Oriental Card Paper Tole Style

I am still here. My DH has been on holidays and I have had a mini blogging holiday too!
Does anyone else have the same problem and you need a blogging break?
Truth be told I have not been feeling 100% and I think I also have a touch of blogging block too(like writers block)! Anyhow I have been busy trying to sort my craft and sewing area and I have also been flitting back and forth between a number of different projects. Trust me, this is not a good method of keeping one's crafting table clear, if you know what I mean LOL! One project at a time is probably best if you want to have a clear working space!

Well that is enough babble for now. This is one of the things I have been up to.
I received some free papers in a Crafts Beautiful magazine a couple of months ago and finally managed to use them to make this card.

Unfortunately I seem to be having troubles with posting clear photos at the moment. The actual shots are fine, but when they are uploaded they seem to lose their clarity. If you have any tips that can help, I would love to hear from you. I hope you get the idea.

First of all I used my Fiskars texture plates to dry emboss the front of the chocolate coloured card. I then rubbed a bronze and a brown stamp pad over the surface and also the edges. After this I cheated and basically followed the instructions from the magazine. For the strip of pink card at the base I wanted something to match the girl's kimono, but couldn't find any card to match in my stash. Can you guess what I used? It is a paint sample in the perfect shade of pink!

The girl in the kimono is cut and assembled in layers to give a dimensional effect, just like paper tole. This was only my second attempt at paper tole and it was so much fun! I actually found the cutting out quite therapeutic, so I think I will be giving this another go again soon!