Lunar New Year Challenge | Happy Mid-Autumn Festival!

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival to everyone celebrating today! I’ve been eating mooncakes galore for the past couple of weeks and I’ve been thinking about my parents a lot, mostly because they would be appalled at the prices of the mooncakes now. I've never seen such insane prices for mooncakes but since we only eat them once a year, I don't mind splurging or over-indulging a bit. ;) The Mid-Autumn Festival or Moon Festival is a special time to gather with family, celebrate the harvest, give thanks to the good things in life, and pray for longevity and good fortune.

Today’s special card was inspired by the layout and colour palette of two illustrators, Zia Liu and denayunebgt. Unfortunately, Blogger does not allow me to link to their work. I was thrilled to be able to replicate Zia Liu's layout with the supplies I had in my stash, as well as one of denayunebgt's colour palettes. The bunny is the companion to the Moon Goddess Chang’e which is why there's one on my card design. Products I've used include Spellbinders' Rainbow Slice Tunnel and a sentiment from Glitter Wishes, Impression Obsession's Bunny Set and Trinity Stamps' Art Deco Dance Foil Plate. All but the sentiment are available from our sponsor Simon Says Stamp.

The cardstock colours I pulled for my card include Chili Pepper (sentiment strip), Buttercup (moon), Lemon Chiffon (bunny), Aqua Sky (top panel), Audrey Blue, Teal Topaz and Peacock Teal (foiled base panel). I cut A2 panels for each of the four teal layers and set them aside. First, I heat foiled the Art Deco Dance Foil Plate with Speckled Aura Hot Foil on the Peacock Teal panel and secured it to the card base.

Then I used the three widest layers of the Rainbow Slice Tunnel to cut the Aqua Sky (top panel), Audrey Blue and Teal Topaz cardstock. I cut the moon from Buttercup cardstock and applied some coordinating ink around the bottom edges for some shadow. The bunny was cut from Lemon Chiffon and Mirror Gold cardstock. After heat foiling the sentiment from Glitter Wishes using Speckled Aura Hot Foil on Chili Pepper, I assembled the card and added a few gold pearls.

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!

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Love Warms the Soul (Mid-Autumn Festival) feat. Catherine Pooler

Today, the Chinese culture is celebrating the Mid-Autumn Festival (also called the Moon Festival or Mooncake Festival). This is the time of year that I miss my parents the most because my parents would spoil us with mooncakes in bulk and make so many delicious sweets. All of these things were a delicacy and rarely eaten otherwise. It was a special time to gather with family, give thanks to the good things in life and pray for longevity and good fortune.

I love making Asian-inspired cards, especially for Chinese New Year and you can see more of them on my blog HERE. Catherine Pooler's Lantern Festival stamp set and coordinating dies immediately came to mind and I stamped the three lanterns in Green Tea, Aquatini and Serenade.

Naturally, I wanted to add mooncakes or some kind of cake but I don't own any Catherine Pooler stamps that would've worked as a mooncake or some kind of small cake so I had to use the adorable dumplings and chopsticks from Hey There Dumpling, which I stamped with Buttercream, It's a Girl and Slate.

Today is also National Coffee Day so I included a mug from the Pumpkin Season stamp set and coordinating dies, stamped in Tranquil. The apple and pretty leaves are from the Woodland Wonder stamp set and coordinating dies, stamped with Lemongrass, Macchiato, It's a Girl and Aquatini. Can you believe this is my first time inking up both of these stamp sets?! I believe they were released at least two years old and I've never used them. Well, now they're going to get lots of love!

To create the background, I cut the largest of the Scallops & Dots Dies from silver opulent cardstock and blended Tranquil and Serenade ink on the inner panel. I misted it with water and added gold splatters. Before assembling the layers, I gold heat embossed the strings and tassels for the lanterns and cut a piece of patterned paper from Black Tie Gala (retired but I've linked to an alternate).

You may wonder why I mixed gold and silver on this card (and I believe it's the first and only time I've done that) but it works! I did try all gold and all silver but it didn't look right. I used a combination of liquid glue, double-sided tape, glue dots and foam squares to attach all the elements to the card base for varying amounts of dimension and visual interest. I just love this combination of images and soft colours for today's celebration!

TOMORROW, September 30, 2023 is the last day to purchase a craft box from Lindsey's stash for a chance to win a $100 gift card to Scrap 'n Stamp. It's also the last day to take advantage of the sale at Scrap 'n Stamp. By using code LINDSEY10 at checkout, you'll get 10% off your purchase and Scrap 'n Stamp will give 10% to Lindsey's Legacy Fund. Please consider taking advantage of the many ways you can help, even if it's just by reposting one of our hop badges.

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