Oriental card

Good afternoon folks

Well, I have spent the morning in my craft room (on medical instruction of course, - not because I enjoy it or anything!)  The challenge this week at Crafty Bloggers Network is Oriental.  Now Oriental isn't anything I have attempted before, mainly because it doesn't particularly appeal too me, although I have to say I have seen many beautiful Oriental cards.  So I decided to rise to the challenge - and believe me, I have been seriously challenged making this card!

So, as this subject doesn't appeal to me, where to start as I don't have anything suitable to use - or so I thought at first.  Then I remembered being given a "goody bag" containing an Oriental stamp at a craft fair a few years ago.  Right, sorted, I will use that stamp.  What to use with the image - hmm, I remember seeing bamboo in a book I have - "Design Source Book" so hunted that out.  Scanned the image, took it into Craft Artist and changed the colour to red then turned it into a backing paper.  All good so far.  Next I hunted out the stamp - a wooden and red rubber one.  Inked it up and tried stamping it - every time I did there was a 'patch' that didn't stamp properly. The stamp was of a geisha - a very cross looking geisha at that!  Anyway, no matter what I did - use a stamping mat, don't use a stamping mat, add extra ink, use less ink, put added pressure over the 'patch', stamp more lightly...... nothing made any difference.  So that scuppered that idea.  Back to the drawing board.  As some of you will already have realised, I love flowers and I have a lot of floral cds so a trawl through them and Joanna Sheen to the rescue.  I found a section entitled Japanese Chrysanthemums and Lilies in her RDS cd 2 so I printed out a page of toppers and a sheet of backing paper.  Next I did a search in Craft Artist and found a digikit called Forbidden City which contained things Oriental.  So I made two more smaller toppers using embellishments from that kit.

Here is the finished card

Unfortunately the colour on this photograph is a lot lighter than the actual card, with the exeption of the little topper on the right - the bamboo on that is actually dark red but looks black on this.

I moved all my bits and pieces around to decide how to lay them out before actually sticking them into place, and decided that the whole thing looked a bit bland, so went around the edges of the really pretty backing paper with Tim Holtz distress ink in tea dye, and then without re-inking the sponge ran it around the edges of the bamboo backing paper covering the front of the card, to take the 'white' look away.  I layered the papers and the toppers onto Coredinations card. Then, having spent about an hour hunting for a little oriental medallion/coin thingy I know I have 'somewhere' - without success - I cut out two flowers from one of my spare toppers and added them to the card.  Lastly I decided a little butterfly might look good so did a Google search for Japanese butterflies, found a photo, digitally cut the butterfly in Craft Artist and then printed it out a few times onto vellum before cutting three out (with scissors this time!) and adding them to the card.  I wanted the butterflies to be a little larger than they are - they look more like bees to me - but at that stage I just wanted to finish this card.  Close up of the butterflies

Of course having spent all that time making a bamboo backing paper initially, it can't be seen at all on the finished card so here is a photo of it (just so you know what it looks like!)

So there you have it folks, my very first Oriental card - and I am not at all sure I even like it!

Thank you for dropping in.

Catherine x