Lunar New Year Challenge + Giveaways | November 2024

The Lunar New Year Challenge is back and we've partnered up with your favourite craft companies all year long so 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 RAM Stamps, and ONE $25 gift certificate to Catherine Pooler Designs. That's a total of $100 in giveaways in November!

My first card for this month features products from Spellbinders and Trinity Stamps available from our October sponsor, Simon Says Stamp. The three main sets featured here are the Stitched Numbers Dies, Mistletoe Greetings Press Plate and the Art Deco Dance Foil Plate.

I've been obsessed with the the Stitched Numbers Dies ever since they were released and have used them many times in the past year, on both new year cards and birthday cards. I typically stitch on all of the numbers but decided it wouldn't be as noticeable to stitch on the Gold Glitter Paper so I only stitched on the Mirror Gold Foil this time.

I alternated the Gold Glitter Paper and Mirror Gold Foil between numbers and their shadows to provide interest against the busier Art Deco Dance Foil Plate, which I heat foiled with Sparkle Red Hot Foil. I love the rich tone-on-tone look with the red foil on Schoolhouse Red cardstock.

All that was needed to finish the card was a simple sentiment and I used Espresso Bean Hot Foil to heat foil the BetterPress sentiment on Nectar cardstock. To finish, I popped all of the numbers and sentiment strip on to the foiled background with foam squares.

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!

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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!

Supplies: 

Lunar New Year Challenge + Giveaways | March 2024

The Lunar New Year Challenge is back for its third month 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 $25 gift certificate to Trinity Stamps. That's a total of $100 in giveaways in March! 

Several of our design team members received product from Trinity Stamps to create their inspiration projects for February. I was immediately drawn to the beautiful Dragon Dance stamp set and Paper Pyrotechnics layering stencil set.

I knew I wanted to use vivid, highly saturated Gansai Tambi watercolours to colour these images so I stamped them with Nocturne VersaFine Clair ink and heat embossed them with clear embossing powder on Canson watercolour cardstock. After the images dried, I die cut them using the coordinating dies and, after gauging the position of the lion, heat embossed the sentiment on a Nectar cardstock panel cut to 4" x 5.5".

On the Nectar cardstock panel, I used Party Dress, Samba, Orange Twist and On the Lake inks with the Paper Pyrotechnics layering stencil set to create the fireworks in the background. I love those stencils so much that I'm going to have to make a card with just the fireworks alone to showcase how fun and beautiful they look! To finish the card, I adhered the smaller panel on an A2 panel of Coral cardstock, added a strip of striped patterned paper and a few Transparent Sparkle Enamel Dots.

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 below. For March, you are also invited to use your lucky St. Patty's Day sentiments with your Japanese Maneki-Neko "lucky cat" or Easter bunny images to create cards for friends and family to wish them luck, good health and prosperity. Multiple entries are allowed. Backlinking to an older project is strictly prohibited.

Our March Lunar New Year Challenge will run from 12:00am EST on March 1, 2024 through 12:00pm EST on March 31, 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 April Challenge. 

(save and share with your project)

Visit the March 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 Cards from My Boys

It's been a while since I posted projects from my husband and son. Chris and I celebrated our 19th wedding anniversary earlier this week but Damian hasn't been feeling well so we didn't have a full-on celebration just yet. They both made me slimline cards using heat embossed and watercolored images with mini distress inks! Can you guess who made which card? ;)

They featured loads of Lawn Fawn goodies, including Wood You Be Mine? (beavers, hearts, logs, grass, twigs, dogwood), Coaster Critters (tiny bunny), Cheery Christmas (squirrels, acorn), Butterfly Kisses (large bunny), Bicycle Built for You (food) and Dad Jokes (speech bubbles).

If you guessed that Damian made the mini slim card and Chris made the business slimline, then you are correct! Damian used Concord & 9th's Perfectly Penned set to custom stamp his sentiment because we make fun of Chris for using longer (and redundant) descriptions like "bunny rabbit", "kitty cat" and "puppy dog" instead of singular words. LOL

Both cards feature Trinity Stamps' Scalloped Card Panels and Banners Slimline and Scenic Borders Slimline die sets in the background. The coloured cardstock is from Taylored Expressions and features Salt Water Taffy for the sky and Mint Julep for the grass.

Thanks so much for stopping by and for shopping my affiliate links below!

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Lawn Fawn | Birthday Band Card

There's a funny(ish) story to go with this card. Last week, my son attended the birthday party of one of his bandmates from school. Without thinking, I whipped up this card, thinking it would impress him. Well, he was too embarrassed to give it to his friend. I hadn't given any thought to the fact that he was a 14-year-old teenager giving it to someone turning 15!

Needless to say, I was a bit hurt and disappointed. I tried to convince him to give it to his friend anyway, saying that his parents would love it. In the end, he just tied one of my existing tags (from this post) to the music store gift card with silver string and called it a day. I had to create a new happy birthday sentiment from Ready, Set, Shake to make the tag relevant. Both my son and husband said they wanted the slimline card for one of their birthdays so I guess that is done. 

Going back to the card, it features one of my favourite Lawn Fawn sets of all-time, Critter Concert, as well as the beaver from Wood You Be Mine?, which I finally got my hands on! The little drum is from Holiday Helpers, and the stage curtains and stars are from the Shadow Box Theater Add-On. The scalloped frame and flooring were created with the Trinity Stamps sets Scalloped Card Panels and Banners Slimline and Scenic Borders Slimline.

I used an x-acto knife to cut out the beaver's paws to accommodate the drum sticks and I also white heat embossed the sentiment on the slate gray panel. It had been too long since I used my Copic markers (a lot of them have dried up!) but I enjoyed the process and it was a good reminder to break out my critter stamps more often.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

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VIDEO | Trinity Stamps | Tree-mendous Christmas Slimline Card

I'm excited to be a guest on the Trinity Stamps YouTube Channel with this slimline card featuring some of the new products from the Warm & Cozy Holiday Release! 

I was really drawn to this adorable illustration from the Tree-mendous Christmas stamp set with coordinating dies. Did you spot the adorable beaver in the centre of the Christmas tree-shaped animal pile? There are so many favourites here, including a raccoon, squirrel and bunny!

I stamped, heat embossed and watercolored the image with distress inks. Then I used the new Slimline Snowfall Layering Stencil Set to create softly falling snow in blues and greens. I used those same ink colours to blend around the edges of the Slimline Foundations 3-Piece Stencil Set.

I also used the Slimline Card Series: Scenic Border Die Set with white and silver glitter cardstock to create snow hills to anchor the image and sentiments.

To finish the card, I added some silver star sequins to balance out the shimmer at the top and bottom of this slimline card.

Thanks so much for watching!

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3rd Annual Cutest Video Hop Ever + $1000 in Giveaways!

***GIVEAWAY CLOSED***

All winners have been announced HERE.

 

Hello and welcome to the 3rd Annual Cutest Video Hop Ever! I'm excited to be crafting with my son for this event and inspiring the next generation of crafters. So many of your favourite companies have generously donated 30 prizes for this video hop and the full list of prizes can be found at the bottom of this post. All of the artists' YouTube links are below. Please remember that comments here on the blog, while greatly appreciated, are not eligible for the giveaways below. You must leave your comments on YouTube. The more you comment, the higher your chances of winning!

Emily Leiphart

Catherine Pooler

Jenny Colacicco

Jill Dewey Hawkins

Caly Person

Marie-Pierre Capistran

Samantha Mann

Evelin Tee

Jessica McAfee

Tenia Nelson

Ujjwal Gupta

Laura Bassen

Laurel Beard

We had the pleasure of playing with products from Ranger Ink, Lawn Fawn and Catherine Pooler Designs! Damian's first card features the Distress Watercolour Crayon Kit from Ranger Ink. He used the Distress Crayons to create a grid background, added water and stamped the butterfly with Archival ink included in the kit. Then he added a frame using white foil cardstock and embellished the piece with polymer clay Bitty Paws.

We collaborated together on this second card featuring Lawn Fawn's Let's Go Nuts stamp set and Into the Woods 6x6 paper pack. Damian coloured the images with Copic markers and I stencilled the background using the Layered Lakeside Mountain stencils from Trinity Stamps. The card base uses Catherine Pooler's Essentials Slimline Dies.

Our third collaboration features Catherine Pooler's Nice List stamp set, and new ink colours Cranberry Fizz and Deck the Halls from the Jolly Holiday Collection which was just released yesterday. The images were heat embossed and Damian watercolored the images using the inks. I added fuzzy fun flock to the hat and popped up both images on mini action wobbles.

SPONSORS + PRIZES

We're incredibly grateful to Tim Holtz and Ranger Ink, Lawn Fawn and Catherine Pooler Designs for sending product to several of our designers.

Thank you so much to all of the wonderful individuals and companies who have donated 30 prizes worth over $1000 for this fun event! The winners will be chosen randomly from all comments left on each of our videos. The more you comment, the better your chances of winning! Comments will close at 11:59 p.m. EST on October 1, 2020 and winners will be announced on my blog on October 5, 2020.

Tim Holtz, 3 $75 Prize Bundles (U.S. only)

Jennifer McGuire Ink, 3 Share Handmade Kindness Goodie Bags

Gina K Designs, $100 gift certificate

Catherine Pooler Designs, $50 gift certificate

Concord & 9th, $50 gift certificate

Lawn Fawn, $50 gift certificate

My Favorite Things, $50 gift certificate

Scrapbook.com, $50 gift certificate | Rainbow Wishes Die, Thank You Sentiments Die Set, Mint Tape

Simon Says Stamp, $50 gift certificate

Spellbinders, $50 gift certificate

Studio Katia, $50 gift certificate

Trinity Stamps, $50 gift certificate

Waffle Flower, $50 gift certificate

Ellen Hutson, $35 gift certificate

Penguin Palace, C45 gift certificate

Pretty Pink Posh, 2 $30 gift certificates

Clearly Besotted, £25 gift certificate

Heffy Doodle, £25 gift certificate

Avery Elle, $25 gift certificate

Hero Arts, $25 gift certificate

Honey Bee Stamps, $25 gift certificate

Kalyn Kepner, $25 gift certificate

Sunny Studio Stamps, $25 gift certificate

The Gray Muse, $25 gift certificate

Thanks so much for hopping with us!

Supplies:

Masculine Tween Birthday Card

Today's card features Technique Tuesday stamps, a Trinity Stamps stencil and distress inks for watercolouring and ink blending. I made it for my son's champagne (golden) birthday and you know there's a story behind it. ;) As with many families during the pandemic and ensuing lockdown, we started playing a lot of board games.

One of our most-played games was Scrabble and in one of those games, I went first and laid down all seven of my tiles for 50 bonus points. The word was widgeon, a small river duck. It had been several years since I had done this so we started using the term widgeoning to describe laying down all of your tiles.

Then I was out shopping one day and came across a bunch of new stuffies and, lo and behold, one of them happened to be a widgeon! Seeing as I'm a sucker for cute stuffed animals, I brought the widgeon home with me -- for myself. Damian didn't even think anything of it at first but as time went by, he found the widgeon quite endearing and now it's his favourite stuffie, on the verge of being an obsession.

Lucky for me, I owned Technique Tuesday's Duck Swan Goose stamp set (and coordinating dies -- 40% off at Ellen Hutson) which had the perfect duck image and sentiments! You can see another card I made with this set HERE. After heat embossing the image and sentiments, I watercolored and masked the widgeon and two sides of the panel.

I stencilled the entire background using Trinity Stamps' Layered Lakeside Mountain stencil. To finish, I splattered shimmer mist on the water and used a tiny attacher to put two 'kisses' on the card. I think this bit of hardware makes it more of a masculine card.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

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