Kokeshi Dolls, Hello Kitty, & More for Girls Day

Girls Day was on Tuesday (March 3rd) but I just couldn't find the time to post till now. Had some fun playing around with my new Hero Arts Kokeshi Doll stamp set and Hello Kitty Cartridge to make a few goodies to send away to dd and for my niece.

This is the tri fold window card I created with the stamp set to send to dd along with her box of treats. The base card with the two windows was created with the Beyond Birthdays cartridge and Design Studio, then I simply adhered the stamped doll images to the windows. (The original idea for this card actually came from another Hallmark card I saw at the drugstore several weeks ago.) Decorated the card with washi paper from Creations Unlimited and 4 sizes of Carl Crafts' sakura punches. FYI, when using paper punches on washi paper, you should always layer a piece of regular bond paper (or some other easily punched paper) on top of the washi paper and punch them out together to avoid jamming and possibly ruining your punches. I used Bazzill Bling (pinks) and Currency Gold cardstock, and the sentiment is Teen font printed on vellum.

I decorated this gift bag to hold gifts for my niece with the same kokeshi doll stamps, which I colored with copics, scanned, enlarged, then printed onto photo paper. I really like the smooth, glossy texture from the photo paper, plus it made cutting out the images a breeze. I then used the original stamped images left to make matching gift tags.

BTW, though I don't usually make note of the type of ink I use, I think it may be worth mentioning that I was informed when I purchased these stamps that the best stamp ink to use for photopolymer type stamps with large solid stamped areas (like the hair on these) is Tsukineko's VersaCraft. Apparently this pigment ink is very "sticky" and adheres well to the solid areas, giving the best stamped image, which also resists bleeding when coloring with alcohol based inks like copics. (I actually heat embossed my images with embossing powder for these projects so I can't say for sure about the bleeding, but the ink coverage on the solid areas was very good.)

When I saw stationery and trinkets with Hello Kitty dressed in her pretty kimono for Girls Day, I couldn't resist buying them! Then I thought, "Hey, why not giving it a whirl on design studio?" I put together the kimono on Design Studio with the George cartridge and added on HK's head from the Hello Kitty cartridge. Then I picked some cute flowers from the Walk In My Garden cartridge to replace the bow on Kitty's head. Chalked and decorated her kimono using very tiny flower punches cut with a Fiskars hand punch and a white gel pen. "Orizuru" or paper crane is another Carl paper punch. Used the George cartridge again to create a little flat box (just the size to fit a powder compact from the new MAC Hello Kitty line) and finished it off with with a sliding band made of currency gold cardstock and more pretty washi paper.

This paper kimono is actually a little treat box. The side view shows the box which is adhered to inside the kimono. Dd saw these displayed at Creations Unlimited when she was home for Christmas and pointed them out to me, "Look mom, this is what I want you to make for me for Girls Day!" These were quick and easy. The girls at Creations used their big Ellison machine to do the cuts for these at no extra charge in just a few minutes while I shopped. All it took was some quick folding and gluing to assemble, some embellishing with more sakura punches, and cardstock & ribbon for an obi. Added some sweet senbei crackers to the boxes and it was done. Wrapped these in cellophane bags tied with ribbon and tags and sent them off to dd to share with her friends.