Mid-day madness!

Even though I have at least two projects on the metaphorical burner, I just had to take a crafting break. It's Tuesday, so challenges abound! I started with the always-interesting Midnight Madness sketch challenge at the Priscillastyles blog, the idea to try my hand at some stitching, a stamp I've been itching to use, and some scrap pieces of handmade Chinese flower-pressed paper.
For an extra element, I did a Google search for haiku about women...and found instead a book review for Far Beyond the Field: Haiku by Japanese Women with a perfect haiku by Sugita Hisajo:

sewing in the lamplight
I teach spelling to my child –
autumn rain

It really is a perfect poem. Nothing can put you immediately into a place and then back it up with your own emotion like a well-written haiku. I used a rubber stamp from Stampin' Up!, plus the printing on acetate technique to stamp the haiku onto the same paper as the image. And yes, I know I'm mixing up Japanese and Chinese elements, but the final result sure is cute!

The frame pieces were trimmed from an especially leafy part of the paper, adhered with help from my Xyron sticker machine, and then hand-stitch in camp-wallet spirit. To add a little something, I cut out the image and quote with deckle scissors. And obviously I can't get enough of hand-coloring rubber stamps! I like all the whitespace, but next time I'll probably add more detail after I've stamped it.