Japanese Dreams Box Card

Hi everybody.  I saw this box card here and I was taken by the design and the fact that it folds down flat for posting, and although I don't usually do this type of crafting I decided to challenge myself and give it a go using this set of stamps from Creative Stamping No. 104 called Japanese Dreams.  I started with an  A4 sheet of pearlescent card in a dusky pink shade and also a snippet of deep pink parchment.  

I started by cutting the A4 piece of card down to 10" and then following the steps I put in the various folds.  I don't have a large scoreboard which hampered me rather so I ended up using a ruler and marking where to put the crease and then used a ball tool with quite a fine end to put the crease lines in.  I managed it but my tip would be don't use pearlescent card which for a start is not coloured on both sides, and also the pearlescent outer layer is inclined to crack.  I could have started again but decided to carry on.  I didn't follow the video too closely as my design is totally different to hers.  

I embossed a piece of parchment using the folder that came with the magazine and then I stamped the Japanese lady onto a snippet of white card using the straight to stamp technique and my brush markers - a pink, purple and black  I used my stamp positioner so I could  go over the lines of the stamp  with the brush markers in the areas that I wanted and then using a waterbrush I pulled the ink out,  and also added some extra putting the ink down on my glass mat and lifting it with the waterbrush.  I then fussy cut the image.  I found another couple of snippets of card on which I had used Alcohol Inks floated on water and by dragging the card through the water it picks up the ink, another new to me technique.  These I used to cover the front panels and cut them more or less to size.  I used one of the floral image stamps and continued with the same technique inking and this time spritzing the stamp, twice on each snippet of card, and then I added some blended Picked Raspberry Distress Ink around the edges.  I also had a snippet of white card with the same branch stamped onto it which I did to see how the pens would look so decided to fussy cut this out to use on the inside of the card.

Finally I used the strip of leftover pearlescent card to make the band which holds the card shut and I added another floral image from the set stamping it on to the leftover snippet of parchment heat embossing it with WOW Bright White Opaque Embossing Powder and used a Purple Inktense Pencil without water to shade it a bit using a paper stump/tortillion to blend it into the parchment.  I decided to darken down the white embossing with the pencil as it seemed a bit bright and used the paper stump to blend it in a bit.  I also blended some of the Picked Raspberry ink over the band itself to make the pink darker which made it match the front panels better.  It wasn't totally successful but I decided it looked OK.  

I then added the embossed background and flower branch and lady to the inside and then added the panels to the front of card, cut to fit, and then finished the construction.  The video will show you step by step how to do the whole thing.  If I end up sending it to someone I will add a piece of paper to the back of the card to write the message on to.

This isn't perfect but for a first attempt I was fairly pleased.  I have decided that I either need to buy a better scoreboard or get a scoring blade for my cutter as this would improve the quality of the folds and make it much less labour intensive.  

Thank you for visiting me here today and  I'll see you again soon.

I am entering the following challenges:

Snippets Playground Challenge - No. 421 Where we use our snippets of card and paper etc.
NBUS Challenge - No. 35 Where we use our Never Before Used Schtuff.
We Love Stamping Challenge - February - Anything Stamped (Option: Add Stencilling).
River of Creativity Challenge - No. 10 Anything Goes.
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Emboss It.