Watercooler Wednesday Challenge #134 - Anything Goes Challenge

This week's challenge occurs on the 5th Wednesday of the month and so it's an Anything Goes challenge.  Terrific, right?  Well, I sure thought so since it allowed me to work on something I had saved for a day just like this.

You see earlier in August my daughter and I took her two boys on a road trip to Lethbridge, Alberta.  Her oldest boy has been reading up on all things Japanese and was anxious to see the famous Nikka Yuko Japanese Gardens.  Well, it was terrific and one of the items which I brought home was an undecorated fan.  I had some ideas for it and that is exactly what I intended to decorate up for this Anything Goes challenge.

I began by using a large brush and some Soft Sky re-inker mixed with water to put a wash of blue over some of the fan.  I left the edges, top and bottom uncoloured.  I wound up having to put a second wash of colour over the fan since the first coat was virtually "swallowed" up by the paper.

Once it was fully dry, I used my Climbing Orchid set and two sizes of Orchid flowers to stamp across the fan.  I used my Basic Black pigment ink since I wanted to watercolour and the pigment ink is waterproof.  That's when I realized that stamping the flowers would be more of a challenge than anticipated.  For that first Orchid, I wound up using my waterproof journalling pen to add unstamped lines.  After that, I rocked and rolled the stamp and wound up having to do much less "patch" work.  Despite the annoyance of those ribs, the finished, stamped Orchids looked great and I could hardly wait to use my inks and Aqua-painter to begin colouring them.  But I waited to ensure everything was totally dry.

For my colours I turned to the new In-Color, Berry Burst, and its close relative in colour, Rich Razzleberry.  For the small Orchids, I did a colour wash of Rich Razzleberry.  Once that had dried I added more colour with the Berry Burst.  For the larger Orchids, I coloured them entirely with the Berry Burst, shading areas darker with the same colour.  Then I used my Aqua-painter and some Emerald Envy ink to add some free-style leaves.

It took a little while for everything to fully dry.  Once I was satisfied, I proceeded to run the top edge of the fan along my pad of Versamark and then heat embossed it using Copper Embossing powder.  I loved the results and so added more copper.  You'll see some along the "face" of the orchid as well as the top of the large orchid, and, of course the stems of the orchids.  The copper is simply stunning against the fan and the inks.

You'll have noticed the Japanese writing.  That comes from the Artistically Asian set and, apparently, means Faith in God and Friendship.

I hope you'll come over to the Watercooler Wednesday Challenge and check out some of the other wonderful projects created by our Watercooler Artists.  Remember, you have until next Monday, September 4th, at 5 p.m. Mountain Time to link up your own masterpiece.

I've linked my creation up to the "Less is More" Challenge #343 since this week's challenge is to use a real object.

I've also linked up to the Addicted to Stamps and More Challenge #257 since it's all about Making your Mark and this fan is all about painting it with my inks.