Lunar New Year Challenge | A Dragon Birthday feat. RAM Stamps

My second card for the November Lunar New Year Challenge features products from RAM Stamps and Spellbinders. The four main products featured here are the 'Year of the Dragon - Metal' Digital Stamp, 'Year of the Dragon' Digital Pattern Paper Pack, Always You Timeless Sentiments BetterPress Press Plates and Underwater Tunnel Etched Dies.

The 'Year of the Dragon - Metal' Digital Stamp comes with both outline and no-line versions, plus a few sentiments. I printed the dragon and bird image in two sizes on Neenah 80lb cardstock before deciding on a two-inch high version. I also printed out three patterns from the 'Year of the Dragon' Digital Pattern Paper Pack only using two of them in the end.

Before colouring the image with Copic markers, I selected a birthday sentiment from the Always You Timeless Sentiments BetterPress Press Plates, positioned it with Best Ever Craft Tape and heat foiled it with Matte Gold Hot Foil.

After printing the dark waves and dragon prints from the 'Year of the Dragon' Digital Pattern Paper Pack, I cut the Underwater Tunnel Etched Dies and Precision Layering A2 A Etched Dies together to create the overlay panels. After playing around with the position over the coloured image, I decided to cut an extra second layer from Matte Gold Foil Paper to highlight the foiled sentiment. I assembled all the layers with liquid glue to keep it flat and easy to mail.

The rules are simple. You must create a new Lunar New Year, Chinese New Year or a 2024 Dragon Birthday card and add the link to your post in the link-up party. For November, we're inviting you to continue making 2025 Year of the Snake cards! Multiple entries are allowed. Backlinking to an older project is strictly prohibited.

Our November Lunar New Year Challenge will run from 12:00am EST on November 1, 2024 through 12:00pm EST on November 30, 2024. We would love to see you using products from our four generous sponsors! The four lucky winners will be randomly selected from all eligible entries and announced at the start of the December Challenge. 

(save and share with your project)

Visit the November Link-Up Party post HERE to see all of the design team projects and be inspired to create your own! When sharing your challenge entries on social media, feel free to save this badge and post it along with your project. Please tag us @lunarnewyearchallenge on Instagram and use the hashtag #lunarnewyearchallenge so everyone can find and be inspired by all your amazing projects.

If you're inspired, some affiliate links are included below at no extra cost to you. Thanks so much for stopping by and I'll see you again soon!

Supplies: 

Lunar New Year Challenge | May You Be Blessed With Health & Happiness

Would you believe this card was made eight years ago?! I was cleaning my son's room a few weeks ago and found it. Apparently, I never photographed or blogged it! I'm sure I meant to but I must've completely forgot about it. Since I run the Lunar New Year Challenge now, there's no better time to share it for some inspiration!

Back in 2016, I thought Maneki Neko Lucky Cats only came in gold, symbolizing wealth, but there are so many different colour variations with different meanings. I love that I have two stamp sets with Lucky Cats so I thought I'd create a little family. The two big cats are from Lawn Fawn's My Lucky Charm and the small cat is from Mama Elephant's Lunar Extras. You can find the Copic colours I used in the supply links below.

I cut the front panel from Simon Says Stamp's Schoolhouse Red cardstock. To create the little window with a faux shaker, I used My Favorite Things' retired Stitched Arch STAX but a great alternative is Sunny Studio's Stitched Semi Circle Dies, or you can easily create the same look with any circle die and a paper trimmer or blade.

Next, I white heat embossed the sentiment, also from Mama Elephant's Lunar Extras. After die cutting the coloured images, I popped them up with foam tape on the bottom edge of the window and glued 3mm and 6mm crystal clear sequins in various sizes to make it appear as if they were part of a shaker.

The rules are simple. You must create a new Lunar New Year, Chinese New Year or a 2024 Dragon Birthday card and add the link to your post in the link-up party. For the month of September, we are also welcoming Mid-Autumn Festival cards. Multiple entries are allowed. Backlinking to an older project is strictly prohibited.

Our September Lunar New Year Challenge will run from 12:00am EST on September 1, 2024 through 12:00pm EST on September 30, 2024. We would love to see you using products from our four generous sponsors! The four lucky winners will be randomly selected from all eligible entries and announced at the start of the October Challenge. 

(save and share with your project)

Visit the September Link-Up Party post HERE to see all of the design team projects and be inspired to create your own! When sharing your challenge entries on social media, feel free to save this badge and post it along with your project. Please tag us @lunarnewyearchallenge on Instagram and use the hashtag #lunarnewyearchallenge so everyone can find and be inspired by all your amazing projects.

If you're inspired, some affiliate links are included below at no extra cost to you. Thanks so much for stopping by and I'll see you again soon!

Supplies: 

Lunar New Year Challenge | And a Happy New Year feat. Taylored Expressions + $50 Giveaway!

I'm back with my second card for the June Lunar New Year Challenge featuring products from our sponsor Taylored Expressions. If you missed my first card for the June Challenge, please head to this post HERE. Taylored Expressions is sponsoring a $50 Gift Certificate this month so you'll definitely want to play along for your chance to win!

You may recall other variations of these products posted in January HERE and HERE. I had stamped, coloured and heat embossed both the Little Critter dragons and Mini Strips - Holiday sentiments back then, then saved them for this card. 

I used the largest of the Diagonal Stitch Rectangle Stacklets to create  the frame on the card base. This adds a subtle texture without being too distracting from the rest of the elements. 

Next, I cut a bunch of stars using both the Starstruck and Gathered Stars Dies from Cherry Pop and Gold Glitter cardstock and arranged the dragons inside the largest gold stars. 

After gold heat embossing the sentiment from Mini Strips - Holiday on Black Licorice cardstock and popping it on the card with foam strips, I embellished the card with a few gold pearls.

Visit the June Link-Up Party post HERE to read the rules, see all of the design team projects and be inspired to create your own! Please tag us @lunarnewyearchallenge on Instagram and use the hashtag #lunarnewyearchallenge so everyone can find and be inspired by all your amazing projects.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Supplies: 

Lunar New Year Challenge + Giveaways | June 2024

The Lunar New Year Challenge is back and since we've partnered up with your favourite craft companies all year long, that means there are giveaways every month! This month, we're giving away ONE $25 gift certificate to Simon Says Stamp, ONE $25 gift certificate to Lawn Fawn, ONE $25 gift certificate to My Favorite Things, and ONE $50 gift certificate to Taylored Expressions. That's a total of $125 in giveaways in June!

I'm always excited when a new month begins because it means I get to dream up something unique for the challenge. I made two cards for this month and this first one features our monthly sponsor Lawn Fawn. I'll be featuring my second card with Taylored Expressions later this month.

Lawn Fawn's Platform Pop-Up die set is probably my favourite 3D die ever. It's certainly the one that I've used the most in my collection. I recently got the Cloud Inserts add-on and wanted to pair it with the Little Dragon and Winter Dragon.

The patterned paper I used here is from the Let's Bokeh in the Snow 6x6 paper pack. Unfortunately, it's retired but similar colours and patterns I would use can be found in the new Pint-Sized Patterns Summertime 6x6 paper pack.

For the base, I used the larger of the Holly Berry Bokeh prints. I cut the clouds from the stripes of the Ice Blue Twist prints. I also stamped both dragons on the small bokeh of the Snowflake Twist prints.

After stamping the dragons on the patterned paper, I added dimension with the Copic markers listed in the supply links below. I love that the tiny bokeh effect gives the dragons a naturally scaled look without too much effort on my part.

Finally, I gold heat embossed a sentiment from Winter Wavy Sayings on to a die cut from Fancy Wavy Banners. I cut a second banner and three small clouds from metallic gold cardstock. After adhering these die cuts to the platform, I cut quarter inch strips of acetate and attached the dragons to the platform so they appear to be floating/flying.

The rules are simple. You must create a new Lunar New Year, Chinese New Year or a 2024 Dragon Birthday card and add the link to your post in the link-up party. Multiple entries are allowed. Backlinking to an older project is strictly prohibited.

Our June Lunar New Year Challenge will run from 12:00am EST on June 1, 2024 through 12:00pm EST on June 30, 2024. We would love to see you using products from our four generous sponsors! The four lucky winners will be randomly selected from all eligible entries and announced at the start of the July Challenge. 

(save and share with your project)

Visit the June Link-Up Party post HERE to see all of the design team projects and be inspired to create your own! When sharing your challenge entries on social media, feel free to save this badge and post it along with your project. Please tag us @lunarnewyearchallenge on Instagram and use the hashtag #lunarnewyearchallenge so everyone can find and be inspired by all your amazing projects.

Thanks so much for stopping by and I'll see you again soon!

Supplies: 

Lawn Fawn | Anniversary Card

Hi, lovely friends! Today, I'm sharing the cutest card that my son made for our 20th wedding anniversary last month. Damian used THIS card that I made for my husband as his inspiration. If you don't know the Squishmallow Avery story, you can read more HERE and HERE about why we're obsessed and why our birds are often coloured like male mallards. ;)

Damian stamped and coloured 20 adorable birds, one for each year of marriage, from Simply Celebrate Critters using the Copic markers listed below. Then he added white gel pen accents just like I did on my existing card. 

After die cutting the birds, he set those aside and stamped two speech bubbles from Dad Jokes and filled them with sentiments from Virtual Friends Add-On.

 

Next, he cut a card base from Surf Blue cardstock, plus a matching frame using the Stitched Rectangle Frames dies. Before popping all the die cuts on to the card base, Damian stamped a sentiment from the Party Animal stamp set.

After all the die cuts were arranged with small foam squares, Damian added three enamel hearts in three shades of pink-red for a pop of colour. I really love his cute and clever design to use one bird for each year of marriage!

I appreciate you stopping by and, if you're inspired, please shop my affiliate links below. Thanks so much for stopping by!

Supplies: 

Lawn Fawn | Miss You Travel Card

Hello, crafty friends! Today's card is essentially the twin of THIS CARD that I made for my son's friend. Last month, my husband was required to travel for three weeks on business and our family tradition is that we make him a card to take along with him to keep us close. This was that card!

As with the previous design, the star of this card is Lawn Fawn's Simply Celebrate Critters clear stamps and dies, with the Simply Celebrate Critters Add-On stamp set. The jokes and sentiments are from Dad Jokes, other small sentiments are from the Virtual Friends Add-On stamp set and the heart is from Meow You Doin'.

Since the Squishmallow Avery is my son's most cherished stuffie, and the Miniso bunnies are also a family favourite, I chose the row of little birds and added the adorable bunnies below. All of the Copic markers are listed below, as is the white gel pen I used to add highlight details.

To create the background, I cut three panels of Moonstone, Cornflower and Portobello cardstock using My Favorite Things' A2 Stitched Rectangle STAX Set 1. Then I used Concord & 9th's Stitched Hearts Card Front Die on the Moonstone panel before cutting that panel and the Portobello panel with Spellbinders' Color Block Scenic Scape Dies.

I glued the three panel layers together before attaching them to a Noble Fir card base. Finally, I added foam tape to the back of all four die cuts and attached them to the tri-coloured panel.

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

Supplies: 

Lawn Fawn | Happy Purrthday!

I made this custom birthday card for one of my son's friends who just turned 16. You may recall THIS POST last year when my son was too embarrassed to give that card to the same friend. Well, things have completely changed and we now know that his friends all enjoy the cute things in life. They are, after all, cat owners!

I used six different stamp sets from Lawn Fawn to create the images and sentiments for this card! The adorable cats, speech bubbles and some of the sentiments are from the ever-so-popular Simply Celebrate Critters clear stamps and dies. The remaining sentiments, including the joke, are from the Dad Jokes stamp set. I love that Lawn Fawn offers so many different critter sets and add-on sentiments that you can mix and match to customize your cards. 

The cats were all coloured with Copic markers and I've listed all the colours in the supply links below. There are a lot but that's what it took to get the shading and colour variation perfect! I also used a white gel pen to add highlights to the ears and pink cheeks. The extra images stamped in Cove Blue ink are from Critter Concert (music notes), Tiny Sports Friends (soccer ball) and Meow You Doin' (paw print).

To create the background, I cut panels from Moonstone, Cornflower Blue and Noble Fir cardstock using My Favorite Things A2 Stitched Rectangle STAX Set 1 Dies. Then I cut both the Moonstone and Noble Fir pieces using Spellbinders Color Block Scenic Scape Dies. After running the the Moonstone panel through with Concord & 9th's Cloudy Double Card Front Die, I glued all the pieces on to a Kraft card base and popped up the die cuts with foam squares.

Thanks so much for stopping by and I'll see you again soon!

Supplies: