Sparkle Creations June Release Preview: Cherry Blossom Rin

It's time for a sneak peek at Sparkle Creations Rubber stamps June release!
I had Japanese hakama in mind when illustrating Cherry blossom Rin. Hakamas are a type of kimonos traditionally worn by men. They come in two pieces, top and bottom and the bottom is actually trousers suitable for swordmen and horse riding back in the days. Now these are worn by both sexes. But I drew Rin in a way so that people can colour her in as if she is in a kimono like Shaela has done below.

 

Shaela Odd has made a beautiful card using this stamp! 

How inspirational! Loving all the patterns!

Be sure to visit the Sparkle Creations Rubber stamp store,  Sparkle will be giving away a Cherry Blossom Rin to one lucky person! To find out how click here!

Actually I was in a funny bubbly mood when I was colouring Rin up. I remembered where I was when I was working it's original line illustration for the stamp.

A couple of months ago a bunch of my friends and I visited Great Barrier Islands for a rural getaway. Actually at that time we were constantly bombarded by dreadful news about the Christchurch and Japan disasters. Whichever way you turn TV, radio, Internet, people, everyone was talking about the two disasters that it seemed to overwhelm us, we were all craving for a peaceful getaway. Great Barrier Island was perfect, it has a small  population of 852 people, the whole island is powered by generators and solar power, no ATMs, no street light.. reminds me of my childhood.

After a sickening bumpy 4~5 hour ferry ride ( normally 3 hours) we arrived at the island wharf.

Our 20min drive to our bach (beach house) was very memorable, we only came across maybe 4 people (including the dude at a stranded little shop who kindly gave us directions) and drove past close to 100 boats and dinghies. Do people here own more than one boat each?

Our bach was a bit dated but clean and homely. The fridge and the oven was powered by gas, other than that the rest of the house ran on one solar powered panel which meant no TV, hairdryers, hair straighteners, microwave, computer/laptop etc. This meant that there was no chance for us to turn on the TV and see more sad news, no Internet and mobile access helped that too. Plus we had access to canoes, beaches, bushes and for those rainy days, lots of board games, cards and a huge 5000piece jigsaw puzzle!

The weather wasn't ideal, mixture of rain, heavy rain and spots of sunshines. One night we ran out of solar power when the sun went down. Us girls enjoyed working on the jigsaw puzzle in candle light, until my hair caught on fire! It wasn't too bad, except losing part of my fringe and those uncontrollable fluffs on top of my head. The boys didn't notice any of the power cut or my head on fire incident as they were enjoying their "man time" fishing.

Daytime was spent on the beach, walks, searching for hot springs, catching fish/seashells, cooking, eating, conserving energy and playing card games and jigsaw. :)

 Eating in the dark (candle light)

 Visiting beaches

 Admiring houses with more solar panels.. later walking past the house and seeing its lights on and kids playing games on computer and watching TV. 

 Kaimoana for the day

 Collected Mussels during the morning walk. Cleaning them to make garlic butter mussels!

 Loving these signs all over the island!

 On a long walk to find the local natural hot springs

 Sadly hot spring water has been washed away by the rain...

 cleaning out the contents of the fridge; steak, fish, ham, sausages, salad

I always take my work with me if I leave my studio for more than a day, I spent some time inking up... Cherry Blossom Rin!

 Cherry blossom Rin rough

 Me working at the bach table. 

 

Close up

 Final image used for the stamp!