*NEW* Lunar New Year Challenge | January 2024

Hello, craft friends! I'd like to introduce you to the Lunar New Year Challenge which I decided to create. The Year of the Dragon begins on February 10, 2024. Anyone born through February 9th is still a bunny but that's only this year! The Chinese calendar changes every year so you may want to Google your full birth date to confirm, especially if you were born in the first two months of the year. I celebrated a friend's birthday last week and she had always thought she was a horse but she's actually a snake! It was quite the revelation and her whole personality makes more sense now. LOL

My team will be hosting a challenge every month on the new blog, Lunar New Year Challenge, which you can access by clicking on the text link, the badge shown above or on my sidebar. All you have to do is get inspired, create a new card and attach it to the InLinkz Party! We aren't picky so you can make a Lunar New Year card for this year or feature any other zodiac animal, a regular New Year card (for your holiday stash) or anything inspired by one of the team member projects. We can't wait to see what you make!

I love making multiples with one design so this is a two-for! It should've been a three-for but I ran out of time and will use my extra dragons for a different layout. The cutie is from a Taylored Expressions stamp set called Little Critters and I totally forgot that there was a dragon in that set but, luckily, my friend Thanh reminded me of it because now it's finally getting some love!

I coloured the dragons with Copic markers and all of the colours are listed in the supply links below. It's been a long time since I used my Copics and this small and adorable image was very satisfying to colour. I did have to practice a bit to find the right combination of colours.

To create the sentiment, I ombre stamped On the Block - Happy with Watermelon, Cherry Pop and Mulled Wine ink cubes, using a sponge dauber to blur the lines between colours. I repeated this twice to get a perfect inking.

I created the secondary sentiment by gold heat embossing the On Repeat - New Year stamp on Eggplant cardstock. Sadly, this stamp and die bundle are now retired. Excellent alternatives, which I also own and am happy to recommend, include Building Blocks - Happy Additions and Mini Strips - Holiday.

To create the background, I die cut the Sugar Cube panel using the Rays Pierce & Cut Plate, one of my favourites for adding a tiny bit of visual interest.

Next, I die cut both the Gathered Stars and Starstruck dies from Cherry Pop, Eggplant and gold glitter paper. After creating Cherry Pop and Mulled Wine base panels, I used a combination of liquid glue and foam strips to adhere all of the elements.

Please visit the Lunar New Year Challenge blog to see what the amazing design team has created and I hope you're inspired to play along! We look forward to seeing what you make!

I hope you enjoyed today's projects. I appreciate you stopping by and, if you're inspired, please shop my affiliate links below. Thanks so much for your continued support!

Supplies: