Happy New Year – Golden Boughs

Golden Boughs

I want to begin today’s post by wishing each of you a joyful and prosperous New Year! As I look back at 2009, one of my biggest highlights is launching this blog and getting to know so many of you through it! I am very appreciative of your support and friendship, and look forward to sharing many creative endeavors with you in 2010!

In Japan, it is customary to start the year by sending nenganjo – Japanese postcards – to your family and friends. The concept is similar to the Western exchange of Christmas cards, but the postcards are delivered on January 1st. The more I read about this custom, the more inspired I became to create a postcard of my own! So, for my first project of 2010, I present you with Golden Boughs!

The base of the project is a Creative Imagination’s Bare Elements (BE) Postcard – a nice, thick, white card that is a joy to work with! The image is a Limited Edition 2004 Club Scrap stamp (name unknown), stamped with CTMH Achival Black Pigment Ink.  I used a variety of inks – most of them from an old Colorbox Paintbrush Classic Pigment Ink Pad Pastel set – and applied the inks directly to the paper to achieve the watercolor background effect.

Next, I painted the boughs using Plaid Papier Metallic Paint – Pure Gold and applied Black Diamond and Silver Stickles to the birds and the kanji characters. I used 3-D pop dots to adhere the Asian embellishment and inserted a Kaiser Rhinestone inside the opening! Finally, I applied a variegated silk ribbon around the bordered edges of the stamp to frame the image.

So, what do you think of my very first Altered Post Card? If you’ve never made one before, give it a try, and if you have, please share your links!

8 Responses to “Happy New Year – Golden Boughs”

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  1. Georgia says:

    happy New year! This is just so eye catching. All the elements and colors are so blended and matched. Wht a beauty!

  2. christina d says:

    I love the postcard. I haven't tried altering anything like that yet. Sounds like a good time to start. Hee hee, getting my own set of friendship's journey, found it!

  3. Pat says:

    What a grreat way to start the new year! Lovely postcard, nice tradition–one of my 2010 goals is to try something new each month. I may must try this out! Thanks for the inspiration, Pat

  4. The Paper Princess says:

    Thank you Georgia! I wasn't sure how this was going to come together when I sat down to work on it but in the end it all came together! When I showed it to my husband, he thought the inked background was real paper, so I guess I did something right! I believe the colors blended so well on this because the inkpads were older (some were in need of re-inking) – on newer pads, I probably would have sponged to get the blended effect because I think that otherwise the colors would have been too vibrant. So, if you have some fading inkpads lying around – give this a try! 🙂

  5. The Paper Princess says:

    Woo hoo Christina – you found the stamp set! You are going to love it – the images are just beautiful! If I find some of my past projects I've made with this set, I'll post them for you to give you some ideas! I like all of the images but I think I always gravitate towards the collage lady!

    Hope you'll give this a try – particularly if you work with ATCs, it's interesting to see how different it feels to work on such a "huge" canvas by comparison, lol!

  6. The Paper Princess says:

    Thank you Pat – I'm also hoping to expand my creative horizons in 2010 AND make this the year I get around to completing all of those projects on my "wish list" of things to do!

  7. Reta says:

    Greetings in the New Year Ramona,
    I like the idea of creating a post card for your first project in 2010, and it was a winner. As you must know that I'm not up to speed on blogging and scrapping; maybe I should register in an art class this year. (Smile) Thanks for the tips and help on discovering the comment section etc.
    Keep up the good work and blesssings in the New Year.
    Reta

  8. Cath Wilson says:

    What a fab idea – I love it and will try to remember it for next New Year – though I doubt I will 🙁

    I really love this postcard, too and what you've done with it.

    Thanks for leaving a comment on my blog 🙂

    Wow! You certainly managed to find a lot of Blog Candy…

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