short-cuts, but only when desperate

I can still remember the year I had to admit that my winter holiday mailing list had grown too long to send original hand-made cards to each person on it. I was swallowed by guilt at the time, but the list grows longer every year.

Getting my favorite seasonal etegami made into glossy postcards by a professional printer is one solution that I've tried, but many of my friends and family have expressed a strong preference for the tactile qualities of original washi etegami. And hating to disappoint, I've cast about for a better solution to the problem. For a while I printed my chosen image on the thick washi cards that I generally use when I hand-paint the originals. This produced printed cards that were hard to tell apart from the original etegami, but I gave it up after it wrecked my printer head twice in two years.

Recently I tried printing my holiday etegami image on iron-on washi sheets. I sell pads of these on my Etsy shop and I always keep a stock for my personal use. They are intended for converting ordinary blank postcards into washi cards for etegami, but I never meant for them to be used with a printer. Still, the results were pretty good. They were thin enough to go through the printer without excessively burdening the printer head, and after I ironed them onto ordinary blank postcards they retained the soft, slightly fuzzy feel of washi. The self-adhesive washi sheets work well for this too, but they're a bit more expensive. I pass the sheets through my printer one sheet at a time to prevent their getting stuck inside.

digital downloads for great last-minute gifts

A great last-minute gift for yourself or someone else is the instantly downloadable ebook version of A Beginner's Guide to Etegami.

My collection of illustrated Scripture verses, An Etegami Sampler 2, is also available as a digital download. And if you prefer the print versions, these two books are available from my Etsy shop. Check out sample pages by clicking the links above.

And don't forget the high-resolution images of selected etegami that can be downloaded directly from my Etsy shop. You can use these images to make your own gift tags, book markers, place mats, greeting cards, and a huge variety of other items, as long as they are for non-commerical use. 

The greatest things about these digital gift options is that they cost nothing to ship and involve practically no waiting time.

the sheep keep coming

I'm still working on year-of-the-sheep New Year cards for 2015. Even if I hadn't been born in the year of the sheep, I would still love to draw them. They come in such variety!

illustration friday (sea)

The shoe is soaked with sea water. It was the only thing the tsunami left behind when it took the child. The words translate roughly to: What the tsunami left behind.

This is an etegami from my earthquake/tsunami series, re-posted from May 23, 2011.

etegami stones

I'm distracting myself by making little etegami stones. Except this one is so small, I couldn't get words onto it. I cut the images out of earlier etegami and glue them onto the stones. Bigger stones make nice paperweights, but they're harder to send through the mail system.

illustration friday (light)

This is a Washi Collage depicting an oil lamp. The design incorporates a quote from the Bible (John 1: 1~5). Perfect for a Christmas card.  Prints can be ordered from Redbubble.

bridging 12 years with a stamp

As you know, according to the Chinese/Japanese zodiac, 2015 is the year of the sheep. There are 12 animals in the zodiac cycle. The Japan Postal Service sells postcards printed specifically for New Years with stamps depicting the zodiac animal. The cards also come with a lottery number at the bottom so you can win prizes from the cards you receive (winners are announced in February), but that's beside the point. Notice the stamp they designed 12 years ago. A sheep knitting --and notice that the pre-printed cancellation mark is a skein of yarn! It appears that the sheep for 2015 has finally finished its knitting project. In the 12 intervening years, postage has risen by 2-yen because of the increase in consumer tax.

This photo was borrowed from an entertaining and informative website called Spoon & Tamago, Japanese Art, Design and Culture, which is well worth checking out.

NOTE: a friend pointed out something I had missed: "the current cancellation mark is circular knitting needles--two metal or wood needles connected by flex plastic! There is more--- the cancellation stripes have TWO knitting needles and one Crochet Hook!! What a great and secret design!"