Autumn Breeze Blog Hop

Hidy Ho, crafty peeps!

It's monthly Blog Hop time over at Bombshell Stamps! Yippeee!!! I don't know about you, but I'm really liking this Blog Hop stuff. If you landed here from Mary G's  AwEsOme blog, then you're in the right place!! And you did it without the aid of a GPS. Good for you!!!

If not, no worries!! Just hop back over to the Bombshell Blog and you can start at the beginning...and as Julie Andrews sings..."It's a very good place to start"!

This month's theme was a color-palette challenge set forth by Alison. The DT had lotsa fun with this challenge! The palette is from a really, REALLY cool site called Design Seeds (thank you, Alison, for sharing it). The chosen scheme is called Autumn Breeze:

As soon as I saw it, I IMMEDIATELY thought..."ASIAN". And then, I suddenly had a craving for Lemon Pepper Shrimp and Lettuce Wraps from PF Changs. But I digress...and, now, I'm drooling.

I totally ADORE Asian-themed art. What a PERFECT color combo to work with!!!! But, is it me or do the first and fourth colors look ALMOST the same? Like REALLY REALLY CLOSE? # 4 is just a SMIDGE lighter than #1. Er, um, so I kind of took "liberties" with my palette and made color #1 somewhere in-between #3 and #4. Call it...artistic license. Deal with it.

So, without further ado, here are my projects. Yes, I did more than one. Why? Why not??? The first project is a little 3-D shadowbox-framed decorative piece (6x6 inches). It is now happily living on the wall next to my Kokeshi doll collection in my library. See!!! Aren't the colors PERFECT for this??? (I'm getting better at photographing these things!!)

Project #1 - Geisha Shadow Box

This project has a LOT going on, so allow me to point out a few of its features (Torrey assumes stewardess-like stance and begins to motion with both hands, simultaneously, toward the exits).

Go Go Geisha girl. Don't you just LOVE her? I know I do! I colored the Geisha and her FaBuLoUs parasol with my trusty colored pencils. Then I "fussy cut" the whole shebang and used a black marker to color the cut edge so no white shows (nothing obsessive about me, no siree). I printed off an extra parasol, cut it out and popped it off the one underneath with foam tape.  Lastly, I mounted it to the background with MORE foam tape (what can I say...I'm a dimensional kind of gal).

Some background about the background. It's done using the Iris-folding technique. I ADORE Iris-folding (when it's done WELL). It's challenging to pick out the right combo of colors and patterns. I created the Iris-folding feature to resemble an ocean wave at sunset (Aaah!!! See it now?). I wanted to echo the waves in the Geisha's parasol. I also think that Iris-folding looks a LOT like Origami, so I knew it would blend seamlessly with my Asian theme. Plus, I've been a HUGE fan of Origami ever since I was a kidlet. 

I added a punched border across the bottom to "anchor" everything (and give the Geisha something to sit on). I couldn't resist adding just a TOUCH of bling...so there is a star-shaped rhinestone on the apex of the parasol and some frosted gemstones in the flower centers.

Shedding light on the paper lanterns. These are my own design. I figured out what shapes I wanted then cut them out of Vellum which I scored with a stylus to get the vertical lines. Then I ran each one through a crimper to get the horizontal ridges. At first I thought "Man! These look like really greasy Ruffles potato chips." The other parts of the potato-chip lanterns are made out of cardstock. The flames are hand-colored on cardstock and adhered to the back side of the lantern. The hanging loop of each one is actually a loopy corner punch that I trimmed to the right shape. After I assembled the Ruffles lanterns, I hung them from some awesome fiber on the OUTSIDE of the frame--this allows them room to dangle and move.

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Now, for my second offering. Since I had leftover strips from the Iris-folding of my first project and a few extra stamped flowers...I decided to continue down the Iris-folding path and create a coordinating card. I snagged this kimono pattern somewhere on the net. The pattern was designed for only 2 colors...but, of course, I altered it to accommodate all 5 colors for this challenge. I'm tricky like that.

Project # 2 - Kimono Card

 

Ingredients: (for both Projects #1 and #2)

Geisha stamp, flower stamp - Bombshell Stamps ("Peek-A-Boo" Geisha, Bombshell Angel)

Border punch, corner punch - EK Success for Martha Stewart

Gems and rhinestone - Darice

Prismacolor colored pencils

Decorative fiber

Designer Paper  (see, I'm learning...I didn't call it patterned paper)

Frame - EK Success

foam spacers

cardstock
vellum

Glue Glider Pro - Glue Arts

Paper crimper - Paper Adventures

Ok, so you're REALLY intrigued with this Iris-folding stuff now, aren't you? Perhaps I'll do a tutorial on it in the nearish future! Put a comment in if you'd like to see a tutorial on how to make this card or make the background of the shadowbox project. If there is enough interest, I'll do it!

Well, it's time for me to say "Sayonara" to y'all (bows, then waves fingers tootle-loo style).  Domo arigato SO MUCH for stopping by! Be sure to visit ALL the Blogs in the Hop and leave COMMENTS...'cuz we all love to get comments!! We love to hear from you! 

Your next stop will be Cheryl's FaBuLoUs blog (she's super-talented).

Here is a complete list of all the Hop's participants in case you get lost or want to revisit some!

Bombshell Stamps Blog

Alison 

Laura

Mary G.

you're here ----> Torrey <----- that's me!

Cheryl

Stempelintje

Kelli

Alaine

Glittery Katie

Celina Anthony

Paula

Milo

today is her birthday ---> Sparkly Mary <--- wish her a happy BD! 

Alex

Kathi