4 Beautiful Cards with Autumn Kokeshi Dolls

Happy Friday! Today I have four fun projects to show you. You may remember that back in the spring of 2025, I created cards with the sweet Kokeshi Dolls from the Spellbinders Spring in Kyoto collection. Well, today I am working with the Autumn in Kyoto collection and Spellbinders sent me the Autumn Kokeshi Dolls and Japanese Maple Branch die sets. I spent some time on Canva finding some Japanese-themed backgrounds that I could print and/or foil.

My first card has a fan design in the background. I added it to the top 5.75 inches of my 6.75-inch card panel and then printed and foiled it with teal toner foil. Using color palette #102 from the Color Catalog, I created the doll with an outfit in shades of blue. The set comes with four little stamps that can be used to add patterns to parts of the outfit. I cut her black hair from Brushed Black cardstock and the slight shimmer is a nice touch in real life, although unfortunately it isn’t visible in the photo. I used the two brown shades from the palette to create the maple branch and inked the edges of the leaves with Vintage Photo Distress Oxide ink. I added the doll and branch to the foiled background and placed the die-cut sentiment in the area below the foiling that I had left open for this purpose.

The second card has a printed background featuring a Japanese design. Using the Colors app, I picked a color palette from the background image and used it to create the doll and lanterns. For this doll, I used a different stamp pattern to add interest to her outfit. I completed the card with a sentiment and sub-sentiment using the Hero Arts Prayers Stamp & Cut set.

The next card is another one with a foiled background element. I printed the bonsai-like branch on my laser printer and foiled it with gold toner foil. Then, using Distress Oxide inks in Candied Apple, Crackling Campfire and Mustard Seed, I inked the background with my blender brushes. The foil resists the ink, so I could simply buff away any ink that ended up on the foil. Following palette #140, I added the doll, this time with light purple hair. I did some research into real Kokeshi dolls online and discovered that they sometimes have light purple or light pink hair. I completed the card with a sentiment using the Spellbinders Layered Thinking of You die set. I cut it once in yellow and once in purple, then offset the two layers to create a shadow effect.

My final card is a simple one with a bold black and red background. My doll is dressed in red with an orange sash and has black hair. She is shown from behind, which demonstrates the versatility of this die set. I had found a background featuring Japanese text which, when translated, reads, “The cherry blossoms that I count on seeing tomorrow might be blown away by a midnight storm.” I added an English sentiment to complement it with the words “miss you.”

I very much enjoyed making these four very different cards and would love to know which one is your favorite. These new dolls are a great addition to the Spring Dolls that Spellbinders released previously. Thank you for visiting with me today. I will see you next week.

Please note that the links below are affiliate links and I will earn a small commission if you choose to use my link, at no cost to you. I received the Autumn Kokeshi Dolls and the Japanese Maple Branch die sets from Spellbinders in order to create with. I purchased all of the other products linked here myself.

Project Specific Supplies
Autumn Kokeshi Dolls	Layered Thinking of You
Adhesives
Bearly Art Glue	Scrappy Tape 1/8
Foiling Supplies
Gold Foil	Teal Foil
Inking Supplies
Candied Apple	Crackling Campfire	Mustard Seed
Wilted Violet	Vintage Photo
Papers
Spellbinders Tutu	Spellbinders Wild Berry	Spellbinders Merlot
Spellbinders Bellini	Spellbinders Carrot	Spellbinders Terra Cotta
Spellbinders Beeswax	Spellbinders Teal Topaz	Spellbinders Cascade
Spellbinders Celestial	Spellbinders Cosmic Sky	Spellbinders Fairy Tale
Spellbinders Lavender	Spellbinders Lilac	Spellbinders Alabaster
Spellbinders Fawn	Spellbinders Anchor	Spellbinders Raven
Spellbinders Brushed Black
Basic Tools & Supplies
Platinum 6	Universal Plates	HBS Reverse Tweezers
Tool ‘n One	Scoreboard

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Many thanks for visiting and commenting on my blog!

Monica