Thank you card

Hello! Here's a card I made last night.  I made it for a lovely lady at work who has recently been to Japan for a vacation.  When I found out she was going, I told her how much I love the decorative Japanese paper.  She offered to send me some if she came across any during her travels if I paid for the paper and the postage.  Well, this offer could not be turned down and sure enough, one day a box arrived in the mail covered in Japanese writing!  How exciting - there were some lovely treasures in there and somehow knowing it came directly from Japan made it all the more special.  So, this card, made with some of that very paper, will be her thank you card on her return to the office today.

I started with this lovely stamped image (The Stamp Barn), stamped on watercolor marl using a blue Versafine ink (plus a bit of Memento for the red).  I added some shading with pencil crayons as it was a bit too stark otherwise.  The card base is tsumugi card stock (from a package of notecards in assorted colours - all lined with pretty mulberry tissue and complete with envelopes - I got them at Wallacks and The Papery).  The dark blue accent paper was also in the package of patterned paper (each piece of patterned paper had a coordinating solid - now if only quilting fabric assortments came that way too!).  I edged the green paper with Blue Iris Colorbox Fluid Chalk Ink and added some Red Pepper Adirondack liquid pearls for accent.  I see Sauron the scanner has highlight the downward slope of the accent strip for me so I have gently pried it off on that side and fixed it. I think the package she sent me is handmade patterned yuzen paper in origami squares.  I don't know how to do origami, so I hope I am not committing some outrageous faux pas in cutting it up for other purposes.  Somehow I think not- this is still a respectful and appreciative use of something beautifully made in an ancient art form.

If you can't find pretty Japanese paper at your local art store or your local specialty paper shop, you can find it through The Japanese Paper Place. This link will take you to re-sellers by country and on-line.

Thanks for stopping by !