Haiku Bunny Swap

Spring Haiku Bunny Swap

The Haiku Bunny stamp by Hero Arts is very popular and impossible to purchase as it was discontinued a number of years ago and never reissued. Those of us who own one guard it with our lives!!! Oriental Stamp Art (OSA), a Yahoo group which focuses exclusively on Oriental art, hosts a Haiku Bunny swap every year. Since 2011 is the Year of the Rabbit, this is a special year for the special bunny. Here's my Spring bunny. I stamped some floral scrapbook paper with the grass stamp from a set by Stampin' Up, stamped the bunny separately, cut him out, and layered on the base. A silver butterfly floating by is the perfect accent. I sure hope spring comes soon to the upper Midwest!!!!

OSA Layout Challenge 52

Last year OSA (Oriental Stamp Art) ran a weekly layout challenge. I participated for awhile but eventually got busy and didn't continue. The cards that were created were stunning! I vowed to get back into the weekly challenges, and this is what I made. It took me a few days to figure out what to do about the half circle on the top and finally had an idea----half of a parasol, the kind used for tropical drinks! Here's the result.

Diamond Top Fold Card

Last year I purchased a ScorPal and later joined a group which shares ideas and templates for creating all kinds of cards, small boxes, etc., using this handy tool. The challenge this week was to create a diamond top card. I was excited to try this out AND I needed to make some cards for an on-going swap through OSA, an Oriental interest group. This month the colors are purple, blue, gray (and I added some pink to the mix); and the theme is mountains. I used Spellbinders square to cut out the image. Here's the finished project:

This is one site where you can find directions, or you could Google "diamond top fold card":

http://www.card-making-magic.com/diamondtopcards.html

More OSA Challenges

I am still keeping up with the OSA (Oriental Stamp Art) theme and design challenges. These are the ones for the the month of March:

Year of the Rat

Dolls

Kanji or Text

Pagoda



For lots of eye candy, go to www.orientalstampart.com and look through the albums.

More Challenges

I am still trying to do the weekly OSA challenges, incorporating the theme into the layout. The Lantern theme really had me puzzled - I just couldn't figure out what to put in the smaller circle until I came across the large Oriental coin - perfect!


The blue card uses a quote from Confucius which I thought works well with the image as the lady is not particularly beautiful. It is, however, one of my favorites and I have two versions of it.

As soon as I saw that the theme for this week was "Harmony," I knew exactly which stamp to use. The lady with her cat is from Cherry Pie - one of my absolutely favorite stamps.

OSA Challenge #5 - Winter

I again combined the theme challenge "Winter" with the design challenge. This time the design was, indeed, a big challenge - 12 squares layered over a narrow piece of CS surrounding the image. The three layers include silver paper, but it looks gray in the scan. The snowflake is also metallic. Enjoy - winter is almost half over!!!

OSA Challenges #2 and #3

Continuing with the OSA challenges, I completed #2 and #3. Even though I had these finished, it has taken me all week to load them here.

Challenge #3

The layout was simple layering with the corners off set. The theme was to use blue, so I made the entire card in shades of blue. One of my favorite stamps is the illusive (this stamp is not manufactured anymore) Haiku Bunny which I stamped on printed paper. The corners are silver peel offs, and I used blue "jewels" in the corners. I like the simplicity of this.

Challenge #2

The theme for Week 2 was Cherry Blossoms. I guess Ruth Cooper who is running the theme challenges is tired of winter like many of us in the Northern hemisphere! It was fun to create something "Springy!" The design challenge was just that. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out the "math" of the rectangles. My solution was to cut a larger rectangle, then "eyeball" and trim to fit. It is a nice layout and I will use it again.

Oriental Row Houses

Last year I made row houses for one of my swap groups. They were great fun to make (using up scraps and bits and pieces from my stash of stuff.) I showed the ones I received to my friend Sonia Evans who is a moderator for Oriental Stamp Art, and she suggested that I run an Oriental Row House swap for that group. I signed on to be a hostess and made some samples for the OSA members and those of you who check my blog. I only used materials that I had on hand (it's a good thing that I don't throw a lot out!) I got a little silly (must be the winter weather!) and named each of the houses. The gals who join the swap will not be asked to name their houses.

The House of the Woman in the Green Dress
The House of the Warrior

The House of the Three Sisters

The House of the Panda

The House of the Fat Cat

The House of Tea

The House of Motherly Wisdom

The House of Gung Hay Fat Choy

The House of Beauty

2009 Challenges

One of the art groups I belong to is Oriental Stamp Art (OSA.) Obviously this group concentrates on creating and learning abour Oriental art and culture. This year marks the tenth year of OSA and we are immersed in challenges and swaps. There are two special weekly challenges this year - design and theme/subject. Our first theme is "Zen," creating an interpretation of our personal vision of Zen. I chose an image which has always intrigued me, a serene yet mysterious view of a boat floating away towards the unknown. The design challenge is to use a central image and enhance it with the three circles. I was able to combine the two, and (hopefully!) will be able to do this for the next 51 weeks!!!!!