April 2007 - Lois S.
"Quilted Kimono Card "

loiss@orientalstampart.com
Walla Walla, WA

(Click on picture for instructions)

How long have you been stamping?
Probably 8-10 years, though the last few years since I have been retired have been the most prolific.

What is your favorite technique?
I am not sure I have a favorite technique—just what ever technique I am currently working with.

Favorite stamp company?
Most of my Asian stamps have been purchased thru OnyxXpressions, Art Neko, and Stonehouse Stamps, but am always searching for Asian stamps on other websites as well.

Favorite Asian stamps?
I have especially enjoyed the stamps from Art Neko that our own Heather has had a hand in producing.

Favorite stamp accessory?
My new Fiskars cutting board (12”x15”). It is big enough that I don’t lose it as easily as the smaller one (LOL)

Favorite colors?
My favorite colors to use on cards as well as in my own wardrobe are earth tones: olive, eggplant, orange, brown and red. Oh and turquoise and lime green.

Favorite embellishment to finish a card?
I frequently use Asian calligraphy in stamps or homemade stickers to finish off a card.

What is the one tool you couldn't live without?
My computer ! To view other artists’ works and to check out web sites to purchase new products.

Any helpful tips for the group?
If at first you don’t like the results, keep working with the project until “it” tells you that it is finished. Sometimes I post a card on my OSA pages and I decide I don’t like it after all, so I delete the card and rework it.

As a member of the Oriental Stamp Art Group, why do you like stamping in the Oriental theme?
I really am not too sure, but I just know that making regular cards just doesn’t satisfy me like working with the oriental designs.

Is there any one place you'd like to visit to find rubberstamps, supplies or any other Asian elements?
Any place that has more than 2 places to buy stamps and paper products.

What other stamping lists or clubs do you belong to?
Currently I only belong to OSA groups.

What favorite stamping magazines would you recommend?
I like looking at Somerset magazines (Take Ten, Inspirations, Stamper’s Sampler) Paper Crafts, Stamp It and one magazine that isn’t for stampers, but often has oriental paintings Arts and Antiques.

Published in any magazines? If yes, please list.
Vamp Stamp News, OSA’s on line magazine (OSA Spectrum), as well as having my art in galleries for OnyxXpressions and Art Neko.

Any other hobbies, crafts or art interests?
For the last couple of years I have taken a creative writing class at our local Senior Center and it has been a major contributor to my personal growth not only in writing, but in the way I look at life. Reading books relating to life in the Orient has also opened up new perspectives to understanding some of the whys and wherefores of oriental art..

What inspires you to be creative?
Just being more “alive” to life around me in nature, music, and spiritual renewal.

Any art background?
Mostly “art by osmosis”. Various family members were and are quite artistic and I always wanted to be, but until I began experimenting with a couple of watercolor classes and discovering oriental art projects that I could do with stamps and accessories I didn’t know that I had any real artistic genes in my blood.

Have you used any unusual item in your stamping?
Not that I can think of at this time.

Any favorite websites you would recommend for inspiration?
OSA artists are my favorites!

Do you have a day job when you're not stamping?
I am retired, so my day job is sleeping!!!, taking classes, and my all day/all nite job is to play with stamping projects and cruising the web.

Tell us about your family and where you live.
I have lived most of my life in the Pacific Northwest (mostly in Washington, but a number of years in Oregon, also). My formal education is in teaching Spanish and English, but have spent a number of years as a missionary in Honduras, C.A., working with the elderly in a retirement setting and also a nursing home. My last years in the work force were spent in medical records in a state prison. Many of my family members also live in the Pacific Northwest and currently my closest family member living with me is a beautiful, but stubborn, golden retriever named Danika.

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"Quilted Kimono Card "
By Lois S.

loiss@orientalstampart.com

Supplies:

Cardstock (cs) for card, washi papers, embellishments for obi if desired, embellishments for finishing the card, stiff cs for attaching the quilted pieces, foam wrap or felt for inner "batting" of each piece except the neck piece. Obi may or may not be quilted as you desire. Use double stick tape or glue stick to attach pieces.

Quilted Kimono instructions

Choose cardstock for card and background pieces
Choose washi papers (kimono can be made with 2 washi papers or 3)
Cut out pattern as one piece in stiff cs

Cut out pattern in pieces: ie... 2 sleeves, 1 kimono main body, 1 obi, 1 strip for neck area.
Cut pattern pieces out of foam wrap or felt.
Cut sleeves, main kimono, obi and neck strip about 1/4" larger all around pattern.
Cut diagonal slits (about 4) around the curve of the sleeves.

Place foam wrap pieces on top of cs pieces.
Wrap washi papers around both layers of pattern pieces. Gently ease the corner pieces on the sleeves.
Lay each finished section on the whole pattern cs and attach with doublesided tape. Fit each piece up snug to the adjoining piece.
Fold neck piece in half long ways, attach to main kimono piece, overlapping the right side last.
Obi piece may be trimmed with narrow ribbon etc.
Finish the card however you like. I have used gold embossed kanji for the word "kimono" (upper right hand side of card) and a punched out dragon (same paper as the background paper immediately behind the kimono) lower right hand side of card.

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