Nouveau Chinese Style

Come Friday we'll kick off fifteen days of Spring Festival celebrations to welcome in the Year of the Snake. In the meantime I've made an evening trip down to the Thomson Road flower market to pick up some auspicious plants, and came home with the inspiration for this card.

This went out to Jen & Fiona

The background ironically consists of  a collation of journal cards from Studio Calico's Wonderland Christmas collection. The soft woodgrain reminds me of the slightly washed-out look of the plants under tungsten light at the nursery.

A yellow overlay with its endless circle lattice pattern provides the oriental flavour. To me it resembles the window screens from olden-day wooden chinese houses. It's clear label window also fits perfectly over the "Air Mail" sentiment on the background.

To dress up the lattice I applied a series of American Crafts Botantique rub-ons to create a visual triangle. Having the rub-ons both on top and below the overlay helps create a lovely dimensional effect and fully exploits the benefits of using a transparency. The colour inspiration of green, yellow and lavendar comes from the hydrangeas that I bought to line my driveway this year.

I've always been happy sending my card creations off to friends and family but this one, in what I call nouveau chinese style, delights me so that I have a hard time parting with it. Instead my good friend in Beijing will just have to settle for a (gasp!) store bought Chinese New Year card this year.


Linking up to these parties.


Supplies : Studio Calico Wonderland Journal Cards, American Crafts (Botanique Poppy Accents Rub-Ons, Ready Set Go 6x6 paper), Hambly Mini Overlays, Basic Grey Bling It Rhinestones