Wednesday 24 June 2009

Geisha, and a never-ending story

Being on leave is good for the soul. Apart from not being stuck in the office, it also gives you chance to play catch-up with your crafting :)

First up is the latest entry for CJ3. This is the last round of this journal so we’re all trying to bring them to a suitable close. As they are all entitled ‘Once upon a time’, I suppose it should end with “and they all lived happily ever after”. But that would be too obvious.
This one begins with you finding a cupboard in an old shop and being whisked off to another land (who said Narnia?). Each chapter ends with you stepping into or out of a doorway of some kind to find yourself somewhere else with no idea what’s coming up (does Quantum Leap ring any bells?). I don’t know if that was the way the story was supposed to go, but it did.
For my chapter you find yourself back in the shop; having encountered Ice Queens, fairies, gypsies, wolves and a circus. There’s also a wedding planner. Oh, and Dr Who put in an appearance as well. As the saying goes “Follow that”, so I did. There’s a brief explanation of what you’ve encountered (nothing too specific) and a choice of what to do next – go back to normal life, or go back to the wardrobe. I wonder which you chose?

Next up is my interpretation of June’s ATC theme ‘Geisha’. I thought at one point that this was also going to be a bit of a never-ending story. I think the finished article is actually Plan D, but it could be E.
I wanted to produce something which resembled Japanese lacquer work, a deep shine with a simply coloured image. The original plan was a couple of layers of red embossing covered by a couple of coats of clear embossing, and then embed the image under 2 more clear coats to give depth. I started with mountboard to take the heat without buckling, but it wouldn’t take the glue.
On to Plan B, my thickest card. That was ok until I added the printed images. It was obvious they were printed. Plan C, paint the images. That worked until I embossed over them and the colours ran.
Ah well, Plan D. Print the cards with background and image, and then build up layers of clear embossing. That worked and looks good (unfortunately the scanner doesn’t bring out the shine or the depth). Add the Geisha Kanji in gold leaf pen and it’s done (apart from a small technical hitch). The problem with using built up layers of embossing is the heat. At present the finished cards are clamped down in a press to get them flat again. When I get back from camping they should be ok for handing out :)


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