Oriental Birthday card for my Dad

I was looking through a disk I have with all the photo's of my cards that I have made over the years and I found this one I made for my Dad, that somehow didn't make it onto my blog. It's not the best of cards, but I remember I enjoyed making it ...

All the pictures were printed on silk and all the texts were printed on fibrous paper. The pink cherry blossoms in the bottom picture I "embroidered", I use the term loosely as sewing is not my forte. And if I remember correctly the pictures in the top two photo's are from a Joanna Sheen disc.
Take care and keep smiling

Kanreki - Oriental 60th Birthday Card for a man

Did you know that according to the Chinese when you reach your 60th Birthday you enter into your second childhood? It's called Kanreki, so when a friend told me it was her Dads' 60th I decided an Oriental style card using the colour red (very lucky colour according to the Chinese)would be appropriate ...



I used printable accetate for the front window, the stencilled Koi carp (using Dreamweaver black paste and stencil) and for printing the proverb, which reads
At 60 you are reborn. At 70 you are but a child, at 80 you are merely a youth, and at 90 if the ancestors invite you into heaven ask them to wait until you are 100, and then you might consider it.The corner embellishments on the front, inside front and back page sentiment are made with rubber stamped images that are triple heat embossed to give the impression of that lovely laquering the Orientals did on their furniture. The font used is Kudasai. Other embellishments used were black tassels, enamelled beads, large gold brads and a Chinese coin.
Oh and I used faux gold leaf behind the Koi and Proverb.
So until the next project, take care and keep smiling :o)

Oriental Koi Carp Birthday card

Hello, couldn't wait to use my new toys - Dreamweaver stencil and paste. WHAT A NIGHTMARE. The lady demonstrating made it look so easy, I on the other hand, made an epic saga out of it LOL. But I got there eventually, and I'm quite pleased with the result...

1. The main image is made from a Dreamweaver stencil and black matt paste on printable acetate, that was then hightlighted/painted with Shimmerz "December Sky" paint, then mounted onto Stardream "Lapis Lazuli" pearlescent card and edged with gold peel offs.
2. The square and circle panels were made with the same Starcream card using Nestablities dies then embossed used my Cuttlebug and "Victoria" embossing folder. I then sponged over the raised parts with Brilliance "Pearlescent Ivy" and "Gamma Green" inkpads. The circles were edged with peel offs and the squares mounted onto gold satin Mirri card.

3. The patterned card is called "Precious Peonies" by Hunkydory crafts. And the only embellishments added were the Chinese brass coins.

Right I'm off now to have a go at another card, this time I'm going to get my Tilda stamps out :o) And I MIGHT even have another go at another altered tin, not sure yet, see how the mood takes me. So until the next time....

Take care & keep smiling

Calendar - November & December

Hello, this is the last two pages of my calendar. You may think the December page isn't very festive, but that is because the lady I am making it for is a Jehovah's Witness (I'm not, but I respect her beliefs and we have been friends for more years than I care to remember) and as you may or may not know they don't do the Christian festivals.




































November (Lady) - The image is a painting called "Hiver" by Alphonse Mucha, printed onto Soft Satin Photo Paper, mounted onto blue stardream pearlescent card and edged with silver border peel offs. The corners are made from the same blue card with a Cuttlbug die. The backing paper is the same one I made for a Christmas card . The embellishments are two large snowflakes cut from white stardream pearlescent card using another Cuttlebug die and emboss set with a blue rhinestone added. The little snowflakes are made using white pearlescent paper a small snowflake punch with flatback pearls and clear rhinestones.
December - A Japanese painting I don't know the name of or remember where I got from, but it was printed onto Ilford Gallerie smooth pearl paper, mounted onto silver silk mirri card with silver peel offs in the corners. The backing paper is one I made again from two different pictures. The first picture being one of a night sky that I "stretched" to make the stars look like falling snow, and the other of some frost that I copied and mirrored and then layered the two together and changed the colour to compliment the picture. All done through my ANCIENT Adobe photoshop graphics program. The Oriental sentiments are black peel offs put onto silver silk mirri card that was put through the Cuttlebug using Nestabilites Classic Rectangles. The little "tassels" I made from Anchor silver Lame thread. And lastly some silver corner peels offs. So there you go, my calendar pictures complete. Just got to get round to doing the actual calendar pages and binding it and it'll be ready to go. I hope my friend Gillian will like it as I hope you do too.
Take care and keep smiling

PS. I just had a look at the oriental page and I lied (GASP) it wasn't two differnt pictures used to make the backing paper, but three. The other picture was one with squiggles, that was originally black with fuchsia pink squiggles on it. I love graphics programs, you can turn three different pictures that are all different colours into one. How cool is that!