Koi Carp for Dadda

Hi All, it's me again.
I said I would try and get back to share the card that was being made when I took the photo of my desk for WOYWW.
Well I have realised that I can't, at least not yet.
I'm never usually terribly organised when it comes to cards, very last minute as you may have gathered, and always late in the post.
Well on this occasion I am well ahead of myself since it is the card for my daughter Jenni's birthday next Wednesday. Are you not impressed?
So instead I am going to share the card that actually started off the organised chaos that is my Wednesday Worktop, and I have to say that I am really, really pleased with the results.

 The card was ordered by a friend from work for her Dad (Dadda). She wanted Koi Carp, Dadda, and anything Oriental, other than that it was up to me.

I knew straight away that I wanted to use this lovely old Stampendous Koi stamp, but other than that I had no idea what to do, so I figured the first thing was have a look through my rather large collection of Oriental stamps.
It seems you can never have enough Bamboo or Oriental script stamps, I have loads of them, most of them still in pristine condition  lol.
I'm afraid that I stupidly put them all away before I started to do this post so I can't give you details. I do know that most of them are probably no longer available but I'm sure that you will have something similar that you could use should you wish to recreate the effects.

The Koi have been stamped and embossed onto watercolour card stock and then painted with dye based inks.
The red background has been made by stamping and embossing the Oriental Script onto white card stock and then sponging Distress Inks over the top. I added some small Bamboo images into the gaps stamped with the same inks.
The large Bamboo on the main black card has been stamped and embossed using Versamark and Sticky Embossing powder. This has then had gold foil and Pearlex added to it.

I went on line to find out how to tie the Mizuhiki cord and to check that the symbol I have used on the punched circle said 'Love'.

I even decorated the envelope. I think that this has to be my all time favourite card so far.
My friend was absolutely thrilled when I gave it to her this morning.
I would like to enter this into the following challenges

Papertake Weekly Challenge - Anything Goes with an optional Heart or Love theme
Cards for Men - Seeing Red
Allsorts Challenge - Free and Easy February
Crafts and Me - Use a New Image. Pick any one of the stamps I have used. I may have had them for a long time but they were all Virgin stamps!!
The Stamp Man - Embellish It
.
I have had terrible trouble trying to get this post finished, so I am going to give commenting a miss for now.
I don't know what is going on with the Internet tonight but it seems to be really acting up for me.
So I'm off to bed, Goodnight for now
hugs Kimx