As you may know, I lived in Hong Kong for several years. Chinese New Year was a wonderful time to be there, the city was even more vibrant, colourful and lively than usual and out in the rural New Territories, where I lived, the fields were full of plum blossom and miniature orange trees.
I decided to move right away from the usual red-and-gold colour scheme of Chinese New Year cards, and instead go for a much cooler blue and silver look. However then I was beset by problems. The dark blue card I'd chosen to stamp on wasn't the least bit stamping friendly - it was too rough and absorbent. I just about got away with it with the Chinese characters, but when it came to the dragon, the card soaked up so much ink from the detailed image that there wasn't enough left on the surface to hold the embossing powder.
A rummage through my snippets box found some more stamping-friendly card in a different shade of blue, and also part of a sheet of lovely encapsulated sparkly silver paper - although it has a fab sparkle, the surface is completely smooth eliminating those "how the heck am I going to get anything to stick to this" moments. However there wasn't enough of it for all my layering, so it was back to the snippets box again where I found a little piece of matte silver paper which I used for matting the lighter blue layers.
And yes, I have realised NOW that if I'd cut our the centres of the matting pieces (I'm sure there's a name for doing that but I can't bring it to mind) the sparkly paper would have gone a lot further, but I forgot all about that at the time! But now it's all put together, I like the balance of the matte and sparkly silver layers so much it's not going to take me long to convince myself I planned it that way all along.
I finished it off with the very last few peel offs from an ancient sheet - I WILL use them all up one day!
Incidentally Mark, who always notices when things aren't dead straight, tells me that my topper is slightly askew. I have astigmatism and don't spot subtle differences so much. Anyway, this being Chinese New Year I reckon it's a very auspicious sign. Our amah in Hong Kong used to insist on setting all the pictures on our walls at a slight angle, because if they are dead straight, the ghosts can sit on top and make mischief. If the pictures are askew, they slip off and have to go away.
I'm sharing this with
The Male Room - Oriental
Pixie's Snippets Playground - week 215
8 comments:
Spectacular! Love your use of blues and silver, looks very regal and majestic. Great tip about hanging pictures askew, must remember that one! Thanks for playing along at The Male Room.
Well it all turned out well Jane and you produced a beautiful card. I really like the blue and gold. The word you couldn't remember is "gutting". I do that quite a lot myself. I don't have that problem with my eyes but still often put things on a bit wonky and Bruce always manages to notice it! Barbxx
Oh this really is gorgeous Jane - and Barb beat me to it, the word is 'gutting. And the layers are brilliant with those lovely peel offs - I like the blues too! Len also spots if something is 'on the wonk' as our Playground pal Viv would say!
So interesting about the pictures being a bit askew - I'll remember that one here!
Hugs
Di xx
And you KNOW your Amah was always right! Sumptuous looking oriental card. Looks good to me!
Once you've finished celebrating Chinese New Year, come on over to the Snippets Playground for a Pancake Cookery Class followed by a Pancake Race. xxx
Wow all gold here is stunning Jane...I zooming because I type from my mobile phone..great Chinese New Years card...wish I have more oriental stamps.happy Tuesday dear Jane...hugs
Wow! I absolutely love this - the bold blue with the black and silver is just fab! Great New Year's card. Thanks so much for playing along with our Oriental theme at The Male Room, Deborah DT.
I like your little snippet of information about having straight pictures on your wall, but more about your lovely card..... I love the blue, black and silver combo, very masculine. I also think that the peel offs here are well suited to your card. Thanks for joining in with our oriental theme at The Male Room
Louise xx
Super cars Jane. I have astigmatism too so that probably explains why my layers always seem to go a bit askew! I must remember that about the pictures as my excuse for them being crooked after I've dusted them!
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