Sister Stamps Release #14: Year of the Rat

Hello again! Today I'm sharing a card featuring the new Sister Stamps Year of the Rat stamp from the Chinese Zodiac Collection being released tomorrow.

I decided to make a special "Yakudoshi" birthday card with the Year of the Rat stamp. According to some Japanese beliefs, the yakudoshi years are specific years of calamity and bad luck; one of the most crucial being the year a man turns 42. Families often hold a large party to celebrate a man's 41st birthday to ward off the bad luck for the coming year. With that being said, if  you're invited to attend a yakudoshi party this year, the birthday boy was born in the Year of the Rat (1972).

Wanted to include traditional symbols of good luck on my yakudoshi card...so the first thing I did was print up the kanji characters for "good luck" or "ko'un" on the background cardstock. I especially liked the stylized look of these characters, found over at KanjiStyle.com. It's a great site which offers several free kanji image downloads and even gives suggestions on suitable kanji characters to be used on greeting cards for different occasions.

Next, I chose to use a paper pieced image of a lucky mallot, or "uchide no kozuchi", a familiar Japanese motif used to represent good luck and good fortune. For this, I found a coloring book-like image and had MTC render it into a cutfile.

Once the main panel was completed, I decided to use it on a joy-fold style card. (Tutorial for this by Beate Johns is at Splitcoast Stampers.) Embossed the panel on the right using an embossing folder from the Cuttlebug Asian Bundle and lightly sprayed it with Tsukineko Gold Spritz for a bit of sparkle.

For the back panel, I chose a washi paper that had images of bamboo, pine and plum blossoms...known to the Japanese as "Sho Chiku Bai", which are classic traditional symbols of longevity and resistance to hardship. Then finally I finished off with strands of gold mizuhiki cord tied into a knot to keep my card closed.

For more sneak peeks of this new Sister Stamps release, be sure to hop on over to visit the rest of the DT...you're sure to be delighted at all the creativity going on! Just click on the links below...

 

Jenny: Sister Stamps Official Blog

Debi: Crafty Buzz

Mimi: Cuddles of Love

Linda: Simple and Sassy Creations

Patti: Creations By Patti

Laura: By TKG