Friday 8 February 2013

Gung Hay Fat Choy / Asian Theme At Artful Times. . . . . .

Hello everyone. Thanks for all your comments on the Valentine skull. I think some people were just a little shocked when they saw it but it was such fun to make! I haven't started casting spells and wearing a pointed hat yet; I just felt like rebelling against hearts and flowers - even though I love both of these things!

Onto Artful Times. Naughty Von and Neet have completely tied me up in knots this time! When I saw the title 'Asian Theme' I had a few kittens because I don't really have anything in my crafting stuff suited to this. I looked at the lovely samples made by the girls and I thought they'd have to count me out of this challenge. I then got confused about Asian themes and Chinese New Year so I decided to attempt to cover both with my make. Not sure if it's right but it's always nice to get inky and play isn't it? (What it really means is that my brain is a little dense and I wasn't sure what I was supposed to do!).

After a rummage, I found a set of Creative Expression stamps consisting of peacocks and other related items. After doing some research, I can confirm that peacocks were important to both the Chinese (gung hay fat choy) and to those of the Hindu religion (Asian religion).

To the Chinese, the peacock is a symbol of good luck and good fortune so great for the Chinese New Year. It has also signified high rank status in the past too. I think this may be true for Japan as well.

To Hindus (there are large numbers of hindus in Asian countries), the peacock is associated with one of their gods called Lakshli and is believed to symbolise patience, kindness and understanding.

Phew!! Lecture over. Here's the card (yes, I did say CARD!!) that I've made:

The light was all wrong for photography by the time I finished so my apologies for the standard of the images.

I made three stamped backgrounds. The top peacock layer was made using Tim's custom stamp pad method and lots of distress inks, spritzing and stamping with both distress and archival. The word tiles were made from leftover card. After stamping the words, the edges were very roughly embossed and a coat of glossy accents was added.
Sorry about the blurred image. I hope you can see enough of the hand painted peacock to see that the stamped background is visible through the painting. I used water soluble wax crayons to achieve this effect. Some rough doodling was done with a gold pen to add highlights to the bird.
To add extra interest, a small bead was made from some left over card and coated with a layer of glossy accents (which dripped everywhere!). This was mounted using some twine and leftover card.
Kraft card was used for the base. Feathers were stamped with versamark then coated with perfect pearls. The green tones in beautifully although the light hasn't been kind here! I wanted to added lots of glitz because of the beautiful irridescence of peacock feathers.
The green layer started out life exactly the same as the yellow toned layer. I kept adding inks until I was pleased with the effect. I used a twining background stamp in versamark then embossed it with gold details.
I chose a circle image for the background to represent the 'eye' in the peacock feathers. Some stitching was added to all the layers using gold lurex thread.

That's what I made which I'm sure is so far out of the box it's off the wall but I know what I was aiming for and I had some FUN!

Do go over and see what Von and Neet have been up to and already, there are some super entries to give you further inspiration. Let me know what you think if you have time. Have a great weekend everyone. I'm off to the Craft Barn on Sunday for another lesson in the Andy Skinner Club - wooohoooo!!


27 comments:

  1. Julia, this is a stunning make!i absolutely loveit!thecolours are so gorgeous and so many wonderful details! Loveit! Hugs trace x

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  2. Gorgeous colours and love that bead xxx

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  3. I saw their challenge too and my eyes got big and I thought like you, I get those cultures mixed up and didn't have anything to play along, but here you go, thinking outside the box and doing a wonderful job at it too! I LOVE your card, that peacock is beautiful and I am fascinated by your paper bead, just stunning! waving hi from the hills of North Carolina ♥

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  4. It's beautiful Julia! Wonderful images & colours!
    I have to admit, your skull freaked me out completely! Lol!
    See you Sunday,
    Alison x

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  5. Simply beautiful Julia, I LOVE it! What a technique packed card with some amazing outcomes, stunning and inspirational work as always sweetie.
    Huge hugs x x x x

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  6. This is stunning you did a fabulous job for Chinese New Years, don't worry its fantastic and I like it the best in the challenge, thanks for sharing...

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  7. This is incredibly stunning! Great artwork and design. I love this.

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  8. A CARD...yessssss Julia and it is great...lovely details and great colous, stitching etc etc...lovely!

    hugs, Alie :-)

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  9. We certianly caught you on the hop there Julia but you have worked wonders with what you have done, wonderful colours and great choice of image :)
    Thank you for joining us at Artful Times
    Von ♥

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  10. Julia, this is absolutely fabulous, gorgeous design and colours! Loving that peacock and the bead is amazing, not made those for ages! Stunning work. Oh, and no I am not adding a Q to my name any time soon.....lol. Hugs, Anne x

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  11. I don't know how it happened but I missed your skull!!!!! WOW! it did make me smile, not becuase its funny but your idea to use a skull was inspirational! I really love it D

    Now this card is just beautiful Julia! everything about it is luscious!

    Have fun with Andy xxx

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  12. This is Wonderful, love your design and info very much x

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  13. Stunning! Thank you for the step-by-step too! Beautiful work!

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  14. Hi Julia, again fantastic card with so many great details! I love gold embossing and paper bead! Hugs from Slovenia

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  15. Sorry Julia if you end up with this comment twice but sat back in my chair to read it over (just in case of spelling mistakes hee he) and it disappeared before my very eyes !
    So once again this is superb and love the rich colours, the peacock and that fab bead! and my turn to apologise for not visiting but unfortunately other parts of my life (kids work etc ) intruded on my crafting time - grrr .But hopefully back to normal now! x

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  16. Absolutely stunning! Love your peacock! They are gorgeous and regal looking to me and this one is no exception...perfect! Love the gold borders...fabulous work!

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  17. What a wonderful piece Julia - love the look of peacocks but I can tell you that when one wandered in here and stayd for a few days we could not wait for it to be GONE!How cool your little bead is too!

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  18. Okay I think this is my new favorite creation of yours. The colors are so pretty- and love the embossing in gold and the paper bead- FABULOUS!

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  19. Very very beautiful card Julia
    Great colors and lotst of lovely details.

    Greetings Janny

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  20. This is so rich! Love the gold embossing and how you colored the bird. The handmade bead is an awesome embellishment.... what a beautiful piece, Julia!!

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  21. A beautiful card in great colors. Love the sewing.

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  22. Sorry you got muddled (as did others re comments above) but last year or the year before when I was in America I was informed that it is no longer PC to say "oriental" and that "asian" is to be used. Eager not to offend I have adopted this although in my head I think of Chinese as being of 'the Orient' and Asian being something different. Ah well, who am I to query? Perhaps the write up should have clarified this but it is my love of the Chinese culture that spurred me on to choose this theme.
    Thank you for entering our challenge with this stunning piece of work Julia, it really is lovely and the colours you have used are so rich and enticing.
    Hugs, Neet xx

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  23. Such beautiful, vivid peacock colours throughout, a really beautiful card. The circles are a wonderful background to the swirling flourish of that magnificent peacock's tail - and my word the sentiment looks amazing!! I've been falling behind on visiting, but it's lovely catching up with beauties like this!
    Alison x

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  24. Another stunning creation, love all the detail.

    Sylv xx

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  25. Looking great! Love your word tiles!

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  26. Where do I start with this Julia!!! Peacocks are a real favourite and you have chosen such perfect colours for this. Love the gold touches, the embossing (especially the clear embossing) and the little bead. A feast for the eyes. Hugs, Jenny x

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  27. Wow Julia a truly beautiful card so much to look at, I love it and the hand made bead is perfect. Hugs Sandra X

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Thank you so much for taking the time to comment. Juliax