Contest Cards

Each spring a wonderful Rubber Stamp Convention http://rubberstampevents.com/ is held in the Creative Arts Building at the Fairgrounds in Albuquerque -- an opportunity for those of us who use rubber stamps to purchase them from vendors who only sell via the internet or at shows.  When I first moved to Albuquerque, I found out about the show from a fellow shopper in China Phoenix 2 http://chinaphoenix2.com/ (Albuquerque's premier rubber stamp store) and asked her if it was worth going to.  She told me to take about $400 to spend.  I guess that answered my question!

The first couple of years I simply attended the convention, took advantage of as many demos as I could, and shopped, shopped, shopped.  Most of my card business is centered around iris paper folding, not rubber stamping.  But embossing began to intrigue me and I now use my rubber stamps mainly for embossing and have a few embossed cards in my greeting card line -- Kards by Kathleen.

I discovered at my first convention that each year there is a card contest -- with three prizes each in two different categories.  At first I had no interest in participating in the contests because all the entries had such high cute factors (lots of pastels, itty bitty little mice, sweet sayings, etc.) -- not my style -- but then I decided, why couldn't I simply do what I wanted to do, and enter my quirky cards in the contests.

So, here for a few grins and giggles for you are my card entries from the past four years -- the only years I've participated in the contests.  And, I'll have to brag -- I won prizes in three out of the four years!   There are two categories each year, but if you win in one category, you can't be a winner in the other category.

I buy a lot of unmounted stamps, and over the years have failed to keep track of which stamps I bought from whom -- but where I remember from whence the stamps have been purchased, I will so note.

None of these cards have been incorporated into my card line -- they were created for the pure pleasure of designing.

And, if you want to see card entries other than mine, you can go to the rubber stamp event website and view slideshows of the cards.



2010
Category:  Birds and Blooms

This bluebird was rubber stamped and embossed with a dark blue embossing powder -- thus -- the bluebird of happiness.   Some of the punched flowers that form my bluebird's nest are spaced away from the card with dimensional adhesive dots.   And -- drum roll please -- I won a second place prize for this card.  Quite the treat to win a prize my first year of entry!

Category 2 - Up, Up and Away



Since Albuquerque is host to the International Balloon Festival in October of each year (yet another blog post I'll have to get around to . . . ), my idea for this category indeed had to be related to hot air balloons.  My reading lady who is oblivious to the balloons outside her window was purchased from www.iloverubberstamps.com (one of the show vendors).  I purchased the used window rubber stamp from an Etsy vendor, and the set of 5 itty bitty hot air balloon rubber stamps on eBay.



2011

Category 1 - Bring on the Clowns

I currently can't find the crazy little clown baby rubber stamp -- but I am pretty sure it is a Stampington rubber stamp.  The itty bitty little milk bottles in his knock-down game came in one of those packages of embellislhment buttons.

Category 2 - Wash Day

I think this card is my absolute favorite contest card I've made -- and 2011 was not a prize-winning year for me.   However, this lady is having one good old time on wash day -- having a martini with one itty bitty little olive, balancing her box of Tide on her knee, her hair is up in rollers made from rolled paper beads, and her cat is scared to death!  I can tell you that I remember purchasing the washer on eBay -- it came in a washer/dryer set -- and the set was available in three different sizes.   The arms and legs are part of a set from Elaine Madrid's shop (one of my favorite vendors at the show) Carmen's Veranda http://carmensverandarubberstamps.com/

2012

Category 1- The Long and the Short of It

This category had me puzzled for quite awhile -- hmmm -- long and short -- short and tall, hair length, hemline length, long and short stories.  I decided I would go with long and short hemlines and found a great rubber stamp on eBay from Flonz -- a vintage pattern cover with the long and short version of culottes from the 1930's.  Here's that card:

I perched the girls on an overstuffed chair, with a copy of a sewing pattern in the background, and framed the card in cotton measuring tape ribbon.

THEN, I had an even better idea.  Since you can enter two cards in each contest I decided to go ahead and make the second card -- and -- good thing I did -- because it won first place in the category.  Happy Dance, Happy Dance!   What is the quintessential personification of long and short -- a dachshund!!  Even Webster's dictionary agrees!

The dachshund rubber stamp came from an eBay vendor and the swirly frame rubber stamp is from Stampamania stampamania.com (another of the show's vendors).

Category 2 - Friendship

I entered two cards in the Friendship category -- because I had two ideas and couldn't decide which card I liked best:

This card uses three rubber stamps -- the sun-hugging goddess, the wing, and the words.  I sliced open the cardstock along the shoulder-line of the goddess so that I could insert the dimensional wing.

Goddess:  Sun Hug 473H Stamp Oasis 1997

Wing:  Dawn Houser Uptown Rubber Stamps (comes in right and left)

Words:  Penny Black 2701F angels

Here's the return of Elaine Madrid's arms and legs; the face is 94106-M Tin Can Mail.  The gold-embossed wings were purchased unmounted and I don't remember from where.  The "air beneath my wings" rubber stamp was purchased used and is identified on the end of the wood mounting as "SG 1995 683G."

2013

Category 1 - The Early Bird

This card totally fits my quirkiness -- love the fancy lady bird rubber stamp.  You'll find it on Etsy in Mary Vogel Lozinak's shop pinkflamingo61 https://www.etsy.com/shop/pinkflamingo61 and it is called "steampunk bird with worms."  Mary's rubber stamps are outrageously wonderful.  The words below the rubber stamp are mine -- be sure to click on the image and enlarge it to see what the worms have to say to the Early Bird.  And, there's the return of the border stamp from Stampamania.

Category 2 - I'm Sorry

The first place card in this category was of course a much sweeter, nicer card than mine.  But, once again, my card speaks to my left-field sense of humor -- and I did win third prize!

The leaf border rubber stamp is from B&J's Art Stamps with artwork by Judy Duke http://www.bandjsartstamps.com/  The woman is another of Mary Vogel Lozinak's stamps -- you'll find it in her Etsy shop pinkflamingo61 and it is called "woman with hands on face."  I am pretty sure the word bubble stamp came from Linda Schmidt's iloverubberstamps.com -- if you don't find it there, I know Linda does have many word bubble stamps as I've purchased several from her.   And of course, the words are mine.

I hope that my card contest entries have given you a few belly laughs and maybe even a few ideas!



Deco Japan

After receiving requests for many years to start a blog, I've finally set aside my "I don't have the time" excuse and my "I'd rather be making art than blogging" excuse and have succumbed to the challenge.  This comes about as a result of an incredible opportunity having become a major part of my life for the past several months.  I wanted to share my work with you, and what better way than by birthing a blog!  I addition, I promise I'll start carving out time to add to the blog photos of my other work, classes that I teach, etc. 

So, here's the story which begins in December of 2012:

The absolutely incredible "Deco Japan: Shaping & Culture" show (read more at  http://www.asiexhibitions.org/Deco-Japan.html ) was scheduled to be on exhibition at the Albuquerque Museum of Art and History (http://albuquerquemuseum.org) from February 9 through April 21, 2013.  In December of 2012 I was contacted by the Gallery Store Manager and the Gallery Store Creative Director about creating cards, gifts and displays for the upcoming show.

Being a mixed media artist working primarily in paper, this was a perfect opportunity for me.  I would be able to surround myself with sheets and sheets and sheets of my favorite paper -- Japanese Yuzen.  The word "yuzen" refers to the elaborate, gold-highlighted patterns originally used in the Kyoto textile industry -- these patterns are silkscreened onto large sheets of base paper usually made from kozo (mulberry) paper combined with sulfite.

I said YES YES YES - make that in all caps, bold and underlined!!!!

So, I filled my studio with glorious yuzen paper and went to work cutting and folding and creating.

Below follows a pictoral tour throughout the Museum's Gallery Store - highlighting the fruits of my labors.  Most of these photographs were taken in February just before the show opened to the public.  

As you approach the entrance to the Museum, the first thing you see in the Gallery Store's front windows are my long 9-crane origami ristras interspersed between beautiful Japanese paper lanterns.  More about ristras below.

Once inside the Museum and on your way into the Gallery Store, this is the first display table you encounter.  To the left of the blue Deco Japan show catalog are my custom-packaged origami crane ornaments made from white yuzen paper with finely embossed gold highlights (close-up photo below next photo).

And, here is a glass bowl filled with my crane ornaments in a huge array of assorted colors and patterns.  These ornaments are made using the "classic" crane, but are packaged flat-folded for easy retail and so their wing tips are protected.

Each crane ornament is folded from a 5" square of yuzen paper.  A glass or gemstone bead below the crane's body anchors the cord used for hanging.  When unpackaged and the wings of the crane are are folded down, the crane will be in "flying" position as shown on the metal hanger.

Origami crane earrings -- each crane is folded from a 1-3/4" square of yuzen paper.  For those of you who know origami, folding something from a tiny sheet of paper requires a lot of patience, and a lot of creasing using just my fingernails!  Below is a close-up of the earrings.

The earrings are adorned with beads of metal, glass or gemstone, and I use gold-plated or surgical steel earwires.  I double-coat the cranes with an eco-friendly water-resistant glaze.

Because the Gallery Store started receiving special requests for slightly larger earrings -- for the people who like more of a dangle -- I additionally designed earrings using 2" squares of paper and dropping the cranes from a 1-1/2" chain.  

Here is a close-up of the larger earrings.

Sprinkled throughout the jewelry cases are my origami lotus blossoms.  Each blossom has 24 petals and 8 leaves.  The petals are folded from yuzen paper and the leaves are Nepalese lokta paper.  Also seen in this first photo are local artist Marcia Sednek's recycled tinwork pins.

Here are three lotus blossoms featured in a corner case -- from leaf tip to leaf tip, the blossoms measure 4" in diameter.

For years I have been making crane ristras in assorted sizes from assorted papers.  Ristra is a Spanish word which means a string (of something).  When I lived in Mexico, a ristra usually referred to a string of garlic hung in a kitchen for use in cooking, or in a business hung for good luck.  Here in New Mexico, when people talk about ristras, they almost always mean ristras of red chiles that are hung from portals and porches.  My ristras for the Deco Japan show are ristras of cranes with long luxurious tails of yarn and ribbon in colors complementary to the colors of the yuzen papers in the cranes.  These cranes are all folded from 6" squares of paper.

For those of you who have been to New Mexico, you know how much sun we have!  Here is an interior shot of my long 9-crane ristras made especially for this set of corner windows in the Gallery Store.  (Due to the intense outdoor sunlight, it is difficult to capture the colors in the ristras.)

Here is an interior silhouetted shot of twenty-four of the 9-crane ristras hanging in the large corner windows near the Museum entrance.

And, while we are speaking of ristras of cranes -- here is a shot of another set of corner windows containing ristras of all-white cranes folded from non-watermarked white parchment paper.  These cranes are much larger -- folded from 8-1/2" squares -- and the ristras are in assorted sizes of  one, two, three, five or eight cranes.

Here is a container of my origami butterfly pins, and a close-up.  The butterfllies are also folded from yuzen paper and double-coated with eco-friendly water-resistant glaze.  From wing tip to wing tip, the butterflies measure about 2-1/4" wide.

Throughout the Gallery Store are scattered my 5x7" greeting cards.  There is a bin of kimono cards behind the butterfly pins.

Origami crane cards in the wooden drawer and kimono cards in the plexiglas bin.

Heart cards on the red stand.

Here is a close-up of one of my iris folding hearts made from yuzen paper -- the term "iris folding" refers to a technique where strips of folded paper are applied behind an aperture and around a central focal point as in the iris of the eye or the iris of the shutter of a camera. 

Here is one of my yuzen paper kimono cards -- I usually use two different textured cardstocks for the backings on my kimono cards -- thus the false appearance of wavy lines in the backgrounds - my camera seems to get a little confused when I attempt to photograph lots of different textures!

And, just for fun, here is a shot of about half of the kimonos I folded for the initial delivery of  four dozen kimono cards -- I racked up all of the kimonos in my own little garment district!!!!!

Here's one of my crane cards -- this is the traditional "flapping bird" form folded in such a way that I can mount the bird flat on a greeting card.  Behind the bird I generally use a complementary patterned paper with a single color cardstock behind the patterned paper.

This concludes the end of my Deco Japan tour!!  Below are several more photographs of other of my cards that are currently carried in the Gallery Store  (in the future the shop will be carrying more of my cards and gifts - watch for future updates).

H.H. Dalai Lama -- one of my hand-cut collage greeting cards.  Close-up below.

I create my hand-cut collage cards much in the same way I imagine a caricature artist works.  I study several photos of the person, zero in on his or her unique features and start cutting!  His Holiness has a tilted smile, apple cheeks, and unmatched eyebrows.  When I make each batch of Dalai Lama cards, I smile the entire day.  

You'll find my Calavera Sugar Skull Cards (in Spanish Calavera means skull) in the "Day of the Dead Department" of the Gallery Store. 

I use white handmade paper for the skull, and my background papers are black and red cardstock, with white lace paper on top of the red.  I have great fun when making these cards -- playing with all the tiny shapes in lots and lots of colors.  Note the iguana cheeks and the crescent moon dimples.  And, for the superstitious folks, I don't use black cats on all the cards -- each card is one-of-a-kind.