GEISHA Sophie?

I was feeling all excited to start my latest Guest Designer entry for Hanna Stamps, when I realized I needed to make a card for a friend ASAP! She is from Japan, but lives here, and is totally impressed with some of the Japanese-inspired stamps and paper she has found here in the US. So I knew I needed to do something of that nature for her! Well the idea was instantly in my head! I needed to create a Geisha Sophie or Hanna! I dug through my supplies and came up with several small scraps of kimono print origami paper, and tried to figure out how to use it. Then I remembered I had a stamp with a kimono for a 'Maico' ; a younger Geisha who wears brightly colored kimonos with longer sleeves! Perfect! It would fit on only one Sophie -Stroller Sophie, since she has a smaller head! So I set to work! And this is what I came up with:



I sketched the pagoda on black SU Cardstock and cut it out. I punched the rising sun from a scrap of SU Apricot Appeal. I cut a SU Tangerine Tango base and used Colorbox Chalk Inks to shade the 'halo' around where the rising sun would go. I was about to stop there and add my Sophie...but then...

I used a scrap of beige Wausau cs to use as the courtyard at the end of the bridge, and cut the bridge from Bazzill scraps. I used two different scraps of green Bazzil cs and distressed them to create the bushes and add depth to the card. I added the water below the bridge from another SU scrap, added a lilypad and punched the tiny waterlily (which is 3D, but it's difficult to see!) to place atop the water. I distressed the bottom of the bridge to make it appear as if the water was moving.

THEN I stamped my Sophie and cut her out! I stamped the Kimono image which is from Wasabi Ketto by Stampingbella on the floral printed origami scrap and cut it out too. I started to get ready to color Sophie - but realized that Geishas where very white make-up on their beautiful faces, and only paint tiny red lips and outline their eyes! So I did that for Sophie...only coloring her antlers - since she is a moose afterall! But I still wasn't done. Something was missing...

The coif! I needed to create the elaborate Geisha 'do somehow! So I freehand cut her a 'wig', and added a golden comb and a ribbon to match her Kimono! I placed her upon the bridge, and I was finally satisfied with the resulting card! What do you think?