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Friday, June 9, 2017

Channeling Hokusai

I have a print on my wall in my stamp room of a beautiful Hokusai painting called Shichirigahama in Sagami Province. You can see the original here. Mine is a hand-painted reproduction, so the blues are much deeper than in that link and it's really stunning. My dad got it in Japan.

The blue in this print, as well as in Hokusai's original woodblock prints is a perfect, true ultramarine, and the prints are largely dominated by blue, which is one of the many reasons I love them.

While the most famous of the Hokusai prints is The Wave (for short), it's also the most terrifying. The poor person in the little boat in that piece of art appears to be a sacrifice that the island demanded, in the words of my beloved Losties.

One person describes The Wave this way:

The drawing of the wave is a deification of the sea made by a painter who lived with the religious terror of the overwhelming ocean completely surrounding his country; He is impressed by the sudden fury of the ocean's leap toward the sky, by the deep blue of the inner side of the curve, by the splash of its claw-like crest as it sprays forth droplets.

TERROR is right. As a land-loving human, that's what I feel when I look at the painting, BUT, as a blue-loving human I also feel great joy, as long as said wave is contained in a safe, lovely woodblock print or in a book. I'm not gonna lie, though, it makes my chest tight just looking at it on Google Images.

When Effie asked me if I wanted to hop with The Ton for their new release, and I saw the images, I went STRAIGHT for her stunning wave image - I am so excited to be able to channel a little Hokusai on a card.

But, being the twisted person I am, I couldn't just make it blue.

I have just spent a week with the amazing people who came to my retreat and stayed after for shenanigans, and I truly have sore jaw muscles from laughing and smiling at their shenanigans. It was a fantastic weekend/week and I miss them all terribly.

What I can tell you is - there is no art without coffee. I should have taken a picture of all of the coffee forms at the retreat. There were about 36 cases of Keurig pods, TONS of High Brew Cold Brew, regular brewed coffee, and many emergency Starbucks runs.

What can I say? It inspired my card today. :)





It's true, you know.

The sentiment is from their Caffeine Crush stamp set and it cracks me up! #seewhatididthere

Now one of the many things I love about this stamp is that it's YUGE, so it can go off the side of a card panel or front. It's hard to see here, but mine is stamped on a 4 x 5.25" panel and that's glued to a card base.

So to stamp it off-edge, I used my Creative Corners (a goodie bag gift for everyone at the retreat), and lined the stamp up this way to do all the layering. The lid of my MISTI is over on the right hand side.




This stamp set has cues on the right and the left to allow you to get perfect alignment for the layers - it comes in three steps, with some additional images for spray and some sentiments, which I used on my second card, which is much more traditional. 






What a stunning image. So much fun. 

If you want to continue on and hop to all the bloggers participating today, you can win this pretty wave, or whatever you want! Details below!




Three $25 gift certificates to The Ton's shop will be given away to random commenters from the hop participant blogs.  To qualify, you must leave a comment on The Ton Blog Hop post. The comment period will close on Monday, June 12th at 11:59pm. Winners will be announced thereafter on The Ton’s blog. Gift certificates will only apply to The Ton Stamps, Dies, Ink and Gilding.​

  1. The Ton
  2. Laura Sterckx
  3. Tae Eun Yoo
  4. Laurel Beard
  5. Mayline Jung
  6. Svitlana Shayevich
  7. Emily Midgett
  8. Dana Gong
  9. Vera Yates
  10. Svetlana Pavlova
  11. Eunji Jung
  12. Amy Tsuruta
  13. Laura Jane Head
  14. Justine Hovey
  15. Sveta Fotinia
  16. Janette Kausen
  17. Marika Rahtu
  18. Jenny Lee Yamasaki
  19. Amy Kolling
  20. Lisa Harrolle
  21. Lydia Fiedler
  22. Brenda Noelke
  23. Olga Matyushevskaya
  24. Chris Dayton
  25. Anna Kutsenko
  26. Kay Miller

Loveyameanithavesomecoffeebye.

59 comments:

  1. Wow! I am not sure whether I love that wave in the gorgeous shades of brown more or the great sentiment! Any way both the cards are absolutely amazing!

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  2. Thanks for sharing your cards with us - really inspirational and lOVE the fun sentiment:)

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  3. Great cards, the sentiment "cracks" me up!

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  4. Great use of the wave stamp for a tsunami in a coffee cup.

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  5. OH YES!
    I love your coffee waves.

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  6. Love the coffee card - great way of coloring the wave

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  7. That card could not be more perfect!

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  8. Brilliant use of this stamp. Your designs are never just artistically perfect; your wit infuses everything you create. And we are all the lucky beneficiaries. Thanks for always inspiring us.

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  9. Okay...you had me at COFFEE and then the hilarity ensued. You, my dear, "crack" me up.

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  10. Great combination of "the wave" stamp and the too-true sentiment. Thanks for the idea!

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  11. Beautiful cards. I'm just learning about ton stamps, but I'm impressed so far!

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  12. Much more fun to be politically
    incorrect. Love the brown wave
    and its sentiment.
    thanks for sharing.

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  13. Coffee wave? Genius! Love the sentiment too!

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  14. I'm STILL laughing at your fun coffee wave! Genius!!

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  15. I love your coffee card - brilliant!

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  16. Lovely cards! Love the coffee one - so fun!

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  17. Wow --fabulous wave cards and unique with the coffee sentiment.

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  18. Wow what a fun coffee wave card - never would have thought to use it like that.

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  19. The Father's Day card speaks to me. I just love the wave stamp.

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  20. Love how you paired the coffee with the wave. So fun! Great job.

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  21. Lydia you are so clever! Coffee for waves is great!

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  22. Great cards - especially the coffee wave.

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  23. I love your wave of coffee and the sentiment cracks me up!!

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  24. Wow! I love the blue of the 2nd card, but as a coffee addict, I'm in love with your first card! Such a remarkable idea!

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  25. Beautiful cards! I am of Japanese descent and, so, "the Wave" is well-known to me but, I am not a swimmer and, like you, find it terrifying! Love the coffee sentiment!

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  26. Perfect coffee splash card, your cards are absolutely stunning Lydia! Your have a beautiful crafty mind 😍

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  27. both cards are exceptional!
    Susan

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  28. I loved reading the narrative you wrote. It helps to connect the person with the card project, for me at least. Thanks!

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  29. Your coffee wave card is hilarious. Love it!

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  30. Hi WOW the cards are great and I love the colors.

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  31. Love both these cards! The first card is so cute and clever and the second card is so classy!

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  32. Great take on the wave card! So clever! Well done.

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  33. Your coffee wave got my attention, very clever.

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  34. Great cards. Love the coffee sentiment.

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  35. Awesome cards! Love that wave stamp set!

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  36. Both of these are fabulous! I especially love the first one! Who hasn't craved a wave 🌊 of coffee at least once in life? LOL TFS!

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  37. I could go for a wave of coffee most mornings! Your traditional wave is great, too!

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  38. Such a cool waves stamp and such a funny sentiment to add.

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  39. Love your clever coffee wave card. It's fun and unexpected with a great sentiment! The traditional blue wave card is stunning too!

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  40. the only brown water I'd swim or surf in.
    I added the sentiments to my wish list because you are so freaking brilliant with this. I hate it! HA!

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  41. Too cute... I adore the Waves stamp set!

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  42. A very clever take on those amazing stamps! Love the coffee sentiment too! Great cards!

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  43. brilliant, as always! i'm afraid the sentiment stole the show though. how'd you create that?

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  44. hahaha! LUV the coffee card!!!

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  45. Your coffee card is hilarious! I love it!

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  46. Love your cards. Fun sentiment.

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  47. I love your wave of coffee! I need that every morning - an ocean of coffee. :) Great cards from a fantastic stamp.

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  48. So fun Lydia! That big splashy wave inspires all kinds of ideas!! Love it!

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