Druthers

Second post of the day...scroll down for more!

The challenge this week at OCC has me pining for two places. One I have been visiting since I was a wee pup vacationing in a tent with mom and dad and my two sisters. That would be the Great Smoky Mountains in TN and NC. If I had my druthers, I'druther be in the mountains! I am completely at peace when I am there. And second is a place I never visited until well into adulthood but it quickly captured my heart. That would be Japan. We accompanied my mother and father in law and sister in law and her dh in 2003 to visit my mil's grand-niece and her family that mom hadn't seen in 20+ years. It was a fantastic trip and one that I look back on fondly and with many wonderful memories.

 These are two stamps I picked up a few years ago at My Scrapbook Store, a "superstore" with all things scrapbooking and papercrafting in Pigeon Forge, TN. You used to see Mail Pouch Tobacco signs painted on barns all across the south. Now that smoking is no longer "cool", you don't see so many of them. This stamp reminded me of a simpler time and for that reason, I kept the card simple. And the bear paw stamp was a "must have" for me since the bear is the symbol of the Smoky's. All these many years I've been going to the mountains and I've never seen one in the wild. It's one of the things on my bucket list! Please note that this is not a "specific" barn. Back in the 30's and 40's companies would send employees out across the south and they would ask "Farmer Jones" for permission to paint their logo on his barn so that it could be seen by passing motorists. It was a labor-free way for 1/4 of the barn to get painted every year, so most barn owners said yes! This is just one artists rendition of a barn on a stamp.  I stamped the barn in Pigment ink on watercolor paper and used my waterbrush to color the image. And the bear paw I random stamped using Pigment ink.

For my Japan inspired card, I used some Origami paper that cousin Akiko-san sent me. John likes to make origami figures with it and I use it for carding. I used to make cards for mil to send to her friends and family in Japan but since her strokes a couple of years ago, she has limited use of her right side and so her writing skills have fallen away and I don't make cards for her any more. The Giesha is a stencil that I used my Stipple Brush and Cocoa ink on. The Kanji phrase is from a retired CTMH set called Wisdom. It's had to see, but in the center is a piece of Mulberry paper that Akiko-san sent as well.  I kept this one simple because that is the Japanese way. They don't go for a lot of frills and doo-dads!

And now I have my first two cards to go in Debbie's box for her 2013 Wak/Run since I sent her all of the cards I've created over the past year last week!