Asian Vibe Birthday Card

Lots of snow in Missouri on Wednesday, but I still made it to work thanks to my country boy husband and his 4-wheel drive. Not sure if I appreciate the 4-wheel drive, since with 6" of snow, I could have stayed home otherwise. Oh well, I'll I made it and saved my vacation time.

If you haven't noticed, I don't really have a specific style of crafting. I'm pretty much all over the board. With  today's project I tried something new once again. Turned out better than I thought.

One of my coworkers is severely into the whole Japanese culture. Thursday was her birthday, so I thought I would make a Japanese inspired card.

OK, I know this doesn't have any Asian characters or symbols on it, but the colors just reminded me of some of the Japanese items my Japanese aunt has in her home. I do know enough about this culture to understand there's a big difference between Japanese and Chinese characters and symbols, I just don't know enough not to get it wrong. So, I just went with the color theme.

I started with 8 1/2 x 5 1/2 Papertrey Ink True Black Cardstock, folded to 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 for an A2 card base. I cut a piece of DCWV red patterned paper from the Autumn Stack and embossed the edges with Gold embossing powder from Stampendous. I attached that to the card base. Then, using my Gypsy I welded shadow images from Blackletter and Storybook and cut this out of True Black Card stock.

I cut the Birthday Girl base image in Stamper's Delight White Cardstock from Papertrey Ink. I used Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Vintage Photo to ink the outer border of the white piece.

I cut the layer out of Pure Poppy Cardstock from Papertrey Ink and glued it in place. then using my Versamark marker, I embossed the edges of the black leaves.

I didn't have any gold brads, so I dipped silver brads in Versamark ink and then in gold embossing powder. I heated the brads. Then, while they were still hot, I dipped them into the powder again and heated them one last time. I attached the brads to the layered image and added it to the card front.

I really wanted an Asian inspired sentiment, but I don't have one. I found this quote from Abraham Lincoln in my Fiskar, Making a Wish Sayings stamp set. I stamped it on Papertrey Ink Stamper's Delight White Cardstock using Stampin' Up Real Red Classic Ink. I embossed the edges using Stampendous gold embossing powder. I attached this to the inside of the card

I really like how this turned out. My favorite part is the distressed gold around the edge of the cardstock. The only thing I thing I would have done differently is added a little gold embossing to the red letters on the front. I think they needed a little distressing.

Thanks for stopping by,
Dana Desmond