, Americans, English, Hollanders, and Koreans for example, brought by the minimum broadcasting by terrestrial. And also, THIS WAS THE FIRST TIME that I continued to watch the games of the Japan national team without changing the channel to the Wimbledon tennis tournaments. - The Blue Samurai was in good shape this time. They brought us the good effects as well as excitements, I think. The next afternoon they lost the game at the round of 16 soccer match, I went to play tennis with my friends. On my way to an indoor court, I could see many happy faces of youger peoples.They must have found something important which already forgot. -

 A bit to share my poor teddy bear named Paul. He was born 4 years ago, a few days before WC 2006 (WM 2006) held in Germany. Oh, yes, I'm one of the fans of German national team.

 Paul waited for the birth of his girl friend from last month to July 11th, the final day. But I was too busy, and I couldn't do it at all.
I sometimes have some sort of guilt feeling, when I see its photo of the pattern. The boy and the girl bears are on it.

*The teddy bear pattern is by Ele's Bläubaerchen, my favorite teddy bear artist. This is not a kit. The vintage mohair is by Helmbold, Germany.

 There are many peoples in Japan who like the German style soccer.
Though I've been a fan of Fußball-Bundesliga since I lived Frankfurt or Hamburg, we can watch it on CATV as the same as other football games in Europe.

Thanks for visiting!
Have a wonderful weekend!
Tomo