The Zen of Oriental Card Making

I had so much fun making this card for Katie at Japan Crafts !

I saw these lovely stickers and thought straight away sushi tray. Yum !

The card was quite straightforward to make so it's a just a matter of layering and adding the dimensionality (is that a word ?0 to the tray handles.

I use three patterned papers in the simili shade of subdued lime green to complete the look I left a white border around the central mat as some stickers had white on them so to recall that hue.

There's also a fantastic show tonight 'In The Zone' on Creative Edventures with Cynthia Gagen et Roberta Birnbaum which will be totally about the new Chinese year so if you like Oriental stuff you must, must, must watch it ! Just click on the banner at 9pm (Eastern time) ...2am (GMT UK time if you're up that late) and you'll get into a great fun chat room where a video of the host is broadcast. You can ask questions and join in the fun. If you have a webcam (optional) you can even show your oriental creations if any.

Love that dragon ! Don't you ? I thought that paper matched it perfectly. I had so much fun making this card. I've used very dark contrasting red and black paper for matting.

I coloured the image with pastel pencils and sansodor, final touch was adding a peel off at the bottom.

I hope you enjoy this card as much as I liked making it with it's clean and simple style.

I'm back posting after a sabbatical as per my other post on my main blog 'craftingmad'.

I suddenly realised I never posted the samples I created for Japan Crafts for one of their show last year.

I'll be uploading the cards on a weekly basis, hoping they will inspire you in your oriental cardmaking.

I wanted to play with the contrast between the black peel-off and the crisp white of the base card, adding just a 3D element (the fan) to the image.

As a secondary focal point I wanted that fan japanese paper which is a favourite of mine to 'sing' so I just matted it with a matching green card.