Gothic Arch - Vacation / Place

This week's theme for the Gothic Arch challenge is "Vacation/Place" and, as some of my favourite holidays have been spent in various Asian destinations, I have chosen Asia.

The background started off as a greenish and red Basic Grey paper and I covered it with Asian stamp images - primarily Bento Box stamps from Lazar Studiowerx and also some postmarks etc. I decided to add some extra colour with Moon Shadow Starburst Stains in orange and teal and then stamped a large text image repeatedly with turquoise Neopaque paint - such a wonderful colour! All of this means the original stamped background is barely visible but my son Zach reckons it adds depth so I guess it was worth it. The arch/doorway (can't think what the proper name is unfortunately) is a Non Sequitur stamp which I have cut out with a craft knife. I have "framed" the arch with a black tape and red bamboo stickers and then added some focal embellishments from Chinese speciality shops.

And on a totally different subject - last night when I was desperately trying to finish my fabric postcards which were supposed to be mailed last week, my trusty old sewing machine stopped working properly and no amount of cleaning or fiddling would fix it. So this morning I had to make an unbudgeted sewing machine purchase - I didn't go overboard at all but judging from my play this afternoon I am going to be very happy with my new little Janome. It is has a lot more stitches than my old basic model but I must admit the old machine has given me excellent service over the years!! So expect to see more fabric art coming from me now...