Wednesday, October 29, 2014

It's Ai-Chan!

 Hey Everyone!  I'm back with another blog post.. YAY!  And I'm at an undisclosed location today with an amazingly fast internet connection!  Man... I want something this speedy at home!  Crossing my fingers that our internet connection at home is restored tomorrow.

OK enough about my internet problems.. right?  You want to hear about our next release!  Meet Ai.. our girl taiko player!  She was named after someone that we met in Japan that works at Miyamoto which is well known for their taiko and supplies.  It's definitely my husband's favorite stop whenever we go to Tokyo.  Ai actually lived in Hawaii for awhile and speaks good English, so she offered to translate for my husband when he took a taiko class while on vacation.  She also plays taiko too, so I thought this was the perfect name for this image.



True story:  we did not plan on releasing a taiko girl image.  I remember that after we released our boy taiko image- Yoichi, I received an email requesting a girl taiko image.  I passed that request onto my sister for consideration and she came up with Ai.  Love it!  I think it's pretty cool that there are a lot of girl taiko players.. maybe even more than men!

My project today is a tag that I made featuring Ai-chan.  This tag was cut from a Sizzix set that was in the similar shape of a drum, so I naturally bought it in anticipation for creating projects for my husband.  Though, the shape itself was really long, so I knew I had to cut it down a bit.  I ended up cutting about 1/2" from each end.  I also cut one more of the same size in an ivory color for the skin.  I trimmed that down but 1/4" off each end, and then cut off about 3/4" to make the skins.  The longer edge was cut free hand in a wave-like pattern to replicate the taiko skins.


Here you can see the skins better.  I added on a double row of tacks that they use to secure the skins in place.  This was done using a black enamel that gives a glossy raised look.  I like how it came out.


Finally, I decided to add a sentiment to the tag.  This can be used to give a gift or add to a lei.  The enjoy sentiment is a die from Papertrey Ink that came with other sentiments.  Love the handwriting look of it- looks very asian to me. :)

For more information on this tag, please check out our YouTube Channel.

Please check back tomorrow to see what our design team has been up to and meet our guest designer!

Oh!  And don't forget to enter to win our blog candy giveaway for this stamp!
1)  Leave a comment on THIS POST; and
2)  Tell me what kind of videos you'd be interested in seeing on our channel.

10 comments:

  1. Ai,how cute is that??? Glad SS has a taiko girl too. No need to enter me in the drawing.

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  2. Ai is soooo cute!!! I love her playing the taiko drum!! And on ur channel, I'd love to watch ur projects! I liked ur last vid how u explained everything!
    Penny :D

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  3. Ai is awesome!! Glad you folks added her to the SS ohana. No need to enter me in, just wanted to leave a comment and say how awesome this is. ^.^ Great job on the tag and all the adjustments, it's amazing.

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  4. Ai is so cute and I'm so happy that there's a girl taiko player to pair with Yoichi. I'm really a stamping amateur so I'd love to have "how-to" videos. :)

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  5. Ai is really cute and I would love to see a coloring video on how you color your hair and your images. I color my hair differently and I was wondering how u color yours and the different steps. Thanks

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  6. Ai is super cute. I would like to watch some videos on how you and some of the people on the design team color with Copics. I am always interested in learning new techniques and getting new ideas of how to improve my coloring with Copics.

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  7. Ai is wonderful! Like a lot of the others, I'd like to see coloring videos. Oh and more stamping projects, too!

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  8. Ai is so adorable. I would like to see your stamps on cards and boxes on your channel.

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  9. Ai and mitsuo are soo perfect for us! This is our all time favorite stamp!! My daughters are taiko drummers, ages 12 and 6, so we just gotta get one!

    I'd like to see the things - tutorials or slide shows- that can be created with this stamp.

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